Travel Australia Podcast by The Feel Good Family

NEW CARAVAN SHAKEDOWN + SUBSIDISED TOWING COURSE!

• Paul Guerin & Katie Guerin • Season 2025 • Episode 2

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How do you choose the perfect vehicle to tow your caravan across the vast Australian landscape? Join us, Paul, Katie, and Jasper from the Feel Good family, as we tackle this ever-popular debate. We weigh the merits of the trusted Toyota Land Cruiser against the rising trend of American trucks, spiced up with lively feedback from our audience on social media. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the numerous acronyms in the towing world, we’ll help you make sense of it all. Plus, we share our excitement about the latest addition to the travel family—the new Zone RV Sojourn Family Bunk Van 2025.

Taking a nostalgic detour, we reflect on the life lessons and cherished memories formed during family road trips. Imagine nine of us crammed into a vehicle, journeying from Melbourne to Queensland, or traversing 33 American states in a trusty old Winnebago. These experiences were more than just travels—they were a testament to our parents' resilience and creativity, shaping our values and outlook on life. From the solitude of South Stradbroke Island to the challenges of an IVF journey, our favorite destinations and stories highlight the importance of gratitude and treasuring moments with loved ones. We also touch on a family-authored book inspired by these adventures, illustrating the power of storytelling to capture and create lasting memories.

As a massive thank you to our podcast listeners we’re offering a 25% off discount code on our best-selling eBook bundle! That’s over $200 in value, for only $60! Use discount code PODCAST25 to take advantage of this awesome offer - https://shopthefeelgoodfamily.com/products/eofy-e-book-bundle

Check out our family book here - FAMILY BUSINESS: THE BUSINESS OF BEING FAMILY – The Guerin Family Storyhttps://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1452525773?ref_=mr_referred_us_au_au

Be sure to Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and join us for all of the road trip adventures! Check out the footage from our latest episode on our YouTube channel – https://youtu.be/k_FwRqwPTNc?si=HVc_V0vPRV9dhtqM

Check out the Gear we love on our website - https://thefeelgoodfamily.com/gear-and-discounts/

This episode is proudly brought to you by our mates at Stratus Outdoors, Protect The Adventure.  Keeping plastic bottles out of landfill by turning them into quality camp gear. Take advantage of our 15% Discount - https://www.stratusoutdoors.com.au  (ENTER FEELGOOD DISCOUNT CODE)

Subscribe to Jasperoo - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCceGx3esRSQBYZfWvf4KVtw


Our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/thefeelgoodfamily has a new destination video every Tuesday night at 7.30pm (AEST). We would love to connect with you on Facebook, Instagram and our website www.thefeelgoodfamily.com


Our Family Travel Australia Podcast is now LIVE and available on all podcast platforms, with a new episode aired every Friday night 8:30pm [AEST].


Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Travel Australia podcast. We are Paul, katie and Jasper from the Feel Good family. Join us as we explore this great country Australia, its people, its places and cultures.

Speaker 2:

Yes, it's the Travel Australia podcast, where we share the latest in RV industry news road trip travel, caravanning and camping, product reviews, guest interviews, where to go, what to do and so much more. Thanks for joining us this week subsidised towing courses.

Speaker 1:

Is it necessary? New caravan shakedown, shakedown, baby, battle of the tow rig. It's huge.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, I think we've opened a can of worms.

Speaker 1:

Look, it's a heated debate, isn't it? When it comes to vehicles, uh, what's the best vehicle to tow? In australia, growing up as a kid, my favorite event of the entire year was the bathurst 1000, and I used to sit there with my dad screaming for p Brock and Holden to, you know squish. Dickie Johnson and the Fords. Well, you know, it's ingrained in you as an Aussie as you're coming, you know, through those earlier years and into adulthood to take sides.

Speaker 2:

Oh, I just think that's just life, isn't it? I mean, we're always barracking for one side or another, no matter really what the concept is.

Speaker 1:

Well, with this it's really been around, you know, do we stick with our tried, trusted and true Toyota Land Cruiser, synonymous with touring Australia, or do we go for the ever-increasing popularity of the Yank Tank, the American trucks, Katie?

