Weekly Wrap - so much to tell you - end of April - Part 1, heading west.

Welcome to last week's, and this week's weekly summary of the goings on at the Australian Offroad Academy.

A very big fortnight. So big that we are going to need to split it up into a few updates.

Go West

Mike and Dave packed up the Mazda and SxS and Quad and headed off for a quick trip to Barcaldine. Stopping on the way to complete accredited Side x Side training with a team of researchers from Central Qld University to are doing fauna monitoring on Curtis Island with Qld National Parks.

The SxS is a great tool for carrying team and payload into sensitive locations.

What a tough place to work. As much as the landscape on the Western Side of Curtis Island has been changed forever, there is still a whole lot of wilderness over there, and a few offroading challenges.
These teams have transitioned from 4x4 to SxS as the lighter weight and reduced footprint allows them to get their equipment and personnel into sensitive environments with out causing the impact that a full size 4x4 can.

Lightweight and Manouvreable

One on one attention during training

Our CFMoto SxS even has bucket seats

Our stop in Rockhampton was all too short and we were back in the Mazda heading west towards Barcaldine.
We were chasing the sunset from Blackwater.

 After an early start from the pitcuresque town of Alpha we arrived in Barcaldine ready to begin.

We and the team enjoyed some Outback hospitality at the Mandy's Cafe in the Main Street of Barcaldine before heading out for a day on the buggies in the QLD Outback.

We use our quad bike as our 'chase' vehicle during SxS courses, this enables us to stay close to our clients but maintain the same low environmental footprint as them.

SxS courses include high speed skills and low speed maneuvering.

Our CFMoto U8 is equipped with a fully compliant utility bar from Britax and some seriously clever LED Spotties from X-Ray- we aren't afraid of the dark in this buggy.

The CFMoto X6 LWB is a whole lot of bike.

Yeah, we go through a few witches hats.

With our time in Barcladine at an end, we stopped and made a few promotional visits around town, and hit the road again.
Check out this sunrise as we were getting ready for another day on the road.

For those interested in such things, we had a fuel mileage of 18.1 l/100kms on the way out to Barcaldine and 20.5 l/100kms on the way back into a pretty consistent headwind.

Once back on the road it was a straightforward run back to the Fraser Coast to prepare for a full weekend of more courses at Landcruiser Mountain Park and Noosa North Shore...

Bt50 on the Sth Ngkala Rocks Bypass

Weekly Wrap - 11th April

Join us for our tenth birthday.

Yes, it's all systems go for our 'Edge of the Desert" trip in July, the last step was asking the event coordinators for permission to use their name and branding and to have them list our tour on their website (as seen here).

If you would like to join our convoy, we'd love to have you along for our

"Tenth Birthday Bash at the Big Red Bash"

Click the link above for lots more detail.

Somewhere new.

Easter Monday saw us pack the CFMoto X6 Quad into our custom built trailer and head off to a potential new training ground near Gin Gin. The owner of the site is planning to establish low key camping and wanted our input into whether the property could support quad, side by side and 4x4 training... Yes, yes it can.

Spring fed waterhole

Easy access to the camping area

Rolling hills

Courses coming up.

Next weekend is our big, HUGE April skills weekend.

Take your offroading to the next level.

Join Dave at Landcruiser Park for our famous Low Range Course on Saturday and / or our Advanced Skills course on Sunday. At this time there are only a couple of places left so BOOK NOW.

Mike will be out at Noosa North Shore on Sunday the 19th doing a Beach Skills course... it's all happening. BOOK NOW

Website update

Have you seen our updated FACT SHEETS page? It's your one stop for all the info on our range of courses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our new Fact Sheets page.

What caught our eye this week.

This Instagram page from TJM Costa Rica.
This article from Ron Moon about Bent Utes.
We also put out our after Easter Newsletter.

This Week Off-road - Easter 2015

With a bit of a break coming up it was time to give the Quad and Side by Side some love. They hide/hold an amazing amount of mud.

They'll be looking like this again before the Easter Weekend is over.

Seems most people were already on holidays, but our time was spent putting together quotes for training in Cairns, Longreach, Morree and Sydney - some with existing clients, others for new clients.

Would you like to see the "Edge of the Desert" in July?

 If you would like more information, please call on 1300 725 440 or email to courses@AustralianOffroadAcademy.com.au

Did you see our Top Tips for a Fraser Island Easter?

 

Our Easter Fraser Island Survival Guide

You can read the full story here.

We had a play with an all new Map.

Our Friends at Hema Maps have invited us to be a part of a small beta test of a very exciting new product.

We can't say much more about it just yet.

 

What caught our eye this week?

• Matt from Unsealed gave us an update on Snoopy the Troopy, fitted out by TJM Penrith 
• This folder on Pinterest with some interesting Camper Trailer Builds.
• This infographic explaining trailer and caravan terms.