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General Climbing Discussion

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Buying van/ camper? - Touring Aus? 20-Sep-2008 At 2:42:19 PM Paz

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there's a few options for buying vans in melbs. I don't know the name but there's a place on Elizabeth St (in middle of melb CBD) that sells vans to backpackers and then agrees to buy them back when you've finished with them...sounds dodgy but a friend said he didn't lose much cash doing it that way and they also insure the van for you if it has maintenance issues ect when you're using it...

You also may want to look at Wicked campers for hiring a van. if you buy one in Melb you will have to get a roadworthy and register it and all that shit which'l cost you a bit (unless you go with the guys mentioned above). Otherwise you could buy one in SA where you don't need a roadworthy, plus everything is way cheaper there. A mate bought a 94 mitsubishi magna wagon for $900. The downside is that you will have to dress in flannelet while there and possibly marry your sister/daughter in order to get a locals rate.

I'd think a cheaper way to do it if you want to visit Tassie as well is either hitchhiking around if you're up for doing walks and such...heaps of people gave me lifts there when doing Overland track, Walls of Jerusulam and Freycinet and such. Otherwise if that's not your scene, you'd be better buying the van first, then ferrying across and driving around from there. If you use guides to drive you to the start of walks (public transport doesn't head out that yonder), that'd cost you the earth.

Also araps will be cooking in our summer so you'd get better climbing in if you did araps first then headed down to tassie for climbing in summer...

forgive the spelling, I have a hangover from 'nam