BIG TRIP RUN DOWN – Travelling Australia in a Camper Trailer l We Answer Your Questions

BIG TRIP RUN DOWN – Travelling Australia in a Camper Trailer l We Answer Your Questions

[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Oh [Applause] he [Applause] W Oh There you go a thank you all right oh what an intro that was hey when Miranda first showed that to me um cuz we’ve been home for almost 6 months and it’s not as though it’s a distant memory but it just brought back so many awesome

Memories yeah cuz you yeah you come back home right and then you get straight back into the daily routine of going to work and Suburban family life and kids to school and after school pickup and weekend Sports and all that sort of stuff before you know it you’re just

Back in Into The Daily Grind and watching that little snippet that Miranda put together cuz she does all the editing by the way in case anyone didn’t know you did a good job thank you um yeah it’s I just had the biggest smile on my face watching that intro so

Makes you want to get back out there it does yeah for sure I couldn’t start a video without a coffee either and the bush truck shirt um so yeah 18 weeks 4 and 1 half months um as it said in the intro 20,000 K yep

Um and one epic adventure with a lot of highs lows stressful moments um awesome moments epic locations great campsites good memories I just I don’t know what else you can say really no it was fantastic and we just feel so fortunate we had the opportunity to get

Out and do it and yeah something will treasure forever and having the videos too is just fantastic as well it was just like a perfect storm of of um opportunities I suppose like the kids were young enough we could take them out of school not impact their school life

Old enough to make those memories I had long service leave Miranda could get leave without pay it just it all fitted together just came together beautifully yeah yeah so anyway I figure this episode we’re going to run through a few little facts and figures um and then

We’re going to get in the in the latter half of this episode to some questions that you guys have uh put forward to us so we’ll just crack on with it yep 20,000 K lots and lots of dust and corrugations yeah I reckon how many do

You reckon were cor um Dusty roads or gravel roads it’s got to be at least a third I reckon I never I never sort of measured um how many gravel or corrugation roads we did but it would have been at least five which is a quarter but 5 to 10 somewhere around

There yeah cuz the Plenty Highway was pretty much all gravel Great Central Road was all gravel GI River Road was is all gravel I love it I love the gravel and the dust the dust is everywhere it’s all through the car everywhere it’s everywhere like there’s dust in places I

Didn’t even know there was places like it’s ridiculous anyway yeah so 20,000 K average fuel consumption was a whopping 21 L per 100 which is a lot um I mean it’s a big heavy rig uh we’re not very aerodynamic and like we said a lot of it

Was on gravel and that just kills your um your fuel economy and especially with lower tire pressures as well but for the entire trip 21 L per 100 is what we got out of the cruiser um so when you when you do the math on that 4,000 L of

Diesel that we went through wow yep with an average price of $230 per liter costing us a whopping $99,000 thereabouts we we did lose track a little bit of precisely what we we spent on fuel and how much we used but yeah it was 4 to 42,000 L of diesel $230 average

Price price 9 Grand most expensive was $310 a liter yes that was on TOA Morrow which is just on the Northern Territory side of the Queensland border isn’t it yep on the Plenty Highway on the Plenty Highway yeah um this wasn’t the most expensive

We found no we saw it was $340 a liter I think at um chalara on the Great Central Road or might have been 320 anyway yeah that’s a lot of money that’s a chunk of the budget so we hit 42 campsites and we actually set up the camper 44 times cuz

When we were at Yara we moved from one campsite to the other and doubled up at canara we’ll get into that in a minute with Miranda’s um medical emergency but yeah so we set up the robo 44 times in 18 weeks which is a hell of a lot um did

We get sick of setting it up probably a little bit we got pretty good at it by the end and the kids were good and we were pretty well Machine by it everyone had their jobs as soon as you pull up a cam doors open Cam’s got his jobs Jack’s

Got her jobs mir’s got our jobs we set up for a quick overnight 15 minutes we’re done yeah um for you know a little bit more of an Extended Stay we could be set up in like when we get the solar panel out and the Ziggy and all that

Sort of stuff it’s 25 minutes and the only goes up that’s maybe another 5 10 minutes so it wasn’t too bad it wasn’t too bad no and we’ll we’ll get to your questions about um traveling fulltime uh in a Campa trailer when we get to the Q&A

Section yeah so of those 42 camps 11 lowcost camps so that’s like station stays and and your Deport like Department of Parks and Wildlife and there was 11 free camps in there which leaves 20 Caravan Parks which actually really surprises me I didn’t think we did that many Caravan parks there was

Times we needed to top up the water needed to do laundry we just wanted to have a proper shower so really it averaged about once a week we went and do a caran Pok so it’s not too bad really um just as much as we’d like to

Be in the bush camps all the time realistically can’t do it you know they serve their purpose oh 100% yeah and the kids love Caravan Parks cuz they got the pools and the play equipment and other kids for them to knock about with so we

Try to mix it up between you know what we like and what the kids like yeah okay so what else should we get into highs high points what was your high point it’s a high I think you know like it sounds cliche but I think the whole

Thing was just such a high point there was so many special memories and having that time you know like we are so busy when we’re back at home so to have really good quality family time at you know moments you know but you know overall it was really cool having that

Time and really special and just yeah I think the whole thing was just a huge High I can’t pick one point yeah I I can’t I can’t nail it down to one best moment cuz it was all Epic it was all amazing um with some stressors and

