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Australia - 2005-04-03 - 1 - Australia - Truck Pictures & First Road Trip Roos
When I got back from Tasmania I had a decision to make. There were several
places that I wanted to visit. The least economical way to do it is by
tours. They are also the least flexible. The next worst is by renting
a vehicle, because of the pure expense factor. The next option is riding
with other people, but people traveling usually go so fast, which I don't
like. I enjoy seeing the small & big things, not just stopping at the
major tourist attractions. I spent most of the day Monday (March 28) thinking
about what to do & reaching the decision that I should buy a vehicle or
find people to ride with. I started checking the boards but was not sure
what type of vehicle & situation I should go for. On Wednesday Adrian
came back from Germany & gave me a call. We talked that night for a while
about how things had been going & what his plans were. I offered him the
chance to buy a vehicle with me because he was really good to travel with
in Tasmania. He declined that night, but when we went sight seeing the
next day he told me he had changed his mind & was interested in going
in on the vehicle with me. We went to a used car dealer for backpackers
to see what they had. They were all extremely overpriced, but we were
able to get lots of information from the guy as to how things worked in
Australia for cars (which is quite different from the states). After that
we started looking at the board in hostels & made some calls. We called
about 5 people all together & got 2 appointments to look at cars from
individuals the next day. The next morning we took the tram to meet the
first person. He had a 1986 4WD Holden Jackaroo for sale for $3450. We
thought it was a bit overpriced, but a very nice setup which fit our needs
almost perfectly. The owners were an older Dutch couple who had taken
good care of it. It had also had a recent checkup, newer tires, new brakes,
& other small things. The camping equipment (which comes with all of these
type of cars) was also very new & there was everything we would need for
our trip. We decided to move on & look at the other vehicles. We told
Klaas (owner of the truck) that we would call back after looking around.
He did not seem like he was going to budge much on the price although
we did have him down to $3250. The second vehicle was a van that a young
German couple had, which was in horrible shape. The had it for sale for
$3200, but I would not have given them anymore than $500 & even then I
would have not really wanted it. We decided it best to avoid because of
all the things wrong with it & the fact that it did not fit our needs.
We them went back to the hostel & got something to eat. On the tram ride
back we had called Klaas to offer him less for the vehicle, but did not
get an answer. There was another group looking at the vehicle after us,
so we worried that he had sold it to them. We decided to go look at a
1983 Toyota Land Cruiser 4WD. It was for sale for $4000, which was very
overpriced. The truck drove really hard, was very dirty & did not look
in the best shape. We told them we had another one we were interested
& as soon as we were out of ear shot called Klaas. This time he answered
& I offered him $2700, which was the amount Adrian & I decided we would
love to get the truck for. To both of our surprises he accepted the offer,
with no counter offer. We were both really excited & went back to meet
him to provide a down payment. It took us well over an hour to get there
from where we were, but it was worth it to get the registration in hand
& deal accepted. Adrian & I split the expenses 50-50, which is cool &
we started driving on Sunday April 3. The only real concern I had (other
than that everything stayed together with the truck), is the fact that
it is a manual which I have only drove about 4 times in my life. The truck
has room for 5 people, but only really 3-4 with all of the camping stuff
& people's backpacks. It gets about 13 Liters per hundred. It is really
nice to sleep in, but has all the things needed for cooking on our own
(which we do for every meal) & camping. It had 350,000 kilometers on it,
but all backpacker's vehicles have high K's. We are hoping to be able
to sell it for around 4,500, because there were no other vehicles under
that nicer than it. There is also a picture on this page of Adrian's first
kangaroos & the first ones from our trip, although they were very far
away.
Pictures
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