2 adults and 3 Kids around oz

Hi BMJTI.
I am sure you will have a wonderful year, and it will be an adventure the children will talk about for years to come.

After spending 4 years travelling around Oz in a caravan (admittedly without children) I have some ideas on what works.

If you are going to travel with such young children in a unit which requires being set up each time you stop, you will need to make sure you stay at each location for a reasonable period of time. A few days at least. Setting up camp and packing up every day soon becomes a real hassle. I would urge you to re-think and perhaps get a caravan or an 'Expanda" type van which needs much less setting up.

Have the flexibility to move on if weather is not kind. Travelling like this is much more enjoyable if you spend time sitting or 'playing' outside, and the children will need play room in the open air. This is hard to do if it is cold, wet or windy outside. We found it could get cold or windy even in summer in the strangest places. Like the time it snowed at Stanthorpe in QLD in November... I was so glad I wasn't under canvas that time!

Make sure you all have some private time. If you are camped in a caravan park, close to other people, it can be tricky to have an argument with each other without others listening in.Bush camping is better for this reason. Trust me, if you are human, you will all have arguments from time to time.

My experience has taught me that for every four or five days spent tripping around, seeing things or just having adventures, you will need one or two down days where you can just relax around camp, and catch up on chores. You will find out what your group's needs are. So four or five active days and two relaxed days is what works for us.

Gosh, I could go on but you would only get bored. Others will have good advice too.
Chris

We have not ventured on a trip such as this, however we have done a few 4 to 5 week excursions and I agree with this comment

"If you are going to travel with such young children in a unit which requires being set up each time you stop, you will need to make sure you stay at each location for a reasonable period of time. A few days at least. Setting up camp and packing up every day soon becomes a real hassle. I would urge you to re-think and perhaps get a caravan or an 'Expanda" type van which needs much less setting up. "

Make sure that things are as easy as possible because this makes your trip enjoyable.

If you think you might stay put for a longer period then something that is off the ground I think has advantages over alot of soft roof campers.

Hi BMJTI,
Glad to hear you are joining the happy wanderers. It is a wonderful life style and your family will benefit greatly from it. We are on the road with 2 girls aged 5 & 7. They were 3 & 5 when we left. Before we left we set the car up for them for travelling. We don't have dvd players in the car but have it set up with books and school work for them. When we get to camp they have there jobs to do to help set up. When driving allow time to stop for the kids. Let them run around and burn of steam. If we travel for 2-3 days stopping 1 night only we them stop for a few days to catch up. One night stops are hard for the kids.
With the camper have a good look around. Work out what you want to do with it, where you want to take it. If going off road make sure wheel track is the same as car and if possible tyres and rims the same. We have an O'Briens offroad family deluxe and are extremely happy with it. It is very quick to set up and has heaps of room. When fully set up has 3 rooms.
When looking at trailers keep in mind you are not doing this for 2-3 weeks a year it is every week every day. What would be ok for short holidays may become very annoying after 6-8-12 months. We have draws in the back of our trailer so I don't have to climb in to get stuff out. Our stove is always set up(just connect the gas) and it is near the fridge. It has lockers all around the sides instead of open sides so we can lock stuff away.
The girls have learnt to adapt very well. Our eldest was very organised before we left, if we said we were going from A to B to C we had better and go from A to C to B. She now copes with not knowing where we are staying tonight.
Remember if it rains and stuff gets wet it will dry eventually so it doesn't really matter. We parked the wrong way on a hill once and went out for the day. When we got home it had rained and water ran in the door and filled the trailer. It dried and is now a memory of our trip.
Have fun and hope the planning goes well. Just remember all the planning can't plan for the unexpected so ride out the rough patches and the good days seem even better.

Josh, Maree, Julia and Jasmine

Good Day BMJTI,
We have just gone through the same process as you are currently going through. We just set our departure date this arvo. Come on the 18 June.
We have basically spent the last 18 months looking for a camper and planning our trip.
Being from newcastle we looked at all the manufacturers in the hunter and sydney ie; Jumbuck, Complete Campsite, All Terrain and so on.After that exersize we started to look at the QLD manufacturers.
But every time we would look at the price list and add on the extras required it ended up costing a packet.Tambo Campers kept on popping up around forums we were looking at and no one had a bad word to say about them. When we Got their brochures we were very sup[rised at their prices so much we disregarded them as cheap and nasty.
When finally decided we were sick of looking we made a trip to melbourne to check them out.
WOW they were great. We pick ours up next tuesday.
If you do a search on this forum you will get plenty on tambo.
As for the caravan, we have a 5yr & 2yr old and cant wait for the ups and downs to start. So what prob a bit of extra set up but we are not contained in 4 walls.