Tensions in there as well but yeah looking back the whole thing was just amazing yeah um all was there’s something magical about that spot really in the whole Northern Territory I found brilliant beautiful and then like we did Lichfield and kadoo and the Gib River roow and Kim like it’s just it’s you

Can’t nail it down to one High the whole thing was just a big high yeah that was fantastic yeah which then leads us into the lows which Speaking of um you you sort of make comment that being with the family can get a bit tough sometimes and the Lowe’s were probably trying to

Homeschool the kids cuz that got challenging yeah that got that got very very frustrating that’s a little bit of advice to anyone who does a trip like that be patient with your children when it comes to homeschooling or maybe just don’t do it at all but I think it would be different we

Were only 18 weeks so we were rushing well not rushing but we were trying to fit in as much as we could if you were on long term and you probably would have more time to you know set aside in the morning yeah set aside an hour in the

Morning and then go out and do your exploring where we wanted to get out and do it so that probably added to the stress when the kids push back and then you know yeah cuz they don’t want to go to school I mean far out look at the

Places we went to they’re like school what are you talking about we’re in Holiday yeah so yeah you just we we did towards the end strike a little bit of a a happy balance um with the school work cuz it basically became non-existent yeah so AR

Was happy yeah it was great from that point on it was awesome yeah but no they they caught up when they got home anyway so they were fine that’s not an issue no not an issue um most stressful the boggy hole track bogy hole track was amazing I loved it um I loved

It when it was over in the middle of it it was yeah definitely stressful cuz we we blew a tire um we got bogged we had no idea where we were going we weren’t entirely sure whether we’re on the right track the day just kept getting away

From us some of the driving with the trailer in tow was like holy crap are we going to get through this U we had the trailer plug come disconnected and all the um electrics um failed I had to Twitch all that back together y um but

Looking back on it that was such an adventure that day and it gave us 100% confidence in all our gear the camper and the car it was just from that point on we’re just like oh we can go anywhere in this thing yeah so that was kind of a

Blessing in disguise when you put it that way but the first hurdle on that trip on that on that episode was when we did get bogged cuz Miranda said don’t go that way I like no we’ll be right got the ties down and then we got horrifically bogged and I stepped out

The car and I looked back and went might be in a bit of trouble here but I put on a brave face cuz I know Miranda was a little bit freaked out so right we’ll get out we’ll be fine and we were we did that was a hot day too like swinging

That shovel oh far out um so yeah that was probably the most most stressful but like I said blessing in disguise and obviously another stressful point was um around getting appendicitis when we’re on the Gibb luckily we’d only just started the Gib we’re at our questro which was 150k from

Canara I think yeah out back town canara so we had to H tailor to the hospital there to an emergency and then but there were I well I didn’t find that stressful I think that was more of a low point because you know like the hospital and the Royal flying

Doctors and everyone was just amazing you never felt you were in danger in that sense so it just was probably more of an inconvenience of oh yeah massive ineni plans and then having to recover and that sort of stuff um was probably a little bit Yeah it but you’re real

Trooper you’re real trooper with the recovery though because how many days after surgery we picked you up from canara after you got dropped back off I think we laid there for a couple of nights and then we hit the Gib River Road Again less a week later we’re back on

The GI four four five days later after the surgery oh there’s a little bit of a complication because I don’t know they needed to take a little bit more away or whatever um but yeah then we hit corations and Gorge walks and all that sort of stuff but yeah good tip strap a

Pillow to the front of you yeah you find yourself that situation yeah but there’s definitely some moments where we’re driving along the corrugations and we’re filming and the look on mir’s face like trying to hold it together but no you did well cuz you didn’t want to miss out

No no it was determined that was going to not going to you know just just a minor setback barely an inconvenience and I got a little you know little holiday in BR yeah Brom Resort by herself without the kids I soldiered on and kept the show on the

Road that was stressful for you actually quite enjoyed quite enjoyed it with the kids there we did a few Gorge walks and things just the three of us yeah not long after we got back I just want to quickly mention this we had a uh couple

Of friends over for dinner and they said what was your best Camp soite I can’t answer that you it’s an unanswerable question and and um and she said okay then what did you learn and that’s actually quite a thought-provoking question what did you learn and the best

Response I could come up with was how little you actually need to be happy um we had the car the camper and the family and that was it and that’s all we needed and the Epic locations that we’re going to doesn’t hurt but you know you get

Caught up with the with your house and you know it’s full of furniture and TVs and just all the junk that comes along with Suburban Family Life yeah you just need very little to be happy I think that was one thing on the road the only

Thing I missed about home was the family and friends it was never any material stuff though having said that that first night back in our bed was like being a part Resort after being in the robber for 18 weeks but I never missed any of that material stuff it was just the

Family and friends that you sort of Miss that it highlights what’s important and that’s family and experiences like the experiences is is what you remember it’s not you know the nice things that you fill your house with yeah and I just thought that was a really full provoking

Question that Catherine asked so yeah I thought I’d just touched on that yeah um what else have we got um accommodation do you want to run through uh the budget at all cuz I’m sure people want to know sort of how much it cost us and all the

Rest of it like we said it was like about $99,000 in fuel and yeah you want to go through accommodation and food and whatnot yeah we can go through the main thing I guess to be honest I went back we did have a budget before we set out

And then um for some reason I can’t find what our budget was I might have deleted it after we had gone way over it and I didn’t want to look at it anymore I think so I I don’t actually know what happened blow out items we did but you know so

