Latest / The Overland Journal Podcast / Overlanding Australia: Vehicle Options, Remote Routes, and Essential Planning with Hema Maps’ Rob Boheim

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Overlanding Australia: Vehicle Options, Remote Routes, and Essential Planning with Hema Maps’ Rob Boheim · The Overland Journal Podcast

0:01
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Overland Journal podcast. I'm Scott Brady,
0:05
Speaker 1: your host, and I'm here with my co host, Matt Scott.
0:09
Speaker 1: What's going on, Matt?
0:10
Speaker 2: You know what.
0:10
Speaker 3: We're just wrapping up with over and XPO. I think
0:13
Speaker 3: it was a really great show, so yeah, things are really.
0:16
Speaker 1: Good, awesome, and we have our guest today. We've got
0:20
Speaker 1: Rob Boheim from Australia and that's what we're gonna do today.
0:23
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about Australia. We're going to talk
0:25
Speaker 1: about traveling in Australia and we're going to discuss what
0:29
Speaker 1: it takes to bring a vehicle into the country, what
0:31
Speaker 1: it takes to buy a vehicle in country, top places
0:35
Speaker 1: to visit, some resources that you need, some things to
0:38
Speaker 1: be mindful of when you're traveling through the country. But
0:41
Speaker 1: I've known Rob for a long time, over a decade now.
0:45
Speaker 1: I met him at the Outdoor Retailer Show totally by accident,
0:50
Speaker 1: and he's become a longtime friend and someone that I
0:53
Speaker 1: trust completely with anything around Australia. And the reason for
0:58
Speaker 1: that is Rob and his family or the founders of
1:01
Speaker 1: the Heema Maps Company in Australia, which which is the
1:06
Speaker 1: preeminent mapping tool for Australians. It's available in print and
1:12
Speaker 1: as digital assets on GPS units and apps.
1:14
Speaker 2: Et cetera.
1:16
Speaker 1: And because of that, Rob has an enormous amount of
1:19
Speaker 1: experience traveling around the country. In fact, they started this
1:23
Speaker 1: very cool project decades ago. How long ago was the
1:26
Speaker 1: first map patrol uh.
1:30
Speaker 2: Eight? And what what kind of vehicle did you use
1:33
Speaker 2: for the first map patrol?
1:34
Speaker 4: This and Patrol four point two later? Tybo diesel pretty
1:38
Speaker 4: much unbreakable. But yeah, I guess we're out there making maps.
1:44
Speaker 4: I'd been researching maps for the JPS since ninety ninety six,
1:48
Speaker 4: one of the first people to get out there with
1:50
Speaker 4: a GPS and laptop and this guy driving the road
1:53
Speaker 4: was my better way to get the information.
1:55
Speaker 1: And and how how many kilometers do you think you
1:58
Speaker 1: have driven in map trolls around Australia? Have you ever
2:01
Speaker 1: figured that out?
2:02
Speaker 2: Yeah?
2:02
Speaker 4: A few times, Scott, And thanks so much for having
2:05
Speaker 4: me here today. It's just a pleasure to be part
2:08
Speaker 4: of the overland community.
2:09
Speaker 2: Globally.
2:11
Speaker 4: I think it's probably a couple of hundred thousand kilometers
2:15
Speaker 4: at least, what's that on something thousand miles? And that's
2:20
Speaker 4: of actual map recording, so that's the hardcore mapping part
2:24
Speaker 4: of it, that's not just the transit part.
2:26
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's incredible. I've been to pretty much.
2:30
Speaker 4: All over Australia, all the different corners, and to probably
2:34
Speaker 4: some of the most remote and unique places that anyone
2:37
Speaker 4: would ever go, and probably hardly anyone has ever gone.
2:40
Speaker 4: And that was always something that drove me to go
2:43
Speaker 4: down trails that nobody'd ever been down before and put
2:46
Speaker 4: them on a map so that other people could come
2:48
Speaker 4: and discover them for themselves.
2:50
Speaker 1: And you're here in America with us at the Overland
2:53
Speaker 1: Expo East And before we get into the fun stuff
2:57
Speaker 1: on Australia, what do you think of the show so far?
3:00
Speaker 1: What's the one thing you'd want to buy personally or
3:03
Speaker 1: you'd want to what vehicle you'd like to steal the
3:05
Speaker 1: title to.
3:06
Speaker 2: Oh, that's a hard one.
3:08
Speaker 4: I've I've been eyeing off these sportsmobiles for a little while,
3:12
Speaker 4: so pretty quick I guess the concept of just traveling
3:16
Speaker 4: independently without a trailer with everything there, But not yet
3:20
Speaker 4: for me. I'm got to get my four kids through
3:22
Speaker 4: high school first and then I don't have to take
3:24
Speaker 4: them with us anymore.
3:25
Speaker 2: To tell them, yeah, that would be great.
3:27
Speaker 1: And in Australia, you've you've built out two hundred series
3:32
Speaker 1: land Cruisers and seventy series land Cruisers and Nissan Patrols.
3:37
Speaker 1: When someone is thinking about renting a vehicle in Australia,
3:42
Speaker 1: what would you typically recommend that they hire.
3:46
Speaker 4: I would start with looking at what the Australians generally
3:49
Speaker 4: use on out back trips and make sure you can
3:52
Speaker 4: you can rent one of those. But that's already in
3:55
Speaker 4: place with companies like Brits in Australia that as long
4:00
Speaker 4: as I can remember, they've been renting out you know,
4:03
Speaker 4: Toyota trip carriers. So definitely something with a toota badge.
4:07
Speaker 4: It's you know, it seems so many Toyotas in Australia,
4:11
Speaker 4: particularly the land cruises, and like you think that they
4:13
Speaker 4: were made there, and Toyota has got a fantastic reputation.
4:18
Speaker 4: Just about every ranch or station owner's got a Toyota
4:21
Speaker 4: of some sort. So you're going to get into trouble
4:23
Speaker 4: out there, then nine times out of ten you're going
4:26
Speaker 4: to be able to find the parts really easily. The
4:29
Speaker 4: local country town, you know, the garage there will have
4:33
Speaker 4: something in this in the store or somebody driving by
4:36
Speaker 4: an old wreck car at the back. So yeah, definitely
4:38
Speaker 4: a Toyota. Probably beyond that anything Japanese made. They just
4:42
Speaker 4: seem to handle the rugged terrain, the dust and have
4:49
Speaker 4: just really great touring setups.
4:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting to see because Toyota, it is definitely Toyota.
4:56
Speaker 1: Come in Australia and and you know, Matt, you you
5:00
Speaker 1: lived in Australia. Tell us a little bit about your
5:03
Speaker 1: time in Australia. How how long were you there, What
5:06
Speaker 1: were some of the places that you traveled. So I
5:08
Speaker 1: was there for a year. I was there running a magazine.
