A Tasmanian adventurer is funding a new Prado entirely with river gold. His target is a base Land Cruiser Prado priced near AU$80,000. One canyon dive on his best day pulled 22 grams worth thousands of dollars. Instead of wrestling with high interest rates or a trade-in negotiation, Tasmanian content creator and adventurer Rob Parsons is trying to fund his next vehicle the hard way, using nothing but ancient prospecting techniques to get there. He wants a brand-new off-roader, and his plan is to pull the money out of the ground one riverbed at a time. The explorer, known for his navigation skills and solo expeditions, has launched a multi-day challenge to gather enough gold from remote waterways to cover the keys to that new truck. It sounds like a gimmick, and yet the math works. More: Aussie Toyota Land Cruiser Prado Gets A Weird Grille Option The target of this wilderness operation is the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. The rugged SUV runs the mild-hybrid 2.8-liter turbodiesel engine and comes standard with 4WD. From his video it is understood that Parsons wants to buy the entry-level GX trim in Midnight Alloy shade, which carries a driveaway price of AU$ 79,545 (US$ 54,800) in Hobart, Tasmania. Parsons documents the journey through short videos posted to his Facebook page. Those will likely be stitched into a longer YouTube clip once the challenge wraps up. More: This Land Cruiser Camper Sleeps Four And Hides A Shower Cubicle Across the first 13 days of the experiment he has gathered AU$ 25,501 (US$ 17,600) worth of gold, which works out to an average of AU$ 1,960 (US$ 1,350) per day. Not every dive plays out the same way, though, and scavenging instinct matters more here than physical labor. His best stint so far was Day 12, which produced a massive 21.71 grams of gold valued at AU$ 4,072.34 (US$ 2,800), pulled from a deep canyon pool with the help of a portable dive compressor setup. The low point came on Day 8, bringing in just 0.80 grams worth AU$ 151.98 (US$ 105) before a hardware failure in his satellite communication forced him to abort the mission early. While Parsons still needs another AU$ 54,000 (US$ 37,200) to reach his ultimate purchase target, his early yield proves that old-school grit might just beat modern financing if you have the right skills and experience. Hopefully, he will soon be able to buy his dream Toyota using it to reach new locations in the Tasmanian wilderness.