The GoPro just overheated and Miranda just reminded me that I ramble too much and that’s probably why it overheated because I’m just blah blah blah blah blah blah blah yeah it’s bloody hot out here today so um yeah so we were just talking about the budget and how we lost

Tracks somewhere is that what you were saying or then you just stopped recording it because you didn’t want to let me know where we were at CU car my head in the sand yeah we had a few unexpected expenses so just quickly unexpected expenses um was about

$35,000 cuz we needed to get um the tires of the robo replaced in Alice Springs on Good Friday there was cuz we needed to do it that day and there was only one tie shop open and the F must have seen me coming and it was just like

The top of the water tires they’re really really good TI but man they cost a bunch um yeah the inverter did run the Starling which we need that’s my own fault like I should have tested that before we left because it’s a modified s wve inverter but it didn’t charge the

Laptop or run the star link you need a pure S Wave inverter for that and again in Alice Springs there’s only one electrical shop that was open and that had a projected th000 wat inverter which is $900 it’s way over spec for what we needed but it would run run what we had

And it was the only option there was nothing cheaper a 300 W cheapy from um super cheap auto would have done the trick but none available so and we were going like way off grid after that so we needed to get it sorted then and there

So I mean that was an extra just out of Springs was like an extra $2,000 or something just in those couple of items yeah um the the water pump went y when we’re in Dar um that took me a little bit of um fa finding was the pressure pump in the end but

What I ended up doing is just replacing the whole water pump and thankfully we were in darn when that happened we weren’t in the middle of nowhere and I could just do a straight swap I just bought a brand new one bolted it in and that was it so that was another expense

I can’t remember how much that was a couple hundred bucks maybe yeah I think so obviously the appendix was an extra expense smashed wind screen oh yeah I forgot about the wind screen that was like an extra $650 something like that to get that that one replaced I think

They were the main ones yeah extra expenses yeah so they added up pretty quick and you’ve got written down here food is 3,300 is that just groceries yeah that was just groceries yeah um not including eating out I mean we didn’t eat out that often but we did try and go for a

Meal when we were in town yeah yeah support the locals yeah do you track how much alcohol we Dr think spent money on I think I gave up on that one too that was adding up pretty quick yeah it’s adding up pretty quick in fact that we ran out when we’re on

The G oops if you had to guess how much the entire trip cost us food experiences like cuz you got here experiences which would have been like the um tours and the helicopter flights and all that sort of stuff M um was 3 Grand cuz we didn’t

We didn’t want to cheap out on um doing those sort of Tours just because it’s and look it’s $3,000 it’s expensive but but we don’t know when we’re g to ever be back we didn’t wanted to take the opportunity while we could yeah so we did the helicopter fly and we did the

Jumping crocodile tour and we did the um Lava Tubes at andara and there’s loads more than I’m forgetting about winon yeah we just did what we wanted to do and not come back and regret that we didn’t do it because yeah um we knew it

Was only a short time so so if you had to guess because we didn’t track it as precisely as we probably should have how much the entire trip cost us fuel food accommodation experiences um unexpected expenses 30 grand yeah I was going to say 30 30 which I think third of which

Is diesel by the way so yeah pretty much put us on budget because I think I mean I think from memory I had budgeted it’ be around 25 ,000 and then with those extra blowouts which we didn’t allow for um well hadn’t sort of thought about um

So I think you know if we take those out we probably were pretty well on track but no I mean I don’t yeah I don’t regret a single set that we you know was worth every every bit of it and you think that was 18 weeks too you know

Like you go overseas and you’d be spending a lot well yeah if you put it into context like that if you spent 18 weeks on an overseas trip like yeah that you’re going to go past 25 grand for sure yeah for sure yeah I never really put it into that sort of

Perspective yeah so takes a bit of the sting out I suppose anything else oh actually there’s one thing I wanted to quickly touch on we got a question while we’re on the trip um saying how can we best support you and have you ever looked into patreon and look I’ve I’ve got to

Be honest I’m not too sure how I feel about doing patreon because you you’re asking people to give you money for what we just enjoy doing anyway we’re not doing this to make money um we like doing it we like connecting with everyone um comments are awesome

Feedback and all that sort of stuff we we do it as a little bit of a um a memory archive for us kids and family over over in the eastern states and whatnot um yeah and the thing is like with patreon it seems to be like we’re spinning so

Many plates at the moment as it is with fulltime work and patreon um people who use patreon generally have um patreon only content and we couldn’t keep up with that like can’t even keep up with doing anything now no so like I just we’re not going to

Be able to make that work extra content like far out it’s already struggling to do what we’re doing as it is yeah we appreciate the offer and that was really kind but really the thing that we love the most is just connecting with you guys in the comments and just giving a

Thumbs up things like that actually help us because then your videos get out to other people and you know we do earn a little bit off of YouTube so you know was not leave a comment that’s pretty much all we ask okay which was not ever

What we set out to do was not to make money from it so it was yeah and the other thing is like we do have affiliate marketing um deals in the description down below um we going to there’s not much there but we’re looking at maybe expanding some of the um affiliate

Marketing that we do but we don’t want the channel to be like just a constant infomercial where we’re popping up discount codes and all that and just talking about products that we have a deal with like that’s not why we’re doing it um but if you look in the

Description and you follow those links you’ll possibly get a discount ones that come with discount codes or or maybe not cuz some of them don’t I think but we will get a little bit of a kickback and all those um affiliate marketing links that we have are products that we use

