Big Trip rough itinerary

I’ve spent much of my spare time in the last few months planning and thinking and dreaming and plotting about our Big Trip. In November we plan to head off on a 14 month trip camping in Australia. In a nutshell we’re going to concentrate on the parts of Australia west of Adelaide. This way we hope to have the time to really explore at our own pace the parts of Australia that are going to be difficult for us to reach again in a camping trip from Brisbane in a 2 week school holiday. And I’m beginning to think, we’ll have the time to explore possibly the most beautiful parts of Australia.

So our plan at this stage:

D-Day: Departure Day is set for Friday 9 November 2012. We hop on a flight to Cairns to hang out for a few days of R&R with friends on their farm in the rainforests of the North. All going well the morning of Wed 14 Nov will be clear and sunny so we get the full impact of the Total Solar Eclipse that’s going to occur early that morning. What a way to start the trip!!   Eclipse 2012

The morning of the eclipse we fly back to Brisbane, jump in our packed car and trailer and drive towards the QLD border (probably Goondiwindi). So that night we’ll watch the sunset over QLD for the last time for another 14 months, after witnessing a total solar eclipse with our family of five. What a day that will be!

We then head to Bourke in outback NSW and travel along the Darling River to where it meets the Murray River. Along the Darling we’ll spend a few days at a station, camping beside the river where they have canoes and yabby traps for you to use for free. Sounds great. Another stop will be at Lake Mungo National Park where humans have lived for an estimated 30-40,000 years ago.

We’ll camp beside the Murray in Mildura, Vic for a few days and enjoy the produce on offer there. I’m also hoping to have a little trip to Ouyen, just south of there, where my Pop was born more than 80 years ago. He often talked about the Mallee and I’ve never seen it.

From there we head due west into SA and go across the Spencer Gulf to reach the Eyre Peninsula (think Port Lincoln). Here we stop and rest and the ‘holiday’ begins.

We imagine crossing the Nullabor will take us a few days. Along the way there are many disused telegraph stations falling into ruins. But I’ve booked us in to stay a night in one of the old stone cottages (yes a night not in canvas) at the Eyre Bird Observatory. I don’t know much about birds but think they’ll feature in our trip so would like to know more about what we are seeing!!

Our plan is to be camping at Cape Le Grand National Park near Esperence WA for Christmas and New Year. We need to get there before the school holidays in WA start to try to get ourselves a camping site. So it’s likely we’ll be in paradise for around 3 weeks.

We’ll then meander our way around the southern coast of WA and then head north to Perth and beyond. Coral spawning happens around March and that brings in the whale sharks around the Ningaloo Reef (Coral Bay and Exmouth). Hugo has been saving to go diving with the whale sharks for almost a year now so hopefully we are then when the seas are calm and we’re all planning on going out.

If the weather is on our side, we’re also hoping to head inland to see the Kennedy Ranges and Mt Augustus. The Pilbara is exciting us and we’re looking forward to exploring this before we head to the Kimberley.

We’d like to spend at least 6 weeks in the Kimberley so we can potter around and check out every nook and cranny that interests us.

 If the canoes are suitable for a family of five, we’re also thinking about a few nights on the Ord River camping along the way. Inspired by Simon’s mate Broc and his family who did a much bigger canoe paddle down the Yukon a year ago.

From here we’ll head into the NT where we hope to spend a decent chunk of time in Arnhem land, Kakadu, Darwin and surrounds.

We’ll spend as much time as we can exploring the Top End of NT before the wet season begins which will drive us south to Central Australia and down again into Outback SA before the heat drives us further south to the cooling winds of the coast. We’re really looking forward to camping at Arkaroola, Flinders Ranges, Innes NP at Yorke Peninsula (one blogger says it’s the best NP in Australia and they’ve done lots of travel) and Kangaroo Island.

From here we’ll pop into see our family in Victoria for some love and homely comforts and if time is on our side we’ll try camp around Tassie for 4 weeks or so before we high tail it back to Brissie for the beginning of the school and kindy year of 2014.

