Dreaming of a lap of Oz !!!

[meimarocu]

Just one to put out to the fellow swaggers......

Who here has thought about doing a lap of Oz,for a year or two.
The wife and i are planning/dreaming of such a feat but as anyone one there
are hurdles to over come personally and financially.

What to do.....?
Sell the family home..... I'm ok with it.Shes not
What to do with family pets......... they are family(but more loyal).
Schooling for the kids........Wife's a teacher we will manage.
Any one got the lotto numbers......Need $$$ to pull it off.

I know its been asked before and some have achieved.
I see the photo's and read the trip reports and think,
there is a lot to see and do out there.
We wish we got into campertrailers earlier.

Thanks
Ian.

[areyonga]

I know what your going through as I am too, so the wife and I have decided to give it a try for 12 weeks and see how it goes, then we will make the big decision.

Wil

[GU Rich]

We did 4 months this year, The amount of people we met that had wished they had done it sooner was amazing! Alot of the "oldies" we met were actually scared into the trip because of loosing a close friend etc and not wanting to miss out and make excuses they were on the road. Before you know it it 3,4,6,10 years have past and you might have wished you had done it earlier!

1st Thing to do is set a date of departure, once you have done that stick to it and work around that.
Then workout your budget what you think you will need etc. We included everything in ours from a coffee to the GU being serviced which was more than one on our trip.

Good luck with your decision!!

Rich

[Flemo]

Hopefully we are off for financial year 2011/2012. I have a big offer to stay working where I am till to June 2014 but there will be some serious discussions over this xmas holidays. Kids cant wait that long so need to go next yr.
Home Shcool the kids - friends have done it and no worries.
$ - have been told to allow $1000 a week but i recon we can do better than that. 1 year off costs $50k, money well spent I recon.
Keep the house- rent should cover it but pre pay interest in the previous financial year so tax deduction. ( we currently rent our house out in WA and rent our place we live in in NSW.)
Pets - we have none for this very reason...

Massive decision but we have talked about it for 4-5 yrs. Needs to be done before the kids hit highschool. Might see you out there!

[sassenach.girl]

Hello! We've just started planning our big trip around Oz, leaving June 2012 for 7 months. To answer your questions:

Sell the family home.....
We built our house 3 years ago and neither of us want to sell. With that comes increased cost of course, so we've factored in the mortgage repayments in our budget and will get a housesitter to live in the house, care for it and the garden, and to pay for the utiliities used while away.

What to do with family pets.........
We lost our pets to old age last year, so this is not an issue for us, though have you thought about taking them with you? It all depends on their disposition of course, and it will make travel planning a little more challenging, but it looks doable from what I've research. National parks, however, are the real challenge as they generally don't allow pets

Schooling for the kids........
Our girls will be in Grade 1 and Prep in 2012, so we intend to continue their last two 2012 terms of schooling on the road with guidance from their school. Their age has been a big decision for us in that we're keen to do the Big Trip while they're young and their schooling requirements are more manageable for us than, say, high school.

Any one got the lotto numbers......Need $$$
We made some very firm plans and life changes on this one to make it work. I've just quit my permanent job and moved to contracting. I'm in IT and contracting essentially doubles my pay, so we're schlocking away all the extra into the home loan offset as our Big Trip Budget plan. Hubby will also take his Long Service Leave on half pay for 6 months. We've budgeted around $900 per week tops for the trip, plus as i said, we will also need to cover the mortgage.

I agree with Rich about setting your departure and then working towards it. Now we know when we're going, and where, it feels more like a 'done deal' and we're all working towards it. I've also started on a itinerary if you're interested -->

Now the dreaded 18 month wait!!

Sass.

[Malcur]

We are also dreaming of the big trip. Our circumstances are slightly different though. I am nearing retirement, so no kids to worry about (although the wife will worry that grandchildren could arrive while we are away). Financial issues are also a bit different as we are saving for retirement (I have worked in small business all my life so not a lot of super). No house repayments as we own our own home. We are thinking of moving after retirement, so the plan is to retire, sell the home, do the lap, then move to our retirement home (which we already have, with tenants in it currently). Plan is pretty firm, but the timing is not yet confirmed. Hopefully within a couple of years.

