EP 39 - Their Stories Will Change How You Travel

From remote tracks to breathtaking campsites, they share the real stories, hard lessons, and honest tips that only come from life fully on the road. Whether you're planning your first big trip or already out there chasing the horizon, this one's for you. 

In this episode, we sit down with Daniel, Steve & Rolly who share their experiences of living off grid for long periods of time and doing it with an MDC caravan built for exactly these kinds of adventures. 

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Escape with Confidence

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Long-term travel and living the dream. Just do it. None of these people would have known each other if it hadn't been for the group. Fakes at home, we do not rough it.

SPEAKER_03 0:10

The man in the myth, the legend, Mr. Daniel Easton. There's a bit of responsibility making sure that the right advice is being given.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

G'day, mate. Nice to have you on. Thank you. Nice to be here, especially in such esteemed company.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

All right. There's a few people here, a couple of freshies. Oh yeah. They're not that fresh. They've been around for quite a while. We've got Rolly Heath sitting down the end of the table. Thank you for having me. On a recent podcast with us about uh, I guess making memories, not money. Yep. We'll talk about that probably a little bit uh later on today. And uh the man, the myth, the legend, Mr. Daniel Easton. Good afternoon. Would you the chairman of the uh MDC and Oz R V owners group? What are you yeah, been around a while. You'll take it. So look, Daniel Daniel is uh, I guess one of the administer administrator and and key organizer behind the MDC and Oz R V owners group and um been involved with it for a long time. And Rolly is a major contributor and a major player in the owners group as well. So thanks guys for coming on. The purpose of the podcast today is talking about long-term travel and living the dream. You guys have both done a lot of miles, Steve. You've done a lot of miles. Way too many miles. I've done a few, but nothing like you guys. So this is about real stories, yeah, real tips. How somebody who's just bought an MDC or somebody who's had one for a while could live the dream and then pack up and head off and get on the road. So we want to hear from you guys. Share your stories, share your your home truths, the the hard stuff, so people can get a good insight as to what it is that they need to think about when they head on the road. So, Daniel, you're a new Brisbaneite.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:12

A little bit of a move south. Yeah, you haven't had a bit of a life change, so that's cool. Um, and roller, you're from up the road a little bit, so thanks for coming down. Wayne's it's nice to have you here. We're gonna talk about it. I guess in a previous episode we did with MDF, we looked at how people are giving up kind of traditional housing and looking at more moving into caravans as a not necessarily a long-term solution, but a short-term solution on the on a path to maybe reassessing what they're gonna do with their life or where they're gonna live or whatever. We want to talk about how that can work and what you need to consider and how to make it a bit more sustainable. So, Steve, you've got a lot of product knowledge across the whole range of products and you've seen the evolution. And from Role's perspective, he's had almost every product we've had in the range, but certainly from fold-out camper trailer, you know, over 10, 15 years ago, to stepping into a gold-class caravan coming up for surely, yes. I know. So I'd like to get the insight, a little bit of an intro from each of you. Um, we do know a lot about you, Steve, but very high level. What's your background and in in the caravanning world?

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Um, started in the camping outdoors industry with Four Wheel Drive Super Centre, as a national sales manager, a lot of work with uh four wheel drive action at the time, doing DVD trips, etc. So that was more concentrated on the off-road stuff. I'd only ever done touring prior to that, so I learned how to nilly park them upside down doing that. And from a lot of a lot of trips and things like that, right? Oh, yeah. It was trips all over the place. It was really good. Yeah. And then uh went to Black Series for a while. Um, then did did all their trips around the country on the DVDs, etc. Um, then a stint with Easy Trail, uh, fair bit of travel with Rick O'Brien and the off-road adventure show as it was back then. And then finally back home to MDC, where I guess over the last 14 years, I've probably done about 200,000 kilometres of travel with caravans or four drive trips, etc.

SPEAKER_03 4:23

So pretty good cross-section of terrain and got a fair bit of experience towing and living in and out of vans. You do a lot of Cape York trips and stuff like that with owners' groups and yes, I did.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

It all started with a a motorcycle trip back in the 80s up to the Cape, but uh we've done quite a few tag-alongs around with customers to give them the confidence to to do trips, give them a bit of coaching on uh correct driving techniques, steep terrain, that sort of thing. Uh keeping in mind we're not driving instructors, so it's the fairly basic stuff.

SPEAKER_02 4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

But uh and we, you know, the trips we do for content, the big red bash, um, and the surrounding areas that we go in those trips is a huge cross-section as well. There's deserts and and all sorts of stuff. Uh mud, as we found, how much fun is mud when you've got just enough rain to turn it into an ice skating.

SPEAKER_03 5:20

You do you realise why you don't drive off a bitumen road if they're if you're out west? Well, that's right. You can get bogged on a flat bit of ground.

SPEAKER_01 5:26

Yeah, you aim to keep it between the ditches and and keep it all straight. And and it things like that are good because on that trip, Daniel pointed out to the rest of the convoy to get your Topro controllers out of auto and into manual because you hit the brakes and your wheels lock up, your car doesn't slow it slow at all, the inertia sensor in the brake controller is not going to get triggered. So, of course, your van doesn't break. Whereas in manual, you can control how much that van will break. And it could be the thing that stops you ending up in the ditch. Yeah. So they're good. And and I encourage people to do it. Go. If you've never done it, if you've never done extended travel or outback travel, do it with a group and learn from those around you.

SPEAKER_03 6:15

Well, here's a group. Daniel, tell us a bit about your travels and your experience. You did a trip recently with M recently, no, it was about a year and a half ago. Went up to Kakadoo, but tell us some of the travels you've had.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

I grew up camping as a family in the tent, uh, sort of at least twice a year, Christmas and uh Easter holidays, and 1770 was the normal.

SPEAKER_02 6:37

Yeah, nothing.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

Which uh back in those days is a little bit different to what it is now. But um, yeah, camp right on the beach, have a fire on the beach and uh fish and seafood straight off the trawlers. But um yeah, then I finished school and got into the working and uh sort of missed out on a lot of the camping I did because uh can't afford it. Busy working, yeah. Busy. Um and then sort of uh yeah, got back into the tent and um thought I'll we'll try something a little bit more luxurious like a soft floor camper, which uh that was my first MDC, which I actually bought off uh Vaughn at the canned show. Yeah, I think he just wanted to get rid of it. It was gonna cost him more to get it back to Brisbane than it was to uh me. So um I walked in at the right time and he gave me a price that was half of what the previous salesman had had given me, and uh said, yeah, I'll take it. But I had to work out how to pay for it because I didn't have a credit card. Yeah, right. Um and then yeah, sort of progressed through that. Got a little bit um chasing a little bit more luxury, I suppose. So we stepped into a an XT 10 or 12 is what they got rebranded with the um external dimensions instead of the internal.

