KIWIS IN THE OUTBACK
bespoke Kiwi rooftop tent specialist Feldon Shelter has just signed up an Australian distributor. What better way to mark the occasion than a trip to the Outback?
How often can you say you’ve jumped on a plane, flown across the ditch, then been picked up in something that feels exactly like home? Well that’s exactly how we found ourselves feeling as a light brown chunk of metal glided into the Sydney airport pickup on a Friday. You see, it was the first time we’d laid eyes on the Land Rover that the team at the our new Australian distributor, Adventure Merchants had built for us. Of course that doesn’t mean it was the first time we’d actually seen it. Months of calls and messages had been exchanged, as we decided on the perfect shade of khaki, what wheel to use, what bolt-ons, what pretty much everything as a matter of fact. It was clear the Adventure Merchants were going all out, and together we painted the image of our dream rig to take on Australia... and why not right? We had reason to celebrate. The Sydney-based vehicle outfitters are the very first to offer New Zealand’s most popular rooftop tents to our neighbours across the ditch.
Two-up
Well here she was on the first day of the trip, sitting pretty with two of our Crow’s Nest tents up top patiently waiting for their turn to get lost… and that’s exactly what we did. What better way to break in a new build then pointing it directly west and not stopping for 10 or so hours. With the familiar sound of the 300Tdi buzzing in our ears, the truck quickly showed us it was more than up to the task. Like most Kiwis we had visited Australia many times, but the lure of the coast had always kept us hugging the perimeter of the land. This time we wanted to head straight to the middle. Our tents have been tried and proven by Aussies for years now, but this was the first time they would be available direct, so we wanted to do them proud by getting stuck into the Australia that many never experience... the Outback. We spent the early days of the trip hugging the Darling River as we clocked up the kms needed to reach the truly orange stuff. Outback rivers are definitely not like ours at home, they aren’t clear and picturesque, yet you quickly learn to love them. Yabbies ( a type of fresh water crayfish) are easily caught and camp spots are plentiful. Waking up next to a bend in the river morning after morning never lost it’s appeal.
Every nook & cranny
Proper maps are a godsend when scouring a route through the Outback and the Aussies have that well sorted. Hema Maps, the map system found on most decent GPS systems, are available as an app straight to your smartphone, for instance. These maps seriously have every nook and cranny set out. Barely used dusty dirt tracks leading to secret camp spots, treks to amazing ridge lines, you name it, if someone has set foot ( or in our case, tyre!) there, it’s likely to be on Hema. A handful of the treasures we stumbled upon wouldn’t have been discovered if it wasn’t for a keen navigator in the passenger seat scouring their topo maps. After a few solid stints behind the wheel we had well and truly broken our new Tdi300 in and finally made it to Silverton ( fun fact: the opening scene of Mad Max II was filmed here) and felt like we were well and truly reaching our goal. Which was a whole lotta’ nothing… but as long as that nothing was orange, we were all for it. Nothing but empty, flat, cracked and orange emptiness.
Do’s and don’ts
There’s two things people always tell you when driving the Outback, but the
importance doesn’t dwell on you until it’s too late. First, the roads are straight, long and unforgiving ( so making sure the truck is full to the brim with supplies, recovery gear and a few jerry cans because they could well be was a life saver). Secondly, don’t drive at night. This one is the most important. Back home, you’d be having a pretty bad night if you struggled to avoid a possum or rogue rabbit. In the Outback however, once the sun sets, it’s ‘roo country. It’s their road until the sun comes up, so there’s not much use trying to share it with them unless you prefer a snail’s pace journey dodging Kangaroos, to sleep. There are also a few things people don’t tell you. The most important: it gets cold! Yes, even the mighty Outback gets cold at night, and we were traveling in the heart of winter. That said, don’t let winter put you off, in fact we’d encourage it. The days are clear and crisp, the winds are light and without a fly or mosquito to be found, you couldn’t ask for a more peaceful environment to roam around in. Also, nothing quickly turns into something when you’re in the heart of the Outback. As the sun rises and you’re confronted with the same view in whichever direction you look, the symmetry forces you into its pace.
Simple pleasures
We spent days collecting what lit tle firewood was available, for example, and with nothing to distract us, keeping a fire going was enough of an activity to keep us going for a day. It’s an environment we had been wanting to get into for so long, but we all had no idea how much we’d enjoy the solitude once we got there. This journey to edge of the great orange heart of the continent had been the ideal start of Feldon Shelter’s ‘Official Australian Adventure’, and along the way plans for more of the same were hatched... I mean, it’s a big place. And, with our official launch come and gone, we can rest easy knowing that waiting for us across the ditch is the perfect rig and tents to take it on. Thanks for the warm welcome Australia, see you out there! Feldon Shelter rooftop tents are now available in store at Sydney’s Adventure Merchants and Australia-wide through adventuremerchants.com