And have for years have for years and think that they’re great we’re not going to start pushing products that we don’t use just to get money no so yeah no that that’s only just stuff that we use and have a look if there’s something that you like go through that link that’ll

Help us a little bit Yeah Yeah but thanks guys yeah um and we do have a web store the shelves are pretty bare stopy holders and stickers yeah it does say more products are coming soon and it’s probably said that fun to be honest I don’t know if any more products are

Coming soon I don’t know we’re not very good at any of that stuff so just a bit of fun amateur of this to be honest yeah it’s just a bit of a laugh yeah before we move on to the the Q&A um did you want to say anything

About I think we covered all the trip stuff but we do want to say um thank you for all the really kind feedback that everyone gave us about the series cuz yeah that was really overwhelming and it just blew us away we didn’t realize you know so many people were really enjoying

It as much as they were so that was really nice that you reached out and let us know yeah some really out questions comments and yeah yeah so thank thanks for that um it’s nice to know that people are getting entertainment from just something that we’re putting out on

YouTube is quite quite a weird sensation actually weird feeling yeah we’re showing our holidays and people are you know being entertained by it yeah so no we were really um yeah just blew us away all the nice comments when it the series came to an end how much people had

Enjoyed it so really thank you for letting us know that that was great yeah but I think that was about it with the trip side of things yeah I don’t I think we pretty much covered everything um or most things we might have left a few

Little bits and Bobs out um but anyway questions eh so we’re actually quite surprised at how many questions we got um but the first four I’ll just quickly read them all out because they’re sort of all related so Jane asks would we do it again in a camper and the cons of the

Robo um Alo 4×4 pros and cons of the robo what works what doesn’t what we would do differently opinion on taking a camper trailer on a long trip anything we wish we could have done uh David pros and cons of a campera trailer on a big trip and would you do

It again or get a hybrid and then Tom suitability of the camper for the big trip or is it more suited to going somewhere and setting up for a week would we prefer a caravan so they’re all very similar um so Campa trailer for a big trip as we

Said before we did 44 setups 22 campsites in 4 and 1/2 months so we were on the Move every 3 to 4 days on average we did some sort of quick overnighters where we we set up I think it was when we’re on the way to mataranka we did

Three overnight stops and then on the fourth day we set up a matter right so was like four days four setups um and that does get a little bit that was a little bit that was too much cuz I would just drive days set up dinner sleep pack

Down Drive um did a little bit of adventuring but not not much but so when you’re on the moves like every one or two days it does get a little bit tiring um but we try to break it up like we had some five night stays and four night

Stays and I think the longest we was six nights somewhere penda Bay I think might have been six nights oh yeah um which let’s be honest Campa trailers are definitely more suited to setting up a base camp and staying there for 5 six seven nights um you can do it we’ve done

It on the Move every 3 to four and would we do it again yeah absolutely for sure yeah um it just don’t put the awning up all the time I got to love hate relationship with that aing hey honestly it’s it’s great but it can be a pain of the butt

To put up especially when it’s windy I think a big con with um sorry a big Pro with the camper trailer for traveling is the places you can get to with it yeah 100% so and I think that offsets you know that little bit of extra work because you are able you’ve

Got more options available where you can get that yeah for sure for sure there’s definitely some tracks and some spots that we got the robo to You’ never get a caravan in no do you get a little bit jealous when you’ve been driving all day and it’s still 40° and you’re you know

Halfway through setting up your camper and then a nice big Caravan pulls up beside you and they unhit and open the door and they’re done and you’re still sweating buckets but n look it it’s doable we would definitely do it again uh it just takes a little bit more um

Time and effort m um but if you’ve got a good team and everyone pitches in and helps give the kids a job make sure you got nice icy poses nice cold Icy poles to cool everyone down after a hot sweaty setup we don’t have any plans of getting

A caravan I personally like I mean Caravans are beautiful and lovely I can’t foresee us wanning one until the kids don’t come with us anymore and we could get one that’s just set up for us to be honest any hybrid or Caravan that we’ve been in as beautiful as they are

They actually don’t feel as spacious inside as the the Rob’s got that nice big area so with us all inside I mean it’s not spacious but um yeah I don’t know there’s just something we love the feel of the robo inside as opposed to the Caravan hybrid type of thing so I

Can’t see us having a desire to get a caravan anytime soon you know the one’s got to set up the warning that actually leads on to um Autos wi bys Qui question how long do we get a caravan um but yeah as Miranda’s just just said we we we’ve got no plans

Of getting one um they’re Mega expensive um but not even cwise I don’t have any I love the robo I don’t have any desire to get a caravan the the next sort of camper that we would get would probably be a hybrid I don’t think I’d ever want

To get a full-size Caravan I like the um the hybrids they’re sort of a yeah it’s like campire Caravan it’s the kind of Best of Both Worlds I suppose m you know fully off-road capable and just not as big and cumbersome and yeah but yeah look the robo got us everywhere didn’t

Let us down um so yeah Pros yeah get you anywhere bulletproof um cons they get really hot in the sun um yeah yeah there’s nowhere to hide uh if the if the weather’s bad your all your cooking facilities and shower facilities they’re all outside so that’s

A a bit of a con but there was never a moment where I regretted that we had done it in a canr no I mean when it does rain we didn’t get much rain on the trip but when it does and you got to pack up

The next day you’re packing up that wet canvas on top of all your bedding and it does soak through but it’s it’s nothing that we couldn’t get over so no no it’s fine yeah did we hit all those points there anything we wish we could have

