RV Camping

RV_LakeHart

RV Camping: The acronym RV in North American English stands for ‘recreational vehicle’ and is generally used to refer to an enclosed piece of equipment dually used as either a vehicle, a temporary travel home or a full-time home. The term is also broadly used for camper vans, caravans, motor homes, and RV camping in general. I have spent about three years of my life living in caravans. Some of these certainly couldn’t qualify for the term recreational vehicle! In the late 70s, my father and I lived ‘out of’ the caravan below whilst drilling for minerals in the remote Lake Grace area of Western Australia. It is far better to cool off in the ambient forty-degree heat than sit inside a fibreglass box with temps over fifty-odd degrees. However, winter mornings in inland Australia can be pretty frosty, and the scant shelter is welcome.

Old caravanWith this experience, and when it came to purchasing something to do some real RV camping, I spent a great deal of time shopping around. Although I wanted an actual ‘off-road’ caravan, they were priced out of my league. The Bushtracker and Phoenix custom-built vans are more than $100,000. While they have proven off-road capability, they were too expensive.

Windsor Statesman Royale

After looking at several caravans, I settled on a 20-foot Windsor Statesman Royale with an Outback Pack. It was not a true off-roader, but it had a hot dipped galvanised 6-inch chassis. Beefed up drawbar and suspension, dual axle 15-inch wheels and fully galvanised enclosed wheel arches.

RV Camping

Statesman Royale Caravan

The van’s interior was practical, with a workable kitchen and the main entrance up the front of the truck. I prefer forward entrances. These tend to let less dust into the van than rear doors on dusty dirt roads.

At the rear of the van, and to the delight of my wife, was a small ‘green room’ with a toilet and shower. It had a vanity basin, mirror and wardrobes. Lighting and electrics were dual 240v and 12v. I fitted two 80-watt solar panels on the roof with a deep cycle battery.

We spent over 12 months on the road, travelling from the East of NSW via the Plenty Highway to Alice Springs and Uluru. It was a genuine privilege to spend so much time touring around, including a 12-week stop-over in Winton, Queensland, where I got to practice a bit of archaeology.

rv camping

Interior of Statesman

The intention was to take the Great Central Highway to Perth in Western Australia. However, heavy rains thwarted our choices on this occasion, so we dropped south across the sealed Nullabor. On returning East, we travelled across the heart of the Centre on the Great Central Highway. Along the way, we stopped off at Yamarna, the now abandoned sheep and cattle station I grew up on.

Taking a caravan on long stretches of outback dirt roads means paying constant attention to weather and road conditions. If you want to keep your van in one piece, drive slowly! At the end of each day, check over your vehicle and van. Keep a close eye on tyres, suspension, and dust entry points. RV camping is the deluxe mode of self-contained travelling.

rv camping