We have done a few trip since buying our 16.5 Jayco expanda both free camping & caravan parks. We are about to endeavour our first real big trip across the Nullarbor from the coast of Southwest of WA to Halls Gap in Victoria. Tug is a 2003 Holden Rodeo 3lt turbo diesel.We would love to here any advice from other travellers who may have done this trip. We will have 3 kids in tow 8, 7 & 3 so gaining some knowledge of what is install will be great.
Hi There
- Thread starter Andrew North
- Start date
Welcome Andrew to the site! That is a big trip hope it all goes well, would love it if you share your trip mate. I cant give much advice on such a long haul but im guessing some form of entertainment for the kids would be good eg: dvd ipad etc. Good luck and enjoy.
Welcome Andrew and yes the best thing we ever installed in the car when ours were that age was the headrest DVD players (With headphones) they kept them quiet for ages
Welcome to the forum Andrew. We did the trip both ways in 2011 but with no kids. I'll leave that part of the advice to the experts :gru2::minion_sad: :agnes_overjoyed: but you should definitely stop at the Head of the Bight. The scenery along the way is fantastic, just drive off the road if you see a track towards the coast and get out and take in the view. There are also some fantastic caves along the way as well plus bird watching. We were just blown away with the scenery while bush camping on the cliff tops.
Hi Andrew. Good advice as above.
Give each if the kids their own responsibilities (even the 3 y.o.) so they're not just passengers (you probably already do this).
In car DVD and audiobooks can fill the driving hours (remember to keep something special aside for those long Nullabor stages).
Maybe the 7 and 8 y.o. could be trip photographers? Boys/Girls? Into crafts?
And to try and teach you to suck eggs, limit your driving stretches and all enjoy the rest breaks.
Mix short road days with longer ones so you have a holiday as well.
Internet search together all the places along your route and make a wish list of all the interesting spots and then plan your travel to include the best of them and try and get a balance of favourites to try to please each member of the family.
Review each day together and keep a family travel journal.
Think about cheap, but decent power (16-20x) binoculars (off eBay) on a simple camera tripod to star/moon gaze, whale watch etc. or even spotting scope or a casegrain spotting scope. Better than telescopes for the kids to use and great educational fun.
Give each if the kids their own responsibilities (even the 3 y.o.) so they're not just passengers (you probably already do this).
In car DVD and audiobooks can fill the driving hours (remember to keep something special aside for those long Nullabor stages).
Maybe the 7 and 8 y.o. could be trip photographers? Boys/Girls? Into crafts?
And to try and teach you to suck eggs, limit your driving stretches and all enjoy the rest breaks.
Mix short road days with longer ones so you have a holiday as well.
Internet search together all the places along your route and make a wish list of all the interesting spots and then plan your travel to include the best of them and try and get a balance of favourites to try to please each member of the family.
Review each day together and keep a family travel journal.
Think about cheap, but decent power (16-20x) binoculars (off eBay) on a simple camera tripod to star/moon gaze, whale watch etc. or even spotting scope or a casegrain spotting scope. Better than telescopes for the kids to use and great educational fun.
Plenty of great advice, we don't have dvd players in our cars as we treat our windows as one big tv, so maybe against the grain a bit there. If the 3yo sleeps in the car (day sleep) maybe have a break and refuel just before this to knock over some k's
The older ones maybe give a map to trace the trip in and it also gives them an appreciation of how big Australia is and highlight points of interest on the map to aim for on the crossing.
Make the most of playgrounds, piles of dirt, views and wildlife on snack breaks.
Also Bingo is a good game to play in the car, say have a list of objects, and animals (emus, kangaroos, eagles etc) and they can cross off what they have spotted.
All in all memories are the best asset of any big adventure.
The older ones maybe give a map to trace the trip in and it also gives them an appreciation of how big Australia is and highlight points of interest on the map to aim for on the crossing.
Make the most of playgrounds, piles of dirt, views and wildlife on snack breaks.
Also Bingo is a good game to play in the car, say have a list of objects, and animals (emus, kangaroos, eagles etc) and they can cross off what they have spotted.
All in all memories are the best asset of any big adventure.
Wow Some great things to talk to the wife about. We are lucky enough to already have Head rest DVD player, and the kids have also got a couple of adriod tablets. Would love to know the names of some of the caves to see as this would be great for this Kids & me. Have seen some other forums about taking extra water not sure if I need to or not. We do only have 1 80l water tank in the van??? Would like know what people usually average in fuel cost/consumption towing a van across the nullabour to help give some idea what that will be. Names of some good free camping site would be great.
Hi Andrew, :welcome:. We used to play lots of games when we travelled with our kids. Spoto was good for all sorts of stuff, our favourite was bird spoto - first one to count to a predetermined number of birds (say 20?) wins. An old favourite was "when I went on holidays I packed in my suit case......" each person adds an item on their turn and needs to remember every one else's items (maybe a bit distracting for the driver but fun for the passengers). As for the caves, we explored Murrawijinie Caves accessed from a dirt road next to the Nullabour road house.
HI Andrew and welcome to the forum. Heaps of info on here as you have no doubt already seen and heaps of people happy to share info with you. 
Enjoy the van and the freedom it gives.
Ants
Enjoy the van and the freedom it gives.
Ants
Welcome @Andrew North, can't advise on that trip but besides the dvd players my girls used to play "spotto" which is when you see a yellow car the first one to say spotto gets a point...even I used to play . Hope all goes well!
Cheers.
. Hope all goes well!Cheers.