If you’re already an Ultimate Campers owner, there’s no doubt you know why having one is so good. So how did we come about to become Ulti owners? Here’s our story.
Like most Ultimate owners, we love travelling around Oz — whether it’s to take in pristine beaches, wide sweeping plains, red desert sands or everything in between, we love it all. Let’s say the travel bug has been in our blood for a long, long time.
Like many travellers, we’ve owned swags, tents, the old box trailer, soft floor campers, and the odd hard floor camper over the years. However, we were introduced to the world of Ultimate Campers a few years ago by some travelling companions when visiting WA’s western deserts region, who now have become life-long friends.
While initially seeing an Ultimate Camper from afar some years ago, we never really took a closer look until recent times. In fact, we initially thought they couldn’t handle the type of camping or travelling we do. Our travelling style requires us to have a quick setup and pack up, and we wanted a comfy bed and plenty of storage.
So when we took that closer look at the Ultimate, we were amazed as to how much is packed into what seems like a small camper, and being so light in weight, it was a massive bonus given the type of terrain we like to traverse.
When it comes to storage, we find the Ultimate is like Dr Who’s Tardis…it’s small to look at, but oh so big inside! How many campers offer so much storage – with 4 external hatches, massive nose cone storage, with more storage inside under seats, and what about all those double locking drawers, and a pantry? The list just keeps on going.
The bed is a massive king sized one, so there’s plenty of room to sprawl out. Add to this the creature comforts such as gas heating, hot water on tap, refrigeration, gas burner hot plates, and a lounge area to seat 6 adults, this sounds more like glamping than camping.
We conducted a lot of research prior to making our purchase, and in fact, we threw three pages of questions to the Ultimate team as our needs were quite specific. In particular, we needed wheels and tyres to match our vehicle (35 inches), an endless supply of 12v power (lithium batteries), quality charging systems, an inverter so we can bake bread and charge multiple batteries, a solar solution on the camper lid, lighting solutions for around camp, capacity for jerry cans, and 240v external outlets. These were just a few of the requests we had, and you know what? We now have all of that, and more!!
As travelling photojournalists, we need all weather camping so we can bring our work inside to escape the elements should we need to. While at the same time, we’re looking for comfort, and need the camper to go anywhere we can take our vehicle. For these reasons the Ultimate XPLOR GT was our choice, with a few small tweaks here and there.
So how has it performed to date? Well, it’s early days in its young life. So far, it’s tackled an adventure from Alice Springs to Cape York via the Binns Track, Old Coach Road around Maytown, and Cape York’s iconic OTL. It’s also sucked up the corrugations of the Anne Beadell Highway, skipped along the Connie Sue, enjoyed the David Carnegie Road, and cruised along the Gunbarrel Highway…and it’s done all of this well beyond our expectations.
Follow us as we look for those roads and tracks less travelled, and we’ll share some of our adventures along the way as we head out to explore this wonderful country.
Keep those Ultimate campers exploring!