Caravanning around Australia

Travel & Touring| WA Road Trips

25 July 2023 By: Joanne Morrell

Earlier this year, RAC members Joanne and Daine Morrell sold their home, packed up their caravan and took themselves and their two daughters on an eight-month odyssey around Australia.

After hiring caravans to holiday with friends for a couple of years, we realised how much our family really enjoyed this way of travelling, so in 2022, we decided to invest in our own caravan.

We had talked about doing a longer trip at some point and went back and forth about selling the house or renting it out. But it wasn’t until the end of 2022, when we returned from a trip to WA’s South West, that my partner Daine and I realised we felt sad to be going back to our suburban lives. With our eldest daughter, Payton, due to start high school the year after next, the small gap to spend time together as a family was closing rapidly.

What truly cemented our decision to sell the house, move into our caravan and travel Australia in April this year was losing three really good mates, all just shy of 40, under various circumstances in 2022. The sentiment that life is too short and that you should seize the day, never rung truer. For us, it felt like it was now or never.

Packing to go

Luckily for us, we sold our home in a seller’s market. So after a month or so of patching, painting and preparing the house, it sold within a week. We had culled a lot of our stuff prior to the sale. The rest was boxed and sent into storage, where it remains until the end of this year.

Our caravan is a 21.6ft Coromal Adventure Seeker and has a spacious layout. With a main double bed, the kitchen and seating area are separated from the kid’s area by a sliding door. Our daughters Peyton (11) and Sara (8) have a double bunk stack opposite an ensuite, which can also be segregated by a bifocal slider.

Overall, we made very minor modifications to the inside of our van. We installed 12-volt adjustable fans on each bedside wall. We stuck adhesive hooks and railings onto bathroom walls for our towels and in the kitchen. We opted to install a gas heater underneath our bed over a diesel heater, as it’s quieter and meant we wouldn’t have to carry diesel with us everywhere.

In the caravan, we took the clothes we all wore the most for an assortment of seasons, along with a few games, minimal sporting and computing equipment. The rest of the space was for some books, bedding, towels, toiletries, cleaning products and medical supplies. The girls were also allowed to select one or two of their favourite toys (of the smallest kind).

We stocked the shelves with food and drinks. With only a grill installed in the caravan, we packed our air fryer to work as an oven and our Thermomix to use as a blender and additional cooking appliance. Also squeezed in was a kettle, toaster, sandwich press, an ice machine, camp chairs and two outdoor tables.

The one thing we wish we’d done better was to utilise the cupboard space in our caravan. Our cupboards are wide. Adding shelving would have helped to organise our belongings and provide extra storage.

In the car, we installed a two-way radio, which allows us to communicate with drivers of oversized loads, road trains and other caravanners, both in front and behind us. We ask those other vehicles when it’s safe to overtake, learn if there are any obstructions we need to be aware of, and hear conversations between drivers discussing road conditions.

The apps we downloaded to our phones, which we sync to car’s infotainment system, have been invaluable. PetrolSpy discloses fuel stations and fuel prices within the vicinity we are travelling through or staying in. WikiCamps is also a must. It displays accommodation options (both free and paid caravanning spots), points of interest, dump points and water supplies.

On the road

After a quick trip to visit friends in Busselton, we’d planned to travel through the North West and then head to the Northern Territory for a longer stop in Darwin.

Before we left, I booked two months’ worth of accommodation at various locations up north. However, a week after making the bookings we learned Fitzroy Crossing had flooded and we had to cancel them all.

Our plan to hover in the top end of Australia for the heat and then slowly make our descent down the east coast in July, avoiding the cooler months, was in jeopardy. We discussed going across Australia from Kalgoorlie. But only two days after waving goodbye to our loved ones in Perth to head to Busselton, a downpour of torrential rain saw us return to Perth after our caravan sprung a leak.

We were sorely disappointed and also a bit worried. Our caravan was our home now, and it was leaking. We stayed with my parents while the caravan’s roof panels were replaced. Soon after, Fitzroy Crossing was open, so we resumed our journey.

We winged it with a free camp at 25 Mile Well for a night, then went on to Dales Campground in Karijini National Park and also visited friends for a week in Karratha. After three nights at Eighty Mile, we had two weeks at RAC Cable Beach Resort in Broome, then experienced a station stay at Larrawa Station.

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Our next stop was the Bungle Bungles, followed by Kununurra, before five nights at magical El Questro. Lake Argyle was our last stop in WA before finally crossing the border into the Northern Territory. Here we camped for a night at Victoria River Roadhouse before setting up for a one-month stay at Darwin’s Free Spirit Caravan Park to work and explore all this outstanding city has to offer.

From here, we plan to spend three nights at Kakadu National Park, then free camp our way to Cairns. We will head down the east coast, staying several nights here and there, and possibly longer in the larger cities to work. However, nothing is set in stone. So far there’s been no problem turning up to accommodation without booking, and if we find a place we love, we can stay as long or as little as we like; the freedom and the choice is ours.

Home schooling

There are so many options available for families to homeschool their children. Registering your child for home school is an easy online form. You can enrol in distance education (online learning) where they can complete work in a virtual classroom with a real teacher in real time. You can have work sent to you, complete it and post it back for marking, working to a deadline.

I selected an online resource called Twinkl. There are many of these programs available, but this one came recommended by one of my children’s teachers.

On the road, I plan our lessons a week in advance, trying to incorporate a couple of hours a day, mainly English and Maths, and choosing the worksheets and topics within Twinkl that meet these requirements. Journaling, reading, and spelling are also part of our routine.

With home school, you just need to stick with whatever works for you and your family and adjust as and when needed. The best advice I was given was to keep it simple and try to create learning around our environment. Our best investments have been a little portable printer and satellite internet, so our connection is fast and not lost anywhere.

When visiting places such as El Questro, Lake Argyle, and the Bungle Bungles, we take time off certain subjects to get out and explore and learn about the flora, fauna and history of the area. Regional Information Centres have been incredible resources for providing work sheets for our kids to fill out.

The best bits

We had so many fears and doubts about undertaking this trip. We literally uprooted every aspect of our lives and weren’t sure if it was the right choice. But travelling through this incredible country has made us realise we’ve definitely made the right decision.

The otherworldly sunsets we saw at Eighty Mile Beach will stay with us forever, as will ticking off bucket list experiences such as camel rides along the paradise beaches of Broome. Exploring the natural beauty of Emma Gorge and the hot springs at El Questro were other highlights, along with standing in front of the giant, banded domes of the Bungle Bungle Range.

The history of pearl farming in the north and the culture of the Aboriginal communities we’ve come across have been fascinating, as have all of the salt-of-the-earth people we’re meeting along the way. They may be living a different type of life from the norm, some living in vintage buses, coaches and even in a horsebox! But what counts is that they’re living their lives on their own terms, with their children, and making each day count.

We’ve seen wild dingos and giant birds, breathed in the sweet and savoury scents of the Mindil Markets in Darwin, and there is so much more waiting for us on the road ahead.

There are still so many incredible adventures to come, like the Whitsundays, the Great Barrier Reef, the Daintree Rainforest, and the theme parks of the Sunshine Coast. We’re also going to cross the ocean to Tasmania before heading to South Australia and all the other secret spots we know nothing of yet but will unearth along the way.

But by far the best bit has been spending time together and feeling like you are honestly living each and every day. Caravanning has made us truly embrace all that this incredible country has to offer and see life through a different lens. So, take the chance, do the trip, and encounter our extraordinary Australia in all its natural glory and discover what truly matters most.