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It started off as a coast-to-coast four-wheel-drive odyssey across Australia's top end.

4WD Odyssey

Nickjenkins
2003-11-20 16:52:02

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and manufactured in India. We immediately christened it "the curry wagon". Now we had heard nothing good nor bad about the Indian automotive industry but venturing into the wilds with an unknown quantity for transport didn't seem that attractive. Still the stats for the Telcoline looked okay, a 2.0L turbo-charged diesel engine designed by Peugeot, leaf springs and a limited-slip differential, and the back country in India must be pretty rough and therefore the Telcoline should be fairly reliable. So putting our reservations aside we booked it for two weeks hence and preparations started in earnest.

We planned our trip around the possibility of at least a week away from civilisation in the wilds of the outback and in hindsight, this was probably overkill. In reality we were never more than about two days from a country outpost but our preparation served us well and on at least one occasion could have been critical.

The packing list went something like this :

- 3 x 20L jerry cans
- 3 x 25L water containers
- Two swags and a four man tent
- Food for up to 7 days including dried veggies, tinned soup, pasta and rice
- Two portable gas stoves and about 8 hours of gas
- Tools for the car including a spade, recovery gear,
- Torches, lanterns, a solar shower, and miscellaneous other personal items
- 3 packs of Twisties (cheese flavoured snacks) and a change of underwear

We also bought extensive maps of the area and worked out a rough plan pushing west from Albany towards Esperance. From there we'd work out whether or not we'd venture out along the empty coastline south of the Nullarbor or turn back towards Albany.

Thus prepared we headed off for Albany early on the Monday morning and arrived at about one in the afternoon to pick up the Telcoline. Transferring all our goods and chattels from Richard's ...