Speaker 2:

Oh, and haven't the comments been wide and varied, and some very entertaining, I have to say. But thank you to everybody who has left us a comment so far on our YouTube episode that was released earlier this week, and also across our socials We've been asking the question please let us know your thoughts. What do you think is the best vehicle for us as a family towing around Australia? And some of those comments, you know, are really fantastic for people in a situation where you are trying to cut through, you know, all of the researching and to get to the real truth of what is this best vehicle for touring around Australia.

Speaker 1:

Look, it can be confusing and also then set into overwhelm because everyone has such a strong opinion. It's a little bit like religion.

Speaker 2:

Look, paul, I honestly feel how we did five and a half years ago when we were first setting out and we had this same you know feeling of what do we need to choose to travel Australia? And we had no knowledge back then. And I think that is the saving grace is that after this amount of time of traveling around the country, we've really learned a lot and we understand you know all the acronyms and how they affect you know your towing experience and also, of course, making sure that you're legal and compliant and safe on the road. But I still feel that same level of how can this not be a clear cut? You know, yes, this is the one you need to choose.

Speaker 1:

I think that there's a lot of options, but so far it seems to me there's not a lot of options that come plug and play, that is, you know, you don't have to do any additional work to it like a. Gvm upgrade, you know which could be around, changing the axle load rating on the rear axle or the front axle, or the rims and tires. Are they, you know, rated to the correct towing capacity? Then your GCM.

Speaker 2:

I think that's why it becomes such a minefield, because there's the vehicles Great Okay, tick, tick, tick tick, but then it's all the things that you need to account for or do to them to make them that perfect tow rig.

Speaker 1:

Look, I'd love to go to Toyota in Japan.

Speaker 2:

No, no, no, hello, mr Toyota.

Speaker 1:

Hi, I'm Mr Toyota. What are you doing, mate? Like, give us a Toyota that comes with 4.2 ton towing on the rear end, you know, an eight ton GCM. I don't suggest that you should be towing eight ton around this country. In fact, you know, I think you should probably be always trying to maintain as low a weight as possible, but it'd be good to have a plug and play vehicle. And, anyway, we're going to be discussing this quite a bit, I think, over the next month. We'd love to know your thoughts. You can always, you know, reach out through our socials and contact us there and give us your opinion, Tell us what you think.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. We want to take you on the journey with us, because we are. It is a journey and we are continuously learning this stuff as we go.

Speaker 1:

And Katie mentioned the acronyms. They can get confusing. It sounds like a rum DMC, you know. Rap song, the GMC to the TBC, to the GVM, you know. But we have a free downloadable on the acronyms. It breaks it down very clearly and gives you the information that you can then really expand on and research further. Thanks to Wait Check Dave Lewis, absolute legend there, he's actually just retired.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and he's sent the business on to his son-in-law to continue that great work. And anyway, there's 40 or 50 caravan way businesses around Australia. So anywhere that you are, you could punch that into Google and you will find someone that can help you for a $300 to $400 wait session.

Speaker 2:

that will add value and education beyond the dollars 100% One of the best things that we've done, and we've done it numerous times with numerous rigs, all right, let's get on to our shakedown.

Speaker 1:

Okay, the new Zone RV Sojourn Family Bunk Van 2025 has been released and we're in one.

Speaker 2:

Oh, my goodness, I'm still pinching myself. Actually. It's easy to sort of get caught up in our day-to-day and we've got lots of things on the go this year that we'll talk about as well, coming up in our what's Happening With the Feel Goods segment, but to actually now be in a new caravan. We've had our previous Sojourn for almost three years and absolutely loved it. It completely changed.

Speaker 1:

It completes me, that's what I thought you were going to say.

Speaker 2:

Oh, isn't that beautiful. And what a great line from that movie, jerry Maguire. It changed the way we traveled and dramatically, we were on the bitumen in the caravan parks and there's nothing wrong with that. But we wanted to get a little bit more adventurous. We wanted to go down those tracks that we saw everybody else going down and we knew that we couldn't take our existing setup down those tracks. And so when we moved into the Sojourn almost three years ago, it just revolutionized our world, babe. It revolutionized our world, babe. It just opened our eyes up to this whole other level of experience and destination within Australia. And gosh, we look, we dragged that incredible caravan so many places around the country. That was just awesome.