SPEAKER_02 7:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

And we did everything with that. Uh we did uh Cape York, towed it through the teletrack, no Savannah Way, um Kimberley, uh Gip River, which I think uh Roley's uh looking at doing that. Um down through the Tanama, Central Australia.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Took multi-week long trips, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

Yeah, yeah, that was over about I'm just trying to think what it was. I think it was six or seven weeks. But that was one trip. That was one trip.

SPEAKER_03 8:18

Oh fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 8:19

But we ran out of time. Yeah. Um I like to say that we were gorged out by the time we got through uh the Kimberley, so we skipped enough gorges. Um yeah, we skipped Tunnel, Tunnel Creek, um Bell's Gorge, and a few of the other ones there. But uh no two ways of looking at that is I've left enough for me to go back and there you go, see it again.

SPEAKER_03 8:41

And you I mean, you also go to the big red bash, you're one of the biggest coordinators with the big coordinator for the paddock, the MDC paddock. And you're traveling from Cairns, so I don't think that should be ignored. What does that a typical trip from door to door look like for you a couple of weeks?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Um surprisingly, Cairns is closer to Birdsville than Brisbane is.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So uh it's about 1600 Ks. There's a diagonal road that that runs straight down through the Lind and down through the Diamantina to get to Birdsville, whereas Brisbane you're looking at, and I think it's about 1800 Ks. So until you sort of line it up on a map and look at it, but yeah, that's the way it works. But um no, the bash was something that started there, I think was it 2018? Um we were going, as Lydia and I. And I sent Vaughan and Steve a message and said, why don't you come and join me? Cool. So they did, and that's sort of where it was was born. Discussions around the campfire that um yeah progressed. I think MDC sponsored uh 2019, and then uh 2020 was a bit of a write-off, and then uh yeah, basically been that's when the owners group was born ultimately. Um it was around before then, but yeah, so the the owners group's been running for I think it's coming up 12 years now.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Uh through yeah, the MDC and Oz RV. It's had slight name changes here and there with the addition of the Oz RV, and and uh yeah, so we try and cater for everybody, get everybody involved, people learn, you guys with your musters, promote those, plus within ourselves, plus Roley's cooking. Um yeah, it's uh a group that everybody tends to get involved in and yeah, get out there and learn learn something and and gives people confidence that they can they can escape with.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

They can they can do it. So Roley, you came into obviously MD you've had MDCs sort of through a lot of your your trips and through a lot of your life now. When did you come into the owner's group and tell us a bit about some of the travels that you've done?

SPEAKER_04 10:41

Yeah, it was back just after we purchased our first MDC in 2013, and we joined the group or found the group on Facebook, come up and joined it, and we sort of we weren't really active, probably the first bit, and then when we started doing more trips, we thought, oh, we'll post what we've found, what what our knowledge is, um, and just answered questions people were putting out there and basic questions about where to go camp if you're here, or you know, I've got this camper trailer, I need to do this. This doesn't line up, and you can say, Well, we we set ours up every night of the year for 12 months, so we were pretty good at setting them up so we could help out this is how you do it. So that was your lap around Australia you're doing. And um then we actually followed Daniel's travels when he did that trip, I think it was 2016 that you did it. And um, it was just before we did our lap, and we're like, oh, that's pretty cool. We sh we need to like get to some of these places. So we actually learned a bit from him before we'd even met him, and then we did a few competitions on the owners group, which MDC supplied prizes for, and we won a set of max tracks, and I think we won a hundred dollar Woolies voucher at one stage, and then we met everyone at the Big Red Bash in 2019, and it was just like a family, it was like instant. Like, you can't explain it to people what the mateships you make out there because you just meet different people every year, and there's always somebody new that turns up. Like uh there was a couple that Daniel had met at one of the taglong groups that Steve ran at uh Grafton, I think it was. Said, hey, these guys are going up through McCoy. I think you should really get along. Said, Yep, no worries, send them our number, come around for dinner when you're in town. They camped at a carrying park near us for a couple of nights, turned up for dinner, we didn't even know them for a bar of soap. But we said we always joke about they could have been serial killers, but hit it off instantly, and that's because Daniel could see that them and us would get along, and they you know they fit in the family, it's just yeah, it's how it is.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

So you guys have all travelled a lot, right? What is it that keeps drawing you back?

SPEAKER_01 12:48

I think I think that dynamic changes. It's it you for me, it used to be travel to where I could go fishing, that sort of thing. But ever since being at MDC and traveling with these guys and the rest of the crew, that is my biggest driver now to travel is to travel with these guys and Vaughan and Anya and and the team. That is the big draw card for me now, more than anything else is proof for all of them. The social side of it. Yeah, the the mateship and the family feeling. That's what you just touched on as well, Rolly.

SPEAKER_04 13:24

And that's like you you said about Kakadu trip we did, and there was five MDCs on that trip. And as much of like the destination was absolutely spectacular, but the journeys getting there, you know, the fun, nice little one-night camps here on the road and little things that we got up to, or you know, memories from different bits and pieces. Like our son had his birthday at Gregory River. We camped there, we set up everyone, did their bid, made it special for him. You know, we did dinner, we did cake, set up fairy lights for him, sparklers, you know, and that's a memory he'll have, you know, for the rest of his life. Remember, remember my birthday party we had on Gregory River where Daniel held the camp that he had to be on this perfect spot, and Daniel got there. And kept that camp spot for us, and we got down on the water where he wanted it to be.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

And yeah, it was just pretty cool. What about for you, Daniel? I mean, that kakadoo trip was pretty special to you. I I think probably sharing that experience would have been Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

I mean, that's generally something I do with myself, and I mean it's shown in the video there that what it does mean to me, and and uh given that my father's ashes are there, that it is a pretty sacred spot to um it took me a bit to share it, but I thought, no, I've known these guys for years, um, and I it's something that I I wanted to share with them.

SPEAKER_03 14:38

Yeah, it's cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Um, you know, through the through the travels there, and I mean it's yeah, it it it took a little bit to to do it, but as I said, I trust these guys and we've known each other long enough to to be able to get in there and and and give each other support as well when it's needed.

SPEAKER_03 14:58

Another question, I guess, off the back of that for you is what motivates you to be so and continue every year with the with the owners group?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Getting new people out there, meeting new friends, uh catching up with old friends, um you know, just just trying to get people out there enjoying as much as they can and understanding. I guess understanding is the the biggest part of it. I mean it's we all see it. Someone will put a post online, uh, this this POS or whatever. Well, majority of the time it's because they don't actually understand it. And a simple little run through, whether it's in a campsite or wherever it may be, I could see oh, I could recognise that sometimes that's all it needed, and all of a sudden someone that hates it because they don't fully understand how to operate something uh all of a sudden loves it because now they know, and uh it just takes that one person to correct it. Which it could be me, it could be Rosie, it could be Steve, it could be Blink, it could be yourself. It's sharing experience, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:00

Yeah. So you've all done extended trips. Uh what is it that you really come to appreciate when you're out there? Like why do you do it? For me, extended trips, not necessarily as part of groups or things like that, but the travel itself.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

It's a compl complete reset without the white noise of life. Phones, traffic noise, neighbours' dogs barking, just anything that is just uh irritating white noise no longer exists out there. You you got yourself, maybe the wind. That's it. Waves crashing in the background. Yeah, nothing else to to think about, nothing to uh take away your train of thought and you think deeper about things in your life that are going on. Um yeah, a reset without interruption and white noise.

