Road Trip

G'day,

Christmas = hot......ditch the esky and invest in a fridge!!!

UHF is handy

Have a great trip

Cheers
Ev

I'll second the comment on the fridge and the UHF.

I'd also suggest some gear to look after your tyres - compressor and repair kit. This will not only make you more self-sufficient but also give you more flexibility - you can properly deflate your tyres for sandy travel and then get ready to be back on the main roads.

Have a lot of fun. Cheers

Hi Olgus69
Like above, the next best and most important addition to any camping trip is a good car fridge. Sure they are not cheap, but they are a long term investment, giving you many years of enjoyable camping and not relying on ice, which if heading bush, will be next to impossible to get in remote locations.

As for the Great Ocean Road and SA, make sure that you do the Fly Walk in the Otways and Robe at that time of the year is alive with holiday makers. Have a great trip.

Cheers

Stephen

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Hi
You may find it hard to find a place to camp as Christmas time as the Great Ocean Road is very busy and usually booked out.
Hope you have a good trip Paul K

Don't put too much weight on your roof rack.

Watch out for overseas tourist in Blitz vans and the like driving on the wrong side of the road on the G.O.R, there will be hundreds of them, more annoying than flies

Consider these:
a fire extinguisher and fire blanket.
a fridge.

UHF radio - No need as yet until you want to go off the beaten track or join a group. Besides there will be plenty of phone access and heaps of others on the road that may help.

Enjoy

Phil

Stable tables (you know the cushion type that sit on your lap?) for the kids to colour in on when you are driving. Have a look through some of the past Blogs, I have seen a few with tips when travelling with kids which may be helpful too.

Next would be maps and a sense of adventure. Fairly easy to get all other "necessities" anywhere along the road on your trip, you will not be too far from anywhere if you are sticking to the coast.

Travel safe,
Trevor.

I would second the compressor, especially given you are going thru Robe so letting down tyres to 18-20psi is useful on those sandy tracks if youwant to go there

Finally, enough cash to cover the unexpected as Murphy haunts with travellers.

Weigh the rig when loaded up as you may well be surprised and perhaps a

trailer for the gear would make life in the cab more tolerable.

Have a good trip the GOR is beautiful but very busy.

Pack 25L of patience! The GOR is packed and slooow going over Christmas - did bits of it last year and it was frustratingly slow at times. There are ways around it - try to plan your tripping in opposite times / directions to the main loopy travels secondly spend time studying the maps and planning your routes around the main thoroughfares when close to populated areas - surprisingly they are often more scenic and less travelled - they just take a bit more navigation effort. Also search the net for info on "travelling with kids" there are some really good articles around on this and research on the web eg Exploreoz /places, Google earth POI (points of interest) and local state tourist websites. Also have you considered towing a trailer or pop-top camper trailer - means you can move lots of gear out of the wagon making the car part a lot less stressful - it also means at interesting places you can dump the gear and zip of in the wagon "gear free". Lastly nows the time to check you have all your equipment because we are just about to leave the off season camping gear sales - there are some great specials around eg Annaconda 30% of tents etc.
Cheers.

Ok maybe i should have given a bit more info. I also have ordered a compressor and the whole fridge thing is too hard had one before. I have an esky that holds 2 blocks of ice and lasts bout 4-5 days in summer, surely its not too hard to replace 2 blocks every 4 days, got to stop at servo every now and then for diesel anyway.Etertainment for kids is a good idea, thinking of a dvd player for kids, and we have a trailer but relly didnt want to drag that thing everywher if i didnt have to, and we have an atlas with gps points for local caravan parks.

Gay olgus
Just take the esky, as they are good to bath the little ones in.Go and have a good holiday, nothing has changed since the last trip. Tourists everywhere, just like you.
Have a good time, do the Otway sky walk.
Murray

Along the Great Ocean Road, there are very few opportunities to "bush camp" and many places you'll have stop in a caravan park. During that time of year, you would almost certainly need to book ahead - when we were there a few years back (same time of year) we organised the evening accommodation early in the day after we had to do an illegal road-side overnight stop the first night since all the accommodation was already full.

You haven't said which route you're planning through SA on your return home but remote areas like Birdsville Tk and/or Strzelecki Tk are not generally recommended for travel during the summer months - they are usually very hot during the day at that time of the year, and also very isolated with few other travellers (due largely to the heat).