Hans with his rig en-route to Melbourne

ADVENTURER Hans Tholstrup has proved that fellow grey nomads can beat the scourge of rising fuel prices.

Avid traveller Hans has just completed the 864km trip between Sydney and Melbourne in a manual turbo diesel Hyundai towing a camper trailer ... on less than one tank of fuel.

Hans, who undertook the first ever east-to-west 4WD solo crossing of Australia in the 1970s, says it proves people do not have to abandon their dream of seeing Australia.

"Travelling around this great land of ours is a right of passage for grey nomads," he said. "We need to keep the dream alive."

It took under 11 hours and less than 53 litres of fuel to complete the trip between the two cities in a Hyundai i30 SX CRDi towing a Cub Kamparoo Weekender.

The 400kg trailer had an additional 300kg of weight added to ensure it represented normal touring conditions.

Much of the trip was completed in wet weather and the average consumption was a miserly 5.4 litres per 100km with a CO2 output of only 142g/100km. This was three times less fuel than a regular 4WD towing a caravan.

Sixty three-year-old Hans, who is now a grey nomad himself, believes people need to change their thoughts about travel.

"Ayers Rock looks exactly the same whether you travel there in a motorhome or a Cub camper," he said. "If you spend less money getting there you can splurge on other things."

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