Yearsago back in the old country mum and dad used to take us kids on what we thought at the time were highly adventurous caravan holidays. These were usually in England or maybe Scotland and featured long (or so we thought at the time) road trips to camping sites.
There my father would choose a location that was best in his mind but always seemed to be in the direct line of smell from the communal toilets. We ribbed him incessantly about this while holding our noses theatrically.
The caravan was like a member of the family but sat on the driveway for most of the year though we occasionally slept in it when the weather wasn’t freezing.
Fast forward and my wife and I have emigrated to the land of milk and honey that we affectionately call the Land of Oz. We have tried to take advantage of everything that the country has offered us over the years, especially in terms of truly adventurous holidays (at least compared to Blighty!).
We and the kids have been avid campers and off-roaders in our utes and have experienced some great out of the way locations. We even called our daughter Jenny after Ms Agutter made famous by the 1971 film “Walkabout”.
But we never invested in a caravan despite my childhood experiences….until now, sort of!
I always felt that a caravan was harking back to the past and would not be suitable for the out of the way locations we had grown familiar with. That was when by chance I stumbled on camping trailers.
I was intrigued by the blurb that connected offroad adventures to owning a caravan – read camper trailer – suitable for hard to access locations. It suggested that we could access the toughest places where we could sleep in comfort with an easy to assemble set-up. A rig that was simple to transport virtually anywhere.
Camper trailers and hybrid-caravans are towed attachments suitable for utes that can access most any kind of terrain. They are packed full of off-road features and are suitable not just for trips into the outback but beach holidays or hill adventures.
It ticked all the boxes to rekindle the experiences of youth back in England – and some.
A feature that is brilliant is “air-beam” technology that is actually used by the US military. Forget tent poles, mallets and guy ropes; with a touch of the button these babies deploy in seconds fully inflating a camper’s canopy and annexe.
Now I’m more of an AI kind of guy rather than really intelligent so the people at the camper company were a great help. Their expertise in helping us decide what would be appropriate for our needs was exemplary and we are now the proud owners of a trailer that can sleep eight.
So the kids can invite their friends for the kind o trips that helped form our passion for the outdoors in England all those years ago.
In a modern and very Australian way conforming to all the local standards. Off-road, no problem!
