Reconfirmed LandCruiser Rentals
Called up Budget to reconfirm the car rentals. I must have had a tin ear when I first heard the details. The insurance is $20.70/dayAUD. Taxes amount to 3.3%. I think there are a few other bullshit fees, but it all basically squares up.
Schedule
You probably didn't notice, but I did change the daily schedule a bit. We've never been let off the waitlist for the convenient flight from Darwin to Alice Springs. Appears like we'll be stuck in Darwin till the afternoon and only arrive in Alice on Sunday evening.
This cuts out a day designated for logistics assembly.
Jol Flemming Reverts
The 4wd recovery class we'll be taking is going to run from 9am till 4pm. That leaves us just enough time to collect our cars from Budget 8am monday morning.
The problem (I think) is it leaves us only that time. There are always countless errands to run, including collecting a cylinder of helium. Australian shops close early, so this will be nip and tuck.
I really don't want to cut out a 4wd day so that we can lazily range about collecting groceries the following day. The first day drive, down the Finke, is going to be a long one. We can't afford to do logistics till 1030AM and then get on the road. We need to leave at daybreak. So the plan will have to be we have two detailed to-do lists, and as soon as JolSchool is excused for the day, we'll break up into two "tactical units" to go and rapidly tick things off the list.
Quartermaster
Speaking of Jol, he also reverted with the prices for renting the 4wd equipment we'll need...
These prices aren't great. As Matt said, at these rates, he's depreciating the items across several weeks. However, Jol would be a good physical oil trader, because he's pricing all this versus our alternatives.
Our alternatives aren't good. We try to buy this rubbish, it'll waste a day, cost much more, and then be thrown away when we leave.
We can toss out one of the CBs, saving twenty-five dollars.
We could skip the fridge, but that's going to mean we still need to get a cooler, which we'll either end up renting from him (groan) or buying ourselves.
The conditions are so banal there, even the shittiest K-Mart tent would be fine, but the thing is, two of the shittiest Kmart tents probably cost close to $100AUD dollars anyway, plus you have to bring them.
My opinion is that the rational thing to do is just go along and source from him -- it's simpler and cheaper. Trying to pare $50 from the bill when we're spending $5000 on venicles seems like a bad use of time.
A few things I didn't see listed that I expected were things like a simple toolkit and a strap to tow one truck with another.
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*note to self: It also probably doesn't help to be having our internal negotiation discussions on a public website which the vendors can also freely read, but let's save that problem for our next trip to Australia.