Well after considerable research, we have bought ourselves a camper trailer. This camper is a Jurgens Oryx imported from South Africa. It’s a full offroad specification unit with AL-KO suspension.

By buying secondhand, we have ended up with a 6 year old camper that is in very good condition and which had been competently upgraded from the original specification by experienced campers, Tony and Chris from Canberra.

The camper has a fairly small footprint on the road with an overall length of 3500m and with a width similar to your average 4WD, there is no need for extension mirrors. At 2125mm with the roof down, the towing height is comparable to that of many pop top caravans.

Jurgens Oryx Camper Trailer

Read the rest

Many travellers who claim to have followed the Wallaby Track around Australia have actually short-changed themselves by going across the top of Eyre Peninsula instead of travelling via Port Lincoln. It’s a really bad decision which leads to missing out on some of the most beautiful beaches in Southern Australia, many of which you can have all to yourself.

So when you get to Port Augusta if travelling to the west or to Ceduna if coming from the west, stick to the coastline and get to know this part of South Australia. Let’s assume you are travelling from the east and see what we can find.

Travelling south from Port Augusta, you will find the industrial city of Whyalla. Unless you are attracted to heavy industry and red dust, there are probably few reasons to dally here but the shopping isn’t too bad. If you are into fishing, particularly if you have a boat or enjoy rock hopping, look out for Point Lowley on the way into Whyalla. This is the location for an annual snapper fishing competition which often produces huge fish.

The next port of call after Whyalla is Cowell. This is a quiet little town enjoying the aquaculture boom and it is also famous for its jade mining. In recent times, it has also become a mecca for recreational divers owing to the discovery of large numbers of giant cuttlefish canoodling in the area.

A drive on-drive off ferry service also operates from Lucky Bay just north of Cowell and connects you to Wallaroo on the Yorke Peninsula. If you are travelling from the west, this reasonably priced service will give you a welcome break from driving. (Ring up in advance and ask if they have any ‘specials’ and you may be pleasantly surprised). The only downside is that you will bypass the Flinders Ranges by taking this route.

If you are travelling south from Cowell, each of the small towns is worth a look. Arno Bay and Port Neill are pretty little towns with great bays and nice pubs. Don’t hurry past. Take some time to enjoy their laid-back ambience.

The last sizable town before you reach Port Lincoln is Tumby Bay. Here you will find a wide range of good accommodation including a free motorhome park on the northern approach to town. For fisherfolk and beach walkers, there are some simply gorgeous destinations to the north and south of this town. In winter, there’s a chance of spotting a whale or two cruising through the bay.

If you have a small boat, whiting, snapper and squid can be found nearby. The town has a marina and charter boats can take you out to visit the Sir Joseph Banks group of islands which are only about half an hour away in a fast boat. Out there, you may find monsterous King George Whiting and all sorts of other fish as well as a sealion colony and the chance of spotting pods of dolphin and perhaps a Great White Shark.

Pick up a local map so that you can explore the beaches south of Tumby Bay. The beaches at Trinity Haven, Thuruna and Redcliffs all provide good spots to catch a fish, go snorkling or search for shells or simply to walk on beaches with a reasonably firm surface. Anglers should throw a lure at spots where flathead may be lying in wait as there are some monsters around this part of the coast. If you prefer sheltered waters for a small boat, look out for Second Creek. In this shallow estuary, you can find some whiting, flathead and have a bit of fun with the occasional school of whiting.

Once you regain the highway, look out for the sign to Moonlight Bay. This is the jewel in the crown of this coast line. Pretty, private and teeming with fish. You can walk for a couple of miles along this deeply curving little bay and then cross over the sandhills of a small peninsula and just keep going for a few more miles. There are a few designated camping areas but no facilities at all so leave this beautiful pristine destination just the way you find it.

It is possible to drive safely on the beach if you have a 4WD but don’t get too close to the waters edge. The locals launch small boats from both ends of the beach. The beach is quite safe for swimming as a rule but a swimmer was taken by a Great White Shark not far from here so keep your wits about you.

After Tumby Baycomes the small township of Louth Bay. Again, you will find a nice long beach to walk along or to swim from but few facilities other than a golf course and a camp ground. Then it’s on to North Shields where you will find a popular but generally uncrowded Caravan Park and a good roadhouse for fuel and basic supplies. There’s another nice beach that goes forever and a small jetty that produces good catches of squid by night. If you are keen on snorkling, you can find good quantities of scallops within swimming range of the beach. Try the beach just on the eastern side of the boat ramp. The eastern end of the beach just out from the sandhills may reward the boaties with a meal of King George Whiting.

