After weeks of wet and windy weather we were keen to get out of the house, so as soon as the sun broke through we escaped for an overnight camp. We chose to check out Tiz Tam Fam, a private nature reserve that we found on Hipcamp, tucked in behind the D’Aguilar National Park in the Brisbane River Valley.
When you weigh things up…
There’s been a bit of press lately about the importance of vehicle and trailer weights, with authorities starting to enforce this important aspect of vehicle road worthiness.
While the TVAN is comparatively light compared to a caravan it has a relatively high hitch weight and with some big trips planned it was time to get the rig weighed.
How to take more toys – fitting a bike carrier to the TVAN and Cruiser
Taking a bicycle when overland touring adds another level of adventure, allowing you to explore new towns or have cross country mountain bike trail rides. So fitting the rig with a carrier to transport my mountain bike should add to the fun on some of our trips.
Tassie Road Trip – Part 3
Well we’re on the back end of our fabulous time exploring Tasmania, Suze’s home state and an island crammed full of spectacular scenery and sights.
Tassie Road Trip – Part 2
A highlight of our Tassie trip was a night spent on the Gordon River before exploring Cradle Mountain, the cute country towns of the state’s central north, then dropping onto the east coast.
Our Tassie Road Trip – Part 1
We’ve been trying to get back to Suzzanne’s home state of Tasmania for a few years now and something always got in the way, but at last we could lock in a travel window and headed south. I’ll break the trip into a few separate blogs so it doesn’t get too long winded, here’s the first leg.
This was supposed to be the boring part…
After a fantastic couple of weeks touring outback NSW, the Great Ocean Road and Victoria’s alpine national park we thought that the quick run home would be an anti-climax, the boring part of the trip. That was until we learned of the “rain bomb” about to explode over the Australian east coast!
Getting a High Country high!
The Victorian High Country sits near the top of most Australian off roaders list of places to visit. Few places in Australia offer such a substantial area of 4WD tracks, gorgeous camp sites and scenic outlooks as the Victorian section of the Australian alps.
Knowing that the area was so vast we elected to get a local to show us around, and few locals are better qualified to guide you through the high country than Ron and Trent Moon, so we joined a TVAN only Moon Tours tag along trip for a week that cherry picked the best of this superb area.
It truly is a Great Ocean Road!
Our road trip to the Victorian High Country continues, with next leg of the odyssey covering the spectacular Great Ocean Road (GOR) where waves of the Southern Ocean pound into towering cliffs along Victoria’s coastline.
50,000 years of history in Outback NSW
For a while now we’ve been planning a trip to the Victorian High Country, Australia’s alpine area steeped in modern legends of wild brumbies and mountain cattlemen. To get there we chose a a loop to pick up a few places on our to-do list, heading south west into the depths of outback NSW and finishing at Mungo National Park where some of the oldest remains of homo sapiens in Australia and the workd have been found.
A night at Bunya Mountains National Park
After months of COVID lockdowns and outbreaks, and the drudgery of ongoing cancer treatment, I was desperate to get out of town for some fresh air and green space.
We’ve also got a 3-week long trip planned soon, through outback NSW and eventually into the Victorian High Country, so we planned a mini shake-down to test a few of the tweaks we made to the Cruiser and TVAN fit out and packing.
With hot sticky weather forecast in South East Queensland we opted for an escape with a bit of altitude, and headed inland and up to Bunya Mountains National Park in the southern Burnett area of Queensland.
Weber Baby Q1000 – TVAN Installation
Since posting the TVAN Tweaks and Tips blog and a couple of YouTube videos showing the Weber BBQ installed in the TVAN I’ve had a few enquiries about how to make the Weber support brackets, to carry and use it in the right hand front storage box of the TVAN. This blog gives information on the material and dimensions of the fabrications.
A trip under the mulga – Thrushton National Park
I was particularly keen to visit Thrushton after stumbling across excerpts from a book “Under the mulga” written by Jim Gasteen, whose parents founded the original property and who grew up on the place until it was no longer viable. Its a fascinating read that describes pioneer life in a tough and unforgiving part of the country, and the brilliant detail set out by the author had me wanting to see it for myself to add life to his tales.
Its a Wrap – our TVAN wears the Southern Cross
Vanity is a terrible thing, but wanting to be unique is a virtue… whatever the reason I wanted to customise the TVAN so it better matched the Landcruiser and looked less like a big white esky being towed through the outback.
TVAN shake down trip to Sundown National Park
After tweaking and modifying the TVAN with some custom touches it was time to get it out for a trip to get acquainted with it’s many features and to test its capabilities before heading out on remote trips. Choosing a destination to test the TVAN was restricted by the latest wave of COVID19 lockdowns and need to stay reasonably close to home… Sundown National Park offered a great destination to really stretch its legs.
She’s here!! Our new Track TVAN Zenith has arrived
A few months ago we decided to sell the Patriot Campers X3 and upgrade to a Track TVAN – this left us without a camper trailer for a while which saw us camping win swags for a while. Traditional camping was a great change and helped us to simplify our camping kit, but we still looked forward to arrival of the new trailer and the benefit of some mod cons to make camping more sustainable.
The long trip home from Cape York
After spending a couple of days exploring the Northern Peninsular Area it was time to point our rigs southward and head for home. Our plan was to take the coastal run back to Brisbane and spend nights with friends and family along the way.
We conquer the Old Tele Track!
When adventurers head to Cape York there are usually two things on the agenda, to drive the Old Telegraph Track and to stand at the northern most point of the Australian continent – we managed to do both over the last few adrenaline filled days!
At last we’re on the road to be Cape Crusaders
The number of passing vehicles with a patina of red and orange mud down their sides told us we were on the Cape, albeit at the southern fringe of it. Today’s target is Bramwell Junction, start of the infamous Old Telegraph Track and planned meeting point to catch up with Lachie and Sarah.
WooHoo, Cape York here we come!
What great news, Brisbane managed to reel in the COVID outbreak and lock down ended at 4PM Sunday. That meant we could get on the road and catch up with Lachie and Sarah who were already in Far North Queensland waiting for us us. We decided to stay in motels for the run north, given that we had long driving days planned and there would be plenty of nights in the swags once we got closer to the Tip.