Travelling and photographing the Australian Outback is a great privilege that I never take for granted.

As a family we visit it often and we have a couple of spectacular desert trips planned this year, the first one coming up in a couple of months time.

Recently we upgraded our touring vehicle to a Toyota 79 Series Dual Cab that we have modified to cope with the harsh environment it will be asked to operate in.  It is also capable of pulling our off-road camper Trailer, a Track TVAN.

Plenty of Storage

The Landy + TVAN

Through its paces

We’re off – to the outback

The TVAN is the go anywhere camper trailer with suspension built to military specifications. 

Depending on conditions, the vehicle has a range of approximately 1,700-kilometres and all electrical equipment we require is powered by two 120-watt solar panels on the roof charging a 150-amp battery.

It is also equipped with a High Frequency radio for long-range communications. For those not familiar a HF Radio is capable of transmitting over large distances and with the right atmospheric conditions we can speak with someone thousands of kilometres away.

Now I’m not going to “rabbit” on too much here and I’ll let the photographs do the talking, but a little while back I asked for you to submit some designs for a mural to go on the vehicle and I’m pleased to showcase the final product that was inspired by a design suggested by Sassy, who writes a blog titled Sasieology…

The mural reflects the travel the vehicle will do, across the Sydney Harbour Bridge from the Sydney Opera House and into the Australian Outback.

And I hear you ask what about the Crow?

Well Charlie, he travels with us everywhere!

We captured the photographs as we put the vehicle through its paces with the TVAN in tow in the Australian Bush last weekend.

It passed with flying colours, but I’m still trying to wrest the keys back from Janet who is a rev-head at heart, especially behind the big gutsy V8 engine!

Photos: Baz, The Landy – Janet Planet, and TomO