vehicle...tic

... and the winner is...
Land Cruiser 76 series 4,5L v8 twin turbo diesel workmate '07. Great condition, 75,000 k's. After driving the Hilux diesel, as nice as it is, the 76 series just feels like it will be up to anything the Aussie Outback can throw at it. Besides, that big kick-ass diesel will easily compensate for any inadequacies I may suffer from...

Next few steps will surely revolve around research and planning the route. The approach will be to pin up a huge map of Aus and then pin all the desired destinations, colour-coded in importance level. Then devise an appropriate route based on that. North in Winter and south in summer.

May need to upgrade those +1,0 specs to +1.5 and get started reading everything we can find and talking to anyone whose ever been touring the world's largest island...

Now just need to convince dad that this does not mean his son is abandoning him... phew!!