Road Trip….. Stage 1 Plan where..

So I have a lot more leave up my sleeve that Cat does… so to give me something to do and to get me out of her hair.. she suggested a road trip. Heading to Adelaide Via Broken Hill was her idea….

So here is what I am thinking… I pack some camping gear in the Subaru Forester, a couple of computers, a couple of GPS’s (a new camera if I can afford it before I go), my Vodfone N95 +my backup Telstra prepaid phone, and head out on the road for 7/8 days. I have to be in Adelaide on the 23rd of December at 10:30am… but the rest of the trip is fairly flexible.

The trip has been mulling in my head, and partly due to the Roadtrip to Cowra done by Stilgherrian which showed how crowd sourcing a trip can result in some unpredictable outcomes which are make the journey itself fun, I have decided to pre-blog the trip 2 months out before I leave. (Also given that for me the Journey is the point of the holiday and the destination is just somewhere I have to be for Xmas, opening it up may just work)

So below is what I have roughly planned… thanks to my good friends at google maps… (well o.k, they are not my actual friends) and a copy of the Camping Guide to new South Wales I have managed to work out an approximate route and timetable. Cat has also “suggested” that I could buy something Opal for her at Whitecliffs as well.

So what I want is people to suggest things that are must sees/do’s along the way.

So here is the route day by day…

Melbourne to Echuca: 237 km (There are a lot of camp grounds just pass Echuca so hole up there for one night)


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Day 2: Echuca to the Willandra National Park: 379 km (Just south of Ivanhoe)


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Day 3: Willandra National Park to White Cliffs, via Ivanhoe and Wilcannia: 348 km


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Day 4: Broken Hill 274 km (Depending on Weather and Road conditions which I can work out at White Cliffs, there is another route to Broken Hill, by travelling back to Wilcannia as well)


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Day 5: Have a whole day in Broken Hill (IE 2 Nights…)

Day 6: Broken Hill to Burra: 356 km (Remembering to be in Bura before Thorougoods Cellar Door Closes to stock up on some of the best Cider in Australia)


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Day 7: Bura to Adelaide: 155 km. Most important thing to be at the Airport before Cat arrives from Melbourne.


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Total Distance of trip will be 1,794 km – Will over 2k by the time you do all those other running around bits e.t.c… but a holiday I am very much looking forward to.


2 Responses to “Road Trip….. Stage 1 Plan where..”

  1. My friend did a 15,000km desert trip and got great advice (see below) on how to pack the car systematically so you don’t drive yourself crazy un/packing everything. Reminded me of my Dad taking great pride in packing the car boot for family holidays as if it were a jigsaw puzzle only he knew how to complete.
    Good luck!

    http://blogs.smh.com.au/travel/archives/2008/08/towards_the_desert_in_disarray.html

  2. I did a similar trip a few years ago (actually, my wife and I did many similar trips every year at xmas for quite a while).

    I can highly recommend White Cliffs (I am sure you’ll run into an old bugger named Jock while there, be sure to say hello).

    We did all of our trips in a stock standard Falcon wagon and the best parts were always the meanderings off the ‘main’ roads. Two of my favourites were:

    Menindi Lakes to Wilcannia (or vice versa) – http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=wilcannia&daddr=Menindee,+NSW+2879,+Australia+(Menindee+Lakes+Caravan+Park)&hl=en&geocode=%3BCc7dhFOnFTp3FYu8Ef4dzR59CCGmvtvrHyg9bA&mra=pe&mrcr=0&sll=-31.558559,143.377976&sspn=3.201335,4.103394&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9

    Wentworth to Renmark (around the back way) – http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&saddr=renmark&daddr=-34.039005,141.17981+to:wentworth&hl=en&geocode=&mra=dpe&mrcr=0&mrsp=1&sz=9&via=1&sll=-34.19234,141.389555&sspn=1.553939,2.051697&ie=UTF8&t=h&z=9

    Both of these trips were 4-5 hour hauls along (fairly safe) red-dirt roads. We saw things that we’d never have seen if we’d stuck to the safe highways.

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