North Shields is only about 15 km from Port Lincoln and is one of several possible base camps for exploring this area. Your other options are the Kirton Point Caravan Park in Port Lincoln or perhaps Coffin Bay. There are also National Parks on the other side of Port Lincoln and at Coffin Bay if you prefer bush camping with minimal facilities for a small fee.

Our next stop will be Port Lincoln.

There are dozens of these lightweight camping stoves out there that all seem identical apart from the brand and paintwork. I have two: one for the boat and another for the car.

This Companion version is well-made and only cost me around $Au 20.00 . It uses standard butane canisters and has inbuilt piezo ignition. The burner is fairly powerful and is the equivalent of the main burner on a household gas stove.

The safety systems are pretty foolproof as you need to lock the butane canister in place before lighting the burner and to put the stove away, you need to invert the pot holder which creates a safety lock preventing leakage. It would however be helpful to have some way of sheltering the stove for windy locations but you’ll just need to be a bit inventive to get around this problem.

We used one of these stoves during a three week trip in Tasmania recently. The stove was light enough to carry in our baggage and we had little difficulty finding butane canisters as we moved around.  A bonus feature we discovered was that the plastic case could be used as a shallow sink to wash our dishes.

For the camper or bushwalker who is conscious of the need to keep the weight and size of their equipment as low as possible, the Trangia stove is the Swiss Army Knife of cookers (or it would be if it wasn’t Swedish).

In its most basic form, the Trangia gives you a metholated spirits burner, two aluminium bowls and a small frying pan which all fit within the stove itself for convenience. A small kettle can be added and will also fit within the packed appliance.

Depending on your need for lightness, you can opt for aluminium or titanium cookware. The aluminium may be lined with stainless steel on its internal surfaces. Last time I checked, there were three sizes of Trangia stove available.

This stove is quite capable of working in windy conditions and by using metho, is fairly safe. Metho can be easily purchased from a wide range of stores. Other fuel options can be explored including butane and multi-fuel burners. A major camping gear shop will generally have some of these on hand. The stove will cook faster with butane but the downside is that you have to carry and dispose of butane canisters.

A useful accessory that you can make yourself is a toaster. All you need is some strong wire (eg a clothes hanger or fencing wire) and some stiff wire mesh such as a repacement mesh for one of those simple stove top toasters. Bend and secure the stiff wire into a circle of a size suitable to drop onto the pot holders when they are at their lowest position. Leave enough wire to curl back over the top of the mesh to make a platform for your piece of bread. Now bend the mesh to fit over the circle. It’s easy and works well but try not to burn your fingers!

This kind of cooker has been around for over 50 years. You can still replace individual components if you lose or damage them.

Ours has been used extensively on motorcycle trips and on long and short camping trips. It is often the first thing unpacked when we reach our campsite so that we can boil a kettle for tea while we get our site organised. We generally try to pitch our tent close to a free outdoor table and use this as our base for cooking our meals.

From a safety point of view, always wait until the brass burner is cool enough to handle before adding more fuel. The flame may be difficult to see and you risk a serious accident if you inadvertently pour metho onto an active flame.

Use Your Skills

If you have a trade or professional qualification, make sure you take certified copies of your certificates with you, an up to date CV and contact details for some referees. Plan ahead and make sure you can meet the requirements for interstate registration particularly if you’re a teacher or health professional.

If you are able to settle in a location for a few weeks at a time, you may find temporary work in your area of specialization. Country schools often struggle to find temporary relief teachers. Hospitals are dependent on very expensive agency staff. Accountancy firms have times of high demand. Mechanics are flat out at seeding and harvest times. Engineers and other fabricators generally have a backlog of work with which you may be able to assist.

Hairdressers and cosmeticians may find a welcome in a local nursing home or hospice. They are always worth a try.

Cooks, try the bakeries and hotels. They often struggle to retain skilled staff.

If you have a craft like knitting, painting, wood carving or photography, look out for local markets and car boot sales. If all else fails, ask the council’s permission to set up a temporary stall somewhere on a Friday or Saturday morning.

