Travelling in the bush means you meet many like-minded people. And then there’s the peculiar ones. We met such a fellow the other night camped by the North Kennedy River at Saltwater Creek in the Lakefield National Park. It was a bush camp and no one was around – or so we thought. Out of the bush come a late model converted Holden Colorado (very clean) driven by a character who stopped to say G’day. By the time he left 45 minutes later we knew all about everything he owned. Although his trailer was unhitched back at his camp further down the river, he showed us photos. Great. Even better, he showed us his fishing photos. Then we got to hear all about the boat. Horsepower, stuff like that. He told us how much he’d increased his GVM (gross vehicle mass) by doing the conversion to 6 wheels. He knew the Torque on his engine, how many kilowatts of power he has. He recited his fuel capacity, water capacity, solar panel set up and maximum amp hours he achieves, ground clearance, towing capacity and stuff I can’t even remember. Did I mention the Croc safety briefing? We got a good 10 minutes on winch maintenance then he gave us the full run down on why we should boycott Big4 caravan parks. He had the latest dash mounted GPS and a rear reversing camera so big he could see better out the back than the front. A man and his castle. He and the wife are doing the Big Lap. Planning to take 5-10 years. They’ve spent 18 months just getting from Sunshine Coast (or Sunny Coast as he calls it) to here.

It was an entertaining interlude.