Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010 at 11:08
I am going to say similar to the other two replies above and throw in some more questions for you to answer!
Don't sell the house. Do something else, rent to friends, family, or something but don't sell up.
As long as you guys are prepared to work at anything there will be work for you. Don't always count on just getting your specialised field of work. Money is money, work any way you can to pay the bills while you are away.
Have you considered a shorter trip first to see how things go? Maybe do a month to the cape, or explore around Alice and Uluru for a month? Then you will see how everyone copes but you have the safety net of returning
home easily.
Where are you based at the moment? That may determine where you choose for a
test trip. IE QLD =
cape york NSW Cape or inland west NSW. WA =
Kimberley etc
We have 3 kids. Two boys 11 and 8 and a girl 3. My work is not the sort of work that I can easily get in and out of so I have to deal with month or six week long holidays every once in a while. That way we are not totally uprooting. Yes we don't get to do it all in one go, but we have the safety net of being able to come
home after, or during if needed, our trip.
We are off to the
Kimberley for 6 weeks this year and have worked out where we plan to go and how far each day etc. We average 500 km a day between
Sydney and
Kununurra. More than that on a day in day out basis and the kids get ratty. Less than that and we don't make it to the
Kimberley before we need to turn around and come back! We travel for 7 days then stop for 4. Then we do short hops between
Kununurra and
Broome, then 8 days back.
During each day we try and find somewhere to stop so the kids can run around, be it a park, play things or even just a deserted field. They need to let off some steam around morning tea and lunch. Some times we can manage to skip afternoon tea, which means they want a run when we get to a place. The kids will cope with anything you throw at them, as long as they get their time to let off some steam and you don't do the same thing every day (just sit in the car and drive).
How are you going to do schooling for the 10 y/o? My cousins toured around oz for 12 months when they were in Primary School and are richer for the experience but they had disciplined parents who did school work with them every day.
I have no advice as to caravan or camper. We do caravan park cabins on the way to and from the
Kimberley and
camp in tents between
Kununurra and
Broome. Totally different situation for a 12 month stint.
I would recommend a
test trip though, month to six weeks, unless you already know everyone is cool with "camping".
sdr00y
AnswerID:
410038
Follow Up By: harrisinoz - Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010 at 11:50
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010 at 11:50
Hi
We are based in South QLD at the moment so would do long distance edu and then when we find work stay in that place for a while and hopefully put my son into school.
I am thinking about maybe selling and buying a 2 bed unit so at least we have a base and are still on the market, but then we would need the funds from the house to buy a van!!.....tough call!
Does anyone have a rough weekly cost, I know it depends on how far you travel etc, obviously food will roughly be the same as what I spend now and I can gauge the parks costs, has anyone found an unexpected cost for instance??
We would only travel say 200 - 300ks at a time as we have found about 250ks they get very bored....
Thanks to everyone for their replies..
One more thing if we left after Christmas would we be better to head south and then up the middle or north and across???
Thanks again...great site!
FollowupID:
679970
Follow Up By: Member - sdr00y (Beecroft,NSW) - Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010 at 15:09
Tuesday, Mar 23, 2010 at 15:09
Go south after Christmas. North is best travelled in the dry season which is late May to early September.
FollowupID:
679988