So i thought i’d quickly duck over to see Uluru as its just around the corner as we say in Australia its a mere 3715km from my house, so off i went full of hope and enthusiasm. After 12 hours of driving my cup of enthusiasm was half full, but i remained optimistic for the next two days as the scenery got more and more bland. Let me explain something about the Australian continent, if you travel 2 hours inland from anywhere around the 14500km circumference of our continent you experience two things.. flies and red dirt. This then stays the same till you approach the other end of the country 5000km East to West or 3100km North to South. Spotify only works while you have mobile coverage so out of the 3715km journey, 2500km is in a black hole where the only contact with the outside world if the finger wave from the steerring wheel at passing caravan towing nomads.
Now speaking of Nomads, i saw a never ending convoy of caravans being towed in all directions like an episode of the walking dead. People parked their vans in the dirt, on the side of the road, bogged in mud, abusing each other at petrol bowsers all in the name of adventure. At the time of writing this we have virtually every state in Australia locked down over the last week so many travellers, myself incuded had to run the gauntlet to return to my home state of Queensland.
So my vehicle of choice was a 2021 Jeep JL Wrangler Overland which i fitted Gobi Roof Racks to supplied by Double Black 4wd and a Drifta Stockton 1.2 Rooftop Tent supplied by Drifta Slacks Creek Brisbane as per the main image above. I also made my own cabinetry in the rear with two woodern sliding drawers and a slide out alloy shelf, as well as a fridge Slide. Drawer slides supplied by Dunn & Watson in Brisbane and the fridge slide by 4wd supercentre. My fridge is a 44L MyCoolman Weekender My Coolman Weekender 44L rebadged by Engel i believe but it gave me the maximum refridgeration volume for my limited space, it also has bluetooth control and dual power inputs front and rear.
Here is a video i created showcasing the Drifta Stockton 1.2 Rooftop Tent.
For my electrical needs i fitted a Redarc 1240D DCDC charger and a 100ah Zeal Lithium battery that can run my fridge and gadgets for a week without running the vehicle.
So lets get this show on the road; first day i left home at 930am driving to barcaldine 1125km over 13 hours, its a long time in the drivers seat but i’ve travelled this route many times so i opted to keep going untill 10.30pm, where i pulled over on the side of the road for free.
Its worth noting to buy fuel whenever you see it cheap, even if you still have half a tank as the price can vary up to 40 cents a litre as towns get smaller ( variation i experienced was $1.29 – $2.05 ) my total fuel expense for the 7400km was about $1500. From Roma to Barcaldine is a distance of 600km with zero 24 hour fuel stations and most close at 6pm so make sure you fill up at some of the tiny towns along the way befpre 6pm. I had to stop to wait till 7am for the petrol station to open thats why i camped there overnight.
Next morning after refuelling and watching two customers nearly punching on over a diesel bowser, i left for Boulia another long day @ 650km, it had been raining heavily out west QLD so there was mud either side of the one lane road from Winton to Boulia (400km). Eery time an oncoming car came, i had to drive off the bitumen and sunk 100mm into the mud turning the left side of my car cherry red from the mud.
Another thing i noticed were the mass abundance of ant hills or nests, they are scattered along 1500km of highway on both sides of the road, many have been dressed in human clothes.. check out the video
So here i was driving out in the middle of Mars or so it seemed so i thought I’d take advantage of the isolation and try to get the drone to follow me on the road. Here is the result of my attempts at about 50km per hour..