Done done it for longer yeah 100% do it for longer do it for longer and if you had the opportunity to do it for longer set up in spots for longer for longer yeah just to take the sting out of those yeah constant setups every

Other day um but there’s a lot of sites that we went to where any more than two or three nights and you just be sitting there twiddling your thumbs cuz you’ve done all the touristic things yeah um so I don’t think there’s much that we would

Change really to be honest no no all right let’s move on Sandra top three camps why and any tips for preparing for the Gib top three that’s a hard question to answer Pentecost free Camp was one that really surprised me I didn’t know what to expect but we were camped right on

The banks of the Pentecost and I didn’t catch a thing actually no I caught a catfish I didn’t catch a Bary people to the right Bary people to the left Bary me stinking catfish which is part of the course M but those sunsets and sunrises and just that location was stunning and

That was just after you had your appendicitis and we hadn’t yet hit the um the gravel the corrugations cuz it’s all bitchman from the turnoff from canara to that free Camp so that’s quite an accessible Camp if you come in east to west y um yeah that that spot blew me

Away to be honest and we didn’t do anything touristic there other than just sit there and relax for two nights yeah we did the crunchy bit of the crunchy track a little bit that was it um I think war was another stand out one that was beautiful um especially for the kids

With that Reef being at the back they could go and swim and they were protected that was pretty pretty special and the whales out there that was pretty Wales for days pretty good yeah and then I you know we had a couple of um free camps that were

Nice that one in Winton was really pretty for a free Camp do you remember that on the water hole and that cam wheel yeah remember cam whe remind me of the wintered one again there’s so many that you’re trying to keep track of like I said 42 sites where

The cow got cranky with this camp in there yeah yeah the winon yeah that’s right coming sounds like you in the morning yeah maybe we wait sh be quiet kids what’s the matter really just things like that they’re pretty special CU they were just free camps and yeah they were beautiful yeah

So many awesome little free camps are oh the Buddhas overnigh Gorge that was stunning nice peber sunset and sunrise yeah we had a free also on the way to war that was pretty special yeah out in the middle of nowhere just yeah we had so many yeah I can’t top three I

I can’t I can’t nail down top three F Valley that was great like was pretty cool they’re all good yeah they’re all good sorry they’re all great um any tips for preparing for the Gibb um you certainly got to stock up on your food and alcohol don’t run out oh yeah don’t

Run out of your alcohol um um yeah so we stocked up at kanara and like we couldn’t get any more food in the car or the camper trailer we we jammed as much food in there as we could cuz we were on the Gib for close to 3 weeks I think um

Which is a long time so we’re running two fridges I if you were going straight to the Gib if you could vacuum pack and freeze your meals you’d be you’d be winning there but because we didn’t have that option to do that we had to try and

Just yeah fit as much as we could because there was only one place at Mount Barnett where you could get the odd little thing but not just bits and Bs there wasn’t anything major um if you got the ability to have two fridges I’d definitely go

With that because we got the 95 l in the camper trailer and we got the big section as the freezer so you can really fill that up with all your meats and items that you freeze obviously um and the small small section is the fridge

And then we got the 50 L fridge in the back of the cruiser which is mainly a drinks fridge and like an overflow food um fridge so um what else we had two spare tires we didn’t use either of them for the entire trip um was it preparations would you need extra fuel

Or the fuel stops were close enough that it didn’t matter we we never ran into a a situ cuz the gib’s only 660k and you gotnet Roadhouse you can dri down if you’re going up to MIT Falls you can fuel up um there’s probably some other ones I’m blanking

On to be honest remember if there was um alesto but that’s beginning or the end depending where which way yeah suppose you don’t need really unless you’re going to do a lot of exploring in between and the thing is like it’s it’s yes it is remote and yes it is

Rough and rugged but it’s a well-traveled road so if you do get into trouble there’s a constant flow of people and most Travelers will stop and you know render assistance if needed um we came across a couple of people and helped them plug a tire and repair a

Smashed Rim um and when we smashed our wind screen um a couple of people stopped and asked do we need a hand sort of thing so it’s it’s it is yeah rough rugged remote but but you won’t be stranded you won’t be stranded by yourself for for days

Because it is it is certainly well traveled yeah um I don’t really know if there’s much more we can add to add to that um you fill up your water tanks at El quro and Dale and mount bar most of the places that you stay at other than

The free camps you can get access to water yep um yes just no got nothing no no just enjoy yourself yeah go and have fun have fun enjoy it moving on after we have to cool the GoPro down again it’s hot out of here okay Neil best place we went

To Neil’s also got a couple of follow-up questions which we’ll rattle through it’s about eight um I need Jing Neil best place we went to it’s I think we touched yeah we touched on that before like we we can’t answer that question it was the whole thing

Yeah the whole thing pretty amazing yeah um if I had to pick a section it would probably be the Gib because there’s so many epic locations day after day after day after day yeah um yeah the whole G was amazing every spot we didn’t have a

Dud spot on the G at all it was and the time that we went was close enough to the beginning of the Season that all the waterfalls were still flowing and the water holes were swimmable and all that sort of stuff so we Ed that really well if you leave

It too late then you know the waterfalls dry up and whatnot yeah I think we timed it perfectly too because they closed the GB yeah two days after we through yeah so heaps of R we caught that rain when we up in penda Bay we got drowned up there Big Muddy Adventure

