Getting away

I've mentioned a time or two that I'm in the planning phase for a 12-18 month road trip around Australia with my last post about it talking a little about the financial aspect in a very basic way which you can read here if you're interested. There's a lot to think about but for me it's even more complex as I'm planning some side-trips to reasonably remote areas and well-off established roads. This means services like mechanical workshops, spares parts, fuel, food and any kind of assistance is sporadic, far away or non-existent. It takes careful planning to go to such areas and that takes a long time.

Access to a lot of these places is seasonal especially in the top end of Australia where, in the wet season, they are completely under water and not accessible by road. I say "road" here, but in truth the roads are often little more than tracks and those are only accessible by four wheel drive vehicles that have been highly modified and which are wheeled (driven) by experienced off-road drivers. Even then it's incredibly easy to get into serious trouble and here in remote Australia that means costly repairs, possible loss of vehicle, injuries and possibly death if things go badly enough.

The locations are usually amazing once one is there but getting there (and back) safely can be a mission with the list of considerations, preparation and equipment being long (and expensive) however getting it wrong won't end well.

So currently I'm planning where I'm going - these are not areas a person can do randomly or spontaneously - planning when I'm going (as in the season) and am working on determining what equipment and vehicle modifications I currently have and what I'll actually require. Fortunately I'm pretty clued-up and know what's going to work or not so it's just a matter of piecing the pre-trip jigsaw puzzle together, adding a healthy contingency into it because things are certain to go wrong, and then paying for it...then heading off of course.

Over the course of my preparations I'll probably do a post or two with some of the stuff I'm getting organised although I don't think there's much interest in such things here on Hive, (most people don't give a fuck about anything other than the votes they get), but for posterity's sake I may do a post here or there.

For now, I thought I'd share three little videos that show a trip a group of people from 4WD24/7 took which comes directly from their YouTube channel.

These lads are serious off-roaders, it's their job as they create content and have businesses within and around the four wheel drive industry. In the videos they face crocodile infested water crossings in brutally tough terrain, experience many serious mechanical failures - how they fix them is worthy of a watch in itself - extreme temperatures, bush fires, food and water shortages and other things on their eighteen day four wheel drive trek over around 450 kilometres from Wyndham along the Oobulgurri Track to Kulumbaru (both in the massive State of Western Australia. I won't say too much because the three videos are self explanatory (if you care to watch them) and will demonstrate the difficulties travelling into remote areas of Australia can bring.

It's stuff like that, places like that, which get my motor revving and why I'm willing to do what's required to get the skills, vehicle, modifications and equipment required to reach such amazing and remote parts of Australia. It's not for everyone, in fact most Australian's will never see these places, but the lucky few will and that's why I've spent my life off-roading.