Cavalcades of heavily laden 4WD adventurers roar along our remote country lane on Friday nights, seemingly oblivious to the surrounding bush and the animals that dart out unexpectedly at night. High-riding and extensively equipped, these warriors’ weekends have just begun. All is not as it seems, however, since their destination is a series of campsites easily reached by the smallest city runabout, via a cul-de-sac that goes nowhere else.
I’ve found firepits there stuffed full of glass beer bottles that, no doubt to these individuals’ great surprise, failed to burn. Perhaps it’s just a dry run for their next trip, to “the Simmo” (Simpson Desert) or beyond. The modern four-wheel drive is in your face and built, it seems, for the end of days.
Credit: Hummer On darkened weekend highways, they can easily be mistaken for Christ’s second coming, heralding their arrival with an intense white aura just beyond the next crest. Unable to clearly perceive more humbly equipped drivers in time, they cause a second or two of blindness before they dip stadium-quality lights that are legally only allowed on 4WD tracks. Motoring has always been tribal, but this is a wave unlike any before it.
Never before has there been a greater variety of ruggedly styled off-road vehicles sold, nor a greater zeal by city-based motorists to equip their cars with a dizzying array of awnings, fridges, winches and snorkels. Bro bling ready for Armageddon, or perhaps the ultimate showdown at the tra.