5:11
Speaker 1: I was the only American to be an editor of
5:12
Speaker 1: a major four world drive magazine down there. I ran
5:15
Speaker 1: unsealed four by four for a bit and kind of
5:18
Speaker 1: helped grow that and contribute to that. But you know,
5:21
Speaker 1: I guess I'm pretty lucky in the sense that I
5:24
Speaker 1: actually lived there and I did I think the things
5:27
Speaker 1: that Australians do, you know, I've you know, I guess
5:32
Speaker 1: I've done most of the eastern half of Australia pretty
5:35
Speaker 1: pretty comprehensively.
5:37
Speaker 3: Americans, I think tend to I always say they get
5:39
Speaker 3: like red fever that they want to go to Uller
5:41
Speaker 3: or they want to do the Simpson Desert. That's their
5:43
Speaker 3: image of the outback. But there's so much. There's so
5:46
Speaker 3: much to Australia. Like I'm obsessed with Cape York personally.
5:49
Speaker 3: I mean that is to me just I think it's
5:52
Speaker 3: the best of Australia.
5:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, you moved from the desert to subtropical to full
5:57
Speaker 1: blown tropical rainforest jungle. Yeah, when you get up to
6:00
Speaker 1: the North I remember how beautiful it was driving up there.
6:04
Speaker 1: And then one place I've not been that I've heard
6:07
Speaker 1: so many great things about is the Kimberly.
6:09
Speaker 2: Oh man, that's on my list.
6:10
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's on your list. You have to go, have
6:12
Speaker 4: to go. It's at the top of my list.
6:14
Speaker 2: I think.
6:15
Speaker 3: I think you and I like pass each other once
6:17
Speaker 3: while you were heading into the Kimberly.
6:18
Speaker 2: Yeah.
6:20
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love the Kimberly so much that I mean,
6:21
Speaker 4: have spent many years mapping there, but you know, over time.
6:24
Speaker 4: But I loved it so much that several years ago
6:27
Speaker 4: I took my whole whole family with the Camber Trailer
6:29
Speaker 4: two hundred series land Cruiser, her four kid's wife and
6:32
Speaker 4: we went up to the Kimberley for four weeks because
6:34
Speaker 4: I you know, going through there pretty quickly making maps.
6:38
Speaker 4: You know, in there two weeks you do every you
6:40
Speaker 4: work twelve fourteen hours a day, didn't have time to
6:43
Speaker 4: stop and enjoy the places. So we went back there
6:45
Speaker 4: for a whole month and just you know, I knew
6:48
Speaker 4: all the jewels near the time the place is to
6:50
Speaker 4: spend time, and so I you know, we spent five
6:53
Speaker 4: days in my favorite spot in the Bungle Bunger Pernolulu,
6:56
Speaker 4: most amazing geological formation, and we did a full high
7:00
Speaker 4: the whole day with the kids and just one of
7:03
Speaker 4: the best family experiences on my life so far.
7:07
Speaker 3: And I guess for those of you that don't know
7:09
Speaker 3: where the Kimberlys are, that's in the far northwestern corner
7:12
Speaker 3: of Australia. It's arguably probably the most remote portion of Australia.
7:16
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess you could say.
7:18
Speaker 2: The area is huge.
7:19
Speaker 4: I mean there's probably maybe twenty thousand people at the
7:22
Speaker 4: most in an area of the size of the state
7:24
Speaker 4: of Victoria, where there's six million people in Australia. So
7:28
Speaker 4: it's just it's still frontier country. You wouldn't want to
7:31
Speaker 4: be there in the in the tropics where the cyclones
7:34
Speaker 4: coming in. You know, the whole place shuts down, really remote, gorgeous.
7:37
Speaker 4: Some of them you can only get to by boat
7:39
Speaker 4: or helicopter. It's just spectacular place.
7:42
Speaker 2: Is that where that.
7:46
Speaker 4: Vertical horizontal falls So they have about an eight meter
7:51
Speaker 4: tide you can you can work out what that is
7:53
Speaker 4: and feet but runs runs at least once a day,
7:58
Speaker 4: I can't remember twice. So the tidal flow through this
8:03
Speaker 4: maybe not more than one hundred foot wide gap. It's
8:06
Speaker 4: sorry strong that Yeah, they call it harzont To waterfall.
8:10
Speaker 4: So you can only get there by playing a boat.
8:12
Speaker 2: Wow.
8:14
Speaker 1: And that was what I what I noticed about my
8:17
Speaker 1: travels in Australia. I've been fortunate to cross it east
8:21
Speaker 1: west and north south all the way down to the Tasmania.
8:24
Speaker 1: But what you do realize is you can get extremely remote.
8:29
Speaker 1: There are tracks that are very popular that you see
8:31
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of people on it. When
8:34
Speaker 1: I did the canning Stock route, I we didn't encounter
8:36
Speaker 1: a single individual until we got to Kiniwachi. In the
8:40
Speaker 1: center of the track, there was no people at all,
8:44
Speaker 1: no even tracks on the ground. You couldn't see the
8:47
Speaker 1: imprints of tires even from vehicles that have come before.
8:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, well, that's the great thing about the deserts in Australia.
8:53
Speaker 4: That kind of self fell out of the summer because
8:54
Speaker 4: nobody drives there over that six months, so the wind
8:58
Speaker 4: blows and winds the track up again, it's nice and
9:00
Speaker 4: fresh for the next season. So out mapping that way great,
9:03
Speaker 4: Sandy Dez. It's probably some of the most isolated. You know,
9:08
Speaker 4: we talk about self driven vehicles or journeys. I've been
9:13
Speaker 4: out there single vehicle, nothing but my UND patrol. I'm
9:19
Speaker 4: a mate and the riding shotgun in the passenger seat
9:21
Speaker 4: to rely on and driven on tracks that went on
9:24
Speaker 4: any map for a whole week and not seeing another vehicle,
9:27
Speaker 4: not another soul. It's kind of came into the so
9:30
Speaker 4: I shared at the local station. I went, well, civilization,
9:35
Speaker 4: you know, I had been that much removed from seeing
9:38
Speaker 4: any other person except for a friend next to me,
9:41
Speaker 4: and been bogged for twenty four hours in the middle
9:43
Speaker 4: of a clay pan and the wet on a track
9:45
Speaker 4: that wasn't on a map, going.
9:48
Speaker 2: How do we get out of this?
9:49
Speaker 4: So, yeah, that's not everybody, That's not what you're going
9:52
Speaker 4: to do on every trip. But and the Kimberley is
9:54
Speaker 4: just one of those amazing duels. There's probably for me,
9:56
Speaker 4: there's the top five being the Kimberley Cape York.
9:59
Speaker 2: You've talked to.
10:00
Speaker 4: Outland world heritage, largest sand on in the world, eighty
10:03
Speaker 4: miles long, entirely of sand, and has some of the
10:07
Speaker 4: most amazing Right not to.
10:09
Speaker 3: Go to Phraser Island because it will rule all other
10:11
Speaker 3: beaches for you for the rest of eternity.
10:14
Speaker 1: Everything you can and you can camp right on the beach,
10:17
Speaker 1: you can drive right on the beach. The only thing
10:20
Speaker 1: you have to be careful of is they actually do
10:22
Speaker 1: set up cops with radar guns and Fraser Island because
10:25
Speaker 1: it's it's easy to do one hundred k an hour
10:28
Speaker 1: on that hard pack.
