02/08/2018
Today the adventure that took us 12 months to plan has come to an end!
We traveled 11,000 km, through 5 states in 5 weeks! We’ve had a blast, and are all still friends!!!
Here’s a quick run down of the items we loved and wouldn’t take again.
The best thing we ever did was open a joint bank account, which we all had a card to. We added money each week, for around 10 months. This gave us over $8000, which paid for accommodation, groceries, tours, restaurant meals and when stopping for an afternoon drink. This helped eliminate all those “I owe you” moments, and meant only one person needed to check in, or make bookings. We paid for diesel separately, spending over $2000 each, paying up to $2.20 per liter at Uluru.
We ate incredibly well!!! We traveled with 3 car fridges, 2 as fridges and 1 as a freezer. Hanwood Butchery were fabulous and cryovaced our meat into the meal side portions of our request. This helped eliminate food wastage.
We cooked a lot before we left, these frozen meals were a huge blessing on those days where we were traveling all day or out exploring.
We always planned our meals a few days ahead (Eleisha is a freak in the kitchen! So glad we brought her along!)
We also drank really well, some nights too well! The amount of whiskey, wine and bourbon consumed was not counted, but a good time was had and that’s all that matters!
All five children had an iPad and a set of headphones. Each family bought a Wireless Hard-drive from Leading Edge Computers Griffith, which we could not have traveled without!! This little beauty allowed the children to wirelessly watch movies from their iPads whilst traveling. This was a massive help on those long drives.
The Wiki Camps app was brilliant! Other travelers recommendations helped us decide which places and tours were suitable for us. Our beautiful friend Chonny was also incredible, she was traveling a few days in front of us in the Top End and provided great advise and feedback! Unfortunately we just never caught up to her!!
The Dyson Stick was incredible! There is nothing like a clean van and car to make a women smile! We will never travel without it again!!
Two way radios were fabulous, as there isn’t much phone service. We played car trivia and told jokes between vehicles to keep everyone alert and to pass the time. Annie may have sang a song or two as well!
The scooters were hardly used, these are the one thing we could have easily traveled without! When they did come out the children loved them, but there wasn’t enough opportunity to warrant having them on board.
We shared a massive amount of laughs, created incredible memories and all grew closer within our family networks. We have all learnt so much and have strengthen our love for our incredibly beautiful country! It was a trip of a life time, but we are all excited to be getting home.
Go out and see Australia, we bloody loved it!
Thanks for coming along for the ride! Stayed tuned for the next adventure, and EM’s photographs!
