It quickly became clear that there will be quite a few times when we will need to leave Mobi on civilised land and head off into 4WD territory. Travelling from Cape Tribulation to Cooktown is one example, and travelling the Gibbs River Road another.
Kerry had sworn off camping for ever after a few mishaps in the 1980s, but realised that there was really no option. So, after talking to Stewart, Kerry’s son – an outdoor guide in the Blue Mountains – we headed for Anaconda to see what was available. We looked at tents, stretcher beds, mattresses, and a variety of other equipment we will need.
Finally we bought a Spinifex Huon Geo Dome tent, with a seperate sleeping area, generous sitting area and many options to open it up on all sides. We also got 2 Burke & Wills deluxe stretchers (excellent but heavy at 11.5kg each), 2 Denali Camper Royale self-inflating mattresses, and a variety of other goodies.
| Items | Cost | Weight (kg) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PRIMARILY CAMPING | ||||
| Tent & sleeping | ||||
| Tent - Spinifex huon geo dome | $234.99 | 13.5 | Anaconda | |
| Stretchers (2) - Burke & Wills deluxe | $224.98 | 23.0 | Anaconda | |
| Mattress - Denali Camper Royale | $287.98 | 8.0 | Anaconda | |
| Sleeping bags (us141.59 @ 1.268) | $179.54 | 4.5 | REI Palo Alto | |
| Sleeping bag liners (2) | $59.98 | Anaconda | ||
| Oztrail 3 Shelf Cupboard | $39.90 | 3.1 | E-bay | |
| Tent pole repair kit | $40.97 | Anaconda | ||
| Guy ropes (10) | $54.79 | E-bay | ||
| Canvas pole bag (use for chair) x 2 | $73.30 | E-bay | ||
| Tent pole connectors (spare) | $2.68 | E-bay | ||
| 20m reflective guy rope | $9.72 | E-bay | ||
| Tent pole bags and tarp clips | $17.94 | E-bay | ||
| Rubber mallet | $6.60 | Bunninga | ||
| Small night bucket | $3.10 | Bunnings | ||
| Outside | ||||
| Floor mesh (tent) 5x2.5 | $36.32 | 3.0 | 4WD Supa Centre | |
| Camp chairs (2) - Oztrail Executive Jumbo | $119.98 | 8.4 | Anaconda | |
| Stools - Spinifex (2) | $20.38 | 2.0 | Anaconda | |
| Folding table | $60.00 | 8.4 | Anaconda | |
| Camp 2 burner stove | $59.99 | 6.2 | Anaconda | |
| The Wedge™ 450 Base Fire Pit | $225.00 | 17.0 | Kelly, Dee Why | |
| BBQ grill | $17.90 | 5.0 | BBQ Galore | |
| Collapsible washing up tub | $19.99 | Anaconda | ||
| 8 aluminium tent poles | $93.09 | 4.0 | TentWorld on line | |
| Equipment | ||||
| LED Head lights (2) | $19.98 | 0.3 | Anaconda | |
| Lantern | $84.99 | 0.7 | Anaconda | |
| 5 bar camping lights | $199.00 | 2.0 | Show at Eastern Creek | |
| 200W solar blanket | $699.00 | 3.6 | Show at Eastern Creek | |
| Working gloves (2 pair) | $45.22 | 0.3 | Bunnings | |
| Hatchet | $15.18 | 0.9 | Bunnings | |
| Camping shovel | $8.19 | 1.7 | E-bay | |
| Universal tap handle | $10.62 | Bunnings | ||
| 20L water jerry can | $24.99 | Anaconda | ||
| 5L water jerry can | $15.99 | Anaconda | ||
| Egg carrier (12) | $9.99 | Anaconda | ||
| Jaffle iron - double | $14.99 | 1.7 | Anaconda | |
| Poop bags and powder | $15.00 | Bunnings | ||
| $3,052.26 | 117.3 |
All in all, we probably spend around $3,500 to set up our camping option. This added about 150kg which will all have to be stored in The Cruiser. The tent, stretchers and mattresses will go into our roof cage bag.
The sleeping bags were hard to work out in the main shops we looked at – not at all sure what to get. But when we went over to Palo Alto to visit the grandkids we found a really good outdoor shop with clear labelling. So we got our sleeping bags there at a good cost. 
We camped out at the 2 training courses we did with the TLCC at Willowglen, and that was fine. Admittedly, the TLCC have a great kitchen and recreation room, which made our life so much easier, but the experience was reassuring.
Just before the first course we knew we had to erect the tent so that we would not have too much trouble when we got to the site. Of course it rained and we had to try to erect the tent in our lounge room. What fun that was, threatening to destroy Kerry’s fragile agreement to camp out.
The only issue with that first camping experience was that Kerry work in the middle of the night to find herself totally wrapped in, and immobilised by, the sleeping bag liner. Took us a while to unwrap her and the liner is no more.
One thing we did notice with a lot of the equipment was that when we got our goodies home and unpacked them, such as the chairs, it was nigh on impossible to get the item back into the bag it came in. So we had to buy a few larger canvas bags to make life easy. The bags the chairs came in now hold the tent poles, pegs and guy ropes.
