We received an email from the following couple hoping for some advice regarding buying a rig for travelling around Australia.  Can anyone out there help?

"We are looking to make contact with grey nomads who might be willing to assist us-either with advice, selling 4 WD and/or caravan and/or kitting out of a caravan.  It would be good to meet some experienced caravanners as soon as we arrive.

We are a couple aged 55-60 (one English the other Canadian) who are arriving in Sydney on February 13^th 2008 to spend a year travelling around Oz.  We are looking to purchase a used or nearly new 4 WD (Automatic Toyota Land Cruiser or a Mitsubishi Pajero) capable of pulling at least 2000 Kg.  The essential features a used or newly new caravan would be ( single beds at both ends of the caravan-no double beds; separate toilet and shower compartment-not all one; preferably with an awning; U shaped sitting area; good working service; good storage.  Naturally coming from abroad we have nothing to put into the caravan so we have a long list of things which we will need like pots/pans, bedding, cutlery, etc. so if anything is thinking of selling these perhaps as a package it would be good to hear from you via our email address bob@deschene.freeserve.co.uk.

We are working on a budget of A$60,000 for 4 WD, caravan and kitting out the caravan and 4 WD. We have information on the major caravan parks on our route but don't having any knowledge of either off road camping and roadside camping-any wisdom or do's and don't from members would be appreciated. 

Our plan is to travel up the coast to just north of Cairns (we are not doing Cape York) and then via Townsville across to Tennet's Creek, down to Alice Springs then back up to Darwin/Kakadu area, across to Broome and then down the west coast to Perth where we will sell our 4 WD and caravan so if you know anyone who might be interested in buying in roughly Jan/Feb 2009.

We are looking forward to hearing from you."