If you can sing or play a musical instrument, you can also try busking. After all, no one knows you and you have the means to make a quickish getaway!

Casual Work

Fruit picking is an obvious choice and many people follow the seasons. There are other seasonal jobs in farming and someone who can drive a tractor, truck or harvester will often find short term work at seeding or harvest time. At harvest time, there will often be temporary work at the silos as well.

Around the coast, there is a lot of turnover in the fishing and aquaculture industries so if you are physically fit and have good sea legs, check out the tuna farms and the abalone producers for a start. The fish factories are also a good bet and many will allow you to work on the packing line on the weekend on a piece-work basis.

If you have experience in customer service, try the local takeaway shops which often have high turnover and the supermarkets may also have some night work in shelf stacking. Depending how long you are going to be in an area, you may also find some bar and food service work in the local pubs and restaurants.

Market Yourself

One of the great benefits of movements like the Grey Nomads phenomenon is that rural communities can now have access to some skills that are normally non-existent in their part of the world. So consider running workshops and seminars along the way in your area of special interest.

For example, if you are an author, run a seminar for local writers. A stockbroker could run a seminar on investing. If you know something about marketing, run a marketing workshop for the local businesses.

All that it takes is the development of a simple program that you can repeat whenever you feel like it. Develop a folder or Powerpoint presentation of the key messages you want to put across, advertise through the local paper and school newsletter a week or two before you arrive and I guarantee the locals will make you very welcome. You’ll often find that the country pub will even give you a room for your seminar because of the additional trade you’ll be bringing through the door.

I have prepared a basic checklist for running a seminar which you can download here: Checklist for Running a Seminar

The trouble with frying food inside a van is that the fat goes everywhere no matter how good your extraction system. But there is a solution. It’s called the Easy Cook.

The Easy Cook is one of those gadgets that you often see advertised on the TV with heaps of hype and you just know that it’s never going to be as good as they say and you’ll have one more pile of junk wasting precious space in the kitchen cupboards. Not so. In fact if I was heading off tomorrow with the intention of using powered sites, the Easy Cook would be the first appliance I would pack.

What you get is a large round safety glass bowl with a heating element on top and a fan to create a turbo effect within the bowl. The food sits on wire stands and you can place food on three levels. Naturally the food on top cooks quickest and the food on the bottom is noticeably slower.

So, for example, you can have chips or wedges cooking on the top level, meat in the middle and vegetables down low. Yes a complete meal cooked all at once.

What is even better is that you can basically set the timer and walk away. I often (well not that often) set the timer and walk the dog or take a turn on the treadmill. There’s no need to turn the food as the fan ensures that the heat circulates on all sides.

The great thing is that there is no spatter. The food is completely contained within the bowl and no fat escapes. Food that you may normally fry such as wedges can be shaken in a little oil and just dropped on to the top rack. It’s a fairly healthy style of cooking as most of the oil or grease ends up at the bottom of the bowl.

Cleaning is easy. Instead of having to wipe over half the van, you simply need to rinse the Luminarc bowl and wipe over the lid. The Easy Cook can also wash itself if you partially fill the bowl with water and a little detergent. You’ll want to do this at least once just to admire the turbo effect.

This gadget is very flexible and the recipes are only limited by your imagination. It can cook cakes and there is no easier way to cook a perfect roast. On a nice day, you could even use it outside your van on a handy table.

Two bowl sizes are available: 11 and 13 litre. The smaller size is perfect for 2-3 people. The other choices include 3 speed fans and 24 hour digital timers. We have the basic manual unit with a single fan speed. You can also run the unit on a 1.5Kva generator.

Back up is excellent. There is a website at: www.easycook.com.au . We were able to replace the lid and heating elements of our ancient and very well-used unit recently at a very fair price.

If I was building a camper from scratch, I would build one of these in and leave out the oven. At home, we haven’t used our oven for more than three years.

You can find more details online and the units can be purchased through many large electrical stores. Pricing: $199 to $299. They sometimes come up on Ebay too but I don’t understand why.

Now let’s get something clear from the start. Is this a trip or an expedition?

If it’s an expedition, then you will need to get some serious survival gear which is beyond the scope of this article. What I’m going to assume is that you will be somewhere near civilization, at least in the vicinity of other travellers and therefore will only need to carry a level of recovery gear to save you from serious embarrassment.

