It’d be easy to think I’m Australia’s most unlucky wheeler. From snake bites in the Simmo to hydro-locks in Hebel and everything in between. However, my luck never seems to run out when it comes to my off-road career. I was eighteen when Toyota threw me the keys to a brand new 79 Series LandCruiser Ute and told me to drive it straight to Birdsville and tackle Big Red.
Ten years later, my enthusiasm for this industry has only grown. My thirst for adventure will never quench. This year I’ve spent more nights in my rooftop tent than in my bed at home, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So, when I got asked to jump on the crew for Season 15 both as a journo and to run socials, I responded the same way any true-wheeler would. Where are we going, and what are we driving? The answer: Across Australia, East to West, in a fleet of brand new Fords.
Let me start by letting the cat right out of the bag. If Season 15 of Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures isn’t the best in the show’s history, I will eat my stubby cooler. Let me explain why.
I drive an 8″ lifted Ranger on 35s and wheel it like my life depends on it. My idea of camping is taking the route no one else would to a place where no one else is. And the rest of the crew? Well, they’re the exact same as me. Each one of them lives and breathes a life of adventure. They all own 4X4s and feel more at home in the bush than in their house. While our builds and brands may vary, our passion does not.
Our chats around the campfire would put most adventure podcasts to shame. They consist of true tales from the bush, spoken by the blokes who’ve been there and done it. We spend hours every night swapping stories about our adventures, dream builds and off-road exploits.
When we have a moment of rest, we jump back in the very vehicles we just stepped out of and set off to conquer another trail. While driving between locations, the chatter on the UHF is a convoy-convo about the terrain we’ll be tackling and what shots we should be getting to do the location justice.
We don’t have debriefs; we share a beer and have a yarn about what aspects of the day’s wheeling we enjoyed most. At some point, one of the camo’s will inevitably bring out footage of me getting stuck or breaking something. Pat has to be the only bloke I know who smiles and laughs when he sees someone else get his vehicle bogged. “If 4WDing was predictable, it wouldn’t be as fun, and it certainly wouldn’t be an adventure,” that’s what he told me moments after I drove his brand-new Everest into sand so soft it almost swallowed it.
Having a film crew comprised of actual 4WDers means they know the ins and outs of their camera and what they’re pointing it at. The result? Informative, off-road art in motion – made all the better because the crew genuinely enjoyed every second of shooting the action.
I could easily spill the tea and tell you where we went and which tracks we tackled this season, but you can just as easily tune in and find that out for yourself. So instead, I’d rather lift the lid on the things you’d never know about unless someone took the time to tell you.
PRECONCEIVED IDEAS
I came into this trip full of assumptions, and they lasted until the first camera was brought out. I’m a dab hand when it comes to presenting, shoots and content generation, but that’s all online. I’m as green as they come when it comes to the world of TV. There’s only one thing I knew for sure about it: tight deadlines. Because of this, I was positive that the show would be highly scripted and well-choreographed, but I was dead wrong.
It’s with absolute pleasure that I say, based on first-hand experience: nothing you see is set up. The recoveries? They’re ’cause we actually got stuck. The pieces to camera? They only exist because we flicked the in-car cameras on and captured exactly what we would have said even if they were off. And those cooking segments? They’re not just for show, either. That’s our actual dinner you’re seeing getting chucked on the fire. This leads me to my next point…
THE CATERING DEPARTMENT
We eat like kings, but the catering department doesn’t exist. As soon as we reach camp for an evening, the crew set to work like a well-oiled machine. Swags are set up in a matter of minutes. After that, everyone gets cracking on whatever they need to prepare for the next day: the camo’s will backup data, format drives and clean equipment. I’ll think of witty captions for social posts or get cracking on an article, and Pat? He gets cooking. Yep, you heard me – expert wheeler by day, head chef by night—what a guy.
THE CAMERA CAR
While we lovingly refer to it as the Grey Goose, you’ll know it as one of last season’s hero cars. It’s the 2.0 Litre Bi-Turbo PX3 Ford Ranger FX4.
A plucky beast, the Grey Goose presented the perfect platform for utilisation as a camera car, and that’s no easy feat. None of the vehicles you see on the show have an easy life, their break in period occurs while they’re navigated to some of Australia’s most remote and inhospitable locations, in one season they take part in more adventures than most 4X4s do in a lifetime.
By the campfire last night, it was announced that both of this season’s hero cars had officially done more kilometres off-road than they had on the blacktop. An achievement we’ll reward with a brimmed tank of diesel and some fresh oil. If you’re keen to see a rig-run down of the Grey Goose, you can check it out on the @PC4X4Adventures Instagram page ’cause I filmed one just for you.
“YOU MUST HAVE THE BEST JOB IN THE WORLD!”
Of all the comments throughout my career, this is the one I have received the most. And, whilst it’s absolutely true, it’s not for the reasons you may expect.
There’s no doubt about it; travelling a country as beautiful as Australia in brand-new vehicles and getting paid for it is a dream gig. But it’d be impossible to enjoy it as much as I do without the people I meet along the way. A fact that has been epitomised during this trip.
I expected to be able to get along with the crew; what I didn’t expect was the level of mateship and camaraderie that’d occur on this crazy adventure. I say this with absolute conviction. The members of the crew aren’t just exceptional at what they do, they’re exceptionally good people. And there’s not a single one of them that I don’t now consider a genuinely great mate.
It’s tough to accurately describe the bond that’s created when you wheel your way across Australia with a group of people you’ve never met before. Together we triumphed. From tracks to timelines, no tribulation proved tougher than the bond we forged on the rough stuff. As for what we achieved? Well, you’ll just have to watch Season 15 to find out.
Words by Josh Leonard
