Buddy Plot

Road tripping with your high school best bud seems like the best idea in the world… until you’re actually doing it, that is. Trust me on this. Two days in, you’ll be starting to question the wisdom of picking them as your pal in year seven, and five days in you’ll be well and truly convinced you’ve made a grave error in judgement of character.

Having said that, by day ten you’ll have finally returned to square one, appreciating them for their flawless country playlists, ability to talk their way out of anything and, first and foremost, the irreplaceable bond of shared experience the two of you have together – as much as you hate their stupid guts.

By that point, though, you’ll almost at your destination, where you’ll inevitably proceed to lose all respect for them once again. The return journey will be spent in vain attempts to patch up a seemingly broken friendship, which will provide plenty of fodder for stories next time you make this same idiotic mistake – which you will, because you love their guts.

Welcome to the roller-coaster ride. It all started innocently enough, with us both looking to buy an aluminium ute toolbox. Melbourne being an environment conducive to collaboration, we decided to go in together on one really rad rig, and combine our proposed 4WD-ing trips into one big, jolly adventure. Little did we realise that we essentially wanted different things from our respective trips – me to take in the wilderness and spend time on my photography, and Hank to indulge his speed demon tendencies on the wide open road.

We were, at least, reliably able to maintain a bond through our shared enthusiasm for custom vehicle accessories, like underbody tool boxes for utes. That’s hardly a firm foundation for a friendship of ‘best buds’ status, but we both so fed up with each other that were willing to take whatever we could get.

We did finally compromise, with me agreeing to take some mad photos Hank doing some sick dune driving.