For some time we discussed taking time away from work to travel and visit some of the wonderful sights of this amazing country we are lucky to be citizens of, Australia.
We purchased a Nissan Patrol in August 2018 and a Legend Trackline 20’6 caravan in June 2019. We picked up the caravan from Melbourne and traveled back to Brisbane as a trial run. The rig and car are about 14 metres long, so no small feat to park.
This first run included as many types of caravan life as we could pack in i.e. bush tracks, highways, free camping, showgrounds, a friends driveway and caravan parks.
Some stuff fell off our “Off road” caravan and it went to the dealer for warranty work 3 times. We spent quite a while learning how to operate all the gadgets and finding a comfortable way to live. The caravan is now more sorted and the modifications for off grid life are well underway.
In Nov 2019 we started to live in the van full time and this triggered another wave of minor modifications to pack in all that we wanted to take.
Our home is now a combination of the caravan and car with the rear seats dedicated to Alison’s shoe collection and a pair of thongs for Paul.
The car modifications are now complete with the new towing mirrors. The car stands 2.2 metres tall (2.5 with roof rack loaded) and the caravan is 3.2 metres. Not what you would call a streamline operation, but with the V8 we can achieve ramming speed when necessary.
So on December 5th 2019 after many (many) hours of research, planning and preparation, we our starting our journey in a Legend 20ft 6in caravan towed by a Nissan Patrol wagon.
We have a basic plan in place (see 2019 map) and there are a few places where we have time constraints e.g. Pentacost river (Kimberly) at end of May 2020, but we hope we will be flexible and stay longer or shorter in places as we fancy.
We are planning a direction of travel as a figure of eight:
- Starting in QLD (December 2019) going South through NSW and Victoria (Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr 2020)
- Then up the middle from SA to Darwin (May 2020).
- Across the top starting at the end of May which is the dry season and the rivers should have dropped to allow access (fingers crossed).
- From end July 2020 we will be travelling South again down the WA coast (Aug/Sept 2020)
- A Spring run across the Nullabor plain (Oct 2020) back to the East.
- We may turn right to Tassie or left to QLD (Nov 2020) depending on how the mobile life is treating us
We know we can’t see everything in a year, that is not our aim, better to have an adventure and see some of this land.
As the date suggests, things did not go to plan. In 2019, there were terrible fires due to the drought. Firstly, we changed tack and went to Tasmania to escape. But the pandemic finally put paid to our adventure and we returned to Brisbane.
After a year in Brisbane, we set off again on March 24th 2021 with a revised plan (see 2021 map). The 2021 plan is another figure of eight but missing out on the south-west and the Nullabor Plain:
- Starting in QLD (March 2021) going West through Queensland, Northern territory and Western Australia through the “Outback Way” to Geraldton WA.
- Then north along the WA coast to the top of the Dampier peninsular.
- Across the top starting June which is the dry season and the rivers should have dropped to allow access (fingers crossed).
- From mid August 2021 we will be travelling South down the centre to South Australia.
- A Spring (Sept/October) run through Victoria high country before turning North to NSW and then for home in November.
However, again the pandemic caused us to cut short the trip and we did not travel south.
Alison wrote a blog documenting our adventure from which these books are created..
Read on for the story….
