About twenty years ago I went on a road trip with two friends to Western Australia and the Northern Territory. Three drivers, three weeks – this should be a seamless trip! Lots of things to do and places to visit.
As we re-entered the Great Northern Highway after visiting Exmouth, on our first Friday of the trip, we realised that one of the rear wheel bearings was smoking. This led to an enforced five-day layover in a place called Onslow, which I hope never to visit again. This meant we never got to drive the Gibb River Road, visit the Bungle Bungle or Wolfe Creek Meteorite Crater, although we took a flight over the latter two places.
While we were at Halls Creek, I noticed a bloke pull up with his camper trailer, flip the back off it, push up some canvas from inside and within a couple of minutes he was having a beer. I wandered over to talk to him and look at his Kimberley Kamper, deciding there and then that I needed one for future four-wheel drive adventures. Shortly after returning home, I found a second-hand one on eBay and bought it.
While it was quick to set-up, so that a cold ale is soon being consumed, it needs to be carefully stowed. Is all the canvas inside the body? Are all the clips that hold the tray secure? Is the pull-out kitchen drawer locked? Are the feet lowered, stowed and locked? After attaching it to the car there are further checks. Is the jockey wheel stowed? Are the electrics connected? Are the safety chains securely attached? Are the trailer brakes off?
My mate and I did many trips with the camper trailer, and we soon developed a procedure for ensuring everything was done properly, which involved us both doing a final check around the trailer and vehicle.
2008 – time for the big trip, up to Birdsville, then on to Normanton and Karumba, Undara Lava Tubes, Thursday Island with the final destination Cape York, the northern tip of the Australian mainland.
One of the places we visited was Cooktown, where we were to meet some people in the RSL club at 4pm. The time came and went, but they did not turn up. No matter, we were having a great time with the locals. So great it was 4am the next day when we left to walk back to our campsite. We were slightly the worse for wear!
Later that morning we headed north. As we were going up a hill, on a long sweeping bend, I noticed that the kitchen drawer was hanging out of the camper trailer. Our checking system had failed! Probably due to some fuzziness in the head. I pulled over safely and we checked the kitchen drawer. Although we thought the contents appeared to be complete, we checked the surrounding road for anything that might have been dislodged from the drawer.
And there it was – a fork in the road!
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