Luciana affectionately named the Prado “Little Monster”. During our 7000 Km trip around South Easter Australia, The Prado was our bedroom, kitchen, storage, workshop, power station, water supply and ultimately our best friend.

out of the 7000 Kms covered, approx 2500 kms was off-road, ranging from hard packed, grated roads through to driving on soft sand dunes, with tires down to 16 PSI and praying that we won’t get stuck.

Our Little Monster Toyota Prado was up to everything we asked of it and we could not have been happier.

I did a lot of research and upgraded the gear as per the description below. The only thing I wished I had done and will prob do before the next big trip is put an Old Man Emu 2″ lift kit on it, as at times, when fully loaded it would have been nice to have a bit of extra ground clearance.

Roof top tent
Having researched most options, we decided on an Autohome Columbus Variant which we managed to pick up on eBay for less than half retail price in as new condition. It’s been great and although we had a few small leaks in torrential conditions, it otherwise stood up to our expectations. It’s extra roof racks on top were particularly handy for my surfing & windsurfing gear, as we could leave it on at night.

Tires
I’ve been extremely happy with my BF Goodrich All terrain T/A tires, however to be fair I have nothing to compare them to as I got them factory fitted when I bought the car. I was also considering the cooper equivalents.

Roller Drawers
These roller drawers were invaluable. Great for storage, day to day access and organisation as well as the fridge slide. 100% happy. We went for the Outback brand simply because they could deliver them on time. The black widow roller drawers were our other choice.

Water tank
Home made jobbie – one of my other hobbies is sailing and on many old yachts, people are using plastic bladders to replace rotting water tanks. I bought a 100L Plastimo Flexible Fresh Water Tank and fitted a hose & tap to it. It gave us 100 litres of frsh drinking water and it fitted neatly behind the driver seat on the floor. They also come in 50, 150 & 200 litre sizes.

Fridge
Ebay was our friend here again – picking up a second hand 40 litre Engel with travel bag and a bunch of accessories for 50% of the cost of a new one. I cannot praise these fridges enough – they make no noise, produce no moisture, draw hardly any power (I’m told about 2 amps) and can be used as a fridge or freezer. I love my beer extra cold so had on a fairly high setting for a fridge the whole time and found that I could keep ice cubes in a plastic bag as long as they were touching the side for up to 48 hours – thus giving me access to my second love Rum & coke with lots of ice!!

Dual battery system
This Prado dual battery system proved to be a great investment. It was fitted by ARB in Artarmon and allowed us to run our fridge for up to 2.5 days without starting the car, as well as lights, 240V inverter for chargers & laptop

Other bits and pieces

Recovery Kit

Radio – GME TXE 3440

It dawned on me on Monday that this is the first time since 1997 when I was travelling around Africa for 4 months that I am unemployed, have next to no responsibilities, don’t own any businesses and am basically free to do what I want… FAAAAAARK!! seriously it’s a fairly scary feeling… but I’m getting over the anxiety pretty fast!

So, in the last 4 days I have skateboarded twice, ridden my mountain bike a couple of times, have squeezed in a surf, 2 social lunches, a breakfast with Brento and a dinner with Luciana’s friend’s last night and it’s only Thursday morning. I’ve also been ridiculously busy preparing for our trip!

The 4WD is looking more and more like a house every day. So far we have a dual battery system, a fridge, drawers, a UHF radio, table, chairs, cooking stuff, auxiliary lights and as I write this am waiting for the “Piece de resistance” – our Columbus Variant Auto Home Italian tent! A second hand purchase that should be arriving by truck this afternoon.

Off for a swim… will try and get some pics later!