SPEAKER_03 16:52

Rolly, on a on the other podcast we had with you and Mandy, you you talk about that in terms of your mental health journey. Yeah. And similar to what Steve said, I think it's talked about removing the white noise of of life and kind of just being with your thoughts.

SPEAKER_04 17:06

Yeah, and I think you do the quick trips and you get a little sample of that, but when you do long term, it takes you a little bit of settling into it sometimes. So if you do an extended trip, you know, by the first week, you're you're settled, you know, and you can really appreciate and enjoy what you're doing. So it's it's when you're actually five, six weeks into the trip and you just you know, you're where you're supposed to be, and you can actually enjoy what you're what you're doing and seeing and where you are and appreciate for what it actually is, not because you saw it on a like a magazine or on YouTube or whatever it was.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

You're not driving past the the gorge and getting your photo, you're there for a different reason, yeah. Experiencing it rather than showcasing it.

SPEAKER_04 17:48

Take it in. And sometimes a lot of people that when they do come from like high traffic jobs and they take a while to settle. So like a three three night trip might not be enough to get them in that right space.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

It's a good question. What point does a a long trip become uh you know a way of life or a lifestyle rather than just a holiday?

SPEAKER_00 18:10

Yeah, I don't know. It's a um I mean I don't normally plan too much. I'll I'll have a period of time off. I'll say I'm going from here to here and then I'll get back to there. And whatever happens in between it is whatever happens in between it. Um, as Raleigh says, it takes a bit of time, and as Steve said, you know, house of serenity. You you get out there and you just you switch off. Sit by the fire, sit by the creek, sit by the ocean, whatever it may be, uh, wherever you're going. I mean, I've sort of gone away from the coast with a lot of my travelling now and and spend a lot inland in um sort of western Queensland, Central Australia. You spend a lot of time in the water for your day-to-day jobs. Well, that's it. You probably want the contrast. Absolutely nothing to do with um caravans or land. And uh yeah, if you if you hit it in a boat, then it's uh you're in the wrong spot.

SPEAKER_03 18:59

So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Uh it's um yeah, out there exploring the challenges as well that come with it. Um no matter how careful you are, something's gonna break. So that's how you deal with that and the challenges uh moving forward to to get back on the road. So, Rolly, you lived on the road with your kids.

SPEAKER_03 19:18

Did it become a lifestyle? Surely it became a lifestyle sort of over a 12-month period.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

It was we we sort of set off like it was a holiday, and we had to break that cycle to start with because you know, you're on holidays, or we can have a beer at lunchtime, and then like this isn't going very well.

SPEAKER_03 19:37

You're gonna burn through the cash pretty quick.

SPEAKER_04 19:38

So, you know, we set a few boundaries with that and different things, and it was this is our life. Um, but it did take a while to get into it. We got probably a month in and we had a big change how everything happened. We wanted to start off with a big event for the boys to get them excited, so we went to Uluru first and we were out there early February, so it was quite hot. The boys they they didn't deal with the heat that well, they were getting grumpy. Then we decided okay, we're gonna go to Mount Dare and go down the Unadatta in the middle of February. It's unheard of on the edge of the Simpson Desert. We did it. We followed the humid dots on the little map and got our way through some grass we we couldn't even see our way through. So we got there and we're at Unadatta at the campground there, and I just lost it. And I said to the boys, look, we're doing this every day for the next 12 months. We've got to get a system, it's gonna be the same every time. So, how about we just think about what comes next? And then after that moment, it just okay, this is our life. We know we pull up at camp. Jackson goes, does this, Drew does that, Lockie does that, Mandy does her jobs, I do my jobs, and we're set up in 15 minutes having a cold beer. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, you gotta look at it a bit differently to just going on a on a holiday.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Just pulling out, doing it.

SPEAKER_04 20:54

You gotta realise this is your your way of life for now.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

So how much planning goes involved involved with that from your point of view, Daniel? I guess travelling without kids, not as much, because there's probably not as big a well, you're not feeding multiple mouths, you're not having to carry extra gear, things like that. What goes through your head? How much planning goes involved?

SPEAKER_00 21:15

Beer.

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Yeah? Beer.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Fuel. Beer. Um, I mean, I've got a long-range tank, so I don't even worry about fuel. It's at the end of the day, I've got enough to pretty much cover thousands of kilometres without getting it, so that was one of the reasons I got the long-range tank. But um no, as I said previously, that um planning wise on spots along the way, not so much. It's just about their the destination and whatever happens in between. Food, which I normally way over cater for. Uh, but you know, grab a pub meal here and there, you rather rather have food if you need it though than uh than not. Uh water as well goes along with beer. Can't drink boy beer. All the time, apparently. Um can't drink water all the time, are they? No, and then um no, Lydia's needs obviously, uh, which she's pretty easy to cater for because she has one beer a day or something or other, that's about it. Um and yeah, when I've got to be back. Yeah, that's that's about it on my part.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

From your point of view, Steve, you'd especially the tag alongs, they'd be a bit of a different story, a bit more involved. But what does planning look like for you and your travels?

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Well, I don't travel with a spouse, haven't done for a very, very long time because she wasn't into it. Um, so next to none. Just live. Just browse through the garage. I'll probably need that, probably need that. Uh yeah, better throw some spanners and screwdrivers in. Um, do I have enough food? Yes. It's minimal, mate. If I'm only good contribution, it's minimal. Um, I'm more about uh my comfort, what I'm gonna take in the way of uh practical things like shoes, clothes, that sort of thing. Um a lot of my personal trips are spur of the moment. Yeah. So wake up on Friday, think I can go away tomorrow. So I've got that night. So I just yeah.

SPEAKER_03 23:22

But thinking long term, I guess you're looking at seasonality, right? Especially if you're covering a lot of ground, you want to factor in, as you guys were saying, driving down Unadatta track at the middle of February. Were they considerations that you put in place, or do you look back now and go, Oh, maybe we should have thought about the timing of where we were around the country?