Speaker 1:

I know from the very tippity top of Northern Australia, you know the top of Queensland there in Cape York. What an adventure that was all the way down and around through into Outback New South Wales, into South Australia, through that incredible coastline, that 2000 kilometers of coastline down there out to the Flinders Ranges, through the Oodnadatta, out to Uluru, kings Canyon, the Plenty Highway, the Marini Loop, up to Darwin and beyond. It has been an incredible vehicle and from the outside when you look at the new Sojourn you think looks pretty much the same to me.

Speaker 2:

but I'll tell you what it's a lot cleaner, it sure is.

Speaker 2:

There's some really little changes and then there's some epic changes that just make this an outstanding off-road, off-grid capable caravan is that from their inception, they've always pushed the boundaries on technology and how they're making these caravans, but with a mindset of keeping it available for anybody who does want to get adventurous. It's not so big that it's out of control. It doesn't have all of these extreme bells and whistles. It's actually, at its core, an incredibly versatile caravan to be able to travel in and for us in particular, to live in full time. But it's easy and it's safe and it provides this level of luxury that we just pinch ourselves every day. But it also has these features that continue to evolve over the years as they push the technologies that make life with one of these vans easier and easier.

Speaker 1:

Absolutely Katie. That innovation Thanks to Dave Bigger, who is the owner-operator there for Zone RV and many other companies in this composite field. But he really brought three pillars to this sort of caravanning industry to set the standards and set the standards high, and that was lighter, safer, stronger. I'd love to get Dave on our podcast.

Speaker 2:

On the podcast, yeah, he'd be great to chat to actually, so we'll make sure we hunt him down in between his crazy busy schedule of running these various businesses.

Speaker 1:

All right, now let's give you the quick rundown on those features.

Speaker 2:

It is now gasless internally big main ones, and this is great, particularly when it comes to industry standards, and a lot of manufacturers are leaning away from the gas, and what that means is that we have enough solar and lithium battery power to be able to run fully on induction cooking. We got, uh, the new diesel hot water system, which, look, we've only been in this van such a short time and we are already loving.

Speaker 1:

It is super quick and it also feeds in with the diesel heater, which is absolute must for anybody caravanning, particularly in winter time or in the southern states uh, the four ton tow hitch, the new suspension from Cruisemaster allowing you to set the level of suspension required, whether you are all-terrain which is what we're driving with it on currently to soft or hard. Soft really for those off-road adventures, or hard where you're possibly just sticking to the bitumen the whole time. So we're going to leave it in that all terrain see how that feels, but currently awesome. We love that. And then there's the Alpha Manager 100 system, new from Redarc. It's the total management system for the batteries and how you generate power in this van. Talk about supercharging your life and your lifestyle. This is mind-blowingly good, like having a speed charge in your van.

Speaker 2:

Oh it is, and what I love. And you know I was just thinking, paul, haven't we come a long way from the very first caravan that we purchased? With this tech, you know, you open up the back panel on the new Zone Sojourn and that Red Arc system is laid out in front of you in this unbelievably organized with the schematic map, and you know so anybody. You don't have to be a technician to be able to fault, find if there was one and easily fix that problem, because it is such clever technology.

Speaker 1:

And Red Arc Australian owned and operated australian made south australian business.

Speaker 2:

You can phone the number 24 7 yes, and we have in the past, haven't we?

Speaker 1:

and there's someone there to actually guide you through. So we don't work with red arc, but we've had their gear most of our traveling life and also in the 79. The land cruiser can't fault it, love it. They're the most outstanding features there. You know the new barbecue, the sizzler max. I gave that a really good crack and we put the baked berry oats as a brekkie. You can check out that dish as well on our youtube channel. Delicious. And staying at hangar road. I mean, this is probably one of those things that set Zone RV apart from other manufacturers, besides the quality build you know of the van, and again with that, safer, stronger, lighter.

