Len purchased his first car at age 16 and has been travelling around Australia ever since. After completing a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering, he secured a job in the Experimental Department of a major Australian car company. His first contact with the Australian outback came during an engineering test trip to Alice Springs to test radial tyres and air conditioning. The trip sparked his love of the outback, and many other similar trips followed, both for work and for holidays.

He was one of the first motorists to cross the Great Victoria Desert from Uluru in the Northern Territory to Laverton in West Australia along what is now known as the Great Central Road, although back then it was nothing but a rough, narrow, sandy track. Other trips to Burketown on the Gulf of Carpentaria and Normanton in northern Australia followed, along with camping holidays in the Kimberley and central Australia.