10:29
Speaker 4: Yeah, my friends, my friends one of them. So I
10:31
Speaker 4: have friends coming here. I have friend, I let him
10:33
Speaker 4: know who's coming and easily, you know, gives them a
10:35
Speaker 4: fake too. But yeah, there's places on Fraser Island, though
10:39
Speaker 4: I don't tell anyone about because it's just so special
10:42
Speaker 4: and nobody that goes there. But you know, you've got
10:44
Speaker 4: beautiful subtropical rain for us growing on sand crystal clear likes.
10:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were there together I remember that was twenty eleven, right,
10:53
Speaker 1: So what are the other in your top five?
10:55
Speaker 2: Got?
10:55
Speaker 4: Well, that's there was three. I guess the the other
10:58
Speaker 4: two really any any desert air My favorite is a
11:01
Speaker 4: great Sandy desert, but that takes a lot of planning.
11:03
Speaker 4: The most common one is you guys have mentioned as
11:05
Speaker 4: the Simpson Desert. You know there you've got a thousand
11:07
Speaker 4: sound Junes to cross. You can spend three days doing
11:10
Speaker 4: it or you can spend two weeks to doing it
11:12
Speaker 4: and soon if you go off a sidetrack there and
11:14
Speaker 4: clay panel on your own million million million stars.
11:18
Speaker 3: And you somewhat recently were the first to actually map
11:21
Speaker 3: them Outigan line I put it, indeed, I believe right.
11:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, Heima was.
11:25
Speaker 4: I didn't get to do that one personally, but our
11:26
Speaker 4: team went out there and mapped it all out. And
11:29
Speaker 4: you know that was the heart matter of our whole
11:31
Speaker 4: great does It Tracks series that we was inspired by
11:34
Speaker 4: my father back in ninety ninety eight. We were making
11:37
Speaker 4: maps all around the outback areas on the coast and
11:40
Speaker 4: I had him doing a field trip over on the
11:42
Speaker 4: West coast for me, and like that always done before,
11:45
Speaker 4: I wanted to go down roads and never been down before.
11:47
Speaker 4: I thought, how do we get from the west coast
11:48
Speaker 4: to the East coast and do it safely on a map?
11:51
Speaker 2: And it wasn't a decent map.
11:52
Speaker 4: So they came back and said, Rob, we're going to
11:53
Speaker 4: make a map of the whole interior of Australia. So yeah, well,
11:57
Speaker 4: then spent the next six months driving every road and
11:59
Speaker 4: try back out there and putting on a map. Really
12:03
Speaker 4: so we had the conferences to go there, but that
12:05
Speaker 4: started to unlock the whole of the heart of Australia
12:07
Speaker 4: in terms of those remote tracks, because people had confidence
12:11
Speaker 4: in the map to take them places that had never
12:13
Speaker 4: been before. So yeah, Simpson does at number four. I
12:18
Speaker 4: don't know, I'm I'm probably changed my number five lately.
12:21
Speaker 4: It's probably was definitely the Flinders Rangers. But I've spent
12:25
Speaker 4: a bit of time in Tasmania recently and that's beautiful.
12:29
Speaker 4: It's a very very special place. That's a great for
12:31
Speaker 4: driving down their beautiful wilderness hikes to do, all easily accessible.
12:37
Speaker 2: People are really friendly, you know.
12:39
Speaker 4: The other one for these trainers is the high country,
12:41
Speaker 4: Victorian high Country, but I think for North Americans that's
12:45
Speaker 4: you know, that's about twenty five percent of the size
12:48
Speaker 4: of the mountains you get to drive on here and having.
12:50
Speaker 3: Driven around phenomenal access to those mountains, it does cool
12:53
Speaker 3: thing as there's so many roads, there's so many remote villages.
12:58
Speaker 4: You know, you can spend months traveling down the East
13:01
Speaker 4: Coast of Australia with all sorts of access roads to
13:04
Speaker 4: the local beaches and campsites. You know, for what two
13:08
Speaker 4: thousand miles around the coast, beautiful beaches, rocky headlands, campsite
13:13
Speaker 4: all to yourself.
13:14
Speaker 1: And just remember, when you go to a beach in Australia,
13:16
Speaker 1: do some research because they're maybe half a dozen different things.
13:20
Speaker 1: They could eat you or sting you, or just don't
13:24
Speaker 1: go on the water kill you in some matter. I
13:26
Speaker 1: mean they have a box jellyfish, the giant crocs in
13:29
Speaker 1: the north.
13:30
Speaker 3: Put on a patrolled beach in Australia with you know,
13:33
Speaker 3: surf life savers, there hasn't been a fatality and quite
13:36
Speaker 3: some time, I want to say, right like where where
13:38
Speaker 3: you can swim it's relatively safe.
13:40
Speaker 4: Well, where you can swim is relatively safe, I'm not
13:42
Speaker 4: sure about that. Fatalities, yeah, we hear them about them
13:45
Speaker 4: each year. Sadly, but it's usually an international visitor that's
13:49
Speaker 4: not aware of the local conditions. So yeah, but you know,
13:52
Speaker 4: the crocodile's box, jelly fish, that stuff. We just put
13:54
Speaker 4: on tourist brochures to keep the people out. So we've
13:56
Speaker 4: got the country country as how do you think else?
13:59
Speaker 4: We've got twenty something going people in the country the
14:02
Speaker 4: size of the US absolutely so.
14:05
Speaker 1: So for those that are listening that want to travel
14:07
Speaker 1: to Australia, there's there's essentially three ways to do that.
14:11
Speaker 1: You can ship your own vehicle from the US or
14:14
Speaker 1: wherever you live by container. I shipped into Australia one
14:18
Speaker 1: time from Vladivostok and Magadan and Russia. But being mindful
14:24
Speaker 1: of that, we'll talk about that in a second. The
14:27
Speaker 1: next thing you can do is rent a vehicle, which
14:29
Speaker 1: Rob spoke to to some degree. And the third thing
14:32
Speaker 1: that you can do is purchase a vehicle in country.
14:36
Speaker 1: But let's talk about that first, Matt. When you were there,
14:38
Speaker 1: you you bought a vehicle, You bought a troope. Yeah, yeah,
14:41
Speaker 1: I had a land Cruiser troop carrier.
