Who has travelled around Australia with their child/ren?

[MummaBear03]

Just wondering how many of you have done this, as I'm looking at taking DD around to different places in the next year but staying with friends and family, then the following taking her to other places like the Kimberleys and Uluru and so on, where we know no-one. Wanting stories of experiences and little hints and tips on travelling with kids.

When she's older I'd like to take her overseas, but not until high school so plenty of time to sort that out yet :)

[Pax]

No we havent but we have spoken very often about wanting to..

i have a dream........... :D

I want to buy and old bus and turn it into a motorhome and home educate the kids while travelling the country..

prolly never do it.. but i like the dream.

[Opinionated]

Morrigan, I have a very similar dream. We have a vehicle partially paid for so we are part way there.

[MummaBear03]

Hi Morrigan, I hope you get your dream one day. Would you do it on your own though? I'd be doing it just me and my daughter. Through the Northern Territory will be the hardest one to get through as we don't know anybody who lives there at all. We know people who live everywhere else lol.

[SimplyMum]

MB- I don't think there would be too much difference in travelling alone to travelling with someone- very doable.

I also have the same dream. I doubt I will get there until I'm old and decrepid though. I suppose I gotta do something when I'm retired!

[Larski]

MB I have the same dream! I'd love to take off with DS in a campervan and go around Australia for a year before he starts school. Realistically, we probably wont be able to for that long (for financial reasons) but I'd still love to do it for some amount of time (even two or three months would be fantastic).

If you can get around and stay with family and friends then you will be fine, and then you'll probably have your confidence up to do some independent travel after that. See how you feel. If you dont want to do anything independently, then you dont have to - but the opportunity to do some travelling and stay with people you know is just brilliant.

I think the hardest part of doing it alone would be managing if something goes wrong. I would definitely get some basic mechanical skills before I did anything like that, just so I could manage simple things. I'd also make sure I had good communication options like a mobile (and probably a spare with another sim card just in case) and a laptop.

The other important thing would be safety. As the only driver, you wouldnt cover as much distance as if you had someone to share with as you would have to stop every two hours for a break. I suppose thats a good thing for the kids though! It would be good to have a fairly relaxed itinerary so you're not feeling pressured to push on and arrive somewhere by a certain time.

Also personal safety would be a big thing - personally I would only stop in proper camping places where there are other people around, and not just pull up somewhere isolated to sleep.

It does sound hard... maybe I can just take DS on lots of little holidays where we fly somewhere instead!

[MummaBear03]

I know some basic things about cars. It'll be a matter of getting tools. We went up to Port Douglas recently but had a friend (single mum also, but without her daughter) and the Triton just cut out on us in Cairns! Opened it up and it was as simple as a terminal disconnecting, but without tools we couldn't do a thing about it so RACQ had to be called. I think I know how to change tyres, but last time I had to was when I was 35 weeks pregnant, which was a long time ago now. Guess it's probably something you don't forget. I'd like to do a defensive driving course first, too, because on the way up north we pulled over a number of times due to idiot drivers, people overtaking on double lines on bendy roads going way over the speed limit, that sort of thing. That was on a part that said "High Crash Zone" so you'd think people would be more careful. I think a 4x4 course and a defensive driving course would be ideal, as well as maybe going over the basics of a car.

[beancounter]

We have been to Uluru; to Adelaide and Sydney (Im in Canberra). In a couple of weeks we are going to Cairns and Port Douglas. My daughter has just turned 10 and honestly I have not done much travel with her before apart from staying with people because when she was younger it was just too hard; but now she is at a great age and travelling together is fun - Im really looking forward to this holiday and am thinking of New Zealand early next year.

[MummaBear03]

We went on a river cruise through the Daintree River when we were up at Port Douglas a couple of weeks ago, if you get a chance I highly recommend it. $22/adult and $11/child, but we picked up a brochure from a travel agent that had a 10% discount on it which made it cheaper. I love it up north, just so beautiful but we haven't been to too many other places. If you get a chance to pull into a place called Jourama Falls it's worth stopping at, just gorgeous! There's a walking track, we had a puppy with us so couldn't do the walking track last time but would love to go back up to do it. Dogs weren't allowed, but it would have taken us too long to leave him in the car alone, too.

