Neil here.
So just over a year ago, we started thinking about this trip and decided to get a Nissan Pathfinder. This was to be a compromise between a city car and an off-road 4×4. We had a Patrol GQ on our previous trip and loved it. It was called Quey.
The Pathfinder was dubbed Barry (after the big heavy dinosaur Baryonix) and was great. We had been camping on the beach a few times and even did a couple of small trips with the van. But we started to feel it just wasn’t going to cut it for the outback trip we were planning.
I didn’t feel that it tough enough to get us out of trouble, when we get into it. And I’m sure we will get into trouble at some point.
So, we decided that we want a Patrol. Bigger, tougher, gutsier and more likely to go where we want to go and bring us back again safely.
We scored a beaut that had hardly been driven in its 10 years on the road and with only 72,000km on the clock it was in excellent condition.
We called it Rex.
But aside from a bulbar, it wasn’t kitted up for an outback trip. And there lay the challenge….
So, it is of course my job to spend the wee hours researching brands, scouring gumtree and ebay and making lists of all the bits, bobs, bells and whistles that one might need on such a trip.
More to come….