37° 8' 23.28”
142° 31' 9.48”
Years ago when I set out to drive from the top of Alaska to the bottom of South America, I had no idea how much that trip would change my life. After two years on the road having the kinds of adventures I had only dreamed about I became hopelessly addicted to exploring wild and remote destinations around the globe. After the Americas I tackled the African continent, which was even more wild than I planned for.
After so many years exploring the world, recently I’ve felt drawn home to Australia, a country I’ve barely visited in the last 20 years.
After eighteen months of planning and preparation, including four months in my Dad’s garage building my new Jeep Gladiator into an Overlanding house on wheels, it’s time to hit the road to begin my third major expedition.
Over the next twelve months I will explore the wild and remote corners of this massive continent, and I will bring you along for the adventure.
The Grampians are the perfect destination to put my new vehicle through its paces, and I’m more than happy to take advantage of the stunning hiking and camping while exploring the stunning landscapes. The 400,000 acre park features a series of mountain ranges made from sandstone that is over 400 million years old. Like always in Australia the mountains are not huge by world standards, but have a unique and striking appearance due to hundreds of millions of years of harsh sun and weather.
With no real itinerary I explore the park from end to end, visiting waterfalls, lakes, mountain peaks and lookouts. Aboriginal rock paintings estimated to be over 22,000 years old are scattered around the park, which provide the perfect excuse to get as remote as possible. In the afternoons I simply find a suitable place to setup camp, with about three hundred ideal options to choose from.
I waste no time getting out on foot in the wild far northern region of the park, where I see virtually no other people.
Australia constantly makes itself known in many unmistakeable ways that are seared into my childhood memories - bright red gravel roads, kookaburras wake me at dawn with their distinctive laugh, kangaroos are a hazard on the road at dusk and I’m constantly on the lookout for snakes in the long grass while hiking.
The Jeep and all modifications perform flawlessly, and the Geolandar X-AT tires easily eat up the gravel and sand I encounter around the park, as I fully expected. This is just a shakedown trip, the real challenges will come later in the vast deserts, beaches and sand islands.
I’m immensely excited to be on the road for my third major expedition, and I hope you’ll join me as I explore all over this enormous continent.
-Dan Grec
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