Ok ok I know I said the last post was the final post but just thought we'd put down a list of stuff that worked for us and that didn't for future reference and I know everyone reading this will want to go live in a tent for 3 months in close confines with their family!!
Our Gear/Setup
Ford Ranger ute with canopy and roof rack running Falken Wild Peake AT light truck tyres. Canopy fitted with drawers, shelves, fridge slide and cage around it. Roof rack held 2 * 4.5kg gas bottles, 2 * 20 litre diesel jerry cans and 4 pool noodles (essential and we should have brought these from the start) and a shovel attached using fist clamp-its. Large drawer under the ute that wasn't dust proof held stools, gazebo poles, axe, spare tent poles, tyre changing tools & guy ropes. 2 toolboxes under the canopy. The one for rubbish was brilliant thou not dust or water proof it was good enough for the job. The other one was for hiking shoes and runners, was very cheap, the welds broke (its held together using a spare tie down strap), and I think it actually sucked dust in as the seals were that bad. Need to upgrade this! Spare tyre under the canopy. Also held second spare tyre in the inside of the canopy. 70 litre water bladder behind the back seat of the ute was fantastic.
Inside the canopy we carried 4 camping chairs (need to get ones with better back support), folding table, 2 * 20 litre jerry cans for water, stove stand, stove, tent bag, large duffel bag containing all sleeping gear sat on the fridge slide behind the fridge, 2 buckets for washing clothes and feet, 5 litre water esky (easy tapped water for everyday use & to know how much we had taken from bladder), 40 litre esky (really handy for veg, lunch stuff, fruit, bread), utensils box, washing up dish and container, spare 10 lt water container for non potable water, box with snorkels & spare bits n pieces, box with tools (more is good!) such as drill, spanners, cable ties (essential!!), air compressor, spare stuff etc shelving with cameras, binoculars, books, maps, food. Drawers with food, lots of tins and 1kg sealed containers to hold flour, oats, etc. Fridge is a dometic gas fridge that also runs on 240V. Battery system was brilliant and performed really well (120Amp AGM battery with 400Watt Invertor and DC to DC charging system. We also carried guy ropes and poles to set up a washing line, mini tent for the fridge to protect from sun and rain, gazebo (Coleman Deluxe) was brilliant & essential on longer stops like Pender Bay.
Sleeping gear was heavy duty sleeping bags, sleeping liners (silk or old sheets stitched together for the kids), lightweight air mattresses (only one puncture on 2nd last night!), lightweight pillows and it all packed down to fit in a duffel bag. Each of us had a duffel bag and brought everything from swimmers to thermals and warm jackets and hats and we used everything!! The tent is a Blackwolf tuff dome plus that has been superseded by the Tuff series. It performed very well but we had reinforced all the poles (aluminum) as we know they were prone to shattering. We slept without the fly for about half the trip which was amazing for watching the night sky and waking up for glorious sunrises. We did break a zip but luckily it was a mesh section that had a double optional wall so now we use that instead and cut out the mesh. Less airflow but it works.
We also brought 2 IPads, 2 eReaders, laptop, usb storage, extension lead, cameras, binoculars (defo worth spending a bit more on). Borrowbox was essential for the kids reading and worked fantastically as we usually got internet within 2 weeks. Wikicamps was good and bad - a lot of whingers out there, but often we could use it to avoid places. We each had a head torch (with either rechargeable batteries or usb chargeable). The kids have Petzl Tikka with Core batteries and were really good. I had a Biolite 300 which is fanastic except need to keep an eye on the battery charge as it runs full bikky then stops suddenly. Dunk has an older Black Diamond which was ok,
We wouldn't change much with this setup aside from moving to an electic fridge with solar panels so we didn't have to lift the fridge out every setup (can't run gas in the canopy). Gas was always difficult as was expensive and hard to find refills out of the main centres. We paid between $10 & $45 for refills which is just stupid plus also had to constantly monitor how much gas we had. Pool noodles were brilliant for snorkelling and swimming in deeper gorges. We should have brought some Dunlop volleys (cheap canvas runner with good soles) as flip flops failed constantly and our runners got destroyed in spikes and Pilbara red dust. It would have been awesome to have some inflatable water craft like a kayak or even standup paddle board but we didn't have room!