SPEAKER_04 23:40

Yeah, we we we did put a bit of time into planning which way we wanted to go and how we were gonna do it. It just happened that we just had to do it then to make it work. Um, and there's places we definitely wanted to get to, like we worked out these are the things we want to see, so that's the way we're gonna go. We knew we'd have little bits of uncomfortable moments, but we're willing to to take that. Um, and we didn't find it too too distressing because we were still excited, you know, we were going somewhere, you know, that we hadn't been before. And we we had a a plan, but not a plan. We knew we knew this is where we had to go, but we didn't know what we're going to be faced with when we got there. So it was just whatever happened happened, basically.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

I see pe I see things online where people look at how they're travelling around the country and they'll sit there and say, in you know, in winter we want to be up the Cape, and then spring we want to be over it, yeah, over on the west coast or something, and then for well, after summer or winter, we want to make sure that we're coming back across the Nullabor, going west to east, right? And that's another one like Nullabor. Try not to go east-west if you can, because you're pushing a headwind the whole way.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

Yeah, so often that kind of planning is also access as well. If you go up to the Cape too early, um, the road's going to be maybe not there. Yeah. So yeah, access through the more remote ones are seasonal. Um, things like The Simpson, well, you just don't go there after September. And I think they actually close it though. They do close it, yeah. Yeah. So and then there's winter places that they close. Well, you can't go to the high country in winter, of course. There's very limited tracks. You can you can still drive around there, but limited areas. It's track uh preservation, that sort of thing, and human preservation, because uh not all humans are smart enough to keep themselves alive in the high country. That's true. So yeah, uh you do that sort of planning is mandatory. It's yeah, it's automatic. But if you're gonna go on a on a long trip, say you're traveling with a family, you've got to ask the question is to what degree of of planning and preparation you go to. So it's okay, we're gonna go away for a a year and we're gonna travel Australia, so we need clothes for all seasons. But where am I gonna put all that in a for in a 13 or 15 foot van? And that's when your planning starts to get down to the nth degree. We say, well, okay, let's get all the winter clothes we're not gonna need for the next six months, put them in vacuum bags, shrink them down, and then put them somewhere where they're out of the way. Or do you just say, Oh, we'll buy it when we get there?

SPEAKER_03 26:22

We'll go to Kmart when we get to the other side of the country in six months.

SPEAKER_01 26:25

That's right. Spend a couple hundred bucks and just buy a new jumper or yeah, yeah, exactly right. And if you're going to decide to go and live on the road, then there's the whole preparation in terms of how you're going to finance that, that sort of thing. So yeah, it's horses for courses on what degree of planning is going to be required. And my my longest trip was by motorbike. I spent over a year doing the country by motorbike, and I had two side pannier boxes and a top box, not much room. So the priority was how I was going to cook it, where I was going to put my swag, and you know, just the basic needs in clothes and all the rest of it. Now we go to a caravan. I think people tend to overpack as well. So they don't plan on minimising.

SPEAKER_03 27:19

I think if you've got the space, you use it.

SPEAKER_01 27:21

Right? And if you don't have the space, you can't use it. So you you opt in and you opt out, I feel like. Yes and no, but like we we've all travelled uh trips. So if we planned a a trip, an extended trip and we're gonna go across the Simpson, you would only take one land anchor and you would put it in the leaked vehicle. Correct. And doing that will save you days across 1500 sand junes because the first one can plan that in. So that kind of planning, particularly for recovery equipment, repairs, spare parts, and everything like that, is super essential and should be planned well ahead of the trip and get it all together, make sure you know where it's all packed and get that done before you go. Yeah. So yeah, the level of planning is on a scale.

SPEAKER_03 28:12

It's on a scale relative to the time you're away.

SPEAKER_01 28:14

And where you're going, yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

Are there some simple day-to-day routines that you find you're doing on those long trips? Or the things that you grow to love, or things that you start to really grind your gears? You've got to get into some sort of a routine.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

So you can't drink a beer every day at lunch? Yeah. No, or breakfast. But uh no, cleaning up mess, rubbish, um checking over vehicles, maintenance. Um you've got to put some time aside to keep things running and keep things clean, basically. Um yeah, so it's why is that important? I thought I should end up living in a pigsty and rolling around in mud and have breakdowns. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you get stuck in the middle of nowhere and nowhere.

SPEAKER_03 29:07

A small a small squeak turns into a big problem.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

You do everything correct, and you still lose the back wheel off your land cruiser.

SPEAKER_03 29:14

I don't know. Lucky you got the owner's group that you can just jump on and well Rolly and Steve to the rescue.

SPEAKER_00 29:19

Those two guys are the ones that brought the parts in for me.

SPEAKER_03 29:22

That's right. Yeah. That's interesting. Rolly, for you, day-to-day routines was something with the kids that you guys noticed. It sounded like when you pull up at camp, the whole setup thing was.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

Yeah, it was very we've got a actual video and it's funny to watch because it's just we put it in fast speed, like forward motion, and it's just really crazy. But everyone just had their routine, everyone knew what to do, and it just made it so much easier. So you'd set up and you can actually enjoy where you are then. And then in the mornings the boys knew, okay, we've got to roll our swags because it's a move day, or we've got to pack our clothes back into our boxes because it's a move day, or we don't have to go anywhere, so I can just get up and run down the beach and go fishing, or do whatever. And mum and dad are going to get out of bed a bit later and put the coffee on, and they they'd know so once they got into their routine, it made our life easier, but then we could follow our routine as well because we weren't stopping to to hurry them along or do what we had to do with them.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Yeah, absolutely. Daniel, from a day-to-day point of view, you've got a you've got a 19, right? You came out of a 12. Was it out of the 12 into the 19 or just 17 in between? A 17 in between. So and a swag. Yeah, okay. Actually, got five FDCs. They have a lot of storage, right? The 19, especially for two of you that has a stack of storage, but I guess it's very different to having a house lot, right? You've sort of downsized a little bit to come down to Brisbane in that respect. How's that kind of changed the way you pack or live out of the van to some extent?

SPEAKER_00 30:51

Um, I mean, the difference here is well, is I was working out of it, so I stay in the van when I'm working. And then it's also a holiday. Plus, we sold our house up there. We didn't have a house to go to, so we had to pick and choose what we could put in the van. I did have the argument with Lydia there because she wanted to bring every single item of clothing with her, and I said, No, it's not like you're never getting the stuff back that's going in the removal truck. She said, Oh, but I might want to wear it next week or in a month or whenever it was that we found a house. But um, no, I just sort of found that it gives you uh you gotta prioritize.

SPEAKER_03 31:29

Um, and uh do you feel like you can get away with less? Yeah, yeah. I'm probably probably asking the wrong audience.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

I'm sitting here with four guys are sitting here saying, Can you get away with less clothes and things? We found like we wore the same clothes because they're on top. I find that when you go camping away too, you just go, Oh, I don't need and we found fresh teeth and we you know like got rid of it at op shops or posted at home that we didn't need, and then you go, Yeah, we didn't really need you know seven pairs of clothes each. We only need three.

SPEAKER_03 31:58

Yeah. By the time you've worn them a couple of times, then you chuck them in the wash, and you can wash them in the mark three, there you go.

