Karl’s own Tiger adventure

KARL Russo’s mission to find a bus for a surfing road trip spawned a hair-raising adventure of its own.
Karl and his friend Simon Van Dam bought their 1976 Leyland ‘Tiger’ in an online auction in October last year.
The only catch was they had to go all the way to Adelaide to get it.
The pair left Melbourne at 6am and arrived in Adelaide at 9am, ‘running on adrenaline’ and keen to get the bus back home.
After completing the paperwork they turned around and were on the road back to Melbourne by 9.30am.
It was a very long trip home with the van cruising along at 70 km/h and reaching top speeds of 80km/h – downhill.
“It’s a bit of a challenge to drive. It’s a bit like an old truck,” Karl said.
The van almost overheated coming out of Adelaide, which wasn’t surprising as the day reached a sweltering 38 degrees.
Karl said they had to stop every half an hour.
“It took almost 15 hours to get back to Melbourne; I think the drive usually takes about eight hours,” he said.
But the drama didn’t end there. About an hour out of Melbourne, the oil gauge burst.
Karl said by this stage it was dark and he felt his foot getting wet.
“We got out and had a look with the torch and oil was leaking out,” he said.
“I had a black leg like a penguin in an oil slick.”
Karl and Simon also picked up a hitchhiker in Horsham, who probably got a lot more than he bargained for by choosing this particular bus over the train.
“There were a few points where I didn’t think we were going to make it home,” he said.
Since Karl and Simon bought the van it has been parked in an orchard on a family member’s property in Officer.
“We will definitely be giving it the full make over,” he said.
Most of the restoration work will be left to mechanics, but Karl said he has enjoyed making external improvements, including ripping out the old interior and putting in new windows.
“We ripped everything out inside. It had a gas stove and a fridge,” he said.
“The bus itself was in pretty good nick.”
Karl is also looking forward to giving it a new paint job, possibly adding a design on the side.
“We will probably paint it light blue and creamy white,” he said.
Karl and Simon have been tinkering away over the past year, hoping to get the ‘Tiger’ roadworthy by Christmas.
Karl thinks it will probably be winter until they finally take the long awaited road trip, but at least the personalised numberplates are all sorted, complete with the van’s name: ‘Berryl’.
“The plan is to drive it up the east coast, maybe to Byron Bay,” he said.
“Hopefully we’ll make it that far and back.”
As well as taking time to surf, Karl and Simon hope to fund part of the trip by fitting in gigs along the way with their acoustic band ‘The R and R’.
The band, with Karl on guitar and Simon on vocals and conga, put the money made from playing weddings, birthdays and other functions towards the bus purchase.
Karl said that he has now learnt how much time and especially money goes into restoring old vehicles, but Berryl was exactly what he and Simon were looking for.
“We do love the old cars. We bought it because it had that old character,” he said.