4WD and Camper Trailer ADvice around Australia

Submitted: Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 15:11
ThreadID: 86667 Views:3630 Replies:3 FollowUps:4
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Hi everyone,

My husband and I have started thinking aobut a 6 mth (or permanent) camper trailer trip around Oz.
We will also have a 3 year old with us (trying to get it in before he starts school)

I would love some advice on when to leave and which route to take (leaving from Melbourne and keen to leave early next year)

Will have a Triton and Camper trailer and we were thinking of heading across Sa to the West and up to NT and north QLD.
then down the middle and across to NSW coast etc....

Please any advice/tips/itinerary suggestions would be sooo helpful.

More so keen on finding out best time of year and route to take due to the wet seasons/cyclone season etc.......

'Thankyou all in advance.

Reensy
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Reply By: Member - Old Girl (QLD) - Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 21:00

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 21:00
One EO member comes to mind
Josh - Vic
Ill MM him your request.
AnswerID: 456030

Follow Up By: Member - Josh- Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 23:38

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 23:38
Thanks Old Girl,
I missed this post?? Brings back memories planning for the trip. Mmmm itchy feet again. How is life treating you? Back home now or still going?

Josh
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FollowupID: 729020

Follow Up By: Member - Old Girl (QLD) - Wednesday, Jun 01, 2011 at 21:54

Wednesday, Jun 01, 2011 at 21:54
Hi Josh
Back at home for a bit. Sold the caravan and bought a camper again!!! We spent 6 weeks in Adelaide and near Loxton over Christmas. Harvesting was a fantastic experience. We travelled part of the Darling R Run on the way home.
Heading up to Mission Beach in the next school holidays. Still planning the big WA trip we are currently building up a 76 series. Still have the 80 we took it away Easter with a couple other EO members. John was away working so it was left to me to get bogged, not once but twice, plenty Nissan's around keen to pull me out. Currently flat out working,always saving for the next trip.
Sharon
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FollowupID: 729096

Reply By: Member - Josh- Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 23:36

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 23:36
Hi Reensy, 6 months or permanent, there's a big difference there lol. 6 months is to short and permanent should be just about enough time to see it all.
There is no real easy answer to your questions. We spent 3 years on the road (with a 3 and 5 yr old) and basically spent summer in Tassie each year, autum heading across to Wa or NSW and our first winter in the kimberlies and second winter in cape york.
As far as the wet season goes it can change from year to year. The best thing is to contact an information centre in the area you are heading to and ask them what it is like.
If it is a trip limited by time then you are limited when you travel. Open ended means you take your time and wait for the weather to change a bit before going. 3 weeks can mean roads are ok or really bad.
If you only go for 6 months I would say don't try to see to much. Maybe see part of OZ this trip and another part next time.
My advice is when heading to places like Cape york or the kimberlies go before the school holidays if possible. the roads are often graded by them ready for the busy period but not chewed up by lots of traffic in a hurry. Roads turn bad really fast once lots of traffic hit it.
The same with popular tourist places, try to avoid holidays etc. Australia Zoo, sea worls etc are better mid week, not on weekends.
Get a copy of camps australia 6. Pure gold for cheap or free camping.
Which way and where to go......well that is hard. Depends on what you like. We got as much info as we could from information centres, magazines, websites etc to get as info as we could about things to see in different places.
We wrote a list of things we must see on our trip (didn't get to see them all). Then we came up with an itinery to see as much as we could. Always allow extra time between places and at places cause you will find extra things to see as you go. You will meet someone who tells you about a great place you have to see.
Basic ideas for where/when
Up north May, June, July, August
Down south October, Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb.
Across the middle or travelling from south to north or north to south
Feb, March, April.
August, Sept, Oct.
As I said best thing is to work out the must see things and work out time to get to each, allow time to see other stuff in between, then double that time and it should be getting close to enough time to see some of it.
When we arrived in a new town we went straight to the info centres. A word of advice, take your time in these centres. They are used to dealing with people in a hurry so just give them the basic tourist stuff. Take time to talk a while, they may give you info about other stuff not on the normal tourist list.
To wet your appetite have a look here http://www.kidsandall.webs.com/

Hope this helps, feel to ask if you have any other questions.
Josh
AnswerID: 456044

Follow Up By: ingo57 - Wednesday, Jun 01, 2011 at 14:32

Wednesday, Jun 01, 2011 at 14:32
Gday Josh,

I noticed in one of your pics on your website you have kids room attached, did you use it a lot on the trip?

Cheers
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FollowupID: 729041

Follow Up By: Member - Josh- Wednesday, Jun 01, 2011 at 20:23

Wednesday, Jun 01, 2011 at 20:23
Hi Ingo57, Yeah we did use it a fair bit. Basically the format we used was if we were staying one night we set up the main tent only. This was very quick to set up (only a couple of mins) and pack up was easy. If we stayed 3-4 nights we put the awning up and 5 or more we put the kids room up.
We came to the conclusion it was just better to put it up as it gave us room to breath and the girls had their own space.
Some places we stayed for 3-6 weeks and it was great to have room to move. Also we had a little (not that much) privacy.
IMHO it was so worth having and kept my wife sane at times..

Josh
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FollowupID: 729081

Reply By: DOEY- Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 23:39

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 at 23:39
hi reensy

We are doing exactly what you are planning on doing.

We are 14 months into our trip and only half way. We too have a 3 yo and have a 7x4 side fold, soft-floor off-road camper trailer (oztrail camper 9).

When to leave???? soon as possible! if leaving early next year, i would suggest heading through the centre first, may, june, july, August would give you nice warm but bearable days whilst in the middle and darwin temps would be perfect, i would suggest then heading anti-clockwise and take advantage of the mostly favourable tail-winds when crossing the top. We found the west aust coast very windy in the later months of the year- no fun when in a camper trailer.
There would be no perfect way\direction to travel around AustraiIa and everyone would have an opinion, thats just what we have found worked for us.

We started out mainly doing caravan parks, but it just got too expensive. We free\cheap camp lots now, have invested in solar power and led lighting aswell as vast sat tv (mainly for the young bloke and wife). So we can go without powered sites now. One thing you will appreciate when bush camping is a nice warm shower so consider the luxuries you may wish to have and research info and ask questions as you have them. plenty of ideas get thrown around on these forums.

books like camps 6 and forums such as exploroz and gonebush.org have loads of great tips and free camps around the place.

enjoy your travels
AnswerID: 456045

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