Headed out to there yeah um yeah it’s a hard it was all great was yeah katuda the olders um mataranka just yep which Neil you on your trip you’ll see those and definitely stop at mataranka cuz those hot springs are pretty spectacular yep and the Catherine Hot Springs were a

Real treat as well you never went to them did you no I had to go do the grocery shopping that were amazing that were really good sorry um okay so just rattle through these other ones from the cost of fuel we touched on that was about 9 grand um all

Up for 20,000 K average price was $230 a liter our most expensive we saw was $340 I think we said earlier and the cheapest was I think home $175 yeah when we got home $175 which is still expensive but anyway um I can remember I think it was

Winter we were in I was excited to play to pay $2 a lad Fu like w how cheap is it uh anyway that’s probably a lot cheaper than what they got in the UK anyway where Neil’s from don’t know not sure let us know maybe we shouldn’t be complaining

Um have you explored other countries would you do a or doing a similar thing EG driving a camping we’ve done a little bit of international travel we did the whole Europe thing and worked and traveled in America for a year and a half y um never done sort of camping or driving

Around um other countries no not sort of travel we’ve just done but yeah yeah I mean we’ve driven around but not camping yeah yeah yeah I think this is this is where our heart lies now for sure this kind of touring especially in Australia and now we’re going to be well we’re

We’re leaving wa so all our trips now are going to be pretty much wa based and we’re so lucky that we got so many epic locations on our doorstep yeah absolutely so much to explore if we could do the exact same trip again would we 100% y absolutely in a heartbeat yes

Sign me up um how the hell did you get so much time off I think we touched on that before I actually had long service leave and I’d been saving my annual leave for a couple of years as well so I was getting a full wage the whole time um

Pulled the kids out of school um schools don’t really have a choice what you do with your children you can pull them out can’t you um yeah I mean when they discourage it but yeah um and you just took leave without pay yep Miranda’s an EA assistant at that’s an education

Assistant assistant mir’s an EA at a school so obviously she was getting paid still for school holidays weren’t you it was just a yeah there was a portion of time I still got a little bit but yeah yeah so yeah staying a job for 10 years and

You can do an 18we trip take another 10 years to pay for it um if you could change one thing before you left what would it be add the mesh in on the Rock [Laughter] ERS y maybe got a stone stoer instead yep yep um it never came out on the

Video but I had a little bit of a man tanty on the side of the road when I was trying to repair the um I think the GoPro um had it overheated it overheated and you missed the T being ripped off and tape flying everywhere yeah I had a

Massive man I couldn’t get anyway yeah good one mesh inser thanks Miranda um or even just get some of that um um what do you call it something or something or something that you put on the back of your wind screen yeah um what else what else would we do before

We leave before we would leave um no we we were pretty well prepared for this I had had a world to organize yeah cuz BR did all the planning for this and probably 12 months worth of planning or even more 12 to 18 months of planning and researching where we’re

Going to go what we’re going to do how it’s all going to fit in and work and what sort of truck does Craig Drive at work I’m a Garo I drive a rubbish truck and I’ve been doing that for 12 years now yep um yeah so I used to be a green

Keeper in another life it was amazing loved it but it’s hard to support a young family on a green keeper wage um so yeah over over a decade ago 12 years ago I decided to get my truck license and I was going to go to the mines and

Do a 5o thing but then a job for uh rubbish truck company came up and I’m home every night I get a lot of overtime 10 to 12h hour days that’s why I’m up so early as uh start ‘s 4:00 alarm goes off at 3:00 that’s why I’m the first one up

Having a coffee in the morning doing my morning chats while everyone still snoozing cuz I’ve just been doing that for years and yeah so that’s what I’ve been doing for the last 12 years emptying rubbish oh there you go secrets are out yeah um all right next question Podge

How are we going to beat this trip I don’t think we can no I don’t think we I’m sorry you might as well unsubscribe now no we have lots of great places to go and explore still but certainly won’t be as Epic is no week after week no yeah

But we’ve got a trip coming up actually at the time of recording in about a week and a half yeah we leave halfway through next week and we’re going to steep point we’re going to be there for six nights I can’t wait to do that one yeah but it’s

Going to be great yeah nothing nothing as extravagant as what we’ve just done unfortunately so how are we going to beat it we’re not no sorry we’ll see what we can do maybe we’ll win Lotto who knows I’m not planning on it um okay Kath food Staples when

Traveling Oh pack it pack of food all the way pack of food no in all seriousness though they they’re good cuz you don’t have to bring all your herbs and spices you just mix it up they’re pretty they take up little room so they they actually were handy to have when we

Weren’t going to be close to shops and have our fresh fruit and meats and stuff like that so frozen veg pasta rice tin food um just stand really isn’t it long life milk um lots of snacks for the kids um if you got a big enough freezer freeze some bread

Um yes yeah bread was a big one actually you couldn’t really get fresh bread could unless you were in the main cities everything was always frozen bread so you kind of need to keep that Frozen Once you got it y but yeah now those packet meals as much as you pick on them

They really did the job while we were away and they were really tasty and what makes it even more peaceful is this saté chicken that makes it peace that mirand is whipped up because no one’s talking we’re just shoving it in cuz it tastes amazing what’s your secret with this one

We should have filmed it it’s out of a packet it’s out of small pack for four S packet out of a packet just what you’ve done with it mhm why I stirred it yeah think that worked well for us yeah take 15 we just had another Interruption