SPEAKER_00 32:04

Yeah, stick it to the washing machine. 19's got a washing machine, I use it regularly. I think I only get three workshirts and I've got to work 21 days straight. So every uh basically every two days I'm doing washing.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Do you find that living out of the van and having less uh I guess clutter or less to choose from reduces the stress on a daily basis? Probably a good question for you. Living off panniers on a motorbike. Like you don't seem that stressed anyway.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

I I rarely stress. But no, it's it was a ho a working holiday. Um was more worried about not worrying about stuff. Um keeping it simple, you're always riding in in your your protective gear anyway. So you're just living on t-shirts and shorts. And if it rains, you just put your wet weather gear on. And if you end up which we did, we ended up with some longer stays in in areas. Uh we spent four months in um in North Queensland. Okay, we'll go buy what we need for a longer stay. Yeah. But it's pretty easy. I well, I I take a fairly small kit with me when I go trailing. It's probably a couple of pairs of shorts, pair of jeans, some shirts, and every pair of undies I own. Sounds good. It's simple.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

You're three pairs of undies, haven't you? Rolly, did did Mandy do the whole Mari Kondo simplify your life before you jumped in and took off on the road?

SPEAKER_04 33:37

Or not really. We just worked out what space we had and what we could pack into it.

SPEAKER_03 33:42

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 33:42

And we did a trial run of packing before we went, and then we decided okay, we've got to halve this, and then we got to a point where okay, we can fit all this in, and that's what we needed. Like we just had their clothes, whatever cooking gear we needed, and like we're lucky we cook on the fire all the time, so we just made it that bit simpler. We just had one gas burner in case we couldn't have a fire, and that was it. Yeah, but yeah, just keep it simple.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

What about managing power and water? Did you find that I'll stay with you, Rolly? Water consumption, power is sort of one thing, but kids and water, um, was that a consideration, or did you find that it wasn't too bad?

SPEAKER_04 34:22

It we had to consider it at times because we were off grid for long periods away from fresh water, and also there's a lot of places you go to that freshwater wasn't easily accessible. Uh, but most times we knew, okay, this is where the water point is. WikiCamp's good for that. Find the way the water point is when we could fill up with water, we'd fill up to our maximum level. And then we conserve. So if we're on a beach, you know, we we'd sort of swim one day, shower the next day, water, what we had to do there. Washing, we tried to limit to caravan park stays, or if we're somewhere with water, we could access easy, we'd do that. Creeks, I had a pump system set up that we could just siphon out of a creek um with a with a filter on it to use for showers and and things like that. We wouldn't use it for drinking.

SPEAKER_03 35:10

So, from a tactical point of view, would you set up one tank to be a drinking tank and one?

SPEAKER_04 35:15

Yeah, we had to be separate drinking ducts with drinking water, and the others are just whatever you can get into it basically. That's cool. So, and everyone knew the rule, and you don't drink from that, and that's yeah, it worked well.

SPEAKER_03 35:27

Well, you said you do a lot of off-grid camping, Daniel. You look like a big caravan park user. Is it the same for you? Are you mainly off-grid camping? Do you pretty much yeah?

SPEAKER_00 35:39

I don't like going to caravan park unless it's absolutely necessary. I mean, sometimes it is, don't whether it's to charge up your batteries after you've had some bad weather or top up with water or just to have a a long shower in their in their showers. And uh um, but majority of the time off-grid. Yeah, it's fine and water-wise, I mean you learn to manage it. We all want more, but we take our own drinking water in bottles.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Once you've run out once, you then reflect quickly, don't you? You go, hold on, I was here for two or three days and I've just run out, and what happened? And you then adjust very quickly, I think.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Yeah, yes. I think um majority of the time, well, Central Australia, all the towns have got potable water that you can put in pretty much. Um and then after was it Monday Monday? So we did the Flinders uh Monday Monday and that and I found it very difficult to find water in those areas. I mean, I guess they're drier areas and they do actually charge you for it. But um that was one. I'm just trying to think where we ended up going. That was one of the times where I actually went into a caravan park and paid because I could fill up with water because I could not find anywhere else to get water.

SPEAKER_03 36:49

So where are you finding these resources and and points? You're using Wiki Camps, you're using other are there other apps online?

SPEAKER_00 36:57

I don't, but I normally travel with people that do.

SPEAKER_04 37:00

Yeah, well we use Wiki, Wiki and HEMA. Yeah, they're they're our two main two go-to. Um and then we've just word of mouth, the owners group. Yeah, we're going here. Does anyone know where if there's potable water in this town or wherever?

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Somebody might say, Oh, stay at the show grounds if you need something or stay here or there.

SPEAKER_04 37:17

Things like that. So, but yeah, wiki's a good one and like definitely HEMA. I wouldn't it I'd recommend anyone if you go on anywhere, you download it on your phone at least as a minimum, and have the book as a backup.

SPEAKER_03 37:29

Yeah, Daniel, uh you sort of mentioned about working out of your van, and Steve, you've said the same from a motorbike perspective. How how realistic is it to stay connected while traveling? It's easy. Yeah, it starling now.

SPEAKER_01 37:42

Now it's easy.

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Yeah, I know, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:45

When you were on carrier pigeon when you were doing your work. There wasn't even really there wasn't even mobile mobile phones back then.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

If you wanted to ring someone, you had to find a phone box.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:55

That's amazing. We go back to 2018, Big Red Bash falling trying to run a business. He struggled to be away. 2019, I think he stayed there for pretty much all the time, but he was going into town and doing business and then coming back to the event. Uh 2021, from then on, it's always arrive as late as possible and leave a day early because he always had business. Had to be back. And I said to him when once Starlink came out, so get yourself Starlink, it will change what you do. Absolutely. And you look at him now.

SPEAKER_03 38:29

That's right. I know, and look, Starlink is so accessible now and it does provide such amazing coverage. I think having that connection does really change the game. The factor to consider there is the power consumption, because they're not a they're a power hungry little unit. Um not crazy, but it is a it it does put demands on you know a lower spec battery or power system. So I think it's important to factor in what you do have.

SPEAKER_01 38:55

The cape was funny because Vaughan had the Starlink in his car, so Shane's trying to stay as close as to him as possible so they could get calls from the States and also the kids' tablets and that had internet. So we're driving up the highway at 100 kilometres an hour with caravans with starlink trying to stay close enough to Vaughan's car. And so kids can watch Netflix, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:18

Unbelievable. It's uh no, it's a game changer and it's um I still carry a sat phone. But a sat phone I can make a triple O call for free. Yeah. And I can grab it there and then and go. Whereas a Starlink you've got to set up. Set it up, and if it's emergency, it takes if it's non-urgent, yeah, and you've got time to set it up, or you've already got it set up, then you can do whatever you want.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

I think that's an important thing to consider, right? If somebody is making a choice on a do I need a what do I need to travel a country? It there will be places where a sat phone or something like that would be useful, or a Zolio or things like that, which are an e-perb or a GME e-perb, for example. Having the Starlink is you don't want to be in an urgent situation with Starlink. No, so I think that's just a point of difference to to consider if people are looking for it. That's from a work perspective, uh Rolly. From the kids' perspective, is it um do you are your kids big on devices? Did you find that they were hungry for it? I mean, this is you were pre-Starlink, though.

