Planning a 4WD Camping Trip
A couple of weeks ago we made plans to take our four wheel drive vehicle into the countryside of Victoria for a camping trip.
We hadn't been camping for several years and so we decided that this was finally the time.
Planning for a trip like this is often as exciting as going on the trip itself.
Deciding where we would camp was easy.
We would leave from Sydney and head down to a small town on the coast not far from Lorne on the Great Ocean Road.
This had camping grounds right at the mouth of the river where it ran into the ocean.
As such we felt we could expect some great fishing - both of sea water species and fresh water species further up the river.
To get there we would attempt to travel as much as possible by dirt road to give our 4x4 a good run and to have some fun ourselves.
The trip would therefore take us out past Griffith and down through the Riverina to Melbourne and then on to Lorne.
Since it takes roughly 15 hours to travel there from Sydney on sealed two lane motorways, we were expecting a fairly epic trip.
Fitting out the 4x4 took a little bit of work.
The tyres were built for sealed roads, so we had to find some decent tyres that had aggressive tread that could handle any mud pools we came across.
We also wanted tyres where the tread lugs continued up onto the wall of the tyres so that they had protection in case we ended driving over boulders.
Next was the recovery gear.
Given that we were always driving on city roads there really wasn't any situation where we needed a winch to drag us out.
That could all change on this trip so we picked up an electric and manual winch along with all the necessary straps.
Our 4wd was already fitted with tested recovery points so that wasn't a problem.
Finally we had to get some diff breathers that raise the diff's air intake to a higher position in case we took the 4x4 through a river.
We were also looking forward to all of the great sights once we got down there.
That part of the Australian coast is absolutely magnificent as you drive along beautiful cliff faces down to the base of these cliffs to the ocean's edge.
We would also get to see amazing rock formations like the Twelve Apostles and the Loch Ard Gorge.
We couldn't wait.
We hadn't been camping for several years and so we decided that this was finally the time.
Planning for a trip like this is often as exciting as going on the trip itself.
Deciding where we would camp was easy.
We would leave from Sydney and head down to a small town on the coast not far from Lorne on the Great Ocean Road.
This had camping grounds right at the mouth of the river where it ran into the ocean.
As such we felt we could expect some great fishing - both of sea water species and fresh water species further up the river.
To get there we would attempt to travel as much as possible by dirt road to give our 4x4 a good run and to have some fun ourselves.
The trip would therefore take us out past Griffith and down through the Riverina to Melbourne and then on to Lorne.
Since it takes roughly 15 hours to travel there from Sydney on sealed two lane motorways, we were expecting a fairly epic trip.
Fitting out the 4x4 took a little bit of work.
The tyres were built for sealed roads, so we had to find some decent tyres that had aggressive tread that could handle any mud pools we came across.
We also wanted tyres where the tread lugs continued up onto the wall of the tyres so that they had protection in case we ended driving over boulders.
Next was the recovery gear.
Given that we were always driving on city roads there really wasn't any situation where we needed a winch to drag us out.
That could all change on this trip so we picked up an electric and manual winch along with all the necessary straps.
Our 4wd was already fitted with tested recovery points so that wasn't a problem.
Finally we had to get some diff breathers that raise the diff's air intake to a higher position in case we took the 4x4 through a river.
We were also looking forward to all of the great sights once we got down there.
That part of the Australian coast is absolutely magnificent as you drive along beautiful cliff faces down to the base of these cliffs to the ocean's edge.
We would also get to see amazing rock formations like the Twelve Apostles and the Loch Ard Gorge.
We couldn't wait.
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