We had some um house guest pop on over so it’s taking us so long to film this we’re actually on to the beers cuz it is now uh 2:30 in the afternoon so the coffees are done Cheers Cheers um I can’t remember what question were we up to um oh baz and dead

What editing program do you use that is entirely Miranda’s Dom she does all the editing so take it away so we use premium Pro which is a monthly subscription program um to be honest it probably has way more features than we need and we probably don’t need to be

Using that one we somehow got on to that in the early days and got used to it got used to it and now just haven’t had time to get used to something different so I think I’m going to look in there Da Vinci Pro which you can get for free I

Believe there’s a free version or paid version where you pay like a once off fee and then you’ve got it so I need to learn how to use that because premium pro has way more than what we need and you don’t really need to be paying a

Monthly subscription for what is it per month $30 a month yeah okay that’s quite cost it yeah but there’s lots out there that you can use that you don’t have to pay the monthly thing for okay Robin do we have one day that stands out as the best wow one

Day I reckon going over the pools Mitchell Falls was pretty yeah spectacular yeah that was pretty cool there was lots of there was pretty good days or epic days not pretty good there were there was loads of standout days um one that stands out no I guess the

Question answer the question was there one day that stands out than the rest is the best no cuz they’re all awesome yeah yeah um I I might amend that answer in a little bit I have to have a think about that one to be honest so I might actually just amend your question

Quickly Robin do we have one day that stands out as the worst cuz I can answer that and it wasn’t the appendicitis it was when we were in canara and we went to the rodeo um if anyone is unfamiliar with what happened in that episode we went to Rodeo they asked everybody to

Come in and do some boot scooting at like a halftime show our kids out I was just about to jump over the fence and join him and there’s probably what 200 people out there boot scooting a lot of kids yeah mainly kids out there and a

Bloody bull got out and ran through the crowd A Raging Bull has charged into crowds at a rodeo in wa’s far north of Chaos in canara breaking out halfway through the weekend show as hundreds of Spectators including children were line dancing a rodeo Rampage in canara a Raging Bull charging for

Crowds hundreds sent scrambling to safety and it was chaos chaos it was terrifying absolutely it was like slow motion you know I’m halfway over the the fence to get out there and there’s this bull charging through the crowd and you just kind of it feels like a dream you

Know I get out there Cam’s running towards me he like where’s your sister mate goes I don’t know looking around she’s not on the ground right so she hasn’t been trampled run over to the ambulance she’s not in the ambulance okay so I think all I’m

Dealing with now is a lost kid but it took about half an hour for us to locate her in fact we didn’t find her she was delivered back to us by yeah you went off looking and I stayed where we were case and thankfully a young lady had cuz

She was quite distressed she gotten out of the ring the other side and had brought her back so yeah that was horrifying sorry if you know I didn’t even think I was so panicked I think I thanked her quickly but didn’t get her name so yeah she was a savior to her

Yeah I mean I actually I didn’t step over someone who was injured but I walked straight past someone who was on the ground back was all lacerated and he didn’t look in a good way at all he was being tended to by someone else but my priorities were

Elsewhere like I had to find jacine but yeah you just I don’t know you’re on auto part like holy where’s my daughter it’s someone on the ground been by like what the hell’s going on here but yeah so I know that’s not the question you asked Robin but that is

What stands out as the worst day we had um as far as the best day goes I just I can’t answer they were all magnificent but yeah I think I really enjoyed the Mitchell Falls that was something that was huge on my bucketless so to tick

That off and see the falls from the airplane or helicopter and the kids just they love that flight so that was pretty cool that was pretty special the morning run I did around all the room was really good I really enjoyed that morning and you got some time to yourself spending

You know time in solitude and quiet cuz there was hardly anyone yeah that’s true actually and cuz when you’re walking there’s all those stories to read and I didn’t actually get very far because there was so much to read and you’re taking it in but because it was so quiet

And peaceful too you could just think about the stories and yeah that was really quite nice actually that was enjoyable actually Robin sorry one other little standout gorge on the Gib riveroad was galvin’s Gorge do you remember that one with the swing super accessible cuz it was only like 100 or

200 me walk from the car park and it was just this perfect little swimming hole this waterfall coming down and there was a rope swing me and the kids just spent a couple hours on there just lcking about and having fun so yeah that was

That good one yeah really good one so if you’re um if you’re scared off by a lot of the hikes that we did you know cuz some of them are 2 3 4 5 K one way to an epic location obviously you get rewarded but if that’s not your thing galvin’s

Gorge is really accessible super easy y next question ranan question for the kids hardest part of the trip and the best part well let me go and get them question for the kids hardest part of the trip and the best part hardest part sleeping with Jack yep okay hardest part sleeping with camer

Can you come up with an original hardest part um doing the walks doing the walks you like the walks though I do like them but they’re hot you need to seek enjoyment and thrills from the journey cuz it’s not always about the destination sometimes it is but most of

The time it’s the gaps in between and that’s what the whole trip was we had those highlights that we wanted to get to but a lot of the fun was the in between the travel the um unexpected Treasures that you find yeah yeah anyway sorry uh last the question kids best

Part of the trip swimming in the hot springs um which ones any ones swimming in the hot springs ja swimming in like the lag and stuff like when you get to go swimming like the gorges and stuff oh yeah so you guys really like the Gib River roide Hey cuz there’s lots of

Gorges and walks and waterfalls what about you jack plucking up the courage to jump off waterfalls rope swings and stuff yeah like I didn’t want to do it the first time you helped me climb up the tree to get there yeah and then um I didn’t want

