About Us

We are setting off for a trip around Australia with our good friends Rod and Shirley and Margaret.

We’re just about ready to hook up The Tardis, our caravan to Boof, our superpowered Sorrento and are ready to go.

We hope you enjoy following us and we’ll enjoy hearing from you too!

Perhaps you need to know a little about:

Boof.

When we head out on our great adventure our vehicle of choice is a diesel powered Kia Sorento.  What you’re thinking not a Landcruiser or Nissan, nope not even a Ford.  Nope just a little Kia Sorento. We had a big Ford Explorer, did a trip up to the Tip, didn’t tow the Tardis , just lived out of the back. It was a great experience and the Ford gave us a lovely comfortable lounge chair ride, but it gobbled up fuel like there was no tomorrow. The Ford didn’t like the Tardis either, it was a bit of a battle getting the whole rig over the range on our way to Broken Hill and with the Tardis hooked up the ride wasn’t all the best…so the decision was made and our faithful Ford went to live somewhere else.  We took delivery of our Kia and it wasn’t long before we realised what a beaut little vehicle we had purchased.  Sky Blue with all the options it drove like a dream and had buckets of power. So much power we decided to name it Boof after our neighbour Jack’s dog.  You see Boof is  Staffy, compact with heaps of grunt. Boof is a bit like superman, able to leap over tall obstacles with the greatest of ease, loving and good mannered Boof needs to be immortalised and for us having Boof accompany us on our travels seems like a great idea. So the  Kia is now affectioately known as Boof.

Now I know there are heaps of skeptics out there who can’t see past the big 4×4′s and maybe you may be one of them,  secretly smirking to yourself about those “Korean’ wannabes, maybe you personally know of some that have crumbled under the strain of everyday life on the road, maybe. Or perhaps you just don’t know and you are relying on second hand accounts of someone who knew someone who had one.  Well here’s your chance if you want to find out…just watch this blog and we’ll give you the facts, just the facts.

Now that stats on Boof are as follows:  Boof has a 2.4l common rail diesel. It has a global pack which means it came with side steps, towbar, recovery kit etc.  It has sunroof, leather seats etc. Ken fitted some airbags into the coil springs which  he bought from an US truck company(before the $ hit rock bottom). The engine had a DP chip fitted, which is supposed to increase the torque, horsepower and give better fuel consumption.  Not that any of these were not good, we just checked out the Sorento site to see what others had done to enhance overall performance. Latest acquisition is a Scanguage which enables the driver to monitor the cars performance as we go along.

Boof has a Haymann Reece towing set up and reversing camera fitted, there is another camera on the back of the Tardis.  Eldest son gave us a Tom Tom so we won’t get too lost as we wander around  and we’ve download all the gps co-ordinates from the Camps 4 book which we are hoping will give us an edge on finding some ‘free camping spots’ as we travel around.  Maybe you’re interested  the load Boof will be towing. We apart from Ken and me there’ll be the Tardis.

Tardis.

Well you shouldn’t have to ask, if you are a Dr Who fan you’ll know.  Maybe it’s just the thought of exploring other places, meeting other people, seeing life from a different angle. But the Tardis it is.  A 17ft Jayco poptop……oh no, not a Jayco, it’s okay we know we’ve heard all the stories. We’ve even experienced its frailty. Cupboards that have come adrift, exhaust fans that were only held in with one screw instead of four, leaks hmm minor things really and all fixed under warranty. Good dealer, no problems with the Coffs caravans mob.  But the Tardis has evolved.

I mean how many guys bring home a brand new van and renovate it. Out come the single beds, in goes a queen across the width of the van, new cupboards and more seating(for computer use). The shower/toilet enclosure has been fitted with a shower curtain,  washbasin (as the original one is useless). A couple of solar powered exhaust fans. The microwave and the aircon have all moved on to other homes, we now have much more storage space, new doors fitted one with a perspex panel so we can have a collage of the kids and grandkids smiling at us as we wake up each morning.  A solar panel is fitted to the roof and we now have dual water guages …so we know when the water tanks are almost empty.  Lighting has been changed to led lighting throughout to conserve power. Where the aircon enclosure was in the side of the van Ken built a cupboard with external door, this holds our water filters, filler hoses, 1kva generator and some fuel.  We are really trying to be as self sufficient as possible. On the opposite side of the van where the awning is Ken cut a hole through the wall of the van and created a slide out kitchen. The drawer slides neatly in under the bed and allows us to do all our cooking outside without any fuss.  Hmm what else.

Well we thought that maybe an outside shower would be good so we extended the back bumper bar a bit, just enough that we could mount a heavy black plastic jerry can on it( the sort you can use for fuel). By enlarging the filler hole we are able to lower a small submersible pump into the can and this has become an outside shower. we have a 12v point located on the back of theTardis to power the pump. Oh  and on the front drawer bar we have fitted another large black plastic bucket. This we plan to use as a washing machine as we travel.  the water in the plack plastic heats up quite nicely and then with a little bit of napisan or similar…I reckon the washing will be done as we drive.

Of course at this stage it all sounds good…but the proof will be in the travelling, I’ll let you know how it goes.

When do we  actually leave ….. April 1  2009.  Oh don’t worry for us the time is flying.

We had a countdown list…which keeps extending. But basically Boof and the Tardis had to be ready by the end of February. March will be taken up with final domestic/business  arrangements….then we’ll be off.

Will Boof let us down, well we know there are heaps of skeptics out there who have no faith, will the Tardis disintergrate in the great Oz outback…let’s just wait and see what 6 months of travelling reveals.