We have crisscrossed the country, from extreme off roading to towing a caravan on long highways. We always knew we were running the car down and that day has come. We got nearly 400,000 kms out of her.

We picked up our brand new Prado on the Sunshine Coast in 2007. Yep, she was a Queenslander!

We drove her back to Perth while doing a six book series on Australia’s heritage so we went to some great places.

After just two weeks, we sat in Katoomba Blue Mountains, watching a monster hail storm smash western suburbs a few kilometres away. It missed our brand new car, thankfully. Little did we know we would have a big one in Perth a few years later and our Prado had the scars to prove it.

We traversed many soft sandy beaches, crossed flooded creeks, plowed along tracks kicking up clouds of bull dust, crawled down steep rocky slopes and found remote camping spots in beautiful locations. We went to the eastern most and western most points on mainland Australia. Yet to tick off Cape York the northern most point, but that adventure awaits.

Without doubt, it’s our off road adventures in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley region that brings up our fondest memories.

Summing up, our Prado clicked up 13 years and 400,000km, 30,000 kms per year. Not bad going at all. For now it’s a downsize to nippy red car we just picked up today. That will buy some time so we can come up with our next 4WD rig that will once again get us back exploring the Outback.