Things change in 5 years

In planning this trip laura and I cast our memory back to our original trip in 2008 when we travelled up to Darwin, lived there for two months, then travelled down to Adelaide and over to Perth where we lived for two months as well. We wanted to learn from that trip, so as not to make the same mistakes as last time but also to remember how much fun we had and give us another reason to leave on this trip.

A few things that we took from the last trip that we will change this time are this, we rushed the last trip, driving long distances and driving past places that we should have stopped at. This time we are making a concerted effort to not be on the road for more than 4 hour each travel day, also where we can we will try to stay at places for a minimum of 2 days so as were not travelling on consecutive days.

 We didn't have a sufficient vehicle or trailer(That's due to budget constraints), we feel this time to truly experience Australia we have to have a 4wd that's capable of towing our trailer off road. Our Trailer we had previously was an older and fairly basic trailer and while it served us well we realized with children we need a new trailer with more annex room as well as storage.

Not that 2008 was the dark ages but in 5 years a lot has changed in technology that we can use to help us make the trip easier. Last trip we had a computer with a USB dongle that was pretty expensive and not up to todays standard in regards to speed. We now have iPhone's and an ipad that will be extremely helpful with things like navigation, booking accommodation, keeping the kids occupied, music, etc.

A big difference already in planning this trip is our rescources, the amount of information on the internet now is amazing and has given us a huge base to start with. Not only are there many websites that we have been using to plan, but there is also many blogs and facebook pages of families that are travelling or have travelled that we have used to give us information.

I suppose the biggest different between our 2008 trip and this trip has to be the two kids we will be sharing this experience with. Last trip was all about ourselves, we could do what we wanted when we wanted whereas this trip our focus shifts to what the kids want and we have to plan around them which is exciting and offers us a different perspective for our travels.

Must See Places

Where to go and what to do is going to take some planning to get to as many of them as we can. In doing some research I read another bloggers post(sorry cant remember who but thank you) and they said the best way to get to the most places you want to see is to buy a large map of Australia and pin every place you want to go, it means that whenever you see a new place you can pin it.

Here are some of the places that we must go to on the way round, some of these places we haven't been to but either read about, seen on TV or just heard through the grape vine. Others are places we have been to before but just have to return as we enjoyed it so much, didn't see all of it or we just want to go back and do and see the place again.

Cape York
The Kimberly's
The Pilbra
The Gibb river road
Darwin (been there and love it, could live there)
Kakadu ( for some reason didn't get to it last time)
Alice Springs
Mcdonnell Ranges
Birdsville
Stockton Beach
Coffs Harbour
Esperence (spent a night here, should have stayed a week)
Cape Riche (same as above, best beaches that ive been to)
Exmouth (Want to swim with the whale sharks)
Kangaroo Island
Beachport(Want to travel the robe to beachport track)
Hahndorf
Flinders Ranges
The Great Ocean Road
The Mouth of the Murray

This list will be added to as we prepare

If anyone else has any must see's please let us know, Im keen to explore as much of this great brown land.

Our Car

In February this year it was decided that my Navara wasn't going to be the best vehicle to allow us to travel as a family, so I decided to do some research on some possible replacements. It came down to two cars, either a land cruiser or patrol 4.2litre Diesel. I was finding it hard to decide as they both had pros and cons, in the end my wife liked the shape of the patrol better. I also new a few people with patrol 4.2 and they spoke highly of them so it was set that we would get a patrol.

The only problem now was A) finding one reasonably close and B) finding one in my budget( I didn't realize how expensive they were). After a few weeks looking one came up 20 mins from home which was in the price range and looked neat.

I went and had a look at it and I thought this was the one, so put an offer on it and long story short the next week I was picking him up and straight away was researching what needed to be done to get it ready to travel.

The car has been in our family for 4 months now and we love it( Although we haven't christened it in the bush yet due to bubs coming and hectic work life). The biggest difference between the Patrol and Navara has to be the back seat space and in essence that's why we brought a wagon to give us room for two children travelling.

Ive come across a couple of minor hiccups since I got the car which is to be expected when buying second hand, the biggest issue which im still yet to fully diagnose is a bit of a rough startup when cold and some intermittent white smoke for the first 30 secs to a minute. Ive done a few things which have improved but nit fixed the problem but I believe taking it to a diesel fuel injection shop and give it a tune up will fix it (fingers crossed)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

its been a while

so the last 3 months have been crazy for our family, we introduced Ryder Hornstra to the world to make our family 4. We also had to say goodbye two family members which was very hard. I have also been working long hours which is why I haven't posted anything for a considerable time, but from here on in I will try and send a steady flow of info of our final planning stages and then the trip itself

I almost forgot to add that since my last post things have changed, not our desire to travel but our start date has been moved forward to early January which is only 2 months away. The reasons for this are varied but what it has done is start a bit of hysteria.  We realize that we have so much to do in that time and second thoughts have started entering our heads because we know how hard this could be with 2 young children

We also realize that this could be a once in a lifetime experince that we should grab with both hands. The thing that keeps us keen as mustard is looking at other peoples experiences and watching TV shows that portray this country in the way we think it is "The Lucky Country". So as I said plans have change a little bit, now we plan on heading off to south Australia, get to about Ceduna and then start heading back , drive along the Murray and then make our way towards Sydney. But then again things change :)