It’s been a long time in the planning and a longer time as a pipe dream, but it looks like it’s going to actually happen.

All the ducks are lining up…

  • I’ve got long service leave
  • Kellie can go AWOL from work
  • Hannah is in grade 3 and doing really well
  • Blake is in Grade 6 and doing really well. It would be much harder once he hits high school.
  • We’ve got all the gear we need…
  • We can afford it, hopefully

So … let’s do it!

The general plan is to follow the coast around Australia, clockwise, in the time we have available. Seeing things we’ve yet to see.

Why clockwise?

Well, we’ve done the Eastern seaboard up past Noosa many times, both inland and along the coast. We’ve done up to Cairns as well. We figured that it’d be better to head the other direction to start out seeing fresh places earlier in the trip and have the risk of having to rush home down the East coast, rather than possibly having to rush down the West.

In any case, it’s going to be a bit of a rush. A bit of an Australian sampler box. We’ve only got 112 days to do it in. There aren’t many days on the itinerary that are marked in as ‘relax in the sun’.

Of those 112 days it was planned to split it into thirds: Driving days between camps, Touring days around each camp and ‘optional’ days that we could spend longer somewhere if needed.

As you start to work it out though, you find that certain tours and events only happen on certain days. Some portions of the trip are necessary to book well in advance. You need to make allowances for things such as fatigue and getting the washing done too.

The end result is that you really need to have a pretty firm plan of what, where and when before you get going … when you’re on a time budget!

So in a nutshell the little trip is:

  • Frankston to Mount Gambier.
  • A few nights in Adelaide.
  • Up via Port Augusta and down to Port Lincoln.
  • Across to Ceduna and the start of the Nullabor.
  • Eucla, Balladonia, Norseman and then down to Esperance.
  • Across to Albany, The Valley of the Giants and The Gloucester Tree.
  • Busselton and the Margaret River region.
  • Perth and Fremantle.
  • Up to Geraldton and Kalbarri National Park.
  • Up to Monkey Mia, Carnarvon, Quobba Station (maybe), Coral Bay, the Ningaloo reef and Exmouth.
  • Inland to Tom Price and ??? National Park.
  • Back to the coast and Port Hedland.
  • Up to 80 mile beach and Broome.
  • Halfway and heading back East towards Fitzroy Crossing.
  • A detour down the Tanami track to Wolf Creek crater.
  • A stopover at Spring Creek to see the Bungle Bungles.
  • A few nights at El Questro.
  • Kununurra and the Gregory National Park.
  • Into Katherine and ??? National Park.
  • Up to Darwin for a few days.
  • Before heading into Kakadu for a few more.
  • Down to Mataranka Station and the Daly Waters pub.
  • Tennant Creek, Wycliffe Well, The Devil’s Marbles.
  • Alice Springs for a couple of days.
  • Down to Yulara for a whirlwind tour of Uluru and the Olgas.
  • Back up to Alice Springs and Tennant Creek to turn East again for…
  • Mount Isa and Cloncurry.
  • North again to head for Normanton and Kurumba.
  • Along the Savannah way to Cairns.
  • North to Port Douglas and Cooktown.
  • Back down the coast via Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Hervey Bay, Noosa.
  • Brisbane and the Gold Coast to do all the theme parks … the kids have been to them all, but just don’t remember them.
  • Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Forster, Newcastle, bypassing Sydney as much as is humanly possible…
  • Back to the coast and Wollongong, Batemans Bay, Bermagui, Tathra and Merimbula.
  • Maybe a side trip to climb Kosciuszko or into Canberra somewhere in there too.
  • Mallacoota, Lakes Entrance, Loch Sport, Golden Beach, Wilsons Prom, Phillip Island if we’ve got any time left.

Easily do-able in 112 days, right?

Read on for the details here