Visitor Road Trip

Thank you all so much for all the help.
The problem (?) is that we will be driving for my father in Law. He is from Australia and came to Canada many years ago. He wishes to see his home once again. He is a relativley healthy 87. The thing is that every time we talk to him he keeps adding another destination. :)
I do not have a problem driving but, as I have told him, we will be spending a lot of time in the vehicle.
My intention is to go from Sydney through Alice Springs to Cairns at a fairly rapid pace and then slowly make it back down to Sydney. My father in Law is from Maclean so a stop there is a certainty but, he wants to see the rest as well.
I realize it is a looong trip so a few long driving days for a few days of exploration will be the trade off.

Pete

Good advice Mark :-)

Please don't get the idea that there is fuel every 100Km and accomodation every 200Km...in quite a lot of the country its just not the case.

Even if there is fuel at relativly short distances...you may not wisih to pay the price.......as for the accomodation...yeh well.

Some of this accomodation can be pretty spartan and some of those places you may not wish to stop....and there may not be much of it.
It can take one party of travelers or contractors to book out some of these locations.

In some of the major towns accomodation can be booked solid for various reasons......all it takes is some sort of event or situation to book out all the rooms in town.
A local event or a construction or maintenence push in the area.

I and various members of my family travel Brisbane Townsville fairly regularly...at one time you could be guaranteed picking up a room in Mackay( a major reigonal town with a whole street of motels and a common over night journey breaker)....these days you are very wise to book in advance any time of year....its now a major transit point for the mines.
We often overnight at Borroron..a small town, one pub, a general store, a caravan park and a motel.....mostly we could always rock up and get a room...last trip south I rang ahead.....lucky I got the last room.....Gladstone ( next major town) was full up and contractors where driving in to gladstone every day.

The last thing you need is to be driving lots of hours and ending up either not finding accomodation or ending up in something disapointing.


As for the idea of flying V driving......HELL there are some very long distances involved...unless you are carrying a lot of stuff or you particularly want to drive.....flying will be way faster and cheaper.

Remember mainland Australia has a greater land mass than mainland USA....and we have 6 mainland states not 50 something.

Oh and the fuel price is arround $1.50 per liter at the moment.

Give it some thaught.

cheers

Unfortunately the only carrier to give maximum coverage away from big cities is TELSTRA and it is usually the dearest.

I use Telstra purely because of coverage. You will be amazed where coverage is to be had. Outback mines and aboriginal communities often have coverage so even in the middle of nowhere you may suddenly get a signal

Alan

Don't expect phone coverage everywhere you plan to travel even when going with Telstra. There's lots of the country you intend travelling that won't have any phone reception once you get away from the towns themselves, but as said above you are sometimes surprised where it pops up.

What about fly Sydney to Adelaide, drive Adelaide to Alice, even vist Uluru as you have the car, then fly to Cairns from Alice and drive down the coast back to Sydney? There's plenty of outback driving up the centre, plenty of beaches driving down the coast. Although there are 2 open ended car hires in that it saves a lot of dead driving time and petrol. To be honest, I'm not a fan of the Sydney to Adelaide drive, or the drive across western QLD.

Hi,
We were flying from Sydney to Adelaide. Picking up the car there. The drive from Coober Pedy to Brisbane was through Port Augusta as opposed to Alice Springs. We have not fully decided on Alice Springs and Urulu now. It was our original intention but, my father in Law now has ideas of even including Darwin (flying there of course).
I am starting to think I may just hire a guide for him and leave him in Australia for an extra month or two LOL. I am also beginning to think all those days in a car with him may be stressful to say the least. He changes his mind like...well....like an old man? LOL.

Pete

Sounds good. The best idea is to stay flexible and don't book too far ahead. That way you can follow your inclinations as things attract you -or FIL has another bright idea! You can't see everything in such a short time so just try to make sure you enjoy the places you do see so you all go home still fit and cheerful with some happy memories- and perhaps plans to return. You will generally find the local Tourist Information Centres very helpful wherever you go. They also can help book accommodation. Have a great trip! Lynne

Once again, a BIG thanks to all.
I think the overwhelming suggestion is to not plan too far ahead and make decisions daily. So be it. :)
As for not being able to see it all at once, I fully agree and have thought so all along. I would tell you the same thing if you came to Canada for 5 weeks.
Our next visit is already in the planning stage with friends that have Australia on the wish list. This trip is an opportunity to better plan the next trip. Do what my Father in Law desires and in the meantime, figure out what we should plan for for next time. The follow on trip will be the "real" trip.

Pete