BIG Announcement – Our 1 Year Road Trip Around Australia

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Yesterday Caz wrote about her travel fears and why we have delayed following our travel dream for too long.

Six weeks ago I wrote about the secret to our success and how it has taken us five years of tears, hard work and persistence to get to this point.

But today is all about JOY.

We’ve been writing about travel on this blog since 2010: three years of sharing all our wisdom and stories from 15 years of travel – we don’t want any other life.

We’ve tried and it didn’t work for us. All we got was a gigantic kick up the arse in order to follow our true passion: a life of travel.

Some people have a travel bucket list. Some don’t. But almost everyone has a DREAM.

Today we are are excited to announce that we are finally moving forward with a long-time dream of ours. We’ve spent 15 years exploring the world and very little time getting to know our own country.

It’s time for a change.

This September we are packing up the kids, the car, and few possessions and road tripping around Australia – for at least one year!

I don’t think we’ve ever been as EXCITED about a trip as this one.

It’s been a long time between drinks for a big trip, and there have been many moments in recent years when we thought it would never happen.

This is probably the biggest travel adventure we have ever taken on. We’ve backpacked Africa, campervanned around Europe and road tripped across the USA. Huge adventures that involved just Caz and I.

Now we have two little cherubs joining us and this journey will undoubtedly go for longer than any other. PLUS, we are doing it in one of the BIGGEST and MOST expensive countries in the world.

But we are up for the challenge.

Why Australia?

Because it’s our homeland.

It’s unique, it’s diverse, it’s full of larrikins and from the little bit we have seen it’s bloody beautiful. It’s an island, a country, a continent – yep, she’s a BIG one!

With a coastline stretching 50,000 kilometres and linked by over 10,000 beaches, we can’t wait to dig our toes into the sand and see sunrises and sunsets over some of the most magnificent beaches in the world.

In the centre there’s the iconic Outback. We have never been to this remote, vast area that symbolises Australia. Experiencing the open spaces and camping out under the stars is going to be incredible.

Let us show YOU our island home.

Our country is known for its world class wine regions, World Heritage National Parks, ancient rainforests, unique wildlife, spectacular reefs, vibrant cities, the Aussie sense of humour and the fascinating aboriginal culture.

We want to see and feel it all. It’s time for us to get lost again and take on an Australian adventure.

And what an experience for our girls – to show them their amazing homeland – the memories are going to be priceless.

Why a Road Trip?

Road trips provide a perfect opportunity to connect with your family, a sense of nostalgia, educational value and an environment for bonding as a family unit.

One of my fondest childhood memories are the annual road trips with my family to Port Macquarie in NSW – ever since I’ve been hooked.

Road trips are just so practical and cost effective. And as a travelling family we can’t rate them highly enough as a memorable travel experience.

Our number one tip for traveling with kids is SLOW travel, and road trips allow for that.

You can set your own travel hours and destinations, and the journey becomes just as memorable as the destination.

I’m so excited about hitting the wide open road with the kids and having the flexibility to do what we want, when we want.

It’s the best way for us to travel and run our business.

We plan to act as your virtual tour guide and story tellers as we discover Australia one blog post, tweet, Facebook status, instagram, pin, and video at a time.

Where are we going?

Everywhere and anywhere.

Starting from Sydney, we’re heading south for the summer months and then north for the winter. By hitting the Top End in the winter months we’ll escape the humidity and the wet season. You gotta plan your seasons in Oz.

At this stage we are planning for a year, but to be honest, the more we research, the more we find out there is to do, so don’t be surprised if that stretches out to 2 years.

We’re excited for our family to come and join us at certain points along the journey, and we are going to go with the flow as much as possible.

We have a rough itinerary in place for where we will be each month, but this could change as we stumble on new destinations and get new recommendations.

Here are our must sees on the bucket list for each state heading south from Sydney:

October – NSW

South Coast and Canberra.

Jervis Bay, NSW     credit: Yegor Korzh

November – Victoria

The Yarra Valley, The Grampians, Melbourne, Phillip Island, The Mornington Peninsula, The Great Ocean Road.

Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road       credit: edwin.11

December – Tasmania

Hobart, Launceston, Port Arthur, Cradle Mountain, Tamar Valley, Freycinet National Park, Wineglass Bay,

                                   Wineglass Bay, Tasmania                     credit: coolhunter

January – South Australia

Adelaide, The Barossa Valley, Kangaroo Island, The Flinders Ranges, Coober Pedey

Barossa Valley     credit: Kyle Taylor

February, March and April – Western Australia

Perth, Margaret River, The Southwest, Cape Le Grande National Park, Ningaloo Reef, Broome, The Kimberleys, Karijini National Park.

Mitchell Falls, The Kimberley     credit: Devar

May, June – Northern Territory

Darwin, Kakadu National Park, Litchfield National Park, Arnhem Land, Uluru, Katherine, Kings Canyon.

Arnhem Land

July, August and September – Queensland

Tropical North Queensland, Great Barrier Reef, Whitsunday Islands, Fraser Island, The Sunshine and Gold Coasts, Brisbane.

                                Heart Reef, Great Barrier Reef           credit: traveling greener

October 2014 – NSW

North Coast, Byron Bay, Port Macquarie, and everywhere along the Legendary Pacific Coast Highway.

We’ll be travelling SLOW (just like our manifesto says). We have to, we have two children, plus we will be working a business.

Our Mission

This trip is NOT just about us. We want to show you that family travel can be done, road trips are great fun, and Australia is worth exploring.