SPEAKER_04 40:19

Yeah, we were pre-Starlink. Um, they were a bit like they all had iPads, which we used to help with their work, and but also at the same time, they were taking their photos of places we went to and things like that. At the time, none of them were really you know into devices so much, um, or gaming or anything like that. They one, the eldest boy used to read a lot, read books, but they were more happy to look out the window and see what actually was going on in the real world. I think now with Starlink, it'd be a lot easier from a schooling side, it'd be definitely easier because you got that access straight away. You don't have to. One of the main reasons we went with homeschooling is because we didn't have to be in specific specific places at times to pick up the class school works and stuff like that. So now you could do that anywhere. Um, it'd make it a lot lot easier for sure. Yep. But um, yeah, it's it is a big, big change. Like we run our own business and it helps with us traveling because Mandy can do all that while we're driving. And we get to camp, she doesn't have to spend two hours on the computer. Yeah, good. Um, we can actually get straight into enjoying it. Yeah, rather than when we get to camp, we know all right Jinx, we've got to do this bit of work, we'll check the emails or stay in contact.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

Do you guys both have Starlink now? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I want one. I've just got to come up with a I've got to pay for it. That's all. Starlink aren't sponsoring me, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

I'm waiting for Elon to bring out a phone that is Starlink compatible.

SPEAKER_00 41:47

Yeah, I don't think they're far away from what I've heard. Prices have dropped substantially, so you can get 100 gig now for 80 bucks. Yeah, wow. And you can use that while you're moving. Yeah, that's fantastic. They don't have the pores anymore, um, but they've got a standby, so $8.50 a month, I think it is for um it's it's slow. Yeah, okay. But you can still do messages. Yeah, okay. Yeah, nice. Well that's handy. And then if you are smart about it, and you do it on say Rome, um the lower one, and you run out of data, and then you switch it to the unlimited, you only pay pro rata.

SPEAKER_03 42:26

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_00 42:27

So if if half the month's gone, you only pay half of the half at the end. Yeah, okay, right. So you're not paying for $200.

SPEAKER_03 42:35

Yeah, good. Clever. So there you go, hot tip. Yeah, I like it. The vans, I guess, Steve, now you travel a lot in the Fort 9, but think about some of the bigger vans, they're probably a lot more comfortable than what they were back in the day.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Oh, everything's more comfortable. Every every year it gets even more comfortable, better thought out. Um I think even our smallest uh trailers, I fit full length in them. So the the 10 and the 9, you sleep east-west and I fit on 6'3. Um but yeah, the comfort's great. For me, it's somewhere warm and dry to sleep, somewhere to store my clothes, and that's it. I don't need luxury, um, especially on the work trips. I'm I'm there for work, I'm not there to uh to sleep. So that makes it simple. Uh uh yeah, for me it's easy, but I do enjoy the luxury of a bigger van, a bit more space, being able to sit at a dinette is is nice. Proper table if I do have to get the laptop out and do some stuff. That that comfort is appreciated. But you can do it successfully with a smaller van. If I was traveling as a couple, yeah, it'd probably be a 90. Um that way you've got space and you're not on top of each other. And and that's something I recommend to people that are buying their first caravan, especially if they've got a family and might be tossing up between a a big camper or a caravan, I tell 'em, bring the family in, tell a salesperson to go away, and then go and sit in it for an hour and think, could I do this for three days in wet weather and not kill my kids or my my other half? I've done that in Tassie, yeah. Yeah. And just work it out. And then when you get the fit that feels like, yeah, you could deal with it for two or three days.

SPEAKER_03 44:38

Daniel, is there anything you can't do in a caravan that you would do at home or in an office, you know, working in the 19?

SPEAKER_00 44:45

You don't have to mow the grass. That's sort of the other way around. Just leave. You don't mull it anyway. You're gonna robot mulling. True. Yeah. I got the vacuum and the mop now, too. Yeah. They go really well together.

SPEAKER_03 44:57

So nothing you couldn't do? No. Rolly, what's your experience?

SPEAKER_04 45:01

No, there's you you just gotta you might have to adapt a few things, but you pretty much can live the same way.

SPEAKER_03 45:07

You've got the 15E, the Mark III. Is there from a space and and you know, comfort with just yourself and Mandy?

SPEAKER_04 45:14

Uh like we did six weeks last year in it when we went to Mundy Mundy down through Streslecky in the Flinders, and yeah, there was no moment where even in bad weather, it was like, you know, we need this, we need that. It's just perfect. You've got the the front um lounge, you can just sit in there, do your bookwork or whatever you have to do. Yeah, that's a big club land. Yeah, if it's if it's um bad weather, you can sit in there, you can still eat your meals. You've got the we don't have the stove top in ours, we've got induction cooktop. Uh you can cook inside if you have to, your microwave if you need to.

SPEAKER_03 45:45

Ensuite, all that type of stuff. Hot water, yeah. Everything's there, and it's plenty of storage space. So looking at cooking, cooking on the road. So you don't have to eat takeout every night. You're a bit of a guru on the uh the camp oven cooking there rolly. How do you approach cooking on a day-to-day?

SPEAKER_04 46:04

It's just as normal. Whatever you cook at home, you can cook out on the road. Like it's you've got caravans with ovens in them, stove tops, microwaves, I said, air fryers if you want to run them off the power systems, they're capable. But I'd go back to basics cooking on the fire. I love it. But there's nothing I can't cook at home that I can't cook in a camp oven while we're out on the road. It's just you don't have to eat the you know, when I was a kid, I grew up camping eating sausage on bread. Yeah, you know, we'd go to Fraser for three weeks and you'd eat sausage on bread for three weeks or baked beans or spaghetti. So, you know, you don't have to do that anymore. You can cook whatever you want.

SPEAKER_03 46:43

Yeah, you you can even make a pavlova, mate.

SPEAKER_04 46:45

Yeah, so take a pavlova, three-tiered chocolate cakes for birthday parties out of the desert.

SPEAKER_03 46:51

Unbelievable. What do you eat, mate? Subwhat?

SPEAKER_01 46:54

When I'm out on the road.

SPEAKER_03 46:55

No, yeah, what's your what's your specialty dish?

SPEAKER_01 46:58

Oh, if I'm if I'm cooking, I'll generally make one of my things like a chorizio and uh chicken Italian dish. Yep uh tomato base with some cream or chicken. Because I get harassed to do that. Um if olive's there, it's a must. So any limit you cook that on stovetop type thing? Yeah, generally. Um, but late lately I've probably death by tomahawk. Yeah, okay. Because Vaughan does most of the cooking in the smoker. It just seems every time I look up, he's handing me some tomahawks.