14:43
Speaker 3: And I think for a lot of Americans that's the
14:46
Speaker 3: me have a really unobtainable vehicle. So you know, it
14:49
Speaker 3: was that or a defender and you know, as Rob
14:53
Speaker 3: alluded to, it's it really is Toyota country. You know,
14:57
Speaker 3: I think I think there's a lot going for purchasing
15:00
Speaker 3: a vehicle in Australia. You know, my my my usual
15:05
Speaker 3: rule is you know, you got to be there for
15:06
Speaker 3: a few months, right because there are there are costs
15:10
Speaker 3: associated with it. You know, my best recommendation people is,
15:14
Speaker 3: you know, go over there, travel, buy something. Just make
15:17
Speaker 3: sure you buy something that's twenty five years old because
15:20
Speaker 3: then you can bring it back as a souvenir and
15:22
Speaker 3: if you're smart, you can probably pay for your trips. So,
15:26
Speaker 3: you know, the cool thing with Australia some some American
15:29
Speaker 3: states do it, but there are very comprehensive, you know,
15:34
Speaker 3: vehicle inspections in Australia. I mean Queensland's crazy. I sold
15:38
Speaker 3: my vehicle in Queensland and I had to provide a
15:41
Speaker 3: blue slip.
15:41
Speaker 4: I want to say, yeah, well roadway they certificate.
15:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, yes, especially I can't sell a vehicle to some yeah.
15:50
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, imagine a tail light lens and
15:53
Speaker 3: an old car and you overtighten that that little Phillips
15:57
Speaker 3: socket you get a little the tiniest bit of spider
15:59
Speaker 3: crack and that tail light lines and they defected me
16:02
Speaker 3: for that. Well yeah, so, I mean it's it's I
16:05
Speaker 3: always advocate, you know, buying in Queensland for that reason,
16:08
Speaker 3: because even though I lived in New South Wales and
16:11
Speaker 3: in the Blue Mountains, you know, the road worthy checks
16:15
Speaker 3: and everything and in Queensland are crazy. But what that
16:18
Speaker 3: means for you buying a sight unseen vehicle that has
16:21
Speaker 3: a roadworthy certificate. In my opinion, there's a certain level
16:24
Speaker 3: of comfort there because it's provided by a third party, independent,
16:28
Speaker 3: you know, impartial mechanic that really just has to tick
16:32
Speaker 3: off these boxes and I think it's a good indicator
16:35
Speaker 3: of of that vehicle's health. You know, you definitely don't
16:38
Speaker 3: want to buy you know, four wheel drives from Hervey Bay,
16:41
Speaker 3: which is yeah, so they're all you know, they've been
16:47
Speaker 3: run up the beach with with salt water and stuff
16:49
Speaker 3: a lot. So if you can get get vehicles from
16:51
Speaker 3: the from the interior of the country, I think that's
16:53
Speaker 3: that's always a really, you know, a really a good option.
16:56
Speaker 3: How much did that seventy series cost, I want to
16:59
Speaker 3: say at the time it was it was around twelve
17:01
Speaker 3: thousand Australian dollars and it was in nineteen ninety seven.
17:05
Speaker 3: I was there with the intention that I was going
17:07
Speaker 3: to stay there for quite a while and we decided
17:09
Speaker 3: to come back. But you know, it was it was
17:12
Speaker 3: relatively well sort of like we didn't we had the
17:15
Speaker 3: you know, we had the motor kind of gone through.
17:17
Speaker 3: It was wanting said diesel naturally aspirated, so we had
17:21
Speaker 3: the injectors rebuilt and had it tuned down at Barrama
17:24
Speaker 3: Diesel and it was it was flawless, like that thing
17:28
Speaker 3: at when we sold it then went across Australia another
17:31
Speaker 3: like half a dozen times. So okay, so it's actually funny.
17:37
Speaker 3: But it lives currently next to your sister's house. Really yeah,
17:41
Speaker 3: literally the house next door they ended up buying, and
17:45
Speaker 3: like Troy sends me a photo and there's Snoopy was
17:48
Speaker 3: was my chupies name. So it's it's kind of cool
17:50
Speaker 3: how these vehicles go around.
17:52
Speaker 2: That's so cool. I keep this story.
17:55
Speaker 1: Yeah.
17:55
Speaker 2: Yeah.
17:55
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of great Facebook pages where you
17:57
Speaker 3: can buy vehicles. If you want to buy a Troopet,
18:00
Speaker 3: there's a page troop Carriers of Australia they have a
18:03
Speaker 3: separate you know, a place where you can actually buy
18:06
Speaker 3: and sell stuff. I think that's where you get a
18:09
Speaker 3: lot of the good the good stuff these days. I mean,
18:11
Speaker 3: obviously there's gum Tree, which is basically the equivalent of
18:14
Speaker 3: our Craigslist. It's a little bit more formal, I would
18:18
Speaker 3: like to say. And then sales, Yeah, yeah, I mean
18:25
Speaker 3: I highly recommend it. I mean for us actually owning
18:27
Speaker 3: the vehicle, I think really added to the experience. You know,
18:31
Speaker 3: I think as we'll talk about with with shipping a
18:34
Speaker 3: vehicle in and I've had friends that have shiped vehicles in.
18:37
Speaker 3: I mean Scott's vehicle that they shipped in for Exhibition seven.
18:40
Speaker 3: I mean that was, you know, a New Zealand spec vehicle.
18:44
Speaker 3: It was very appropriate for Australia. I would, I guess,
18:47
Speaker 3: just caution, you know, sending certain vehicles down there. I mean,
18:53
Speaker 3: depending on where you're gonna go, like make sure they
18:56
Speaker 3: sell that vehicle in Australia. I think that that's pretty key.
19:02
Speaker 2: You know.
19:02
Speaker 3: You you may actually run into scenarios where they may
19:05
Speaker 3: not have like Mountain Dare sometimes doesn't have petrol or gasoline,
19:09
Speaker 3: so you're gonna have to carry a lot of weight
19:11
Speaker 3: with you if you want to do the Simpson Desert.
19:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely take something down that's Taesel.
19:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and it's an opportunity to to are
19:21
Speaker 3: something new, to try something new. I mean it will
19:23
Speaker 3: cost you in my assumption. I mean I with my
19:27
Speaker 3: day job, I I'm constantly shipping containers from Australia. I
19:30
Speaker 3: know what it costs. I know that the port fees
19:32
Speaker 3: in Australia are really high. Scott you you've alluded to
19:34
Speaker 3: the fact that the quarantine scenario is is crazy. I
19:38
Speaker 3: mean I have friends that have spent in excess of
19:40
Speaker 3: twenty thousand dollars getting a vehicle from a port in
19:43
Speaker 3: the US to a port in.
19:44
Speaker 2: Australia and back. Absolutely.
19:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you can. And that's a sun cost that's gone.
19:51
Speaker 3: You're not getting it back where you know, I mean, hey,
19:54
Speaker 3: even take half of that. You have to get the
19:56
Speaker 3: vehicle back home buy something.
19:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
19:58
Speaker 4: And the other challenge you got with that is the
20:00
Speaker 4: quarantine restrictions in Australia. You know, if it's got any
20:03
Speaker 4: kind of bugs or seeds or grass or they'll send
20:07
Speaker 4: it back.
20:07
Speaker 2: Yeah. Although I'm pound it and charge you a lots
20:10
Speaker 2: of phase to clean it.
20:11
Speaker 3: And anyone can buy a vehicle in Australia. You do
20:14
Speaker 3: not have to have it. You just have to have
20:15
Speaker 3: an address, which you know, I think for most overland
20:18
Speaker 3: travelers would be relatively easy to do. People use hostile
20:21
Speaker 3: address somewhere that you can receive mail you do not have.