 Not sure if we’ll fit it all in, our route will change because of weather and hearing of other amazing places from locals and other travellers, but that’s the rough plan. Brilliant, huh?

Four months and counting

Today is July 1. Each morning brings us a day closer to the day we take off on our big adventure. So I'm beginning to get a little anxious about all the things we need to do between now and then.

The biggest thing I need to do is to de-clutter our home and pack it all into boxes. It's a daunting prospect and although I get flurries of high energy and motivation, they are only flurries and not easily sustained. Last week I took a few shopping bags to the op shop and put lots in the bin.  But it feels like I need to be doing that for a couple of weeks on end to make a dent into our enormous pile of clutter. 

I imagine the hardest things be going through all the paperwork we have in various piles and deciding what to do with it - and filing it!

The biggest barrier is my own mental attitude about it all - I think I'm making this bigger than it needs to be and when I get stuck in, it won't be that hard or that long at all...I hope.

It's time for me to put away the maps and brochures and stopping planning our trip and start packing for our trip!  My new mantra, I think.

Our trak shak

Trak Shak photo album

Seeing how this way of adding photos works!!

Our canvas home

We bought our Trak Shak in August 2011 took it out to Mum and Dad's farm to pull it out and make it 'ours'. We took a bunch of photos.  I think I decided to be proactive and took lots of pics so that if/when we got to sell it, we have all the photos of it in its glory!

This is another lesson for me - working out how to link to the Picasa album. Oh, so that's different to how I thought it would look! Will keep on experimenting.

But below are the pics of Bertha - comfortably sleeps 6, has solar panels, two fridges, 2 queen sized beds up of the ground, annexe, lots of jerry cans for water and fuel and hopefully room to add some bike racks!

Learning how to blog

Welcome to 2012!

This year we have a very long to-do list to prepare ourselves, our home, our 4WD and camper for our year-long trip. One of the things on the list is to learn how to blog proficiently and that means adding photos and links and movies.

Would love to know your tips and hints for doing it quickly, bearing in mind that our access to broadband is going to be patchy.

the photo I've included is a self-timer shot we took when we were on holiday in September. For the life of me I cannot remember the waterfall, but it's beween Armidale and Ebor in the New England ranges of NSW.  I was here years ago when I was in high school and they had no fences or signs to warn you of the almighty drop off right beside the car park. How things have changed!

Among the 'learnings' we are going to do as part of our trip preparation are:
First aid course (for Jo, Simon's done his already)
Sand driving course - doing that on the weekend for free with Coastcare
4WD course
Off-road trailer course
Photography (maybe, for Simon)
Homeopathy for families (Jo)
Learn how to use in-car navigation system and console Simon's put in (Jo to learn, Simon's figured it out)
Check out home-schooling options

I've just reviewed our 'to do list' and Simon is tracking along nicely with lots of jobs he was responsible for ticked off the list.  He's a champ!

Next post I might bore you with the list of things we need to do around the house to make it ready to rent/store our belongings.

We're really excited that now it's 2012 we can say 'THIS year we leave on our big trip.'  What are you excited about in 2012?

Beach holiday here we come

The end of the school year is nigh, everyone is exhausted, and I think we’re well and truly ready for the summer holidays to officially start.  I’m regretting that months ago, still high from our last holiday, I thought we’d set off on our next holiday at 6am, the first day of the school holiday. 

So this Friday at 6am we’re meant to be packed and ready to go.

And we’re not the least bit ready for it!  And not only are we not ready for it, but I’m not even ready to get ready.

I’ve booked us into Darlington Park caravan park, just north of Coffs Harbour that according to the crazed cyclists we met at Armidale in September, is the BEST caravan park in the whole of Australia.  Big sites, right on the beach, pool, archery, camp kitchen and best of all a jumping pillow in view of the site I’ve booked.

