Category Archives: Travel Australia

To plan or not to plan

That is the question. Too much, too little? Is it necessary at all? Will planning ruin the fun & excitement of the adventure, of not knowing, or will it give us something to look forward to? Of course I could be talking about life in general, but no, there is a real adventure here.. trekking around Australia with caravan, two eager daughters just happy to be out of school and the beloved – looking for as much as a change of scenery as I am.

So, we anticipated that it would be adventurous and oh so backpacker-ish of us (as much as you can with two kids in tow), to not plan or book ahead – that is, for accommodation bookings, venues or length of stays. The only thing we’d decided on is which general direction to head: clockwise. (Oh-so unorthodox in the world of travelling-around-Australia-in-a-caravan!) But hey, adventure, right!? (Actually, it has to do with seasons, but I’m still spruiking the adventure line!)

So, back to our no-planning idea (hmm, an idea or just lazy indecisiveness??)  Adventure – yes! Well, no planning got us to week two. Going well so far.. Until we got to day three of a seven day stay in what began to look like total ‘Pension-Ville’. Seven day stay, you say? Well, the no-booking policy wasn’t tarnished, just tweaked. (Booked on the spot being swayed by their ’7th day free deal’.)  And to make this stay more depressive, add rain, crappy beach, denial of pool use due to aforementioned rain, and too long in the caravan playing board games.

We discovered on day six that only five minutes out of Pension-Ville was Cool People’s Town – with great beaches and a Very Happening Vibe. Hmmm, how did this happen?  We spent as much as the day in Cool People’s Town as we could – pretending for the day that we’re oh-so savvy for hanging around such great spots – before trudging back to Pension-Ville with our tail between our legs, nodding half-hearted evening greetings to our elderly neighbours and their furry-mutt companions.

So much for adventure and freedom – stuck in Pension-Ville for the week, when Cool People’s Town was just around the corner!  And who knows, maybe Ultra-Cool People’s Town was down the road and around the other corner. And where is that picturesque beach frontage shown in the brochures?  Well, the new rules are: research a little, look for words in travel brochures like: eclectic local hang-outs, popular surf breaks, great food and coffee; and avoid words like: charming, picturesque, so much to do; (there’s usually not!) Also, no seven- day bookings, and implement ‘take off whenever we like’ rule.

Of course, we signed up for this adventure, and we have to take the great, amazing adventures with the ordinary-bordering-on-awful (in our opinion) places. And look, we’re really not snobs. Every state, region, town has the good, the bad and the ugly, so we won’t judge or bag out too harshly. We’ll just stick with our new rules, err on the side of ‘just a little planning’, and enjoy the experience of every new place we visit. But really, we’re young, we’re on the road, and we really can’t survive much more of Daggy-Ville or Pension-Ville. Give me Cool People’s Town any day!

Can you sympathise? Got any tips for surviving the oldies or the daggy-villes of this world? Let me know..

That other ‘great Australian dream’..

Since deciding that this year would be ‘the year’ and spreading the news far and wide, my beloved and I have heard endless impassioned variations of “we’ve always wanted to” or “we’re hoping to one day” (do the same)… etc.. etc….

No worries, I’m glad for you. But if you’ve always wanted to and you one day will, then… just do it!  Not hard.  Quit jobs, sell house, have mega garage sale, stuff all remaining belongings into storage, pull kids out of school, jump in the caravan and hit the road!

It’s certainly the reason we’re doing it – because we’ve always wanted to. That plus, we don’t want to wait out our whole youthful, energetic (err, sort of) years just to follow the grey nomad crowd and clog up the roads with oversized house-on-wheels-RV-style ‘exploring the great outdoors’.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a caravan and we like to be a little comfy – it is a whole year, we need more than a tent and two pairs of shorts each.  But not much more.  We’re also determined not to just drive from one place to the other looking out the window admiring the scenery, and only enjoying it from the comfort of our camping chairs sitting on the sturdy concrete slabs next to the toilet blocks of every caravan park with a slight beach frontage.

We’re finding it could be quite easy to fall into this trap.  Tired from driving, we spend a day checking out the town, stocking up on groceries and doing a load of washing, only to need a rest day the next day.  We see plenty of people through our travels that set up and stay for only a night or two, before hitting the road and trawling to the next seaside or outback town for another day or two. We constantly wonder what these people would be getting out of their trip. Sure, a lot of driving and R&R, but how much do they really explore their surroundings and what do they learn about the place they’re in for only a night or two?   

To avoid this trap and really explore as many aspects of travelling round the country that we can, these are the unspoken ideas we employ throughout our travels: we often stay in one place for at least a week; do as many outdoor / nature based activities as we can: bushwalks, bike trails, beach trips; avoid costly and commercialised ‘tourist attractions’; visit museums, exhibitions, local historical sites; and educate ourselves and our kids about a place and its people as much as we can.  

Have you done a similar trip yourself or are you living your dream in another way? Post your story below..