20:25
Speaker 3: You just have to be in Australia legally, which means
20:28
Speaker 3: I mean essentially if you're as long as you haven't
20:29
Speaker 3: overseed your visa yep, and you're driving license is balid,
20:34
Speaker 3: it's yeah.
20:36
Speaker 4: And if you buy a good quality vehicle like a
20:37
Speaker 4: Toyota and ten thousand kilometers on a round trip of
20:40
Speaker 4: Australia at worse, you might sell it for five thousand
20:42
Speaker 4: dollars less than you bought it for. Yeah, and it's
20:44
Speaker 4: probably not even that.
20:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, And you can buy find stuff if you buy.
20:47
Speaker 4: It, well, you might even sell at the same price
20:49
Speaker 4: because those plank cruisers and Toyotas in general just hold
20:52
Speaker 4: their value so so well.
20:53
Speaker 3: You can find stuff that's completely outfitted very very easily,
20:57
Speaker 3: so you can essentially fly in maybe spend a few
20:59
Speaker 3: days making those personal modifications you want. There's a lot
21:02
Speaker 3: of forwhel drive shops that will do pre check, you know,
21:05
Speaker 3: pre trip maintenance for you and inspections. I mean it's
21:09
Speaker 3: really well set up for doing that. There is actually
21:12
Speaker 3: a culture of like the backpacker cars there which you
21:14
Speaker 3: should avoid.
21:15
Speaker 4: One of the other things to watch is just the
21:17
Speaker 4: simple things like fuses. The local gas station now back
21:21
Speaker 4: Australia probably won't have the fuse that you need for
21:24
Speaker 4: your truck, and maybe the suspension is not really set
21:28
Speaker 4: up for. Is that level of endurance on washboarding, corrogations
21:32
Speaker 4: and rough roads.
21:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, I found people will ask how are the roads
21:37
Speaker 1: in Australia and how do they compare to the roads
21:39
Speaker 1: in the US, and and I typically relate it to
21:43
Speaker 1: we have the opportunity in the US to recreational overlanding,
21:46
Speaker 1: which means that we could go seek out very difficult
21:50
Speaker 1: routes that maybe only last a day or two, very
21:52
Speaker 1: technical terrain like you'd find in Moab. And it's not
21:55
Speaker 1: to say that Australia doesn't have technical terrain, because it does.
21:59
Speaker 1: But but what you experience in Australia is abusive roads.
22:05
Speaker 1: So the corrugations that you'll experience are extremely abusive to
22:10
Speaker 1: the vehicle. So what would work well here, like let's
22:12
Speaker 1: say a four or jeep wrangler Rubicon would work really
22:16
Speaker 1: well for those remote technical routes that we would do
22:19
Speaker 1: in the US. You tried to take a wrangler across
22:22
Speaker 1: the Udinata track or what anything that's heavily corrugated, I
22:25
Speaker 1: don't know how it would survive. They're just not designed
22:28
Speaker 1: for that kind of condition. And because of that, jeep
22:31
Speaker 1: wranglers don't sell well to those traveling in the center
22:34
Speaker 1: of Australia. They do sell in Australia, but not they
22:37
Speaker 1: don't use them for that purpose.
22:39
Speaker 3: I mean I do in jeeps defense. How do you
22:41
Speaker 3: think the new ones are maybe a different category, But yeah,
22:44
Speaker 3: they don't really sell well. I mean again Toyota country. Yeah,
22:48
Speaker 3: so absolutely.
22:50
Speaker 4: A long wheelbase helps some of the vehicles like the Gladiata.
22:55
Speaker 4: You know, it looks a lot more suitable post wide
22:58
Speaker 4: stance long wheelbase, assuming it's it's made as strong as
23:02
Speaker 4: a Toyota then.
23:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's it's all about durability in Australia.
23:07
Speaker 3: You know, the way you would build a vehicle here
23:10
Speaker 3: like you would, you'd be crazy to to take a
23:13
Speaker 3: you know, time joint long arm suspension set up down
23:17
Speaker 3: to Australia, in my opinion, and you're going to blow
23:20
Speaker 3: through time joints in a in a in a trip.
23:22
Speaker 3: You know you want I keep saying that this weekend.
23:26
Speaker 3: You want factory bushings. You want stuff that has real
23:28
Speaker 3: durability to it. You know, all of the failures we
23:32
Speaker 3: experienced in our trip, they weren't major failures, but they
23:35
Speaker 3: were all related to corrugations. You know, a shock mount
23:38
Speaker 3: coming off a bushing or a sway bar or or
23:41
Speaker 3: or something. I mean literally just rattling loose, right. I
23:44
Speaker 3: mean I have a photo somewhere of putting a beer
23:47
Speaker 3: can in between the corrugations, and I took a photo
23:51
Speaker 3: and you could like just see the top of it.
23:54
Speaker 3: I mean they are massive, because I get these road
23:57
Speaker 3: trains that come through here in some of the areas
23:58
Speaker 3: are just a lot of recreational for drive teering traffic.
24:02
Speaker 4: And the rocks on the road, I mean they've just
24:04
Speaker 4: been whiting the eons to punch somebody's.
24:08
Speaker 1: And we have to remember too that most people that
24:10
Speaker 1: will be traveling to Australia do not drive a right
24:13
Speaker 1: hand drive vehicle. So when you're traveling in the back country,
24:16
Speaker 1: you will tend to start to favor the center or
24:19
Speaker 1: the crown of the road because it's easier to drive on.
24:21
Speaker 1: But remember when you come to those blind prests that
24:26
Speaker 1: you need to get over to the left side of
24:29
Speaker 1: the road so that you don't do a head on
24:31
Speaker 1: with the other person who's going to the left to
24:33
Speaker 1: the right side of the road from the other way.
24:36
Speaker 1: So you have to be really careful with that because
24:38
Speaker 1: our natural instinct is those of us who drive left
24:41
Speaker 1: hand drives, is to swerve one way because that's what
24:45
Speaker 1: our muscle memory tells us to do. So we have
24:48
Speaker 1: to be very mindful when we travel in a country
24:51
Speaker 1: with a different that drives on the different side of
24:52
Speaker 1: the road. And then after you've been on the dirt
24:54
Speaker 1: for days, you're going to get on the highway and
24:57
Speaker 1: half of the people I've traveled with, they just pull
24:58
Speaker 1: out on the wrong side of the I get screwed
25:01
Speaker 1: up in parking lots, like there's really no like kind
25:05
Speaker 1: of rules in the parking lots, and that that's what
25:07
Speaker 1: always gets me.
25:08
Speaker 3: You make the mistake in the parking lot and then
25:10
Speaker 3: continue it out on the road.