I hope it’s as good as it looks on the website and from the personal recommendation.  We’re all looking forward to having a proper holiday where we actually get to open a book, perhaps even read it, stay put for more than 2 nights and possibly even get a sleep in!!!

Bring it on.  

Does somebody want to pack for us? 

From top to bottom (of NSW)

One week down...  not sure how many kilometres but at least 3 or 4 tanks of fuel.

Best lines from the kids so far:

Isobel: Actually I'm the smartest in the family.
Hugo: We're going to meet the snow today for the first time.
Hugo: Getting me a drink of water is more important than anything you're doing.
Simon: Whatever you do, don't call him Stinky Pete. 

Camping highlights:
Surviving -2 degree temps in Armidale.
Meetings lots of interesting people: 
Geoff and Sue cycling from Perth to Byron Bay!
Steve the fossiker, kids likened him to Stinky Pete. Great character who taught us how to fossick for sapphires. We got a few too. More interesting than fishing, that's for sure.
Bushwalking along a razorback ridge with the kids and having lunch in the most spectacular places.

Sick-of-camping highlight:
Boorowa Hotel. Spent the night in a classic Australian hotel. Double story, on the corner, wrought iron verandah. Met more lovely people including the pub dog. Best of all it was almost as cheap as the caravan park in Dubbo and it included b'fast! 

Tracing the steps of bushrangers:
Hugo has loved going to all of Thunderbolts' hangouts. His hideout at Tenterfield, his cave at Armidale, his rock at Uralla and his statue there as well. We decided not to check out his grave - too morbid.

Surprises:

We are loving NSW country towns.  They are filled with graceful old buildings and loads of character. Werris Creek, near Tamworth had a supermarket with pressed metal ceilings and columns, an historic railway station, and other beautiful buildings.
Glen Innes - just stunning including its Post Office.
Canowindra - the main street has a bend to it and each side is lined with beautiful old buildings. I wished we'd taken a photo.
Boorowa - more old buildings.

The thing we love the best is that none of these towns have been 'glitzed' up for tourists - just all in that authentic, slightly run-down, we-were-once-prosperous-and-proud kind of feelings emanating from them (if buildings could talk).  Most of these towns are thriving little hubs with friendly locals.

One bloke yesterday saw us pull into the Canowindra caravan park (smallest one we've seen) and pull out again. He came across the road with the local paper to show us the recent article on that caravan park that said it was great.  He said 'the bloke that runs it looks like a no-hoper but he must be doing alright as it's won a few awards.' What a great promo for the park! Previous owner used to give people afternoon tea when they arrived. If we weren't so intent on reaching the snow we would've stayed there, just because of his recommendation!

The changing and passing landscape has kept us all captivated and engaged. Kids chat away together in their elaborate imaginary world, sing along to Charlie Pride and play I-Spy. We resort to a CD of nursery rhymes when we need some quiet, chill-out time.

We even swung past Parliament House in Canberra to show the kids where the PM works, where Simon and I have protested, and accidentally came upon the Edmund Barton Building and statue. If it didn't house the Australian Federal Police and have 'no standing' signs everywhere we would have taken a pic of Hugo Barton standing next to a bronze of his namesake. 

The snow and zoo!!
Two of the biggest things we've done with the kids is take them to the Western Plains Zoo and the snow. Strange that on Sunday and Monday we were slapping on sunscreen, and enjoying the heat and dust of the zoo with all the great animals there on show.  And by Tuesday afternoon we were donning the thermals and fleeces and braving the slopes with our little $30 snow 'slider' from Aldi and enjoying our first flurry of snow. Yes, late September and it was actually snowing today up in the Snowy Mountains! 

And I haven't even mentioned the national parks and waterfalls east of Armidale!  We will be going back there in December we hope to spend more time there.

We think by this time tomorrow we will be curled up in our sleeping bags in amongst the giant gum trees of East Gippsland and then winging our way to my grandparents where we'll have a few days of needed stillness!