So let’s start with a shovel. Yes, it’s pretty basic but you can solve many problems with a good shovel. Note the adjective. Get a good tool for the job and not some flimsy space saving, fold up jobbie. Some prefer the long handled type and they generally attach it to the roof rack. Mine is a short Cyclone shovel which measures exactly 3 foot on the old scale and fits neatly in behind the back seat. When you are moving serious quantities of sand or dirt, you need a well-balanced and sturdy tool for the job.

Next on my list is a Hi-Lift jack. Why? Because unlike most other jacks it can do two jobs. It’s a jack and it’s also a hand winch. You’ll need a good, broad base plate. This could be your bread or chopping board. You’ll only need to use it in an emergency.

Drill a couple of holes in the base plate for nuts & bolts to stop the winch from sliding around. The jack can be carried on purpose built rack fittings. Personally, I dismantle mine and the parts fit into various compartments of my luggage area. It takes less than a minute to reassemble the parts.

ARB also market a set of straps that will allow you to attach the jack to a wheel in order to lift it out of a hole and an attachment for lifting via your bumper. Check out your attachment options prior to purchase to ensure you can actually use this jack with your vehicle. It’s too late to find out after you’re bogged. Practice before leaving home and do follow all safety instructions when using the jack.

Exhaust jacks are also popular but they may take up more room in your cargo area.

Many vehicles carry electric winches but in reality, how often are they required unless you are really on an expedition? Whatever your choice, winches need other accessories like correctly rated shackles, cables and tree protectors. A very useful accessory is a tree to attach your cable to or some other form of anchor. Your vehicle may also need reinforced recovery points to be added.

If you are travelling over sand, a snatch strap is an essential accessory. They take up little space and will get you out of most bogs if you are travelling in company.

Some travellers also carry tracks to drive over in case of trouble. You can pay a lot of money for some brands which I’m sure do an excellent job. We will be reviewing some later. In the meantime, take a good look at your existing mats. If you have a good thick set like I have, a cheap modification is to drill a couple of holes at each end so you can link them together with cable ties to create your own tracks in an emergency.

Finally, you will need a compressor. Not an el cheapo model but something that will quickly re-inflate your tyres after you’ve let them down to cross a loose surface. If you think it will be hard to re-inflate your tyres, you will be reluctant to deflate them when you really should. And then you will get bogged. So get a good compressor.

You have two options: have one permanently mounted or buy a portable one. A portable one is also handy around the shed but a permanently mounted one may be easier to find!

Tyres

The first thing to consider if you are planning to travel over rough roads is your tyres. Many new vehicles come with tyres that are provided with an emphasis on best handling on city streets. While this is less the case for four wheel drives, many of the more compact designs are shod with rubber that will disintegrate quickly on dirt roads.

Your tyres are your most important active safety equipment so do your homework and ensure that your vehicle is safely equipped for the terrain you intend covering. Light truck tyres and all terrain tyres may come into consideration but you need to ensure that you remain within the parameters set by your vehicle manufacturer to retain full warranty coverage.

Guards

Do you need underbody protection? Personally I consider a sump guard an essential component for any vehicle travelling on dirt roads. Most differentials are tough enough to go unprotected unless you’re planning to get airborne. Other protection plates should be considered if you identify vulnerable components hanging under the vehicle.

Radiator

You will encounter millions of insects during your journeys so an insect screen is a must. You will find purpose built screens for some vehicles or you can make up your own from fly wire or some other kind of mesh. Choose something with a fairly open mesh so that you don’t adversely affect air flow into the cooling system.

Bull Bar

Bull bars have excited a lot of discussion in recent years, principally because of the risk to pedestrians in an urban environment. In their proper environment, they have considerable utility and may enable your vehicle to survive an impact with a large animal well enough for you to carry on to your next port of call.

The first consideration in selecting a bull bar is compatibility with your airbag system. For this reason, home made bars are not the way to go. Your bar must be certified as compatible.

A second consideration is the effect on your approach angle and ground clearance. Approach angle is the angle at which you can successfully drive over an obstacle. Some bars will improve this. Others may reduce it. Similarly some bull bars dramatically reduce the ground clearance at the front of your vehicle.

In making your final selection, you need to achieve the optimal balance between strength and weight. Most bars are made of aluminum but new plastic bars are also coming into favour.

If you need to make provision for extra lights or a winch, now is the time to ensure that the preferred bull bar is suitable. It’s much more expensive to have the bar modified later on.