Cheers

We have travelled with our kids since they were very young ,till now in there late teens.
Heres some tips
Dont buy a caravan.We avoid caravan parks as there all the same.bush camping is a more genuine experience.
camps book is useful
Weve always travel with our freedom tent ,rough it for a bit then stay somewhere nice.
Dont give the kids to much sugar when travelling and make sure they drink plenty of water,especialy when hot .
buy good gear we all have the same sleeping bags,if were cold their cold.
organise your gear so you dont have to unpack to get to one little thing.
Its not Like home so dont try and make it like that.

G'day BMJTI

Like you, we are also in planning for a trek round Oz next year, though, we are limited to 5-6 months, so we leave day 1 of June school hols and not returning til late November. We originally thought about selling up and leaving indefinately in Dec2010, but with a 20yr old at home, a 15 yr old due to start VCE and a 10 yr old starting gr 6 in 2011, it just wasn't pratical, so, thank goodness for long service leave. (Taking 15 & 10 with us, hopefully Mr 20 will look after the house)

Like 'just goin' we have a Tambo, bought it 2003, for a 4 wk trek up the desert tracks into Alice Springs. Since then, its been to the beach in Robe, Flinders Ranges, Nth West NSW, the Murray, numerous trips to Vic High Country, including near snow conditions. We have been very happy with it, the canvas still looks new. We are in the process of servicing it, and making a few slight mods for the trip, and I'm sure it will be up to the task.

Hopefully, we see you on the roads.

Cheers
Amanda & Terry

Hi BMJTI,
firstly good on you for going for it ,I just wish you were leaving in Jan 2010 that way I might come across you in our travels, we have 2 boys 6&10 and we are leaving late Jan for 9 months and all I can say is if you haven't already done so why don't you hire a few different camper trailers and get a feel of setting up pulling down ,and I mean in all weather conditions as I was away only 2 weeks ago and I was packing up when the wind picked up,I could see 2 family's struggling to beat the wind so I gave them a hand and once packed up they both said that they have had enough of this and that they were going to start looking at vans ,as one had a tent and the other a camper trailer ,so I said well I understand the tent issue but what's wrong with your camper and he said its great for short trips/stays but we are off to another spot now and we have to go through all this again ,well I didn't want to ask but he looked upset ,I don't have any issues with C/T as this was going to be our 1st choice as it was small lighter and easy to tow but we did end up buying what I call a bit of both,we bought a 14.6 Windsor rapid its not really off road but has a stiffer chassis ,bigger wheels,and is a little higher with IND suspension but I would not want to take my family anywhere that remote as to need to climb mountains if you know what I mean ,I also will take a small tent and just lock up the van if we want to check out that sort of stuff for a night or two
well I'm not trying to start a tent vs camper vs van thing I'm just saying that you might want to experiment a little before the big 12 moth trip ?
Good luck and have a ball .

Regards John.

Hey, we're going to do it too at the end of next year. We'll be 2 adults, 1 toddler, 1 (yet to be made) baby and 2 dogs. Admittedly, we'll be taking the soft option with a converted bus...........

WOW, it all sounds great, but one thing that comes up again and again is the set up and pack up time.
My thinking is that you are travelling on holiday as opposed to working 8+ hours a day, so a little time spent every few days to set up and pack up should not be too bad when it is all in perspective!!
enjoy!

Setting up and packing up: As the general consensus shows keep it simple. We (hubby, me and three kids 6, 4 and 1) Travelled from Melbourne to the sunshine coast over Christmas it took 21 days we spent 9 of those at the sunshine coast, the rest was travelling and spending only 1 night at each stop.

We have a pop top and believe me, by the time we took out the few things that don't have their own storage spot like bikes, fishing rods and camping table, set up your bits and pieces, cook dinner - that is more than enough to do.

The kids were fantastic, having there grandparents following in there own van was a bonus to keep the occupied while we packed and unpacked, but they still did get a little bored.

My point is don't make any extra work for yourself, make it as quick and easy as possible.

As for things going wrong and laughing later how this - 45 degree weather just out of Gilgandra and in the space of 30ks two blow outs on the same van (ours) stuck in the middle of nowhere with two blown tyres and three kids getting dark and our next destination was to be Narrabri.Well long story short, we got to Narrabri at around midnight safe and sound, no dinner just straight to bed - well.... after we set up of course!!

It's all part of the fun, and we do laugh about it now......