I can’t believe we are about to hit the road and travel Australia for 3 months! I started this blog 6 years ago and in one of my first posts, I mentioned our dream was to travel Australia as a family. It has taken a while to get there but now our dream is finally becoming a reality.

We have been working hard and saving our pennies. Now it is time to reward ourselves and live our dream.

Itinerary

We want to be flexible with our travel plans and go with the flow. If we liked a place, stay for a few days or a week, see where the wind takes us. Due to Covid, there are so many people exploring their own backyard at the moment. This means we need to book into caravan parks in advance so we don’t miss out on visiting a particular town.

We have left gaps in between our bookings so we have some flexibility and we can also free camp along the way.

Cyclone Seroja has left a trail of destruction in Western Australia’s Mid West coast. I feel for anyone who has had damage to their property. Currently, there are no telecommunications in a huge area of the state. My sister lives along the coast and I have not had any communication with her. I don’t think there was much damage in her town but I just don’t know.

What does the Cyclone mean for us? We are unsure if campgrounds along the coast are closed or damaged. Time will tell.

We leave Perth and head north visiting towns such as Monkey Mia, Coral Bay, Exmouth, Broome and Derby. Then we turn off the bitumen and hit the Gibb River Road for a real Aussie outback experience. We can’t wait to explore the natural beauty of the Kimberly.

To be honest I am nervous and excited about the Gibb River Road. I have heard lots of horror stories about the road conditions and camper trailers falling apart. Thankfully Dixie is handy and he can do repairs on the road, as long as we have the right parts! I hate corrugations and the Gibb is full of them, I am not sure my back likes it either!

Once we are back on the bitumen we will head towards Darwin, down to Uluru and back home. We are not sure of the exact route we will take yet.

Our travel plans could change with borders getting closed and states going into lockdown. We will just have to see what happens plus it is all part of the adventure.

Schooling on the Road

Organising school work turned out to be a lot more difficult than I imagined.

I tried to sign up for Distance Education but we were told you need to be travelling for at least 6 months. We couldn’t sign up for Home Schooling either as you need to be in a home! They come out and inspect your home and your suitability to teach. Home Schooling does not allow you to do this education program remotely.

In the end, I spoke with our school and they provided us with some work for the children. We will mainly concentrate on writing, spelling and maths.

I hope that on the road they learn life skills and we raise responsible children with a bigger view of the world. They already have an appreciation for nature but I hope this grows and they want to protect the environment.

The kids are ready to write about their adventures in their travel journals and we also picked up a removable Map of Australia which is on our caravan fridge. If you wish to purchase any of these items you can visit the Adventure Awaits shop here.

Budget

We have been saving away and have a nice little lump sum of money to travel with. Dixie is on long service leave so we will have an income. Ideally, we don’t want to touch his wage as we still need to pay the mortgage and other bills such as health insurance, land rates and the list goes on.

Our travel budget is $1400 per week. Some weeks we may spend less and other weeks maybe more as we want to do lots of tours which can be expensive. For example, swimming with the Whale Sharks in Exmouth is costing us $1315 which is almost one week’s budget!

We use an app called TravelSpend which is really easy to use. I enter our expenses as we go and we can track our spending day by day.

It will be interesting to know if we can stick to our budget (without giving up coffee). I will report back and let you know how it all goes!

Vehicle and Accommodation

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We will be travelling in our Toyota Landcruiser, which is perfect for getting off the beaten track. There are many campgrounds we want to explore that are on the beach and only accessible by 4wd.

At the end of the day, we will rest our heads in our 2016 Jayco Eagle Outback. It is an off-road model so we will be able to camp in those secluded spots. Dixie has been working away and making lots of improvements to our camper. I need to dedicate a blog post for the amount of work he has done.

My thoughts on the trip

I am excited and nervous about this road trip. There are so many thoughts running through my head. Is this the right time to go? Should we be taking the kids out of school and away from their friends? What if we get sick? So many what if’s.

We are used to camping but living in a small space for an extended amount of time will have its challenges. I expect it will take time to get into the groove of travel and doing school work.

Life is full of worries and what ifs. I just need to give us time to adjust to our new life and focus on the positives.

I am looking forward to living life in the slow lane, spending our days outdoors, sun-kissed and barefoot. We can’t wait to experience new places and create unforgettable memories.

I look forward to sharing our journey with you. Come and follow us on our adventure!

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