NSW - September 2018........ advice, recommendations?

ill probably try to keep somewhat of a diary/blog and post it up after

Check out the Warrumbungles, between Coonabarabran & Tooraweenah.

Oh, and Mt Kaputar N/P, near Narrabri.

Re planning, work out the places you want to visit first, then work out distances between each place and go from there. Google N/Parks, touristy things, to get some input. If you're camping each night, then you might only travel 250-350kms each day. If you want to travel further then you'll miss a lot, and won't find many "roses".

Bob

yeah, we are thinking we will do a less intensive km trip, but our first day is usually a big one, to get right out of the area and into new pastures.

the cairns trip, total km on return was 5980km. we did some big days, 800km the first day alone, and some big days from cairns, all but 2 days were fairly long drives. we did it like this for a few reasons

1: no experience
2: cover distance, gather info for future trips. yes we will do the same route again in a few years, or a similar route, but stop for longer in areas.
3: cause we could :P

to give you the route done, without the day trips from cairns once we were there:

gympie to:
emerald (2 nights, sapphire, rubyvale and out that way driving around)
longreach
winton
richmond
charters towers
cairns

from cairns we spent a week travelling north, west and south and returning daily.

then back down the coast, stopping in townsville, mackay, rocky (2 nights) then home.

it was an intense trip, but we did ALMOST everything we wanted to, but it was rushed, we accepted it would be, and we were happy with what we discovered, and saw, and also the people we met were great and full of info.

we are just under a year away from this next trip, so please understand, i might be sounding like we are biting off a lot, and we probably are, but this is destined to change with us looking at the places you have already mentioned above.

fuel costs: i just say ill fill up EVERY day, first or last thing, so i will always have 120~L on board.

thanks for the advice, i really do appreciate all the input. camping for the first time as a family really did rub us up the right way, and we have already been away for another camping weekend since. this is something that had never ever entered our heads in the last 20 years of togetherness. the 1 and 4 yo kids love it too.

cheers
goat.

Good to see people get the camping bug, loads of fun especially for youngsters.
That was a decent detour, you got out to some incredible QLD outback there.
Charters Towers (or Charlies Trousers as we knew it) was a regular trip for us as kids with my nan living there.
Have fun planning the trips, I reckon it's half the fun.

cheers les, its the first time id been "West", id been halfway to dalby before, but that was about as far west as i'd been, so it was an eye opening experience. the landscape changes so rapidly, and as we rolled into cairns, we looked at each other and said "can we go back out west". it was just a fantastic experience for all of us as a family. hopefully there will be many many more trips and so many happy memories made.