…To park up the 4X4 and ride out coronavirus at home. Let’s start doing all the jobs we’ve been putting off for ages. We’ll be here bringing you yarns to keep you distracted.
Despite the lot of us being avid explorers, adventurers and keen travellers, the time has come for all of us as a four-wheel driving community to hang up the winch ropes. At least for a little while. There will always be those few who post on social media that ‘There’s nothing wrong with going for a drive on your own, it’s self-isolation’ and whatnot, but chances are that’ll be doing us more harm than good.
We’d wager that most of you will remember going close to a decade ago now, when we were really getting locked out of so many places in this great country of ours, every time you turned around there was another story of a “four-wheel driver doing the wrong thing”. From a young bloke with no respect for anyone or anything doing circle work in campgrounds or someone just ‘giving it the jandal’ up random closed-off tracks in national parks, every other social media or mainstream media story was another reason to shut us out, or label us ‘hoons’, ‘idiots’, or ‘environmental vandals’. Regardless that it was an absolute minority (that seems to have settled down and grown up a bit now), we all got tarred with that same brush.
Regardless of our own personal opinions, the coronavirus is now well and truly upon us. Despite getting some mixed signals from the government, best practice and medical guidance has given us a solid idea on what we should, and shouldn’t, be doing. Parking up the rig, and spending time at home with your family is one of the things we should, and can be doing. Such a simple thing stops us being tarred again with that old brush.
As you’ve no doubt seen, the states are shutting borders, so interstate travel for us for recreational purposes is off the cards. Even just the other night, Queensland and Victoria have shut up their national parks, state forests, and recreation areas to camping. Chances are the other states aren’t far behind, and may have even done so by the time you read this. Both our government (love them or hate them) and the medical experts are urging us to stay at home. Best evidence says “don’t go out unless you really need to” – to work, to school, to the supermarket to get food, around the block for a bit of exercise, that sort of thing is OK, but only when we really need to. Not for a run-up into the local state forest for a wheel, nor out to Pebbly Beach for Easter. Stay at home, where you’ve got control over who you come in contact with.
You see, where the problem lies, is yep, you’re absolutely able to ‘self-isolate’ in your four-wheel drive, but it’s the others that you come into contact with. That’s where the ‘essential’ thing comes into this. It’s all about calculated risk. If you know you’re going to touch a bowser 100 times to put fuel in the car over the coronavirus crisis, just by doing the absolute minimum and generally staying at home unless you’re off to work, or the shops, there’s 100 chances the person to use the bowser before you had the virus. Add then to that, the 50 extra times you’ve needed to fill up, because you’re going out wheeling every weekend, or every other night. Then add to that the kids coming into the servo with you and putting hands on all the chips and lollies, or the extra food you grabbed on the way camping at Woolies… you can see where this is going, right? By limiting the risk and those you come into contact with, you’re not only protecting you and yours, you’re helping to protect the rest of the Aussies around you. At the end of the day, we can all easily do something that can help stop people dying; by just hanging out at home and waiting this one out.
And the best thing? The Cape will still be there in 6-, 12-, even 18 months time. Hell, we’re putting together a yarn at the moment on the best places you can go in The Cape late season, all the way up to December, just in case we can knock this thing over before the end of the year. The High Country, The Kimberley, Gulf Country, Fraser Island, Pebbly Beach, all the iconic places will still be there too. All of these places we’re all itching to get to, won’t just disappear overnight. So stick it out, hang out with us on Unsealed 4X4. We’re in the same boat (or four-wheel drive, appropriately spaced apart to 1.5 metres) as you are, and we can bring you content you’ll enjoy, and use, and learn from, and hopefully have a laugh at when Wes does something stupid… again.
So, what will the team at Unsealed 4X4 be doing? I can tell you now, we’re in the same boat. We’re all working from home, not a single one of us has been to HQ (or out into the field to film, or shoot an article), in over a week now, and we’re knuckling in for the long haul, and working out how not to go stir-crazy working from home in our undies, drinking beers at 10am (it’s actually harder than you’ll probably realise… really!). We’re using the technology we’ve got access to, having video catch-ups and banter sessions hanging shit on young Josh, and trying to teach old Deano how to do some new tricks (technology, right?). What we’re generating for you content-wise has shifted massively, and quickly. All of our efforts are going towards stuff that will beat the boredom for you when you’re hanging out at home, weekend after weekend. We’re talking driveway DIYs, budget mods, truck and trip prep, driving techniques, random videos from over the years, entertainment pieces, the works. Plus all the weird and wonderful crap we can dream up in the meantime.
What we really want most, is for you amazing folks to get in touch with us. We’re here to provide content for you, and if you’ve got some awesome camping hacks, or DIY tips, or questions, or answers, or you just want to fling a bit of shit at Wes, we’re all ears! Connect with us on Facebook, leave a comment on this post, hell, you can even send us an email on this page here (as long as you’re not a robot!) if it’ll help.
So the aim is to arm you good folks with some solid tips, tricks, techniques and ideas to keep you (and us!) occupied while we get this virus beat. Then once we’ve got this bugger of a virus knocked on the head, we can all jump in our freshly serviced, tyre rotated, bush-pinstripeless, modded to the hilt and back again four-wheel drives, and get the hell outta dodge for a while…
Just hang in there with us, breathe a little, because as a community, nothing has ever beat us four-wheel drivers before, and we’ll be damned if we let it happen now!
Thanks legends,
Big Wes, Young Josh, Old Deano, Wise Isaac, and the rest of the nutjobs behind Unsealed 4X4!
