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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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It started off as a coast-to-coast four-wheel-drive odyssey across Australia's top end. My brother and I were going to take most of February off and drive from Perth to Brisbane via sights such as the Hamersely Gorge, Ningalloo Reef, Kakadu and the gulf country.

Unfortunately in February the top end weather is "inclement". Average daily temperatures in the mid to high 40's, one hundred percent humidity, rainfall in the region of 300mm and widespread outbreaks of Crocodylus porosus eating all the tourists. Also most of the roads and National Parks are closed due to flooding, the beaches are swarming with box jellyfish and… all of sudden it didn't seem like such a good idea.

But we were still keen on the whole four-wheel-drive experience and wanted to give it a go. Examining the available maps showed that there was a fair chunk of uninhabited country in the 500km of coastline between Albany and Esperance in Western Australia's south-west. There was also the vast plain of the Nullarbor to the east of Esperance if we felt ambitious enough. We'd visited this coastline many times before so we knew that there are a fair number of spots that are inaccessible in an ordinary road going-car and so a 4WD seemed a good idea. Where to procure one though ?

We eventually tracked one down at a hire company in Albany which we could have for the princely sum of about $500/week. This seemed ideal but I was a bit puzzled when I asked the agent what kind of 4WD it was. "It's a dual-cab" he replied. "Fair enough, but what kind of dual-cab? Who makes it?" I asked. Hesitantly he ventured, "It's a Tata". "A what?!??". "A Tata, T-A-T-A" he sighed, obviously used to the reaction. I vowed to get back in touch and scurried off to do some research.

My brother eventually found the Tata web site and we determined that our trusty steed was to be a Tata Telcoline, designed ...