It’s only 3 weeks to setting off. Caravan has been serviced, Patrol has had rear suspension up rated and been fully serviced. I have taken out the rear seats and replaced them with a flat platform with tie downs so we can carry lots more ‘stuff’ on board.
Also have removed my homemade drawers and replaced with some proper ones that are half the weight and double the capacity!!
Next phase is to start loading up!!
21st January 2019, Moriac, Vic
In the UK caravans are universally hated. The narrow roads and slow caravans don’t make for a happy experience, especially during the holiday season when congestion is high. Top Gear once had 2 caravans suspended from cranes and they bashed them together until they disintegrated, which I found hugely amusing. There is a popular saying amongst motorists in the UK that the only good caravan is a burning caravan. I was firmly of the same opinion.
It came as a big surprise then, when I had a sudden realisation that the vast distances between towns and the flexibility, comfort and convenience of a caravan made it an ideal way to explore Australia. When we want to explore off the beaten track we can leave the caravan somewhere safe and take off in just the Patrol with the roof tent for few days.
Jules and I discussed the pros and cons and we went to look at some. Needless to say, we ordered one the same day!
Monday 21st January, Moriac, Vic
One of the trips that was always going to happen was the road trip around Australia. When we first arrived in Australia in October 2012, we went on a road trip in a beaten up Ford Falcon which we purchased for $3000.
We drove north for about 900Km to Broken Hill, an old silver mining town. There is a lookout where, when you climb to the top, you can see outback stretching for thousands of kilometres. It is so flat that you can see the curvature of the earth. Having been brought up in the UK, I had never seen so much empty space and it made me want to get out in it. We went back to Torquay and purchased a Nissan Patrol, with a view to exploring Australia beyond the black top.
The Nissan Patrol is a formidable four wheel drive vehicle that will go almost anywhere. Ours was an ex police search and rescue vehicle so it has all the added extras like;
22nd January 2019, Moriac, Vic
Having discarded Plan A due to it being impossible we started to think about what would be possible rather than fantasise about what we wanted. The first thing would be to decide which trips would be feasible in time and cost.
We decided the must have trips would be.
We started on a new plan, aka Plan B. We started by looking at how long each trip might take and when in the year would be best.
We need to do North Australia in the (Australian) winter as it is too hot and not in the rainy season as the roads become impassable. We need to do the US trip in (Northern Hemisphere) Spring and Early Summer as winter is too cold and so on. After some juggling we came up with the following, which seems to fit the various criteria;
| Trip 1 East Coast Australia – 20th Oct 19 to 15th Dec 19 – 60 Days |
| Trip 2 New Zealand – 13th Jan 2020 – 3rd Feb 2020 – 21 Days |
| Trip 3 USA (with side trips to the island of Exumas and UK) – 2nd Mar 2020 to 31st May 2020 – 90 Days |
| Trip 4 West Coast Australia 17th Jun 2020 – 15th Sep 2020 – 90 Days |
Precise itineraries for each trip will be available for anyone who wants to meet us anywhere/somewhere on the road ahead.
Now for the tricky part, how much will it all cost?
MS Excel is a wonderful tool! We constructed a detailed budget for each trip, looking at number of days, cost of flights, fuel, accommodation, food, spending money etc etc. The end result was a very big number and even though Jules still gets her salary during the year, it would stretch our resources considerably. However, with some judicial cost cutting, letting out our house for the year, and by getting a much cheaper drone (have to have one for the aerial photography!) we managed to bring it back into something almost feasible.
We have now got a plan!
Monday 21st January, Moriac, Vic
We sat down and listed all the trips we would like to do over the course of the year. We came up with the following;
We sent of for huge maps for each of these trips so that we could mark places we wanted to see and map an itinerary. We very soon discovered that there was no way we could do all those in a year and an initial look at the cost also made it look pretty impossible, so back to the drawing board…
This blog is to document our progress, sights, experiences and observations as we make our way through the trips we have planned.
The blog platform sorts the posts in reverse chronological order by default.
Please feel free to leave comments if you feel the urge!
Monday 21st January – Moriac, Vic
OK so we have decided to take a year off. Jules has an amazing deal with her employer who will give her a year off on 80% of her salary in return for working 4 years on 80% of her salary. Jules started her 4 years on 5th October 2015 so the year off starts on 6th October 2019.
John and Jules Travels 