Mal

[SteveandViv]

We also have done the big trip and to some degree still are. I made a decision to not take a transfer to the US so I was up for redundancy at AMEX. I've been there a long time and got a good payout. Like Gu Rich, you have to make a stand and decide to go. We rented the house. Hooked up the camper sh&^ting our selves headed off into the great unknown.. Well, how good was that. have a look at our blog in the sig below if you like. Maybe help you decide. we also have our house in the Blue Mountains so all good there

We now work/live in Broome. Have been for a year or so. We plan to do Cape york next year then the Canning the year after. Then we will leave WA. We look at it as an extended part of our trip. he truth is you have to make some money now and then and we both are.

One your on the road you'll be surprised how much easier it becomes and you'll start to form plans from there.

Goos luck but give it a go.

[graylyn]

I did a 9 week trip up through NT from August to early October this year.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I am thinking I might leave Mackay again in about March-April, and take a leisurely trip over to WA and when I get to Broome and sink a few coldies with Steve & Viv, I will then decide where I will go from there - whether south to Perth and across the Nullabor, or back over the top.  If it takes me six months, who cares.

I am retired, own my house, I get an allocated pension, I am on my own (wife passed away in 08 from cancer)

[speewa158]

Dream Big . Dont slow yourself down with the heavy whatifs .Have faith that you can overcome . Chairman Moe said "The longest journey starts with the 1st step " Thats behind you now move on .
You can both stay home & dream to scaired to try or just Do It . Dont die wondering .
Now start upgrading your gear so its the best you can get that will serve you well . The direction you take will come to you so start to disentangle yourself to go . That can take some time .
My 1st lap started out as a 3month tour to WA took 3 1/2 years to get done , as you go with the flow . Rip in to it   

[graylyn]

I couldn't agree more, Jamie.

[D4D]

We're planning 'the big one' for 2015, probably up the guts again and then back down the east coast. Assuming we don't change jobs, we will both have another round of long service and it will be just before our son starts primary school. The spanner in the works could be if the wife wants #2 child. We actually watched a DVD the other night of some grey nomads doing Litchfield, Kakadu etc. and the wife said she'd like to be back out on the road

[WogsRus]

We are in the same boat. We have travel through out Europe, but one had one dirt magnet, now have two.

Our plan is to do the east coast up to cape york and back down the middle starting April 2012. The date was the hardest part to decide on so i agree pick a date and then work to it.

We budgeted on $1000 per week including fuel and accommodation. This is fairly spot on based on previous calcs and experience.

We will have 4 months off, long service and wife holiday period. My kids will be 7 and 3, so we will take schooling with us for the eldest. We worked out to do the distances we have to travel, we will travel for a day, max 500 kms and then we can stop for 2-3 days at a spot, this should work out well as coming down the middle we will stop less ect ect.

My time will be from long service leave, so i'm all good. cash is coming from savings, we seam to be fortunate enough not have money to put away each month so this will cover  a lot of it, the remainder will come from the fact that we have a monthly food budget and so forth anyhow so a lot of it will be covered from our normal monthly expenses. As i see it calculate what you spend normally on food when you leave at home, how much you spend on petrol and normal cash expenses for yourself and you will find that the money your spending now, from normal living will cover your travel costs. remainder from savings.

BUT priority number one is to pick a date.

[2 Brutal]

You can always do a bit of casual work along the way to help offset the costs and give you some extra $$ to spend.

[Pete the Pirate]

I'm thinking that the $1000 per week cost is a little high....but may be right if you have kids and stay in caravan parks or higher cost camping areas but gotta say the 10 weeks I had on the road last year was nowhere near $10000 - more around $7000. Trip was a gnats nut short of 20000km - Queanbeyan to WA across the Nullarbor up to Steep Point, into the Pilbara, up to Ningaloo, down to Carawine Gorge and then across to Alice and then the Simpson and on to the Corner Country, on to Cape Byron then up to Hervey Bay before heading back home. Ate well, drank well and visited all the sites we could fit in to the time. We had budgeted $15000 but the price of diesel wasn't as high as we were expecting so still had a bit left in the kitty for the next outing...which we hope will be for 2 to 3 years.

[theflyingbadger]

so is the $1000 per week including fuel and any caravan parks generally what people budget on? We've been thinking about doing a lap (or a half lap), but we were concerned about the costs. If 1k pw is ballpark correct then we may be able to do it sooner rather than later 

[speewa158]

Hang on a tick this !k PW is only if you are not stoping to work . If you travel only to cover distance , been there done that got the tee shirt .On the wallaby part of the trip is becoming a new member of the comunity  for how ever long . Work & drink & wonder  as the road goes on for ever how fast do you want to discover it .
If you take on the wallaby self funded then you will miss meeting the people that you seek . Take the $ with you , if you find a place that works for you , stay meet the locals pick there brains to learn more than those that flash through  S L O W   D  O  W  N  Enjoy thats why you are there .

