After a few months of planning our road trip and experimenting our setup over the weekends, we finally hit the road. While both, Anna and I love planning and we felt quite prepared for it, there is always room for improvement. Here is a list of some of the things we learnt on the road, which we would like to share with you.
Don’t be afraid of wildlife, wildlife is afraid of you
This is a big topic for Europeans that touch down Australia for the very first time.
Everyone has heard million stories about all the deathly creatures that inhabit the big island. However, all these are rarely spotted and if you do so, consider yourself a lucky person. We have been doing camping very frequently, and other than harmless Kangaroos, Wallabies, lizards, lots of birds and a snake every now and then, animals will usually go away as soon as they hear your steps from far. Remember, you are the big animal on top of the chain.
Plan ahead for supermarkets
When crossing the dessert, you will rarely find a town with a big supermarket. From Townsville to Darwin, we could only find a Woolworths in Mount Isa and Katherine, and an IGA in Tennants Creek. Hence, if you can stock up for a few days, and you have a good fridge, you would be making your life easier.
Plan ahead for water filling stations for clean water
As we were trying to sleep in free camps or public campgrounds most of our road trip, we struggled a bit when finding a refilling station. Note that, most of public campgrounds you have to treat the water before drinking. While boiling water and let it cool down with 32 degrees outside, can be a long and painful process, we used tablets for treating ours. Alternatively, at night the temperature can drop drastically so next day you would have nice and cold water. Every so often, we would sleep in a Caravan park, so we could refill, do laundry and freeze our water bottles for the fridge.
Get a good esky/cooler from the start
We made the mistake of buying 3 different eskies. At first, everyone tends to go cheap, but that becomes more expensive in the long run. We bought two different eskies from Kmart. The handle and the lid broke on both after a short time. Not to mention, how quickly the frozen water bottles would melt because the seal and the material they are made of is cheap. So, we ended up spending $200 in eskies and a few more days on Caravan park fees, as the food would be getting bad and needed a fridge and a freezer to freeze our bottles again. On top of that, the environment would thank you for generating less crap! It is a win win for everyone!
Welcome a chat with Grey Nomads
Once we started going inland from Townsville, the amount of young backpackers reduced drastically. However, there were lots of retired people with their motor homes. We bonded a lot with a few of them and learnt so many tricks and tips for places to visit! After all, they are the most experienced ones and they are used to travel the old / harsh way, without the privilege and comforts that us, young people, are used to travel nowadays with.
Don’t overpack
It was a one of the big headaches when planning the trip and, even though we thought we were packing minimalist, we ended up using a third of the clothes we brought. We used the same t-shirt every day!
Easy laundry!
We would normally take advantage of Caravan parks to do laundry. However, we learnt a trick from some experienced, well traveled friends. It consists of using wool detergent in a bucket or a dry bag that is big enough. This shakes when driving and once at your destination, as wool detergent doesn’t need to be rinsed, you can just hung it, and with the low humidity and strong sun of the desert, your clothes will be dried in an hour! Of course, consider rope as an essential item for your trip!
Free charge for your electronics!
Even though this one does not apply for when being remote, if you are in a bigger town/city, you can use shopping malls and libraries as free charging stations.
Good fuel efficiency can make your trip cheaper
As you get more and more remote, the fuel price can increase drastically. We went from paying 1.45 $ to 1.96$ per liter. After doing some calculations, we realized that we would drive significantly more km in one tank when:
- Topping up unleaded 95
- Keeping a constant speed of 110km/h
- Topping up at a Shell gas station
Money wise, it might be more expensive when topping up, but you will most likely end up stopping more often. The other advantage is that your car’s engine will definitely appreciate getting some good quality fuel, which in the long run, it will increase its life expectancy.
DIY side awning
We made the mistake of giving away our tarp and poles and purchase a kings awning (which btw we are very happy with). However, we saw so many people that had assembled one with poles, wrapped up in the tarp connected to the roof racks. Had we done that, we would be 100$ richer!
No job, no clock
In OZ winter, there are not so many hours of light. That is why we tried to wake up with the sun and go to bed after the sun set. The privilege of being jobless and free is that you are never running late anywhere. Do remember though, to check the time again if you have a flight to catch!
Go for a long overnight hike!
If you are into nature, the furthest you can escape from the crowds, the more rewarding it is. You get to meet really friendly and inspirational people and the landscapes are mind blowing!
For day hikes, we also noticed that the further you get from the parking lot, the nicer and more open minded the people are.
Generate your own power
While we have not explored this area yet, we are really considering the option of buying a solar panel or an inverter to charge our electronics while we are driving. That way, we would be 100% self sufficient and we wouldn’t have to spend so many nights in Caravan parks. My guess is that it pays off in the long run .
Outdoor Travel Addicts 
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