Speaker 1:

Ethos that they have, yes, exactly in their manufacturing, but they do a handover, we like to say, in situ. So you head out to Hangarow it's about 100 kilometers up the road from the Zone RV factory in Coolum on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland and you met there with one of the Zone RV team members In our case it was Dee, smiling and waving, two-hour handover, your head spinning a little bit hot tip, make sure that you film your handover, or parts of it. That might be a little bit more intricate. But then you camp at this stunning location 120 acres. It's just outside of Gympie and probably south of Meriburra about 40 minutes. So you're in this beautiful environment, rolling green hills. You can test all of the intricate details of the van. If you get stuck, there's someone on site that can help you. So you really have got an opportunity over this couple of nights to settle into this newfound love of this lifestyle in your caravan. We just think that every manufacturer should be doing this.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely A hundred percent agree, paul, particularly because you are off grid, you know. So it's straight into learning how these systems are working. So how do you find Hangar?

Speaker 1:

Row, katie, on the Wikicamps app. That's right, the best 10 bucks you'll ever spend. We say the app for knowing where you're going. And our next campsite as well. You can only find on Wikicamps. We headed from there to a wonderful place in the back hills of Coolum known as Kate's Place is how we like to call it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, kate's Place. And look again, you can find this on the Wikicamps app. And I love this location, paul, because you feel like you are still in this quiet rural town amongst cane fields and you know rolling green hills and tucked away, but you are literally 10 minutes from some of the Sunshine Coast's most stunning beaches. You know, 10 minutes into Coolum Beach itself. You're 25 minutes to Noosa, ooh fancy pants Noosa.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. And again, you're probably 10 minutes out to Yandina. You know that quaint little town out there as you're moving towards the hinterland one of Jasper's favourite attractions out there, the Ginger Factory. So it really is an incredible location again, a campground where you feel like you've got all the space in the world beautiful green grass to camp on by the creek.

Speaker 1:

Love it and thank you to Kate. She's really just such an open-armed, open-hearted host and again, can't find this on Hip Camp or anywhere else. Have to go to Wiki, absolutely All right. We do have that new segment we love to call Off the Beaten Chat, and next week we will be moving into guests that are from far and wide, from every walk of life, but it's me who is the guest in the hot seat today. We wanted to share a little bit of a backstory, not only of Katie but of myself, before we lead into our other guests coming up throughout the year.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, although, paul, I'm not sure a five-minute segment is going to be enough for you. I mean, you could be a whole podcast in itself.

Speaker 1:

Look, that is true. I feel like I've led three lives up to this first 50 years. Can I say that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you can, darling, and it's been an amazing life. So I guess the first question is where were you born and bred?

Speaker 1:

Okay, born Melbourne in Victoria, Right, and along with, at that stage, four of my siblings, I've actually got six. I'm one of seven kids. My mum and dad moved us to the Gold Coast and that is where I really grew up, so I consider myself a Queenslander, moving to the Queensland Sunshine State when I was three and then went to Surfers Paradise Primary School and there weren't any of these high-risers that now have overtaken the Gold Coast Strip, and that really was such an incredible upbringing for me and my four brothers and my two sisters to be on the beach. You know, once the streetlights came on, that was our cue to come home. The good old days, hey, yeah, it was a different world, that's for sure, and a crazy one, with the seven kids really under the age of 10. My mum and dad had very, very full hands, but they also had very full hearts. I always say my parents weren't rich in a monetary sense, but they were rich in their love and their time that they afforded us as a family.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. And look, I have to admit, had I not known your mum and dad, as I do, and for so long now, I think anybody out there listening seven kids, what are they crazy? I mean that is just an incredible handful, particularly knowing that there are five boys in that seven and a girl on each end. So I mean the dynamic just must have been insane for so many years there. But they are incredibly inspiring people your mum and dad, paul, and again, probably a couple that we should have on the podcast at some point because they are living their own van life journey as well.

