On the road again!

After an amazing 3 month trip last year through Central and Western Australia, Pre and I felt a calling to get back on the road and see more of our beautiful country. We left Sydney in May and spent about 6 weeks travelling up the coast of NSW, exploring the national parks and camping in some truly incredible spots near beaches, lakes and rainforests  We were both surprised at how close a lot of these places were to Sydney, and how many there were! We really took our time, yet I still think there was more to see.

We made it to Byron Bay by July, and both found jobs and an awesome house to rent for a month. It was good to live somewhere other than Sydney and really get a feel for the place, especially somewhere as chilled-out as Byron. Pre worked at ‘The Northern’ pub as a bartender, and I worked at a sushi café in Lennox Head as a barista. Our time there ended with a weekend of live music and good times with a group of friends at Splendor in the Grass. It was such an awesome festival!

From Byron Bay we drove up to Brisbane Airport and said goodbye to Troopy, leaving it in long-term airport parking. We then flew from Brisbane to London for a very different kind of trip! We spent three weeks visiting my extended family all over England, and had a party for my Grandma’s 90^th birthday in Derbyshire. I caught up with some old school friends, and Pre got to see some proper English countryside.We also flew to Berlin and caught up with Nadine, Sven and Michelle, and had loads of fun exploring the city. Back in England we treated ourselves to a night in a fancy B&B in the picturesque Cotswolds region, which was a fabulous end to our trip overseas together.  

Preparing for Cape York

Our Cape York adventure really began in September when we flew back in to Brisbane from London. It felt like we were home as soon as we collected Troopy from airport parking and set up our little campsite. It was a bit of a shock to the system though! After four weeks of seeing family and friends and eating our own weight in delicious European food, we were suddenly back in Queensland with an outback 4WD trip to plan whilst recovering from jetlag. We soon realised that a trip to Cape York required a lot of planning, and we needed to be super prepared in order to do it safely and get the most out of it. We spent almost a full week in Brisbane and Hervey Bay shopping for supplies, planning our route and preparing the 4WD. We decided to give ourselves 4-6 weeks to fully explore the area, with our only deadline being Pre’s cousin’s wedding back in Sydney on the 25^th of October.

Our home-away-from-home

This is our set up whilst we are traveling - a Toyota Landcruiser Troopcarrier (a 4WD vehicle that we call Troopy, or the Truck), and a small fishing boat (a tinny) on an off-road trailer. We also have a tent, a shower tent, a kitchen unit, a fridge and a freezer (run off a solar panel). 

We travel with recovering gear to help us when we get stuck on rough dirt tracks. This includes a winch on the front of the truck, ‘Max Tracks’ to put under the wheels in sand, and thick ropes (snatch straps) so other vehicles can pull us out. We have a CB radio on board that we can use to radio other vehicles for a chat or for help, and an EPIRB satellite device (only to be activated in real emergencies!). We also have satellite tracking on our off-road maps program.