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Published: March 13th 2013
We started out on our mammoth journey on Monday 11th Feb when we picked up our Britz campervan from the depot in Brisbane & we arrived 4 weeks later in Perth on 10th March.
The road trip had taken us down the East Coast of Queensland and New South Wales, through Victoria and South Australia and finally across the Nullarbor and into Western Australia. We visited Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide before we arrived in Perth and numerous smaller towns on route.
We travelled a total distance of 6830km's and to help put that into context... London to Moscow is 2500 and London to New York is 5600km's!!! So, it was a bloody long way!
The advice given at the start from many locals was, 'fly to Perth' or 'why not put your campervan on the train'.
Our fiends on the Gold Coast made us watch the movie 'Wolfe Creek' and so we headed off with some trepadation (Google it - it's based on true stories)
Highlights of our adventure on the road....
1) meeting lovely people (professional fishermen giving free tips & cooking our tea for us)
2) finding some beautiful places as a result
Glitzy Britzy
Port Stephensof speaking to other travellers, locals & getting lost!
including Coffin Bay, Lucky Bay, Orleans Bay & Watsons Bay/Stephens Bay - which also happens to be my son-inlaws name!
3) we discovered a vast array of wildlife such as kangaroos on the beach, emu's, manta rays, seals, snakes, lizards, a whole array of wild exotic birds - kookaburra's, parrots etc. etc.
4) wonderful National Parks with outstanding beaches & soooo cheap to camp overnight with great facilities
5)...and the fact that we haven't killed each other on route and have emerged still married!
The van served us well, (albeit we stuck out like a sore thum with 'Britz' advertising all over us...& was christened 'Glitzy Britzy'!)
It was 'compact' & had everything that we needed (all basic crockery / glassware, microwave, fridge for madams vino, cooker, comfy bed & storage)
Some extras included decent camping table & chairs were on board after 'Peters' outburst & my cunning wifes negotiating an 'upgrade'.
The cost of fuel was a burden, ranging from $1.39 a litre in Adelaide to over $2 on The Nullabor.
We estimate that we spent over $1000 on fuel...... fortunately the cost of a litre of
non leaded petrol was off-set against a litre of cheap wine ....
we managed to find wine at $2.50 a litre!!! Or, 17p per glass when we bought 15 litres!!
The distances between each township / city soon became comfortable, we would think little of travelling 700kms in a day to reach our next destination.
The road quality is very good & few pot holes to avoid. The main obstacles being the local wildlife.. We were advised not to drive between dusk & dawn.
We found some great places to camp ranging from town centre car parks to beautiful spots right on the beach with some spectacular sunrise & sunsets.
Everywhere we went the public amenities, community BBQ area and showers were clean and very well looked after.
We were remarkably at ease without mobile / computer / TV / radio access for days at a time.
Mother nature is never far from peoples minds. We have been very lucky as whilst we have been on our road trip as some parts of the Country has had to
endure cyclone Rusty, floods, bush fires & droughts. Sadly some people have lost their lives.
In our
opinion Aussies have respect for nature, their surroundings and each other.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our amazing adventure here. Its something that we will remember for the rest of our lives.
We have seen more of Austrailia than most Aussies.
It's now time to re-enter civilisation spending time with family & friends in Perth before we head off to become 'beach bums' on the Cook Islands.
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