What type of person do you have to be to enjoy 4x4 adventures?

“Urgh. I don’t really want to go…it’s just going to be a load of men wanging on about their trucks, and I won’t understand it, I don’t know anything about mechanics and it’ll be DULL”, I complained to my husband just before our first ever four-wheel driver training weekend, back in Australia in 2009.

So, how did I end up falling in love with this way of travel and these vehicles that have led me to have huge dreams and continue to make them happen? How did I get here and why do I still want to do more of it?

We’d bought a 20 year-old Nissan Patrol (which we imaginatively called ‘Pat) because the main reason we’d moved out to Australia was to see the country. Exploring the Australian outback and having an epic road trip had been a romantic dream of mine for a long time (along with other places top of my list, such as the Amazon, which I’ve still not yet made it to).

Once we’d arrived in Australia and been there for a few months, we debated whether to get a camper van or a different sort of vehicle for the big trip. After reading so much about the incredible places that the Australian outback had to offer - and how some of the most wonderful-sounding places are inaccessible to regular vehicles – we decided to get a four-wheel drive (4x4/4WD). 

We also decided that as neither of us knew the first thing about 4x4 vehicles or how to use them properly, it would be a good idea to go on a course to learn. I was convinced that I would be the dunce of the class and know nothing, and that it would be dull and mechanical and I wouldn’t ‘get it’.  We were both also slightly worried that although we loved our car Pat very much, it was fairly old, and we wondered if there would be loads of flash, rich people with brand new cars that would put ours to shame!

This is a good example of how our preconceptions have the potential to really limit not only our enjoyment of things, but can stop us from even trying something new. 

Also, speaking as a woman, the world of four-wheel driving was – and still is – very male dominated. Perhaps this is not surprising when many of us have been brought up in places where ‘traditionally’ men like cars and trucks, and women don’t. As I grew up, our family didn’t even own a car for many years, so there wasn’t any chance to learn the mechanics of one, even if I’d thought of doing so. 

I can only speak for myself when I say that this impression of it being ‘for men’ can perpetuate more exclusion, as summoning up the confidence to put oneself in a vulnerable space of being the one who potentially knows the least can be hard to muster. I’m sure many men can also relate, as it is often assumed that they know about mechanics or will be interested just because of their gender. It can be so hard to be the one who asks the ‘stupid’ questions. 

Happily, these days, I am part of some wonderfully welcoming communities in which I have learnt so much more about the outdoors – and it is definitely easier to learn in a ‘safe space’, where one doesn’t fear ridicule. 

The fear that drove me to persist with the 4x4 dream - despite this discomfort - was that I really didn’t want to end up being one of ‘those’ tourists on the news: the ones that don’t prepare properly and, if they’re lucky, end up as an embarrassing news item. If not so lucky, in places as remote as some parts of Australia, the consequences can be fatal. 

And I’m delighted that I did – I wrote a blog at the time entitled ‘The most fun you can have sitting down!’ which detailed the training weekend in some depth, and it really was fun. The training centre (Great Divide Tours and Training – still operating) was very well equipped to train in all sorts of scenarios, and our trainers were a husband and wife team (at the time, seeing another woman doing the training, being knowledgeable and capable was reassuring – another example of how and why representation matters), and they were thorough, patient and good fun. 

It really gave me the confidence that we could do this trip. As they told us all: “your vehicle is much more capable than you”. It helped me figure out all the things that we’d need to consider, what modifications we might need to make to the car, the equipment we might need to take, etc. In most areas of my life I have found this to be a pattern – the more I learn, the more confident I become. And then, the more enjoyment I have. 

And, once we got into it, and learnt more about camping and outback travel (a blog post for another day), it became something else that I never imagined that I would fall so much in love with. 

I didn’t grow up in a ‘camping’ or ‘outdoorsy’ household. We got outside a lot, but, other than with the Girl Guides, I’d never been in a tent since then – let alone pitched one by myself. And I was a crap Girl Guide – I only went for the socialising, and had no interest in learning anything useful or getting badges! I knew pretty much next to nothing about camping the first time we set out on a camping trip.

But my experiences in Australia opened my eyes and my heart to a new way of being: experiencing insanely remote places, just us, no guides. Feeling as if I was in a travel advert much of the time – so stunning were the landscapes and wildlife we encountered.

• making mistakes, feeling fear, and carrying on.

• being entirely responsible for all aspects of decision making – including the slightly scary ones.

• new sights, smells, tastes, sounds and feelings – forever, the smell of Deet will make me smile and, immediately, my brain squeaks “ooo, adventure!” as I’m immediately transported back.

• the freshness of the air some mornings as I climbed out of the tent; the taste of the dusty earth as I pitched the tent in the desert and the dust got into my mouth; and the distinctive smell of a tent canvas. 

And the 4x4 added the extra adventure aspect to all these events – being able to go even more off the beaten track - to see certain places with far fewer people, and therefore being there alone, much of the time. Experiencing the unimaginably huge scale of the country, the utter remoteness and ruggedness of some of the landscape – simply not possible to get to in an ordinary vehicle. 

Ultimately, all the research, the training and the practising culminated in (what I thought was) a once-in-a-lifetime trip and ignited my passion for doing more of this – and learning more about these vehicles and their capabilities. I’ve still got SO much to learn – and that is so much easier to do now that I can stick my head under the bonnet again, read the Haynes manual and try things out. 

And much of this is not about the truck itself, not really. It’s what she represents: refreshing old skills and learning new ones. It’s about freedom; adventure; more discovery of self; more confidence… as well as accessing some of the truly awesome places on our planet. 

It’s a continuous path. An evolution. 

Next stop on the path…Botswana and Namibia.

p.s. if you’re interested in what our Penelope 4x4 is like and the camp set up that we’ve gone for so far, head to my shiny new Youtube channel and have a look!