[graylyn]

Errrrrrr, Speewa, have you been into the garage supply again?

[Moto Moto]

Like everyone else on Myswag, we too are planning a lap for min 6 months, maybe 9 months, if all goes to plan. Keep the advice coming everyone, this has already helped me with the planning.

We have two youngsters to consider in our planning as well as our loyal hound. We had a rough date of early 2012 in mind, but it looks like we need to make a more concrete date and work towards it. Also had a rough budget figure of $1000 per week. Seems like a good starting point from what i have read so far.

Love to hear more tips.

[Joff]

What we did for 09-10;
Sold the family home and bought a smaller place with tenant.
Enrolled the brats in Distance Ed. She was NSW year 8 and he was NSW year 5 in 09.
We travelled in a "where we felt like direction" but roughly counter clockwise.

We did no work for the first 9 months because we weren't looking to leave our kids in the tent while we went off to work (that idea is great, but it doesn't suit everyone and everyones circumstances). Our plan was to see and experience as much as we could with the kids at an age where they will remember it forever.

Travelling like that resulted in an average spend of $992 per week. Food and household stuff is the highest cost followed by fuel OR accomodation. What we found was that when you are on the move you camp free or at least very cheap but your fuel bill is higher. When you hit town after a week or so in the bush/desert etc you will then spend a few days or a week in a van park doing the washing, schoolwork, maintenance, shopping etc. Your fuel bill is low but the accomodation is high.

We stopped in Perth for 6 months and did some work. We put the kids in regular school. They made new friends and so did we. The basic idea of the intermission was to wait out the hot weather so we could come back east across the middle in the winter, which is what we did through June, July and August this year.

There is no doubt that 18 months on the road is the best thing we have ever done. Sonja and I always knew we would end up being grey nomads in later life but now we know it will suit us. We just keep throwing fertiliser on the kids feet in the hope that they grow up faster.

Since being back and getting back into the real world, we have both had days where we wonder if it was all just a dream, but then something happens to remind us of the adventure and we smile..

And, just for the record; none of the issues you are all wrestling with end up being that much of a big deal. In fact I have a hard time now trying to remember what I was worried about back in 08.. Believe me when I say I did worry, but I can't remember what about now or even why  

Good Luck, and don't be that bloke that gets to the end only to wish he'd just had the guts

Some stuff you might see

Intermission Thead

Canning Thread

Simpson Thread

It's not all beer and skittles though
Bad stuff happens too thread 

[speewa158]

Here  Here    Well said 

[SteveandViv]

What we did for 09-10;
Sold the family home and bought a smaller place with tenant.
Enrolled the brats in Distance Ed. She was NSW year 8 and he was NSW year 5 in 09.
We travelled in a "where we felt like direction" but roughly counter clockwise.

We did no work for the first 9 months because we weren't looking to leave our kids in the tent while we went off to work (that idea is great, but it doesn't suit everyone and everyones circumstances). Our plan was to see and experience as much as we could with the kids at an age where they will remember it forever.

Travelling like that resulted in an average spend of $992 per week. Food and household stuff is the highest cost followed by fuel OR accomodation. What we found was that when you are on the move you camp free or at least very cheap but your fuel bill is higher. When you hit town after a week or so in the bush/desert etc you will then spend a few days or a week in a van park doing the washing, schoolwork, maintenance, shopping etc. Your fuel bill is low but the accomodation is high.

We stopped in Perth for 6 months and did some work. We put the kids in regular school. They made new friends and so did we. The basic idea of the intermission was to wait out the hot weather so we could come back east across the middle in the winter, which is what we did through June, July and August this year.

There is no doubt that 18 months on the road is the best thing we have ever done. Sonja and I always knew we would end up being grey nomads in later life but now we know it will suit us. We just keep throwing fertiliser on the kids feet in the hope that they grow up faster.

Since being back and getting back into the real world, we have both had days where we wonder if it was all just a dream, but then something happens to remind us of the adventure and we smile..