SPEAKER_03 47:35

Well, when we went to when we went to Morton Island, Wayne brought his portable 12-volt smoker and plugged that into the 19 that they were towing around, and that's on the Morton Island episode, and you literally smoke meats all day for eight hours.

SPEAKER_01 47:46

Folks at home, we do not rough it. We take nice caravans and we use every system available to eat well, portable smokers, air fryers, you name it. We are not roughing it. So if you want to see how to live a glorious life on the road, come on one of our trips. Yeah, there's certainly nothing you can't do.

SPEAKER_00 48:07

Are you a bit of a chef, Daniel? Do you a bit of a cook or what's your I do a little bit of it? Uh recently a lot of my travels have been me, myself, and I uh with a group.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

But um so we could ask the studio audience if you can cook or not. Yeah, we need some honest feedback.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

Yeah, there's a there's a nodding of the head. Yeah, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 48:29

I like travelling with Roley because Roley's always got a fire going and a grill and something already set up. So for one person cooking a steak, you burn a bag of wood and it's it's a lot of hard work. Whereas if it's already set up, it's great.

SPEAKER_04 48:42

And that goes back to you saying about your travelling with pairs or sharing what you're taking, because we're doing a six-week trip now and we've been talking about okay, what are you bringing? What and everyone's bringing their bits. I'm bringing my fire pit, so you don't need a fire pit. I'm bringing three camp ovens, so you don't need any camp ovens. Yeah, like so you you do that, and we often do we'll we'll travel together. Fire's going, okay. I'm gonna cook this night. What about do you want that? Like Kakadoo first night. We did a big run from Catherine to get into camp, and I've got um coral trout, Phyllis throwing in the sink in the van on the way, and I'm like, everyone's gonna be tired, we're gonna get there, get on the two-way. Hey guys, we've got heaps of coral trout there. How about we just do a coral trout and I'll do some chips while we're when we get set up at camp? And everyone did their bit, they got the fire going, the girls made salads, we cooked the fish, and everyone can sit down and have a good meal. And you know, you can do that rather than okay, five different groups cooking their own meals and setting their own little setups up.

SPEAKER_03 49:42

That's been my experience too. So travelling with groups is that if you have a bit of foresight, and depending how often you're going, how long you're going away for, but just put a meal plan in place, especially if it's a week away, something like that, and there's three or four of you, or more four or five. If you work out one of you's going to do different every different dinner every night, you might end up cooking once or twice in a week, which is perfect, because the other person will pick it up the next night.

SPEAKER_01 50:06

I've gone on trips where I've very carefully shopped, got everything I need, and every time we've pulled up, someone has placed food in my hands. And I've gone home with a full fridge. Full fridge, yeah. Literally full fridge. All I've done is gone through the floor. We're talking about sharing the load, mate. Not just not just but I'm prepared, I'm ready to tip in.

SPEAKER_00 50:26

That was me on the Cape York run there that uh everyone said, No, bring this, bring this, bring this. I've brought all this food, and then every night, oh I'm doing steaks tonight, we're doing this tonight, we're doing that tonight. I'm left there with a fridge full of food going, well. I cooked once on that trip. The cooking contest.

SPEAKER_01 50:40

Yeah, that was the cooking comment contest.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

You guys have all connected through the MDC and Oz RV owners group. How important is that community? I think we touched on it earlier where you talked about Daniel had a mechanical issue and you guys supplied the parts and things like that. Um, and Steve, you kind of talked about educating people that might be new to caravanning or showing them what's capable. It's what are some of the other things that I guess stand out that you see amongst the owners, Daniel? Lifelong friends.

SPEAKER_00 51:10

None of these people would have known each other if it hadn't been for the group. That yeah, probably that first bash where uh a lot of people came and connected, and then it's just been growing from there and there and spreading. Uh now with the musters and everything else that's been going on, that um yeah, friends lists are just getting longer and longer and longer.

SPEAKER_03 51:31

Steve, uh, what does it mean, I guess, from the business perspective, to have the community where people are actually that there's a real customer base and you sort of sit on the outside just watching it. It's not run by us, it's run by Daniel and independent owners, right? But what do we get out of that from a from a business?

SPEAKER_01 51:50

Education is important. Um, one of the important one of the things that I discovered when I first uh came back to MDC was how many people were having having issues with the product through because they simply didn't know how to do things, how to how to do it properly. Um there was in some inherent problems with product styles like soft floor trailers are a nightmare, no matter how well built they are. They are cumbersome and can be difficult to put up if you're a beginner, or even more so. So people were breaking stuff, not understanding why it was getting broken. And that's why we did a lot of the content that we did to instruct people. But the owners group is a very fast um way of getting information, and uh the knowledge base within Daniel's group is absolutely enormous. There would be there would probably not be a single model MDC ever built that someone in that group doesn't have experience with. Yeah, so from that that perspective, it it makes the uh owner experience easier. And you know, people see that community, they join these groups to do their research about the product, and then all of a sudden they're discovering a community, a lifestyle, and uh they're thinking, well, I really want to be a part of this. This is this is quite special. And people will actually make their buying decision based on that. Fortunately, they're getting a good product, but um yeah, it does. It it increases revenue, the community is great, it gives people confidence to come and ask us questions as well. Uh gives people ideas, and uh in terms of product development, there is so much on the product now that's come from the people in that group. Yeah, simple as that. We cover like Banksy and the rest of it. The the feedback is is real, and yeah, you get people like these guys who have absolutely beat the snot out of the product in some of the toughest places in the country, they know what works and what doesn't. So product development is probably the greatest beneficiary of the owner's group for sure.

SPEAKER_03 54:22

Daniel, how much time do you spend in the owner's group? Sort of not moderating as such, but I guess there's a bit of responsibility making sure that the right stories are that the right advice is being given.

SPEAKER_00 54:35

Yeah, it was a responsibility there and make sure that accurate um just say advice being given is accurate. So uh while I'll flick through, I mean we go back to 2017 to 2018. The group was a totally different group back then. And the while west back in those days online was a totally different. So um, yeah, things have calmed down a a bit now. Uh people know the product, trust the product, understand the product. Um and 90% of the answers that are coming out through people through the uh MDC and Osave owners group are on the money.

