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.