25:14
Speaker 4: But to those points you know, if you're looking for,
25:16
Speaker 4: you're going to look to buy a vehicle down there
25:19
Speaker 4: and be looking for something with decent suspension, good quality tires,
25:24
Speaker 4: because your tires can quickly destroy your trip. Make sure
25:28
Speaker 4: you've got a decent tie gauge. They're the best insurance
25:31
Speaker 4: for your tires. But protection equipment bull bars, sidebars, particularly
25:36
Speaker 4: bull bars on the front roobars absolutely critical, especially if
25:40
Speaker 4: you're planning on doing any night time traveler in the
25:42
Speaker 4: dawn or the dusk. It can be anywhere in Australia,
25:46
Speaker 4: and anything from a kangaroo or a mobile kangaroos, or
25:49
Speaker 4: an emu or eight pound black cow at night walks
25:55
Speaker 4: out on the road, maybe even a camel. You know,
25:58
Speaker 4: these these animals which we have lots of, not so beautiful,
26:03
Speaker 4: but I can destroy a destroy you pretty trip pretty quickly.
26:07
Speaker 1: You and I were driving along the Great Australian Bite
26:10
Speaker 1: and Rob. Rob was driving and I can't remember, I
26:13
Speaker 1: was maybe listening to a to a book or a
26:15
Speaker 1: podcast or something, and and then it sounded like it
26:19
Speaker 1: sounded like the truck exploded.
26:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we got hit.
26:23
Speaker 1: We got hit by a kangaroo and the driver's side
26:27
Speaker 1: door like it's it's amazing to me that this animal
26:31
Speaker 1: it actually ran into us like it was It was fine,
26:35
Speaker 1: It would have been okay if it had just stopped.
26:37
Speaker 1: But it literally ran right into the side of the vehicle.
26:40
Speaker 1: That's from you know, and of course the poor thing
26:44
Speaker 1: because of it, and which is which is really hard
26:46
Speaker 1: to expect, because kangaroos. Remember the first time I went
26:49
Speaker 1: to Australia, I was driving from from Brisbane down towards
26:53
Speaker 1: Sydney and I was so excited to see my first kangaroo.
26:56
Speaker 1: And I saw lots of kangaroos, but none of them
26:58
Speaker 1: were alive. They were all dead on the road. And
27:00
Speaker 1: and like finally, after like five days, I finally saw
27:03
Speaker 1: my first live kangaroo. And there they are absolutely adorable. Creatures,
27:07
Speaker 1: are incredible, They're incredible to watch. Yeah, they're really cool.
27:10
Speaker 2: They're really cool.
27:11
Speaker 4: They're extremely extreme. Feel bad about killing whantn't to save
27:14
Speaker 4: yourself first? Just play hard and break straight because we
27:16
Speaker 4: got plenty more though. Gross.
27:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And this shouldn't intimidate you from going to Australia.
27:21
Speaker 3: Now we've talked about the box jellyfish and the Great
27:24
Speaker 3: Whites and the supersers and super snakes and everything.
27:27
Speaker 2: You know.
27:29
Speaker 3: I don't know if you're a traveler in the American
27:31
Speaker 3: southwest's probably as many things that can kill you here.
27:33
Speaker 3: I mean, whenever I have this, conversations with Australians are like,
27:36
Speaker 3: you guys have mountain lions. You guys have grizzly bears,
27:38
Speaker 3: you have black bears. You have and whites too. You
27:41
Speaker 3: have the jellies too, You have the smikes, snakes and
27:45
Speaker 3: the spiders. I mean, honestly, I've I've spent you know,
27:50
Speaker 3: a pretty good amount of time camping in the middle
27:52
Speaker 3: of nowhere in Australia, and like the amount of times
27:54
Speaker 3: I've seen snakes or spiders is.
27:57
Speaker 2: You know, pretty pretty rare.
27:59
Speaker 3: I mean, I think here those animals kind of do
28:02
Speaker 3: encroach on you because we've encroached on so much of
28:04
Speaker 3: their habitat, you know, in Australia. I guess I would say, like, well,
28:08
Speaker 3: I would really want to be by the road when
28:10
Speaker 3: they have a million acres of undisturbed habitat.
28:15
Speaker 2: Just watch out for the duiz especially, it was really dangerous.
28:20
Speaker 1: They do your research, folks, stay safe, you know. So
28:27
Speaker 1: when we talk about planning a trip to Australia, ra,
28:31
Speaker 1: what would you recommend? What are some resources, some good
28:34
Speaker 1: resources to get information on traveling in Australia. What are
28:38
Speaker 1: some great websites to look at? Obviously, you know there's
28:44
Speaker 1: several mapping choices. Haemas, in my opinion, is one of
28:47
Speaker 1: the best out there and the one that I use.
28:50
Speaker 1: But it's I think it does require a little bit
28:53
Speaker 1: more planning because it's so easy to either get lost
28:57
Speaker 1: or to get stranded. It's really a good idea to
29:00
Speaker 1: have a plan for how much fuel you're going to need,
29:03
Speaker 1: where there's going to be service. So how would you
29:05
Speaker 1: recommend people start to plan for their trip.
29:07
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd spend some time on websites like you're talking about.
29:10
Speaker 4: Heman maps dot com is great, but that's probably more
29:15
Speaker 4: maybe a secondary thing once you figured out where you
29:17
Speaker 4: want to go and you want the map products. There's
29:19
Speaker 4: wonderful website in Australia called explorers dot Com ozz dot com.
29:27
Speaker 4: You know, it's really a community built site, community built
29:31
Speaker 4: content from hundreds of thousands of explorers that driven the trail,
29:35
Speaker 4: posted up their trail, got information and photographs and the like.
29:41
Speaker 4: You can even purchase vehicles or do online trading through there.
29:48
Speaker 4: Heaps of information about how to prepare for your trip.
29:51
Speaker 4: Even some of the major media organizations like Camper Trailer
29:56
Speaker 4: Australia unsealed for by FO that used to work, but
30:01
Speaker 4: probably be aware that in a lot of those cases,
30:04
Speaker 4: the travel articles really they're about attracting the eyeballs, you know,
30:07
Speaker 4: to get people to click through. And it's probably some
30:12
Speaker 4: of the community driven sites like explorers dot com, which
30:15
Speaker 4: are much better because you're getting authentic information from travelers
30:19
Speaker 4: that have got no agenda to promote a particular area.
30:22
Speaker 3: I'm always a little bit skeptical of Australian media.
30:25
Speaker 2: A lot of it.
30:25
Speaker 3: There's a lot of play stuff.
30:27
Speaker 4: And a lot of you know forums like was it
30:29
Speaker 4: prado dot com four Earth is a great one, and
30:36
Speaker 4: then you'll connect through to real users the real vehicles,
30:39
Speaker 4: ask them about you is shoes they've had with different.
30:42
Speaker 3: And the Facebook groups too. Once you do buy a
30:45
Speaker 3: vehicle a huge, huge resource.
30:48
Speaker 4: So do your homework online. In terms of you know,
30:51
Speaker 4: guidebooks and maps, you can buy them when you get there.
30:54
Speaker 4: Most of the local gas stations will have something or
30:57
Speaker 4: check out something like what is a map world dot com?
31:01
Speaker 4: Are you feel to buy it and ship it over seas?
