Greaves On The Road

Last November, the decision was made—it was time for the Greaves family (Daniel, Hayley and 3 year old Kai) to take some time off for some serious adventuring.

Having (mis?)spent much of our younger years crossing Australia and the globe on various journeys, we've really changed gears since the arrival of Kai. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In the past few years we have enjoyed lots of short domestic holidays and had acquired a bigger 4x4 and a ‘fancy’ camping trailer to accommodate our new need for comfort, especially as we always seem to attract the rain.

Little did we realise how much hard work and planning would be required to launch our expedition.  We may have had the car and the camping trailer, but there was a whole lot of extra preparation required.  Some of this is outlined below...

We already owned a 2007 Nissan Pathfinder ST-L common rail turbo diesel.  Some of the following items we had already fitted or acquired, but most we had to review, track down, haggle and fit as part of our preparations:

  • Hayman-Reece electric brakes
  • electronic rust prevention
  • snatch strap and rated shackles
  • long handled shovel
  • axe
  • hi-lift jack
  • hi-lift jack kit (to use jack as a hand winch)
  • rooftop DVD player (for sanity on longer trips!!)
  • ARB steel bullbar (yes, we received the Nissan recall mid June)
  • IPF spotties (long and wide)
  • Safari snorkel
  • Milford cargo barrier
  • Rola roof basket
  • GME UHF radio
  • Old Man Emu nitro sports suspension (50mm lift)
  • 17" Pirelli scorpion ATR tyres
  • Waeco CF-50 two-way fridge freezer
  • Waeco Cool 36 battery pack
  • Iron man air compressor
  • Maxx Traxx
  • Extra spare tyre (no rim but we’ll keep trying as we go)
  • Spare parts (belts and fuses) and tools
  • comprehensive first aid kit
  • 2 x 20 litre water containers
  • 3 x 20 litre plastic jerry cans for diesel

We are towing a 2007 Jayco Eagle outback camping trailer that has duel water tanks, a gas/electric hot water system, external shower, deep cell battery, two 9kg gas bottles, an external gas BBQ and internal oven, plus a triple bike rack as extras. 

 

Gear we are carting with us includes an inflatable Zambezi double kayak, two surfboards (for the boys), snorkelling equipment, 21" flat screen TV, portable DVD player, lots of DVDs, Toshiba i5 laptop and two external hard drives (movies and music store)...and way too many toys!

Twelve months travelling Australia—we can't wait!

 
The plan is to travel anticlockwise from Queensland's Sunshine Coast. We don't have an exact plan and are prepared to detour as opportunities arise and as we learn from those we meet along the way.

Dan's spark is now extinguished, Hayley is on a combined long service leave and leave without pay arrangement and Kai has been sprung from day care. We have a tenant in our house for the next 12 months and we are so very lucky that nanna and pa don't have plans to do much under their house as we've pretty much taken up all the floor space.

I hope we haven’t exhausted you with the details so far! 

If you would like to follow our journey then ‘get in, sit down and ...’ (or just subscribe to our blog, it's free), as we are now ready to slam the doors, don our seatbelts and put the pedal to the metal!
 


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