Speaker 1:

Look, their story is remarkable. I think when they moved us to the Gold Coast they had a hundred dollars and I think that was the weekly rent. So my mum and dad went and bought frozen chickens from West Burley Heads where we're camped up at the moment, actually and my mum went door to door and sold frozen chickens for a small margin and kept doing that till they were able to get some dollars coming in to really feed us and to be honest, we ate a lot of chicken while that time was going. But incredible story they have.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely, and hundreds more of those. Okay, let's talk about some family traditions. Did you guys go on road trips together when you were growing up?

Speaker 1:

The road trip was a regular part of my growing up life. In fact, we would head down to Melbourne twice a year and we'd all pile in.

Speaker 2:

What vehicle. I have to ask, like, how do you fit nine people in a vehicle to do a road trip to Melbourne?

Speaker 1:

You do? You just chuck them in with loads of pillows. I think there was maybe three seatbelts in the back and with seven of us it was kind of you know, first in best dressed and then just hold on and Dad would drive overnight and occasionally call me up and say, hey, did you want to have a steer? I mean, it was different times. Right, it was. Yes, it was. We survived.

Speaker 2:

Amazing, yes, amazingly. And do you think that's where you got your love for this lifestyle?

Speaker 1:

from Definitely. You know, the entire trip was really infused with incredible music soundtracks, like cassettes of every incredible artist in that 70s, 80s era, which was incredible to have that musical education through these great artists and their songs, and also positive thinking, personal self-help tapes, and so there was this real positive energy anytime we went on a road trip and I loved that and that's my memory of it and that's now really what we've created in our vehicle too, as we're traveling around with little Jasper Roo. When I was 15, my parents said, righto, we're all going over to America, a dream they'd had since they were first together. And so my whole family worked after school for a couple of years to save up and do a family trip, a road trip, the ultimate road trip to the United States.

Speaker 1:

We arrived in LA. We bought a old, dusty Winnebago 32 foot. It slept eight, there was nine of us and they traveled us across the entirety of America, 33 states in six months Incredible. That really cemented in me the love of road tripping, traveling and living out of a tiny home on wheels. And, yeah, it impressed upon me greatly that you can do anything that you put your mind to and that you're willing to work hard toward and yeah gosh, I thank my parents. Constantly. I'm reminded and feel grateful for what they instilled in me and my siblings on that road trip.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it is a phenomenal story, that one and an experience, and you know, I just scratched my head thinking I don't know again how they did this. This was prior to the internet, to mobile banking, to mobile phones, and they were able to pack you all up and take you to the other side of the world and survive without those conveniences that we have at our fingertips today. It is just incredible. Now, okay, there's so many questions here, and I do think we need to do a podcast with your mum and dad to really bring out the best of this story, because it is incredibly inspiring. But what about a dream location or a favourite location of yours around Oz?

Speaker 1:

Oh, there's so many. I know you had this same struggle last week. I still feel that it would. The place that I absolutely love is here on the Gold Coast, and it's South Stradbroke Island.

Speaker 2:

Yes, beautiful.

Speaker 1:

It's incredible. You can stand on the beach and not see a single person and you look to your right and you can see this skyscraper jungle of the Gold Coast. You know 20 kilometers that way. And then you look the other way and you're in the most remote part of the coast and I love that and I love how I feel when I'm there. My parents used to take us over there as kids. That was our weekend trip in this boat that broke down. Every weekend we took it out. I mean, you know, we'd be going along and a propeller would fly off one week and then we'd get towed by the air sea rescue the next week. The teller would fly off one week and then we'd get towed by the air sea rescue the next week. But all of that really equated to lifelong memories and a love of this coastline.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, so definitely South Stratbroke, yes, and we've been fortunate enough to spend some beautiful time over there on that island, in particular with Bec and Scott who manage the Tiplers campground and restaurant there, and just stunning location. So if you haven't been, we'd recommend get yourself over there. Of course, now, best life advice, paul.

Speaker 1:

Look, there's so many things to share here. I think the main thing is that it ain't a rehearsal. You know, my dad used to give me a click on the ear and say, mate, it ain't a rehearsal, what are you doing?

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Sort it out.