SPEAKER_03 55:15

Yeah, so it can it can be a it it can be treated as a reliable source of information, not just a forum where somebody's going, oh well I did this and it worked. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:23

It can and and it spreads, it spreads beyond the the owners group as well. I've often seen people ask the question or stayed in in some of the generic camping caravan groups. Oh, I'm thinking about buying uh a hybrid caravan, I'm looking at this, this, this, and this. And we all know what the haters are like on those things. You've got the the anti-import types and everyone having a go. But you see, so many people from the MDC and Os RV owners groups appear on these threads and say, I own, and my experience has been ABCD, I highly recommend. And we used to see it occasionally, it's actually sometimes it now it takes over. The the the narrative or the bulk of the replies are from MDC owners that are part of the group Daniel admin. So there's that effect as well. So it it has tentacles, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:27

So it then reduces my time required. I don't I don't need to spend as much time, but I've still got to keep a tab on things, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

So look, it's a pretty dynamic network, and there are all walks of life on there. Like we see a tag along tours and the the weekends away, you see people you know from this walk of life and from that. Like it's it's really impressive the diversity we have, which leads me to how we're going to watch pig races for Mother's Day at the Merrivale Hotel.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

How did that come about? Well, it was Link's idea, I believe. I think Link felt he wanted to organise an event and he wanted to go. And um Link being Link Banksy had to get involved.

SPEAKER_03 57:06

Yep, and um yeah, invites went out and it's turned into quite a it was gotta be a little cruisy weekend away with Banksy's, I think I don't know if it was running as part of beach. It's just Ben Hur now. It is. We've got something like 30 fans going away.

SPEAKER_04 57:21

I'm just tagging along. Like we were coming down to pick up the gold class and Banksy said about it, and I thought, well, we're down there, we may as well join on join in on the event and may as well go to the Sandy Creek pig races, I think, for Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_03 57:34

Are you going to see?

SPEAKER_01 57:36

Yeah. Yeah, I won't be caravanning. I've I've got a I've got to head down to um New South Wales on Monday, so I don't want to be mucking around. I can't I've got nowhere to park a caravan in my current accommodation, so I don't muck around that, so I'm gonna swag it. Well, guess who else thought that was a good idea? Oliver. Oh, right. Oli Oliver will also be swagging on this trip. Yeah, wow. And yeah, so that'll be fun.

SPEAKER_03 58:01

Full a full house. So if people are interested in going to these types of events, how do they find out about it through the owner's group and stuff like that? Do you create events that people can jump onto and register? Do they have to do anything as part of that?

SPEAKER_00 58:14

Or uh generally, yeah. There's an events tab up the top. So if you've got your banner, I think you scroll down underneath it. You may have to scroll uh to the left, whichever way it is, and you'll see anything. They're all published on there. Yeah, so generally that'll go and all the information required is is through that.

SPEAKER_03 58:32

Are they free events from the owner's group's perspective? It's a mix. Depending if it's ticketed, obviously itself.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

Yeah, yeah, like the big red bash, you've got to get your own ticket and that sort of stuff. Whereas things like this or um just a just a weekend away camping. Yeah. But some anyone can organise it. Yeah, it's just a matter of picking a date, picking a location, putting it in. Uh the WA guys, they're they do monthly, I think it is, or every couple of months. Yeah, they do quite a lot over there. Quite a lot, yeah. They're really active. Um so no, it's it's hard depending on how big no Queensland Queensland. So why don't we have a Queensland meet? Or where are we going to meet in Queensland because there's that?

SPEAKER_01 59:13

It's such a big place. Well, you can drive for three days in one direction and not get out of the state. That's right.

SPEAKER_04 59:18

So we started an event last year uh around the campfire for the black dog, and we had it up near McCoy in our hometown, and put it on the owners group page, and within like instances, like, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, I'm coming, and they're all there, like you know, they just wanted to help support it and just straight onto it. Like, and then this year they're like, When is it? Where are we? We've got a book. I've already got my site booked, yeah. And yeah, they just jump on straight away.

SPEAKER_03 59:43

So good, yeah. Well, look at yeah, even the the musters and stuff like that, too. We're getting so many people that want to come and be part of the community and be in a be involved with it. So that's really good to know. For someone who's watching or listening, bring it back to guess the long-term travel. Raleigh, what's one piece you'd advise one piece of advice that you'd give to somebody thinking about hitching up and just giving it a go?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:05

Just do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:06

Just do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:06

Like you don't look back, just just do it. It's you sit there and you think and think and think, I need this, I'll do it when I do, I'll do it when this happens, I'll do it when that happens. Sometimes that doesn't happen because everyone's heard a story about such and such waited until they retired and they bought the van, they bought the car, and then they got sick and they didn't do it. Like, so don't wait. Like, I'm not waiting, I'm doing it now, and then I'm happy when I'm in my 60s, I'll work at Bunnings. Yeah, you know, I want to see what I can do now, and and you know, if I can continue to do it right through till, you know, I'm in my 90s, happy days. But if I can't and I have to go back to work and you know, that life, well, if I can get it done now, you know, I'm happy to I'm content with my decisions of doing it now and then suffering at Bunnings, you know, through my sixties.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:54

What about you, Daniel? One piece of advice. Same. Just do it. Because I mean, you may not be able to do it later. So uh yeah, get out there and see it now. There's gonna be changes. I mean, these guys are off on the Gib River Road. There's rumors that that's gonna be fully bitumen by next couple of years, anyway. So you'll miss out on that part of adventure. It'll uh yeah, get a hell of a lot more busy and get it while you can.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:20

Yeah, and while you yeah, while you physically can and and well, physically and both. Well, it's accessible and it's a little adventure.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:27

One in both of our favourite places Lorella Springs. Yeah, and it's not accessible now unless you're on a guided tour. So, you know, there's places like that you you may not get the chance to go back to and see. So do it now. Steve, same from you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

Figure out a way to do it. Yeah, if you and your spouse are 60, you can take your super, you can ri actually retire at 60, throw sell your house or rent your house, throw it all in the bank, and between years you should probably have I don't know, close to a million bucks at least in super between us, and the interest on that will pay for your trip. So you buy a caravan, and if you go away for two years and you look after the product, you're not gonna lose that much money when you sell it. So and then chuck your renters out, you've done it. You've done your year or two years or three years of living off the interest, financing it off the interest from your super and savings, whatever that is. Yeah, so so you can do it at a younger age, you don't have to be 65 or or 70. As soon as you're that age, if that's what you really want to do, that's how you can do it in a secure way and not have to worry about how you're gonna make money on that trip.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:50

So that's inspiring. I want to do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:53

Sorry, Vaughan. I'm off. No, well, thank you guys. That's been really insightful. Look, there's there's a hundreds of thousands of kilometres travelled around this trail uh table. So um thanks for sharing your insights and knowledge and and tips along the way. So, Rolly, thanks for joining us. Thanks for traveling down. Enjoy your trip around the Gibb in the gold-class caravans. Daniel, thanks for coming in and being part of the podcast in the studio. It's not just in a camp chair somewhere out in the bush, like it often is. Thanks, Steve. Thanks for having you on again. Always a pleasure to be here. Man of experience, it's great to have you here. So thanks. And thanks everyone for watching. If you do like what you see, please like, please subscribe, and we look forward to seeing you on the next Off Grid Down Under episode.