A Camping Road trip from Brisbane to Kakadu, Litchfield National Park, Katherine and Lake Argyle

Fifteen years  ago I planned an estimated year long road trip right around Australia but before we could get organised for departure a different adventure presented itself to us, the  Grandparent Adventure.  Now that our grandchildren [the two that live nearby] are older and going on an overseas family holiday adventure of their own, we will soon leave our home comforts for a brief life on the road, one a little less than of a couple of months instead of a year.

Fifteen years has made a difference in what we are able to achieve with activities such as mountain climbing and strenuous walking now definitely out of the plan. Coping with cold weather and very long days of driving now that only one of us drives will also now be a challenge as will being sure that we have more than enough of medicines needed for all contingencies. The circumnavigation of our country is just too hard so we have chosen just one part of this huge land to explore. The blue line on the map indicates our expected outward trip with a slight variation in green being the homeward  one.

Charlie, the Teardrop trailer

We are so lucky to have three great adult children who encourage us in our adventures. This time our son is to join us from Mount Isa to share the holiday with us and to assist with some of the driving. This would not be possible for him to do  without the love and support of our daughter by marriage who will be home alone with their very energetic and articulate two year old son while also working full time and dealing with the building of their new home. That's love and generosity in action.

Part of our preparation for this trip was to go down to Canberra to pick up Charlie, the "trailer." He was built by our son while he was living in America and is a comfortable large bedroom on wheels together with a compact kitchen under the back hatch. 

The drive from Canberra was my first ever towing experience so now I have a few kms under my belt, as they say. I haven't yet had to reverse it into a confined space so that challenge is to come!

For this trip we have to be able to be totally self sufficient if we are to be flexible and able to stop in interesting places and also to avoid long days of driving. This means carrying far more water than usual as well as a Porta Potty! As well as that we have extra spare wheels, fuses and so on. 

Charlie's kitchen

I have found www.caravancaravan.com.au a useful website for traveller reported information about the facilities and conditions of places where we may stop, either briefly or overnight. Other travellers' blogs have also been both fun to read as well as giving some useful tips. I am ready to try out the one mentioned to repel hovering mossies  by spraying Listerine mouthwash on the chairs! My travel plan is a book in its own right - a day by day journey in detail. Hopefully it will have all the information we need to travel comfortably!

Now that we have recovered from the bug that got us during the past two weeks [ Influenza B ?], have dealt with the insurance company after the break in, had the security door that was removed from its tracks attended to and cleaned up the mess left by the intruders, we will soon be on our way. 

[Any would-be crims please note that not a thing of value is now on our property and that a security company is engaged in surveillance. The Very Observant Neighbour has also returned from her own holiday and is also on surveillance duty, police number at the ready. The police will also be cruising around at least three times daily.]

We're almost ready to depart. Let the last of our camping adventures begin!

Sunshine Coast - Camping with the family

Camping has long been one of our happy family activities and our enthusiasm for this was renewed after our exciting time in Yellowstone Park, America. On our return home we converted our van to provide extra comforts in consideration for the years added, with both grandchildren being enthusiastic overseers and helpers. Excitement rose as we made our plans for their first camping experience. As an introduction to this holiday style - Camping 101 - and, catering to their love of the beach, we decided to go up the highway for about an hour to our favourite local beach on the Sunshine Coast, Dicky Beach.

Dicky Beach, Caloundra

Dicky Beach is popular with families because of the alternative water for the littlies to play as well as the skate park, barbecues, Surf Club and Lifesaver Patrols as well as shower facitities. The Surf Club here was named Queensland's best Surf Life Saving club in 2009. There are other beaches nearby which was useful once a few years ago when we had to exit the water because a shark was spotted!

Our campsite set up

Camper Van comforts

Once we were set up we headed to the beach.

Dicky Beach, Caloundra

Dicky Beach is named after an iron ship, SS Dicky, which ran aground in a storm in 1893. Apparently it was refloated but turned around and again became stuck in the sand and the decision was made to leave it there.

SS Dicky shipwreck, Caloundra

We had had some days of high winds so the surf was still quite strong and sometimes dumpy.

Picking a wave to ride

That was fun!

Fearlessly heading out to the big waves the youngestone looks for a wave assisted by Mum.

There's a wave coming!

Holding on tight, he rides right up the beach! Again and again!

Not so lucky with the next wave which is a dumper. Dad races to the rescue but undeterred he gets up and heads back out for another one.

A Dumper Wave

After a while and being dumped twice the red "rescue board" is handed over to someone else to ride and he heads to calmer waters.

Wave Rider champion!

Calmer waters

It was great to see all of the family have fun riding the waves!

Wave riding, Dicky Beach, C

On another day we went into Caloundra town to Kings Beach. This is a very much larger beach and is always crowded with swimmers. This is the main part of the holiday town of Caloundra with many high rise apartments, resturant and cafes and shops catering to seaside holidaymakers.

Kings Beach, Caloundra

Kings Beach also has a lovely pool on the foreshore - a great place to simply relax afrer fun riding the waves on the beautiful beach.

Pool at Kings Beach, Caloundra

Play fountain, Kings Beach, Caloundra

Bungy Trampoline, Kings Beach

Our short beach camping trip was so much fun that the children are trying to negotiate their way into another trip as soon as possible. The family camping tradition has been passed on !