And, just for the record; none of the issues you are all wrestling with end up being that much of a big deal. In fact I have a hard time now trying to remember what I was worried about back in 08.. Believe me when I say I did worry, but I can't remember what about now or even why  

Good Luck, and don't be that bloke that gets to the end only to wish he'd just had the guts

Some stuff you might see

Intermission Thead

Canning Thread

Simpson Thread

It's not all beer and skittles though
Bad stuff happens too thread 

Perfectly put Joff. Exactly the same almost except where working in Broome.

Merry Xmas 

[meimarocu]

Thanks for all the replies people.....Awesome.
As usual for a MYSWAG group.

Our main issue is our oldest boy is 12 and starts high school 2011.
We think(hope we're right)that the time lost a school will be more educational
than staying at home.
He will be schooled on the trip but between the wife (the educated one) and myself(the logical one)
he should cope ok.
We feel that while we all are young and capable we should go.
We would have to sell the house and get a smaller house to rent out to help fund it.
Would have to get a shipping container for our belongings as i have a large shed with
tools and equipment that would be too costly to start again, and also some personal effect's as well.
I'm a horder so a garage sale is in order

Thanks Ian

[Joff]

Ian

Unless you are confident that you can set a curriculum that will get your 12 year old through, I would seriously consider Distance Ed. If Qld ed are anything like NSW they will send you work packaged in weekly lots. You should be able to get a month or two sent at a time so you just need to know that you will be passing through a given town in a couple weeks. They will send it to the PO for hold untill you arrive and collect.

You still have to do the work with the brat but you don't have to set or assess it. It worked for our 13year old. she excelled in the main math, english, science subjects. While there was a geography, history and PDHPE components however I told the school that she would be getting plenty of those experiences on the road so do hold ya breath waiting for them. They weren’t happy but they sucked it up.

If we did it again with a 10 year old though, I would probably not worry about DE and just do the basics ‘home school’ thing.

As for storage, we took a lease on a 3m x 4.5m storage unit for the household stuff and I somehow managed to squeeze my 14m x 6m shed into a 20’ shipping container that is still sitting out the back of my ol’man’s place.

As I said above, some of this stuff seems hard but it really isn’t.. ya just gotta do it 

[2 Brutal]

We did a 3 week trip to the gulf and took both our kids out of school for it, oldest was 10, youngest 5, the 5 year old learnt heaps about the bush and animals and stuff and after 3 days at Adels Grove could swim like a fish, he only missed prep.
We set a task for the older lad, it was his responsibilty to keep everyones fuel records and costs, and work out all our mileages betwen stops etc, we had 3 vehicles, it kept his maths side of things ticking over well and got him into calculations he wouldn't have been doing in grade 5, so it worked out well, both of them learnt 5 times as much about nature and history and stuff than they would have at school.
They still talk about it now 2 years on.

we met a bloke on the beach at Hideaway Bay Nth of Airlie beach many years ago, he had 2 yound kids with him and was sailing around the world, he'd sold his business and was off, no set plans a huge yacht, no timetable, the kids though had 2 hours of school work to do a day, but they were bored when we bumped into them and he had them out knee boarding behind the zodiac, whilst his Mrs was back on the yacht more around in the next bay. He said he worried about how his kids would handle it, but he was amazed at the number of other kids doing the same thing. Life changing stuff

[Maîneÿ . . .]

I left Melbourne in 1995 on what I planned to be a 12 month round Aussie holiday, never paid anything like $1,000 week  ended up travelling till 2OO8 

By far the biggest expense is fuel, so the further you drive each week it will cost you more each week, I often stayed at free camp area's as there are many of them in the north and north west too, saves more money when you not driving and average the $$ cost out per year.

I stayed at as many deserted beaches as I could find and only went to caravan parks when I needed to find work.

Do a cost analysis of the Kilometres & $$$$ and see how slow/fast you can handle the expenses, it may cost you a few more $$ for food when travelling than when you at home, the added accommodation and fuel costs are the biggies and must be factored into the $$ equation,  I believe $1,000 week is a bit over the top, unless it is a very quick trip with not a lot of long term stops where you can sit back and relax and just chill out for a while.

example only
60,000 klms @ 15 Lt per 100 Klm @ $1.50 per Ltr = ~$13,500 = $26O per week for fuel for 60,000 Kilometre, 12 month trip round Australia
some weeks you spend more, some weeks you spend less, more you drive more it costs, so drive short distances and stay longer and see what many others will miss.

Caravan parks may charge you ($40 night) = $300 week