[earthfairy]

My DH & I have driven right around Australia....starting in Cairns & ending back here now :D

We left here nearly 3 years ago & took 3 months to Perth, spent 12 months there....then moved back to Darwin for a while, where we had our DD.

We left Darwin in June this year & arrived back in Cairns in July.

DO IT!!!!
I cant recommend it highly enough!:thumbsup:
It has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life & cant wait to do it all again when our kids are older.

The Darwin to Cairns trip was the only part that we had our DD with us and she was 6 months old but she loved it! We camped too!

Just because you dont know anyone in the NT dont let that discourage you! There are so many wonderful, magical places there - get out & expereince them! Lots of great camp sites & other types of accommodation too....

One place i can easily say is THE MOST beautiful place ive seen is Karaijni National Park in the Pilbara in WA...Oh....My.....God!
Do yourself a favour & go there! We camped there 3 nights but i could have stayed there for weeks!

Sorry, i rambled a bit but as you can tell i thoroughly enjoyed this & cant wait to do it again!!

EF x
:hugs:

[Larski]

Sounds like a wonderful experience earthfairy. However, I think the point of the OP was would you travel ON YOUR OWN with a child/ children and wanting some tips about managing alone.

[Bubmum]

DD and I do a lot of travelling on our own, and we are planning to do from Sydney to Mackay in the New Year, seeing as I am overcoming my aversion to camping. We know quite a few people along the way, but I am still feeling vulnerable about the dangers of travelling alone.
Because DD is still a baby, it's ok because she doesn't wander too far, and I can keep an eye on her. I know she probably won't ever remember it, but I hate being pinned down in one spot, and this is a happy medium.
I just have my fingers crossed that my stomach behaves :laughing:

[earthfairy]

Holy Crap!

I just realised what i posted & that i was in single parents chat!:o

My apoligies girls!!!! I just clicked new posts last night before heading off to bed & got all excited about our trip!:laughing:

If you would like me to remove my post i can do so!....just let me know ;)

Apologies again for my silliness, and thanks Larski for pointing it out!!!!:D

EF x

[MummaBear03]

I should hae made the topic title "Who has travelled around Australie ALONE with their child/ren" lol my fault. Some good tips on location though, thanks!

[Ardentwhispers]

Hi Morrigan, I hope you get your dream one day. Would you do it on your own though? I'd be doing it just me and my daughter. Through the Northern Territory will be the hardest one to get through as we don't know anybody who lives there at all. We know people who live everywhere else lol.

You can always come and visit me in Darwin!! :)

I've taken kiddo on a few road trips, just the two of us. The best one was when we drove from Newcastle to Adelaide through outback NSW (cobar, broken hill, etc), and then came back through Victoria on the great ocean road. It was awesome!

My tips are to plan for short days with lots of interesting stops because it's hard on a kid to be in the car for so long! Have a rough plan, but don't always stick to it. Some of the most interesting things were found on the way. We always went into the information centres for every town to see what was around.

Another good thing to do is buy a scrapbook for her, and get the pamphlets from the information centres and postcards, etc. If she likes writing or drawing she can incorporate that, as well. Also, make sure she has a camera! It's great both for her and you as some of the things my son thought to take photos of really surprised me - things I would have otherwise missed!

I'll try and remember some other things :)

[Ardentwhispers]

I'm pretty handy with cars when I have to be, so that wasn't something I worried too much about. But...definitely change the tyre before you go as a test run! lol Make sure you have a bright torch, a first aid kit with an emergency blanket, flares, extra water (especially if you are driving through the desert, but you should always have some..I buy the big 10litre ones), and excellent mobile phone coverage (telstra's really the only way to go unfortunetly!) When we drove up through the NT recently (just OH and I) we also had a machete in the car. He's a bit paranoid lol, but it did make me feel better in some situations.

If you can plan your trips out well enough to have accomodation booked that's always good too, as it really sucks to get stranded in the middle of the night trying to find a place to stay! Also, it's usually cheaper if you've booked it.

Don't worry too much though, as chances are you'll get through okay!