31:04
Speaker 4: But a number of the Australian products. The best Australian
31:08
Speaker 4: products available in even on Amazon now and through a
31:13
Speaker 4: European website called runnin so, but I'd say leave most
31:18
Speaker 4: of that to you actually get there. So in terms
31:20
Speaker 4: of paper productbooks, definitely worth having some kind of digital navigation,
31:27
Speaker 4: whether it's UH and make sure it's completely offline, or
31:31
Speaker 4: the hemor apps offline, but there's a number of others available.
31:34
Speaker 4: Of course, it's a misnomer that you actually need a
31:38
Speaker 4: cell phone signal to get a GPS in your phone.
31:41
Speaker 4: It's actually in the hardware, so you know your your
31:46
Speaker 4: mobile phone or your iPad, we'll run for the GPS.
31:49
Speaker 4: We'll running for that for weeks and weeks in the
31:51
Speaker 4: outback without ever getting a mobile phone connection. So it's
31:54
Speaker 4: going to kitchen maps offline or dedicated dedicated to.
31:57
Speaker 3: Have my HEMA maps out that I you know, when
32:00
Speaker 3: I'm writing a story or something, I have all the lights,
32:02
Speaker 3: you know, the tracking on and I can see exactly
32:05
Speaker 3: where I went. It actually makes it kind of a cool.
32:08
Speaker 4: That's about sixty bucks us use it on five different devices,
32:12
Speaker 4: all on all offline.
32:15
Speaker 2: That's a great way to go.
32:16
Speaker 4: You can look at a dedicated GPS like the Human
32:18
Speaker 4: Navigator or you the new Garment Overlander. One of the
32:22
Speaker 4: special arrangements I was able to make in the last
32:24
Speaker 4: couple of years is getting HEMA maps fining onto garment units.
32:27
Speaker 4: So all the new garment GPS devices, just fantastic devices
32:31
Speaker 4: are now available with maps offline.
32:35
Speaker 2: That's cool, big deal, I know that.
32:38
Speaker 1: Then you have the reliability of the garment units they're
32:41
Speaker 1: designed to reliably record tracks.
32:44
Speaker 4: And the reliability of the HEMO maps. And another great
32:48
Speaker 4: resource for there's so much free camping as an app
32:52
Speaker 4: called Camps Austraight Wide, which is incredible reference.
32:57
Speaker 2: Guy, it's that massive book, massive book available on that.
33:01
Speaker 4: There's also a cheaper one called Wiki Camps, not quite
33:05
Speaker 4: as accurate, but it's a user community, nice one as
33:09
Speaker 4: thousands of thousands of free camp suits. Let's try some beautiful.
33:12
Speaker 3: Location with camps quite a bit, but we did find
33:15
Speaker 3: a few that were a little bit sketchy, you know,
33:18
Speaker 3: places that people are saying, we're fine a camp, but
33:21
Speaker 3: actually the local council is you know, no campaign or
33:24
Speaker 3: something like that.
33:24
Speaker 2: It's definitely gonna watch.
33:25
Speaker 1: It cool and and uh, if you were you're to
33:30
Speaker 1: recommend like someone had two weeks to go to Australia,
33:35
Speaker 1: which is the typical American vacation. If they had two weeks,
33:38
Speaker 1: where should they fly into? Where would you recommend that
33:41
Speaker 1: they go and give give someone like an oversight of
33:45
Speaker 1: what they would experience along the way.
33:48
Speaker 4: Well, I might be give you three options. One you
33:50
Speaker 4: would fly into Brisbane in Queensland, hire a vehicle in Brisbane,
33:56
Speaker 4: a Lancas to take it up to Fraser Island for
33:58
Speaker 4: two weeks and have a most spectacular time out on
34:02
Speaker 4: your own on the beach, enjoying that. You could fly
34:05
Speaker 4: into Cans and hire a toiler lan cruse again some
34:10
Speaker 4: of them you can get set up with the roof
34:12
Speaker 4: cup campers and the like. Two weeks easy out of
34:16
Speaker 4: Cans to the tip of Cape York, top of Australian
34:19
Speaker 4: back but they normally forget a rental. Then the some
34:24
Speaker 4: of the most extreme tracks you see on YouTube on
34:26
Speaker 4: the old telegraph track that won't let you so there.
34:29
Speaker 4: Some companies say, well, if it's on a Hema map,
34:31
Speaker 4: you can go there, and if it's not then you can't.
34:33
Speaker 4: So that gives you a lot of place to go.
34:38
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, I think beyond that, I guess other places
34:42
Speaker 4: like flying to Alice Springs if you want to do
34:44
Speaker 4: the Red Center. Unfortunately for people that want to climb Ularue,
34:49
Speaker 4: that's finishes at the end of this month.
34:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right done.
34:53
Speaker 1: But that's out of respect to the Aboriginals the preference,
34:59
Speaker 1: and that was their wish.
35:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, they wish. But it's a fabulous place to visit.
35:03
Speaker 2: It's so really well set up. It's worth it.
35:06
Speaker 4: And King's Canyon you couldn't walk around, you know, the
35:08
Speaker 4: Simpson does it days. Drive east of there, you can drive.
35:12
Speaker 3: It Ranges West McDonald Ranges for sure.
35:14
Speaker 2: Canyon.
35:15
Speaker 3: It was actually our favorite, one of our favorite areas
35:19
Speaker 3: in Australia. I think it was actually it was very spectacular.
35:23
Speaker 2: But it's pretty special. The whole Red Center. Yeah, really great.
35:27
Speaker 1: Well, Robert, what other advice would you give as we
35:29
Speaker 1: start to wrap up your if you had to kind
35:32
Speaker 1: of shotgun some some things for people to think about
35:35
Speaker 1: before they travel to Australia, how they should be prepared. Obviously, look,
35:40
Speaker 1: do some research on the CDC. Make sure that you
35:42
Speaker 1: have the inoculations that you need. That's really important before
35:46
Speaker 1: you go into any country. Make sure you do some
35:49
Speaker 1: research on what you need for healthcare, what you need
35:53
Speaker 1: for evacuation insurance if you need to to get out
35:56
Speaker 1: of an area in the middle of the country, do
35:59
Speaker 1: some research before you leave. But what are some other
36:01
Speaker 1: things you'd like just add in closing?
36:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think, I mean you don't know me long
36:06
Speaker 4: enough Scott that I'm very much about this. But the
36:09
Speaker 4: first and important thing is to just go, don't You
36:12
Speaker 4: want to be well prepared, but don't think you've got
36:14
Speaker 4: to have this or you know, how to tackle a crocodile.
