Planning to do the Savannah Way next year, hoping for advice

Hi All,
This is my first post on here (I think), I found this site after doing a search on the Savannah way, then found out I was already registered LOL!

Anyway, my wife and I and our two youngest, 8 and 6 (ages next year) want to do the Savannah Way from Cairns to Broome around May 2011.

We want to hire a 4WD from Cairns and drop it at Broome and then fly home.

We have a lot of questions and I don't really know where to start, but we are aware that planning early is essential (I know 16 months is a bit extreme lol! but anyway).

We have never done anything like this before, not with kids. Last May just my wife and I went to Darwin, and then hired a small motorhome and did Kakadu and Litchfield for 5 days, staying at caravan parks, and we loved it!

But this trip we would obviously do a lot more free camping too and mix it in with staying at some parks etc.

I'm just hoping to hear from others who have done this trip with kids especially, and how you found it, what you learned that you weren't prepared for, things you think we would not be prepared for being new to something of this nature. Costs etc. I recently saw someones post about doing around Australia and the cost for them so that was good to see, gave me some ideas at least.

I naturally have heaps of questions, but I think it would be great to just connect first with some people that have done it

Many thanks
Dean