The long haul Down Under - driving across Australia

Aug 20 2010 By Keith Ward

Keith Ward reflects on a very different way of life while on a long-distance driving tour of Australia.

It’s surely one of the most exotic off-road driving experiences in the world. We are ploughing and rocking in our 4WD, 50-seater bus along deep-rutted sand trails through tropical rain forest to cross Fraser Island, off the Queensland coast of Australia.

Temperatures are above 30C. At 120 km long, this is “the largest sand island in the world”.

A habitat for 240 species of birds, its towering eucalyptus, satinay and kauai trees plumb down to fresh water, which also emerges in 100 streams and lakes.

The aboriginal name for Fraser means “paradise’. It’s a top draw for tourists.

Suddenly, we are out of the forest canopy, into sunshine sparkling on the Pacific surf, and turning on to what they call 75-mile beach, up to perhaps 200 metres wide.

Craig, our driver, puts his foot down, upping the speed to around the advised maximum of 80 km/h.

For a time a dingo (wild dog) has tried to keep pace with us, to great excitement and camera-clicking among the passengers.

The bus is perched high on a MAN truck chassis. Most of the time through the forest, says the laconic Craig, he has the rear differential lock engaged, to give his passengers a more stable ride.

The beach is an informal, slightly chaotic, highway. No such thing as keep left or right. Only 4WD vehicles are allowed on Fraser, so this is their gigantic, exclusive playground. With 300,000 visitors annually, there are lots of them, self-owned or hired, all sizes from little Suzukis to – well – big buses. In the hands of visitors of varying degrees of competence, I suggest to Craig.

“There were three people killed last year’’, he drawls, “misjudging incoming waves or soft sand and flipping the vehicle over. I always have one eye on the ocean, for especially big waves...”

I am obliged to be chauffeured as a one-day break from a 2,700-mile (4,300 km) self-drive down the east coast, Cairns to Sydney, in a campervan. It’s only two-wheel-drive, so barred from the island.

Just two-berth, but with TV and air-con and purporting to offer a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and dining area, the rented Maui TS2 Ultima looks, and feels, big.

Based on a Mercedes Sprinter, it is 7.25 metres long, 2.33 wide and 2.8 high. (Stay away from multi-storey car parks, we are warned). I quietly anoint it Oz, in honour of its homeland and the ungainly, lanky Geordie from Auf Weidershein, Pet.

In principle, camping is a good way to get around, although “free” camping, where you overnight anywhere in your self-contained mobile home, is generally frowned upon, with threats of fines.

You are persuaded onto organised sites, charging anything from AUS $20 to $50 a night (up to £30-odd) for a site with plug-in electricity.

Our type of two-berth campervan would cost up to about £1,000 a week at peak holiday periods.