one of the things that has always attracted me to australia was the fact that it is this gigantic place with ocean all around it and very few people thinly scattered around the fringe. he point is: of the broadly 24 million people living on this continent 8 million live in sydney & melbourne with 6 million more in brisbane, adelaide, hobart and perth. that’s more than half the country accounted for. in other parts, on the other hand, there are probably more roos than people. i love it.
we have explored a few ways to get around the place. during our first trip we rented a normal camper van but i found that pretty limiting. when we came back to travel western australia we went for a 4wd camper but that was not capable enough and almost we ended up stranded in a creek.
then we got ourselves a land rover discovery and a roof tent to go to kangaroo island. that was pretty good but the issue was that space was extremely limited and you had to pack up the campsite even if you just wanted to get some milk from the shop.
so i had my eyes on a kimberley kamper for a long time. what fascinated me about them was not only the fact that they are clearly built to go anywhere but also the focus on sustainability and self-sufficiency. we looked at them for a while (even went to shows which otherwise avoid) to check them but kris sensibly said that we needed to travel a lot to justify one. can’t argue with that.
except we also agreed that maybe we should set aside the reason why going away was not a good idea and instead start looking for reasons to explore. one thing led to another and last weekend we picked up a kimberley karavan in adelaide. that’s it right there in the picture above, waiting to be picked up by us.
the karavan is awesome. it folds up to a size no larger than a normal 4wd (at least if you own a discovery which is itself the size of a small garage). when you want to stop to set up camp you flip a few levers, push a few buttons, push the (queen size) bed out the back and there you have a pretty serious apartment with indoor kitchen (a diesel powered cooktop), fridge, sink, toilet and a huge table with 2 benches. did i mention the diesel hot water, the diesel space heater and the aircon? there are 220w worth of solar panels on the roof charging the 200 ah lithium batteries that should easily operate the fridge, the stereo and the led lighting.
outside is another kitchen area with a 2 burner gas stove and another sink. it can carry 210 liters of fresh water and 65 liters of waste water so you can really travel sustainably and leave only your tyremarks. and it’s got sufficient ground clearance to follow the 4wd wherever that can go.
and because it is so well adapted to desert living natalie gave it the name ‘thorny’, like the cute little australian desert dweller.
nat already knows all the ins & outs and can set up camp all by herself.
we can’t wait to take it out for a trip.