Recovery gear we had but didn't use (wahoo!) includes tyre puncture repair kit, 2nd spare tyre, snatch strap and tow points ($400 but better to have and not use then need and not have!!), recovery tracks (stored in a chicken food bag at the back of the canopy and not a roof ornament) and shovel (primary use for dunny use!). Also have a UHF radio (very handy for knowing about on coming road trains and listening to traffic controller jokes at road works, less useful for listening to muppets use the 40 channel for personal chats), sat phone, and handheld UHF personal radios (for the kids to wander off and be contactable).
Cable ties, spare ropes & tie downs (for the unexpected roof rack failure) and duct/fabric tape plus a good first aid kit with snake bandages (which we actually used on someone in Darwin!!). We had tyre pressure monitors on the tyres which worked really well despite being cheapest ones on the market. Really good for peace of mind on corrugations as it was impossible to tell whether we had a puncture or not. We ran the tyres at about front 40, rear 44 on bitumen and then front 30 and rear 30 on the dirt.
Roof rack mounts held on with rivets are a guaranteed fail on non bitumen roads. Rhino Rack take note and maybe be more transparent about this.
Food
Winners included drop scones, banana oat pancakes (often without banana), french toast, DIY muesli (oats, nuts, cocoa powder, cinnamon, pumpkin & sunflower seeds & whatever was in the shop on the day), yoghurt, cheese (feta was great), milk & milk powder, pizza pockets (very simple dough recipe cooked for 2 mins each side on the plate), pasta with beans & sundried tomatos saved many a lunch, olives, beans (good meat substitute, not so good for green house gas emissions), those spice tailor dahl and curry packets were fast, tasty and brilliant, bacon, tuna, salami, sundried anything, olives, nuts, scrogin aka trailmix (nuts, dried fruit like dates & raisins, seeds, secret winning ingredient choc chips), frozen leftovers, frozen peas, frozen bread, tinned fruit, garlic, dried herbs and spices, stock cubes, risotto, pearl couscous, tinned tomatos, black pudding, chorizo, onions, mayonnaise, carrots, oranges, apples, crackers (ryvita and saos winners, ritz & salada losers), vegimite, honey, golden syrup, sugar, flour, oats, bhuja snacks, coffee beans (grinder & aeropress with cold water worked fantastically on hot days). Stuff we ate cos we had to included white bread & wraps (both improved with toasting but more fibre in paper I'm sure), muesli bars (jeez they are bland!). We missed having fresh fruit & veg, good quality bread and baking. Did find a good fruit cake in IGAs towards the end. Also had emergency whiskey (store in wine bottle holder), beer in cans (don't store next to any rivets or leakage occurs on rough roads), flasks (rarely used as too hot)
And last notes ...
Less is more. We brought enough shorts/tshirts for 5 days, a couple of jackets each, undies for a week, should have brought more hiking socks, should have brought more spare flips flops or volleys, thermals, trackies for night, should have brought summer PJs but we improvised.
We didn't met a lot of people with as basic or minimal a setup as us but we reckon we ate, drank, saw and enjoyed our trip every bit as much as those with the mega setups. We saw plenty stressed out caravanners queuing for fuel, waiting for mechanical repairs and restricted by where they could go by towing constraints. Mind you plenty went places no caravan should go so maybe that explains all the people with broken axles, destroyed tyres and insides of caravans. Mostly the weather was very amenable to being outside all the time (isn't that what camping is) but we did experience some very hot and then some pretty cold, windy weather as well and survived it all fine! Slow down for oncoming traffic of dirt roads or pull over for faster traffic behind you. We met many folks (usually those towing trailers for some reason - maybe trailers are invincible?) that left us chewing rocks, clouds of dust and chipped windscreens as they couldn't be arsed slowing down and maybe unaware of how much debris they throw up behind them. People pull over and check out for each other on unsealed remote roads which is pretty cool. We ran most efficiently when we stayed under 2000 RPMs, every bit over that nailed our fuel efficiency.
And some facts ...
- we covered just under 21000kms
- out of 100 nights, stayed 13 nights in cabin or house so 87 nights in a tent which included 47 tent setups/teardowns (hmm that's a lot!) and out of that 23 national parks or bush campsites. We tried to avoid caravan parks as really not great in a tent but they are a necessary evil in towns!
- We visited/stayed at 28 national parks or reserves
- our budget was eaten up as follows
- 28% fuel
- 23% food
- 20% camping fees and passes (a lot of this was in Kakadu, Uluru, Mornington and Charnley and the occasional extorionate caravan park)
- 9% eating out (mmm chicken parmys!)
- 1.8% gas - we need solar!!
- everything else was small fry including beer consumption!
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