The Krypton goes Outback

Written by Geoff Murray

I had a trip planned on my motorcycle through outback Australia in September and when the new Mont Krypton integral pitch tent arrived I thought it would be good to test it on an extended trip.

My plan was to ride up through western NSW and Queensland then work my way across to Tennant Creek before following the Stuart Highway down through Central  Australia then back to Melbourne.

At the last minute I decided to reverse the route hopefully to allow the flood  waters to recede in NSW and QLD. It was a good choice.

I spent 15 consecutive nights in the tent, 20 nights in total (as well as staying with friends and rellies on the way) and it proved to be a superb place to spend time. Roomy, very quick to erect and dismantle, well ventilated even in the hot central Australian nights and naturally it was good to know that whatever the weather threw at it, it would cope.

The trip was a bit different from my usual pedestrian mode of travel but it was still very satisfying and interesting with some of the highlights being waking up to a stunning sunrise as a storm approached north of Port Augusta, seeing the massively long road trains pulling up to 4 trailers on single lane roads (wise to pull over and let them pass), waking up at Middleton (nearly 200kms from anywhere) as wild pigs starting pulling out my tent pegs and seeing the incredibly extensive flooding in western NSW as I rode a road that traversed kilometre after kilometre of deeply flooded countryside. It was also great to drop in to the Mont headquarters in Canberra to catch up with the guys and check out one of my prints in use there.

28 days and 10,600 kms after I started I was back in Tassie heading for home.

I took my Mont Helium 450 sleeping bag with me which once again demonstrated how incredibly versatile it is. The nights varied from 3.5C to 20+C and it was comfortable in all temperatures. Considering I spent a night in it at -9.5C in the Tassie mountains a couple of months ago (admittedly with extra clothing on) it’s almost the perfect all round bag.

An excellent trip but now it’s time to head back to the bush :)

Mont Ambassador

Geoff Murray