Trip planner

Are you looking for book or net solutions? If you are looking for books then click on shop in the blue border above.

For net based solutions you will have to use a few different solutions. My favourite route planner is Google Maps. To get driving directions just type xxx to yyy in the search box, an example is "the entrance, to dubbo" will give you this. Note the driving directions on the LHS. Down below the driving instructions you will see a little blue word "Help," click on it and go exploring, you can massage the maps in many ways to change routes and add way-points.

To find places to explore and camp sites Click on Places or Treks in the top blue border.After you have found your way around these you will gain valuable information. I also use Wickipedia, just type in the town you are interested in. You will find links there for the local or regional council that serves the area, those sites often have visitors sites on them. Tourist routes like The Great Ocean Road of Darling River Run have their own web sites, google them.

The most comprehensive listing of caravan parks is Gary Stratton' My Parks List. Again it takes some learning. However when you look at the info for the individual parks you also have links to Badgers Caravan Reports and the park web site.

By the time you have explored all that, it will keep you off the streets and out of the pubs for many months. Happy planning.

Howdy

we just did a 6 month trip. We used a phone app called wikicamps. It rates and includes comments for most camps and parks enroute. Best $3 I spent...

Photos - we took 26,000 in 3 months. Save them to a laptop. Used picasa to sort and pick the best photos daily. Inserted the daily group of photos into a word document, edited and cropped them and then added text like a diary. We saved the word doc as a weekly update and distributed it in a pdf format via email. It took some work but is a 1500 page reminder of the trip that the kids will never forget....

good luck.

You didn't say how long you were intending to be away for, if your trip is governed by a specific time frame, ei 3 to 6 months ( ridiculously short time to expect to see anything of this great country of ours ) then you will certainly nedd to be diligent in your planning. If you are looking at 12 to 18 months, then as our sailing fraternity would say, let the fair winds take us to wherever. If u have a laptop ( MS Excel is adequate for basic trip planning) and good camera, that is all u need, with only a loose itinerary, you will enjoy, and see so much more. The previous day, just google the next area you think your heading to and take it from there. Did the big one for 18 months "97" and as we drove out of the driveway, we threw the watches in the glovebox, don't let this fast paced, must be minutely planned world spoil your ADVENTURE. In areas where communications may be dodgy, ring or email the kids and tell them you expect to be at " X" on such a day. Do the top end during the cooler months and the bottom in the warmer months, Carry the necessities, black and gold fruit cake ( you will be amazed where you can buy this) and longlife milk. We came across some amazing places and amazingly entertaining people on our trip and had an absolute ball, don,t be in a hurry to get round the next bend, you will get there. Take care, travel safe and ENJOY.
Tony F8

Thank you all. Your advice has been most helpfull. We have done quite a bit of caravaning but I thought I would try something different an plan the trip. How often have we all got back home and found out we had missed something on the way?
Have a happy and safe Christmas / New year. And who knows we may meet along the track.
Rae Davison Mandurah Western Australia.