Speaker 2:

It's easy to forget that when you're in your day-to-day of living, isn't it that you know we kind of take for granted that actually this is like a tiny blink in time that we're here and living this life tiny blink in time that we're here and living this life For us as a family, what we've realised and I think, particularly because we were fortunate now I look at it to go through an IVF journey that was four years and six rounds of IVF and an incredible amount of pressure on you, katie, but us as a couple, not only financially but emotionally.

Speaker 1:

is that it really set the tone for our why we've set off to do this and share our adventures and, more importantly, create this time capsule of time with our little miracle?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and we're reminded of that every day. We look at him too, which I love because it's just this continuous gratitude for the journey that we've had and to be where we are today continuous gratitude for the journey that we've had and to be where we are today.

Speaker 1:

Look, you want an abundant or a wealthy life. You want the luxury of life. Gratitude is the currency for you to be able to afford yourself a life full of riches. And I don't mean anything to do with money. I mean the value of time with the people that you love and care about. That's the greatest gift you could find and that's, you know, what we would say to everyone out there you only get 18 summers with your kids.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it hits hard, that one.

Speaker 1:

And I've got a mate over there. He's like my kid's 32. He hasn't left. Can you please tell him this? Don't know, I cannot get him out of my house.

Speaker 2:

Oh, that's excellent.

Speaker 1:

I said you've given it to him too, good mate. Yeah, You've given him free Netflix.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but as a parent, isn't that also just so beautiful when they don't want to leave home? Now listen, we would normally ask our guests how we find them on socials, but we all know how to find you on socials, so I do just want to ask you one quick last question, paul, and that is about the book that you wrote with your family.

Speaker 1:

Okay, Look, we'd said we were dropping this podcast down to 25 minutes. Yeah, oops, we're already a few minutes over. But my family has written a book. All nine of us are co-authors in this project, in this project.

Speaker 1:

I took this idea to my family off the back of growing up in that crazy circus of a family where every time we met people and engaged with people, they'd say to my mum, dad, you should write a book, you should write a book, everyone's got a book in them, but you guys, you should write a book, they've got a library. I have to say that's right. So a number of years now ago I went to my family and I said here's the structure, this is what I require. Here's a word count I need from you each day. I want a growing up in the family chapter from you and I want a post leaving the family chapter and I'm going to tell you exactly what you need.

Speaker 1:

Anyway, they all committed. It still blows my mind to have all those different, very strong personalities commit to being a part of this bigger picture which was called Family Business, the Business of being Family, and they all wrote it and it's published through Hay House, through Balboa Press, and you can probably find that on Amazon and all the rest of it, but incredible journey and an incredible again time capsule. I think it's a legacy that you leave. Others is your story, and so to be able to have that now is incredible.

Speaker 2:

Just awesome. Thank you, Paul. Love getting to know you a little bit better.

Speaker 1:

Thank you wifey. Love of my lifey. I've always, even through my schooling years, been tagged with the word lucky. Yes, you know, and I've always felt that. But now I just think it's not luck. You know, it's certainly a blessing, but there's a lot that goes into it and I think a lot of it's to do with how you think and you know what goes in and what comes out.

Speaker 2:

Yes, well, you are one of the most inspiring and hardworking is not the right term to describe you, paul, but you are driven and it's infectious, actually. So we love being around you and we love that you're the driving force for all that we do.

Speaker 1:

Look out, got the lovely wife here. She's giving me a bit of the eye.

Speaker 2:

It'd be weird if we weren't married and we were in some sort of interview situation.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate you so much. Thank you, and thanks for letting me share my story. All right, let's move on. We have got a short message from this podcast sponsor and we'll be back with a news update. To wrap things up, this week's podcast is brought to you by Nakey, home of the world's first 100% recycled hammock, made from 37 plastic post-consumer water bottles and weighing less than one kilo. Nakey products will not only make you feel good see what I did there but they make the environment feel good too.

Speaker 2:

Love it, Nakey. Relax wherever you go. Seriously, what are you waiting for? We love the Nakey products so much. We have so many of the Nakey products and they are all awesome. Look, if you want to get your hands on some Nakey products, jump on over to our website and take advantage of the awesome 15% Feel Good discount code that our good friends at Nakey have provided for our awesome Feel Good family audience.

