How did this trip come about?

When Melinda was pregnant with Kaytlin (July 2007), she developed a dream to travel around Australia and set the date being July 2011. This was a date decided for a few reasons;

-fitted in best with the children’s schooling- Zach should be settled enough to have 6 months out of school, Josh and Kaytlin would not be in school.

– give us time to save!

The idea grew on Joe and so plans and targets started to be drawn up.

How did we save what we needed?

Selling an investment property paid for the purchase of our van, which we had made to suit our needs.

The rest was just work hard, spend little and save hard! We had a small holiday to break up the long saving- but we were very blessed to have Joe’s parents holiday house to have a couple of other breaks.

We were also very blessed to rent out part of house when we left- this will help pay for the mortgage while we are away.

How does Zach’s schooling work?

In NSW, there are a couple of options for schooling children outside the school environment. These are generally distance education or home schooling. To keep it brief, we didn’t feel that either option was best for us. Zach was granted an ‘exception from school attendance’ for terms 3 and 4. This means that he is still a student of Bangor Primary and will learn generally the same work as his classmates, but will be taught by myself and Joe. That way, we can use a lot of his ‘excursions’ to various places and expand on his enjoyment of them, as well as keep in line with what his classmates are doing.

How did you work out the trip planner?

We started with a draft of the general route and particular places of interest. Then we watched a variety of dvd’s and did some more research (ie realistic distances) and drew up a 2nd draft. As we move along, we are changing things slightly as we go.

Things that influenced change so far have been weather (we left the coast when the weather got bad), special interest in a certain area (going to Muswellbrook, rather than Forster), loving a place so we stayed longer (Coffs Harbor), location of caravan parks with good deals ( ie Big 4 at Forest Glen)

What resources do you use?

* Friends who have done past trips ( thanks Rob and Alison!), friends who have done little trips and friends you make around the campfire- giving you advice as you go.

* Caravan and Camping On Tour- magazine and DVD- Brilliant DVDs

* Camps 6- free-camping guide- another must have!

* Big 4 membership and information

*Book- ‘1000 places to travel with kids in Australia’, by Anna Ciddor. A must buy for travel with kids- I am always looking in it!

*Google!!

*Information centres in all towns

*Information picked up at Caravan and Camping Expo

What interesting people have you meet along your travels?

We were amazed and touched by a whole variety of people we have met along our trip. It was amazing to sit around a campfire and just chat to people from all walks of life- to hear their stories of life and travel. Apart from catching up with many friends and family throughout our trip, we met a number of interesting characters along our journey;

*Along the Qld coast, we met a family (parents and 2 young boys) who had sold their Perth house and had basically free-camped around Australia for the past year. They had left an older daughter in boarding school back in Perth. They loved Melbourne so much, they were heading back down to Victoria to purchase a house and settle in there permanently. What an amazing way to sea-change!

*At Uluru, we met 3 Japanese boys in their early 20’s. They had flown into Uluru on the Friday, were flying to Sydney on the Saturday and were flying back to Japan on the Sunday. Amazing!

*At Kata Tjuta, we met a couple who were cycling around…wait for it…the world! Miriam started in Holland in 2003 and met up with Stuart in 2009. We were amazed by their story- simply riding each day and camping wherever they stop! As we had our van with us that day, we were able to give them some icy cold coke- ahh- the little pleasures! The kids also enjoyed sharing some mars bars and cookies with them.

* Free camping at Desert Oaks rest stop one night, we had a visit by an interesting character who was travelling by himself. Chatting to him, Joe asked him what he was up to and where he was travelling to- a standard camping question. He replied; “Oh, I’m just moving from place to place- trying to stay off the grid”. Hmmmm… The kids, of course, invited him over for some marshmallow toasting to which he replied that he couldn’t because he had a lot of work to do. Hmmm again! Later, sitting around our camp fire having a chat to the only other couple in the park, we heard this crunching sound again, and again, and again! We eventually worked out that he was driving back and forth over cans and discovered the next day that he had bags and bags of cans tied to his car! Consequently, we dubbed this character ‘The Can Man’. Being that it was Jackie’s first night free camping- let’s just say that she was a little freaked out!