Lights

Do you need extra lights? This is really a personal decision. If you look around at the vehicles that live in rural areas, most people don’t bother. If you are travelling at sensible speeds, normal lights are perfectly adequate. If they are not, the first step would be to investigate stronger globes and check headlight alignment.

In some areas, fog lights may be useful but it’s probably better to avoid driving on unfamiliar roads in the fog in the first place. A spot light that reaches a bit further than your high beam is also a consideration but you may find repeatedly switching it off early enough for oncoming traffic a bit of a nuisance.

If you can find somewhere to mount a rear facing light, it will be an asset in some circumstances. For example, when setting up camp for the night.

Racks

Roof racks are essential for some travellers but if you can avoid them, your fuel consumption will be better. The same incidentally applies to bull bars. Anything that has the potential to change your vehicle’s aerodynamics should be considered a last resort.

If you have to use a rack, look for the best balance of strength and aerodynamics and make sure you are aware of your vehicles weight limitations for racks. If you put too much weight up there, you may damage your roof or make the whole vehicle more top heavy and vulnerable to rolling over. There are several good brands of luggage pods available which we hope to review later.

There are many other kinds of rack and rack acccessories available that will allow you to carry spare fuel and water , bicycles, spare tyres, jacks shovels, pretty well whatever your heart desires. Just make sure you really need this stuff and that it will be secure if carried externally to your vehicle.

One of the hardest decisions to be made (after the decision to blow the kids’ inheritance!) is what to do about the dog, cat or other pets.

While it is possible to take the family cat or dog with you, is it a good plan? I’m going to consider the implications of taking a dog along for the ride but many of the considerations will also apply to travelling with cats, admittedly a less common choice of companion.

I think the really hard part is that we are strongly attached to our canine friends and it’s really hard to avoid the thought that they may feel abandoned or even worse, may transfer their loyalty and affection to someone else.

If you have been on extended holidays before and have placed your pet in the care of another family member or in kennels, you’ve probably noticed that the dog has not been traumatised by the experience. Most dogs will quickly adapt to the new pack leader and the new routine or environment. In fact, it’s not all unusual for breeders to take back their puppies once they’ve reached adulthood and these dogs generally fit straight back in to the family routine.

If you have a pedigree dog, your breeder is probably someone to approach for advice. They may well know of one of their other clients who may be willing to look after another dog for a while. Many show dog and working dog families keep small packs of dogs and one more often makes little difference.

So it largely depends on you having access to a family member or friend who enjoys your dog’s company and admittedly, not everyone is so lucky. And, let’s be honest, you will miss your pet and your family when you leave them behind, some more than others. This also assumes you are returning home eventually. If you are not then you may need to consider finding a permanent home for your pet.

The alternative is to take the pet along with you. This option will change the nature of your journey in many ways.

Firstly, you will need to be especially careful with the weather and climate. As a human being, you can duck extremes of weather by hiding out in shopping malls, hotels, museums and the like. These places rarely welcome animals. Extreme heat is perhaps the most common challenge and motor vehicles heat up very quickly even in relatively mild weather.

Pets also have the habit of shedding their hair and sharing body odours. I recall one dismal trip when Taffy, our border collie, found something really ripe to roll in at the very start of a camping trip. The solution was to take him for a swim on a handy beach in the middle of the night and to this day I’m not sure if he was being washed or drowned. A smelly dog in a car or van isn’t great company even on a good day.

While you are travelling along, you need to keep windows open and sound systems turned down which may not suit you all day long. You may also need to make more frequent stops than you’d prefer.

To top it all off, you’ll arrive at the caravan or camping ground to find “No Pets” signs everywhere and you’re not allowed into the local national park where camp sites are cheaper.

Should you be lucky enough to find a pet friendly site, you will still need to supervise your dog 24/7 unlike at home when you can shut him up in the house or yard and go off elsewhere. The vehicle has become his new territory and he may defend it somewhat noisily against innocent passers-by. You won’t be popular.

So really, it’s what they call a ‘no brainer.’ Unless you have no other option, don’t take your pets. If you have to, you really need to plan ahead.

These Life Be In It sites may help in finding some pet friendly locations:

http://www.holidayingwithdogs.com.au/

http://www.holidayingwithdogs.com.au/holidaying_with_cats.htm