As avid motorcyclists for almost 40 years my husband and I (and our kids in either a side-car or as pillion passengers) have travelled extensively throughout Australia and, through necessity, we have always been small tent (small everything actually!) campers.
Six years ago we both decided to take part in the
2009 Postie Bike Challenge and even though it didn't end well for my husband (he broke his collarbone half way through the ride) it opened our eyes to how much of Australia we'd yet to see as we rode (slowly!) through parts of this wonderful country we'd never visited before. (I’ve since completed another two
Postie Bike Challenges and have ridden more than 10,000kms through every state and territory except for the ACT).
A few months later I bought a dual sport motorcycle (my husband already had one) and together we started exploring the roads less travelled (many of which were unsealed) and then in late 2012 we bought a pair of small trail bikes so that we could tackle some more adventurous and technical roads and tracks.
And then on the October long weekend in 2013, while we were on our way to Beechworth to visit our son and his family, I bought a Hema Victorian High Country Atlas and Guide (and the corresponding map) at Bullocky Bills near Gundagai so that we could find places to go riding either on our way to or around Beechworth. However, by the end of that weekend I’d realised that I’d need a 4WD to check out routes suitable for riding as our 18 year old Saab (which was a beautiful touring car) just didn’t have the ground clearance needed to take us the places I wanted to explore.
Having been interested in the Toyota FJ Cruiser since we first saw them in Dubai in 2007, and only wanting a medium sized vehicle, deciding which 4WD to buy was easy. We bought our FJ Cruiser 18 months ago and even though it’s our first ever 4WD we’ve been impressed and very pleased by how capable this vehicle is ‘as delivered’. (That said we have upgraded the suspension and the tyres to make it even more capable.)
I finished work two weeks ago (my husband retired just over three years ago) and about six weeks ago we started talking about taking off and travelling through northern, central and western Australia over 6-8 months next year.
For such a long trip we’ve decided to upgrade from tent camping (we have been using an OzTent RV2 for car-based camping since 2008 – we also used to own a long-wheelbase Commodore ute) to an offroad camper trailer and yesterday we decided to buy a new Ultimate Camper Xplor GT.
And so, as you can see, one thing leads to another – what started out as a Postie Bike Challenge six years ago has led us to an FJ Cruiser and Ultimate Camper today and a trip around Australia next year …
(I've attached a picture of our FJ Cruiser that I took in August 2014 in the Brindabella Mountains near Canberra).