Speaker 1:

Ah, thank you, Nakey, Love it. I actually strung the Nakey up last night between the 79 and the Caravan, got on the phone to my brother, had a little sip of wine. I do love it. Such good gear. All right, Now we're onto RV news. This one is an interesting one.

Speaker 1:

The Caravan Industry Association of Australia, CIAA it's a mouthful, isn't it it is has called for the introduction of subsidized towing courses and a national safe towing campaign in a bid to improve road safety. We love this. We think we've been calling for this forever. We've got you know the fours and against a lot of people it's a nanny state. We've got too many licenses. We've got you know too much control by the government.

Speaker 1:

I get all that, but I tell you what, when we've seen what we've seen safety, prior education, giving yourself some of these skills we think is essential to you, getting from A to B, and that journey destination story being the best it can possibly be Now there's so many more caravans out there on the road now, but with that increase of the sales and the people out there giving this lifestyle a crack, the number of accidents involving them has increased as well. Given this lifestyle of crack, the number of accidents involving them has increased as well. Just in this last week, in the end of January there, there was a 71-year-old man who was towing a caravan out there on the Stewart Highway. Unfortunately, he lost control, the vehicles rolled and he died.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, tragic, terrible.

Speaker 1:

It is tragic for his family and for everyone. Now I don't know the circumstances and I'm certainly not here to discuss those, but I think it's important that we do consider more education to keep people safer. There is a suggestion that there's a $3 million subsidised towing course that will be targeting only 10,000 participants annually. We think it needs to be much more. There's a $2 million national safe towing campaign that's going to be put forward to improve education and awareness, and the CIAA has unveiled these two initiatives as a new policy roadmap, and we are coming into an election soon, so I'm sure this will be part of that. Now there's over 900,000 registered RVs on the Australian roads, and so something needs to be done, and the real question here is for our audience, for you out there, is do you think subsidized towing courses are a sensible idea and would it help reduce the number of accidents involving caravans? Please write in, let us know. We'd love to hear thoughts.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. You know, when we're really considering safety at its absolute core, then you know, in my mind it's a no brainer. Get all of that education that you can, particularly if it's subsidized and going to be handed to you on a platter take advantage of it and get those skills and knowledge. Anything we can do to keep ourselves, our families and others safe on the road should be at the forefront of our minds.

Speaker 1:

I love it and I agree, and we will certainly be out there shouting it from the rooftops Get educated. All right, now, feel good. Update We've got Melbourne, adelaide, the major shows for caravanning and camping around Australia. We'll be attending those over the coming weeks.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, yeah, it's been a big start to the year. Okay, if you are in Melbourne, we'd love to see you at the Melbourne Showgrounds. We will be at that super show down there every day between the 19th and the 23rd of February. We're talking twice daily on various stages throughout that show and we can't wait to see you there. And then, just a few days later, we'll be in Adelaide, down there, with our good mates from Caravan Camping, south Australia, between the 26th of February and the 2nd of March.

Speaker 2:

Believe it or not, oh my goodness, I'm not coping. We're already a quarter of the way through the year. These shows are fantastic. We absolutely love being involved. We will be speaking twice daily in Adelaide as well. And look, if you are thinking of coming along, then definitely get your tickets and get down there, because we always say you know, you've got all your experts under one roof. You've got all of the different products and vehicles on display. You don't have to spend endless weeks, you know, going out and looking at one at a time. They're all there, so take advantage of that, plus, of course, all of that free education that you get at these shows.

Speaker 1:

I think it's a no-brainer and we'd love to see you get a selfie, say hi and share some stories with you. All right, this week's takeaway. I love this. Magic happens when you swap four walls for four wheels.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yeah, yeah. We are definitely the end product of that and how our lives have completely changed, from who we were as people and as a family to who we are now.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, it's hard to believe, it isn't it? Katie, love it. Different people, better people, all right, next week, off Offroad, off-grid, australia, we will tell you how to get your hands on our number one audio book of the same name. For now, look after yourself, look after each other, dream big. See you next week. Bye, guys, bye.

People on this episode

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Katie Guerin

Host
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Paul Guerin

Host