36:17
Speaker 4: Important thing is be committed to go and have the
36:19
Speaker 4: courage to go, because there's so much of it you
36:22
Speaker 4: can figure out on the ground. Vehicle choice is important,
36:25
Speaker 4: but you know, like any overlanding trip or for driving trip,
36:29
Speaker 4: it's the basics of how you're planning that simple things
36:33
Speaker 4: like having a tire gauge to manage your tire pressures,
36:37
Speaker 4: decent tires, decent simple camping equipment, keep it simple, don't
36:42
Speaker 4: need all the gear generally. The climatic conditions are just fabulous,
36:46
Speaker 4: especially now back in the summer. You know, I don't
36:48
Speaker 4: even don't take a raincoat. You've got to be prepared
36:51
Speaker 4: for freezing at night sometimes, but you know, you can
36:53
Speaker 4: plan for three four months of the year that it's
36:55
Speaker 4: dry weather, so you know, keep it simple. You might
36:59
Speaker 4: not even need anything more than a just a cooler
37:01
Speaker 4: box for you know, keeping things cool. So do your research,
37:08
Speaker 4: you get and make some friends online. They're going to
37:11
Speaker 4: get to know you, welcome to you. You know, they're
37:13
Speaker 4: going to say, hey, when you come over, come by
37:15
Speaker 4: and I'll show you around the vehicle and tell your.
37:17
Speaker 2: Places to go. You know that that's so easy to do.
37:20
Speaker 4: Now, Yeah, take a good camera or good phone because
37:24
Speaker 4: you and be ready for The other thing I say
37:28
Speaker 4: to people traveling Australia is just expect the unexpected. And
37:31
Speaker 4: that's one of the some of the most amazing experiences
37:34
Speaker 4: are the ones that you're not planning to have. It's
37:37
Speaker 4: the ones that surprise you on that five o'clock track
37:39
Speaker 4: in the afternoon, or the sunset you get, or the
37:41
Speaker 4: or the person that you meet and the introduction to
37:45
Speaker 4: a local guy at the bar that you get and
37:47
Speaker 4: the stories that might come out of that. Or even
37:49
Speaker 4: if something goes wrong, been great, well someone else will
37:52
Speaker 4: come along and help you out. And then just enjoy
37:55
Speaker 4: the fact that somebody is bothered to come all the
37:57
Speaker 4: way around the world to see their beautiful backyard.
38:00
Speaker 1: You know, we're welcoming nation. What would you say is
38:05
Speaker 1: your best experience that you've had in Australia. What was
38:08
Speaker 1: the one one thing that you were so surprised by,
38:14
Speaker 1: so surprised by.
38:15
Speaker 4: There's been so many Scotts, so it's going through the
38:19
Speaker 4: memory banks. I think, Like I talked about before, one
38:22
Speaker 4: of my various best experiences was was traveling across a
38:26
Speaker 4: week across the desert with a mate and getting stuck.
38:31
Speaker 4: That's the most common story I tell you know, we
38:34
Speaker 4: got bogged for a whole day in this in this,
38:38
Speaker 4: in this claypand but it was the best memories of
38:41
Speaker 4: my life. I mean I drove, we drove through about
38:44
Speaker 4: a mile long of deep water. You know, after that
38:46
Speaker 4: think well, would I'd ever do that again? So that
38:49
Speaker 4: and the experience I talked about before with my family
38:51
Speaker 4: and the Kimberley showing them places that that I spent
38:55
Speaker 4: my life mapping in and with the real jills and
38:58
Speaker 4: then showing them to the next generator.
39:01
Speaker 3: How about you, Matt, what was the top What was
39:03
Speaker 3: the coolest thing that happened? There's this there's this little
39:06
Speaker 3: campground called Eddie's Beach Camp north of Cooktown and the
39:13
Speaker 3: sunset there. I'm lucky enough to be there twice in
39:16
Speaker 3: both sunsets were amazing. I don't know, it sounds it
39:20
Speaker 3: sounds weird, but there's a silica mine and there's these
39:23
Speaker 3: little capes that that jut out and want to say
39:25
Speaker 3: that that particular one is Cape Bedford.
39:27
Speaker 2: And that's suspicious. The sun.
39:30
Speaker 3: The sun sets over the ocean, then over this, over
39:33
Speaker 3: this this cape, and it just it lights up. I
39:37
Speaker 3: have these photos from there that that I don't know,
39:40
Speaker 3: I think are the closest thing I've ever come to
39:42
Speaker 3: a National Geographic photo straight out of the camera. I mean,
39:46
Speaker 3: Cape York's just this wonderful place. I mean, I do
39:49
Speaker 3: not think Australians or Americans think of Australia, you know,
39:54
Speaker 3: with Cape York. They always think of the desert, as
39:58
Speaker 3: I've kind of said, and yeah, that's that's it for me.
40:01
Speaker 2: I love it.
40:02
Speaker 1: I did a trip with my dad from Alice Springs
40:05
Speaker 1: down to Melbourne.
40:06
Speaker 2: That was awesome.
40:07
Speaker 1: It's so neat to travel with his first time out
40:10
Speaker 1: of the country with me, so that was really neat.
40:12
Speaker 2: But Tasmania, I think.
40:13
Speaker 1: Is one of my most most favorite places in Australia.
40:17
Speaker 2: It was really special, all.
40:18
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, so let's uh, let's talk a little bit
40:20
Speaker 1: about what is next. So, Matt, you're about to leave
40:23
Speaker 1: Overland Expo.
40:23
Speaker 2: What are you doing?
40:25
Speaker 3: I don't know. I honestly, we have no idea. I
40:27
Speaker 3: got a gladiator and I hope I have a gladiator
40:29
Speaker 3: and a camper and uh and you know, a credit
40:33
Speaker 3: card and and and maybe a week until I'm I'm
40:36
Speaker 3: due back in the office. So maybe Key West, maybe
40:40
Speaker 3: New Orleans, ps Harbor, Maine.
40:42
Speaker 2: Uh.
40:42
Speaker 3: You know, we're kind of trying to while we're out
40:44
Speaker 3: on the East Coast to take advantage of it. You know,
40:48
Speaker 3: over a Expo East has been great. We've met a
40:50
Speaker 3: lot of a lot of fantastic people.
40:52
Speaker 1: You know.
40:53
Speaker 3: I think it's it's cool to see the community growing
40:55
Speaker 3: over here. And we'd all kind of admit it's a
40:57
Speaker 3: West Coast centric industry at least when it started. And
41:02
Speaker 3: it's it's cool to see people adopting the same kind
41:05
Speaker 3: of stuff over here. And I'm sure just wonderful people.
41:08
Speaker 2: So what's next for you? Rob? What are you doing tomorrow?
41:11
Speaker 2: The next What are you got going on?
41:13
Speaker 4: I get to fortunately one of these Burder Expedition trialers
41:16
Speaker 4: and go with Chris from Expedition Portal try out on
41:20
Speaker 4: your GMC truck. Yeah, we'll knock our sales out and
41:24
Speaker 4: for a few days around here exploring some trials and
41:26
Speaker 4: places I've never been before.
41:27
Speaker 2: So looking forward to that sounds great.
41:30
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to going home and writing up some
41:32
Speaker 1: of my experiences and maybe going camping.
41:35
Speaker 2: I think camping camping.
41:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, looking forward to that. Well, thank you all for listening.
41:42
Speaker 1: We appreciate your time. We're having a lot of fun
41:44
Speaker 1: with us, and we will see you in the next episode.