We are very excited about sharing our stories, tips, photos and videos from around Australia with the 155,000 people visiting our site each month.

As always, our goal is to inform and inspire you to go travel, and travel more often.

We want your help.

For us, the best travel tips always come from other traveller’s who have been there and done that, and the locals on the ground.

We’ll be reaching out to our online communities on the blog and social media for all your insider tips. Plus, we’ll be chatting with the locals in every town and other travelers on the road.

As we arrive in each place, we’ll be asking the locals (and you) to help us discover:

• the best beach?
• who makes the best coffee?
• best place for a beer?
• best place for a sunrise and sunset?
• the best fish and chips?
• best vegetarian cafe
• the best family activities?
• best walks?

We’re excited to hear your suggestions and to also share new things with you.

Types of Experiences

It’s no secret Australia can be an expensive place to travel. But we are up for the challenge of showing you how to make it affordable.

We’ll be seeking out free and unique activities along the way and sharing out tips for saving money on the road.

In our blog posts and social media updates we will share tips like:

• where to stay
• where to eat
• things to see and do
• planning
• logistics of travel in Oz

Suggested Itineraries

Although our trip is for at least a year, we know and understand a lot of you will probably only ever get to do shorter trips in Oz. So our idea is to break up our content into more practical posts.

We plan to publish posts and write eBook guides for each city and region. For example:

• 3 days in Sydney
• 3 weeks in Tasmania
• 2 weeks in the Outback
• 3 weeks in North Queensland
• 1 month in Western Australia etc.

We also plan to mix up our accommodation options as we know you all have different budgets and tastes. For example:

• camping / caravanning
• hostels
• hotels
• apartments / vacation rentals
• some luxury
• possibly some house sitting.

What Do We Want to Experience

Lots of things. Australia beyond the icons.

We love nature, food and wine, wildlife experiences, island life, sports and festivals, vibrant cities, National Parks, aboriginal culture, endless summers, family adventure, hidden gems, and BEER.

On our agenda will be classic road trips such as:

• The Gibb River Road in Western Australia
• The Great Ocean Road in Victoria
• Nature’s Way and Red Centre Way in Northern Territory
• Kangaroo Island and Wine Regions of South Australia
• Perth to the Southwest in WA
• The Legendary Pacific Coast Drive
• The Great Tropical Drive in North Queensland
• A lap of Tasmania

Follow Our Journey

On the blog we’ll be sharing everything about our journey around Australia.

• the budget tips
• the ups and downs
• the travel planning
• the reality of travelling on the road as family
• how to be a digital nomad
• travel life through our children’s eyes
• the weird and the wacky!

If you don’t want to miss any of our updates, plus all of our pre-planning posts over the next three months before we leave, then subscribe via email.

The Hashtag

#yTraveloz will be our official hashtag for the whole trip so you can follow our live updates via Instagram and Twitter.

We’ve had a love / hate affair with instagram since it launched on android, but we get it now and is probably the best place to follow our journey LIVE!

Pinterest

Our Pinterest boards are going to be a BIG focus and where we share our best photos and content with our 4 million followers.

As well as pinning stuff to our travel tips, family travel, food travel, Australia and bucket list boards, we’ll also create State boards you can follow to get your inspiration and information. Join us here.

Facebook

Look out for our live updates on our facebook page. We’ll be sharing tips and pics from the places we see, where we eat, and where we stay.

And this is where we’ll be asking for your suggestions on things to see and do.

Food eBook

As food is such a big part of any trip, we plan to write an eBook on 30 simple, healthy dishes to cook on the road.

We’ll be seeking out local farmers markets and on the hunt for the best value in supermarkets.

Home Schooling Kalyra

Kalyra turns six in September, and one of our new challengers will be looking after her educational needs.

Are we worried? Nope. Luckily for us Caz is a qualified Primary School teacher and has been teaching around the world and in Australia since 1997.

We know that travel offers so much to our kids as far as education goes, and opens their eyes to a whole new world. Most recently we witnessed this when Savannah met Alida in Vanuatu.

There are life lessons to be learned that cannot be taught in any classroom, text book or movie. History, Science, Language, Math and the Arts can all be studied hands-on through travel.

We certainly don’t plan on home schooling our kids full-time, but for now traveling together as a family, and creating lifelong memories as a family is very important to us.

Meet Ups

In every major city we plan on having reader meet ups over a few drinks and a travel chat. We’d love to meet as many of you as possible and hear about your travel stories too.

To learn more about this and get email updates click here.

Partnerships

We will be partnering with a few select brands on this trip, but only those that are relevant and offer value to us, you and them.

For us it’s always important we create win-win-win relationships, and we are very conscious of our own brand and only aligning with companies who are a natural fit and we believe in.

Life is too short

It is ticking by, faster with every year.

Believe it or not I turn 40 in September and what a great way to kick off the rest of my life with this HUGE adventure.

Australia has given us so much. It is time for us to give back to our own country by showcasing it as much as we can.

We want to show you why there really is no place like Australia and how travel can be affordable here. It ain’t going to be like south east Asia, we certainly aren’t delusional, but we want to show how it can be done in a way that is cheaper than you expected.

So that’s it. It’s really happening, and this post is our official announcement. There’s no turning back now.

In just over three months time we’ll pack up the kids, jump in our car and hit the open road.

It’s going to be EPIC!

Is Australia on your bucket list?

Where should we go?

What must we see?