doing the center plus wa

Hi Graeme,

Sounds like a great trip and quite doable in your proposed timeframe.

Whether you travel most days or stay put is entirely a personal preference and also depends a bit on what sort of rig you are travelling in. As we sleep in our troopy we have to pack up in order to go anywhere so we tend to travel most days. Though in some areas we might only move a few kms if there is a lot to see. But its good to plan for a lay day at least once a week as continually moving can become tiring.

We have been over most of your proposed route, mostly using free/bush camps, and have written blogs about those trips so you might find something useful in our blogs.

Not sure what specific advice you want - prepare carefully, be prepared to stop along the way to check out the myriad of interesting things you will come across, and you will have a great time.

Cheers,

Val.

4 to 4 1/2 months is heaps, we did about 12,000klms in 6 weeks and still got to spend a whole week at Bremer Bay, and we have 3 kids ............... give me 4 months and i probally would do 30,000klms ....
One thing i have learnt in the past few years is we are all now "time poor" and we are doing massive distances compaired to whet we used to do, my take is do all the long trips and see as much as you possible can, dont have to stay any big time frames and later on you can go back and visit the places that really stood out, i have found you hear reports and read all about some places and when you finally get there they are really nothing to get excited about but there is always some really nice little spot, hardly known, that you pop into and have a ball at and mark that place down as the one/s to go back to and spend some time at ...........
One secret in a long trip with short time frames is to plan ahead for the "boring" parts and make these sections the time to cover and clock up the Klms, dont be afraid of staying at motels and hotels as you can book ahead, clock up 1000 or more klms in a day, rock up to a ready made bed and hot shower, buy a feed on the way there and have an awsome sleep and head off early again the next day, no mucking around setting up ...
Done get caught in the trap thinking that "free camps" will save you and make it easy, you have to find a spot, set up, cook ect and if time is limited you dont get to see much if you are "camping" for hours every day, a lot of people spend a fortune on campers and "self sufficiant" set ups and still end up at motels, even $10,000 grand dont go far on a fully set up camper or van but it goes a bleedin long way on decent accomodation and you save on fuel, sit on a higher speed, safer, get to more places and ... well you probally get my drift eh..
Cheers
and enjoy it, you have TONS of time up your sleeve..
J&M&Kds

Hi Graeme, when touring we move on most days, but rarely do big distances in a day. Nothing is boring (to us anyway). You can check in My Blogs for 2008 when we toured the Kimberley and Central Australia, and i have started my 2009 blogs but have only loaded as far north as Katherine. On this trip we continued north to Darwin, and included tours of Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks. We prefer to bush camp or National Park camp, and do not use the crowded roadside rest areas such as along the Stuart Highway between Alice Springs and Darwin. There are much better options. Check here for a few ideas: Finding a good free or low cost campsite

In 2009 we did a sort of 3/4 lap in five months, but the last half in distance was done much faster with less touring or deviations.

Motherhen

Hi Graeme,

Like Val and Motherhen we have also travelled in parts of this planned route...the 'must see' bits in Central Oz, also bits of WA and the trip across the Nullabor, lots of SA..... As we live on the NSW South Coast we have also made our way across towards Port Augusta and I have kept blogs on all of our trips so maybe you could have a look at the relevant ones I have kept, as well as Vals and MH's.

We free camp as well as stay in National Parks where possible as we love bushwalking, fishing and solitary campsites so the information I have recorded about where we have stayed may also be helpful. Of course there are places where the best choice is to stay in Caravan Parks and we also do this when necessary.

You can always get onto the forum and ask questions while travelling and someone on here will have the answers...it is such a useful place to get up to date advice with road and other information about travelling.

There are so many wonderful and interesting places out there so just get out and enjoy it all...take a note of places you love and you can always return for a longer look another time if you get the chance.

Regards,

Heather