To go and I just went and I kept doing it kept doing it you just got to do that once don’t you it was nice stopping you nothing stopping me anything else you want to add camo no no cool good check guys yeah well man and lady of many words here you

Guys can scram if you want thank you oh I couldn’t get out of here quick enough okay moving on Lee security of the camper when we would leave it for day trips so if it’s set up there’s you can’t really secure your Camp it’s canvas if someone wants to get in all

They need is a knife they slit the canvas and they’re in you can lock it up as much as you want um if someone’s sufficiently motivated they’re going to take your gear and even all the like the cabinets like we’ll lock all the cabinets but if someone’s got a

Screwdriver and enough time and no one else is around they’ll get in 100% so we initially started locking putting a thing through the Zips of the canvas and then we decided not to do that anymore because we felt if they’re going to get in then they might cut the canvas and then

You’re in a worse state so we would just lock the door because that’s quite a high like to get over like even if you unzip the canvas it would take a bit so we didn’t actually ever lock the canvas it was just all the compartment compartments and we would also put in a

Um a hitch lock a hitch pin lock through the um the do35 hitch so that would at least stop someone Turing it away um unless they had say I don’t a portable angle grinder or something they could cut it off like I said anyone sufficiently motivated will will get it

Um but we also have a uh like a padlock and chain which I’ll I’ll feed through the tire and the suspension armor but yeah that’s all the security that we did which the yeah hitch pin and a chain through the wheel and that’s pretty much

All you can do to be honest and to be honest like some sometimes well we always leave the table chairs Ziggy everything out and sometimes we pretty trust him leaving all our gear out you and sometimes we would leave the door for the fridge open because if it was

Quite hot so it didn’t overheat and not one thing ever went missing I think pretty people are pretty trustworthy we have heard some pretty horrific stories of people losing gear and even people accessing their Caravans when they’re sleeping um we didn’t have any issues like that whatever and just in the camp

Making sure you don’t leave the keys at night right on that shelf have them in away yeah so people can’t just reach in and take your stuff but yeah we’ve always been very lucky and I know that’s not always it’s not everyone’s um experience people have even in um

Security um gated and fenced Caravan Parks people that stuff go missing maybe we will lucky I don’t know maybe we’re too trusting maybe we don’t have anything anymore watch yeah maybe people look at the camp and just get no we’ll go for an expensive Caravan yeah um yeah but yeah

So padlock chain hitch pin that’s it lock the compartments lock them yeah David Brian Jack tally of damage on the car and camper what would we do differently and what would we take or not take favorite wa Coastal camping spots okay tally of all damage on the

Car and camper so the car was other than like scratches from tight tracks and stuff the only thing that broke on the car was the rear windscreen yep and lots of dust inside and loads of dust inside um that might have actually been I I haven’t told you this that might be

Slightly my fault when I removed the rear seats and put the drawers in there’s a couple of screw holes that I didn’t blank over and I think that’s I think you told that I did okay yeah so we got dust everywhere um yeah the only breakage on the car was the windscreen

It performed mechanically which could have been avoidable yeah which is awesome yeah um damage on the camper um again scratches um the tire had the tire blow out and the plug a couple of times the plug yeah the Anderson plug and the trailer plug came out which I need to do

Some track side repairs on and that was again it that was it we got off scotf free mhm um we didn’t have any major breakages or damage or no and considering the tracks we took it down and everything just held up beautifully it all performed yeah topnotch yeah yep

That was it that was it really fortunate there um what would we do differently what would we take or not take I think cuz we’ve been using that Campa for quite a while now so we’ve got it down to a finer we we know what we use and what we don’t

Use so we’ve we’ve added things and taken things on many trips so we know sort of I don’t think there’s anything we took that we didn’t really use from we pretty much use everything that we take yeah cuz you’re so um strapped for space in a camper so you you know you

Got to use your your space wisely and we know exactly what we need and we pretty much didn’t have anything that we didn’t need and didn’t need anything we didn’t have I yeah not that I can think yeah favorite wa Coastal camping spots mine would be Pender Bay and yeah

Um War Pender B War oh in 80 mile barn hill was quite nice oh yeah that place was stunning I mean anywhere along the coast iny it’s brilant but yeah definitely War I think and pend my standouts they two top spots yeah I’d agree with that Kathleen what do we do

For showering and toilet when free camping so we’ve got a theft Porter potty which we set up um we set that up outside on the the um the shower tent I did like a modification like a nice quick and easy um pack up and set up

Shower tent and the Porta poty sits in there uh so that’s basically how we go about toileting when free camping we’ll get 3 to 4 days out of that toilet I suppose before we need to find a dumping facility um nighttime toilet treeses r a thunder

Bucket just mine the only one uses it the kids do to the kids do it well yeah sorry thank you yeah when you got to get the snakes out of them um and the robber has a outdoor shower which then yeah has got an outdoor shower Rose and that’s also

Plumbed into the hot water system so you can have a hot shower if you like um we try to minimize how many showers or how long we have showers for cuz we’ve only got 200 lers of water on board so the more water you used for showering the

Less time you can be off grid yeah yeah so I think the most amount of time we were off grid was five or six nights we managed to get the water tanks to last oh sorry Kathleen I did say that you were the last question but there was

Actually another one from Alo 4×4 it was was asking about what gear we use um I’m assuming he meant camera gear yeah I think that’s how it was reading um uh that talks about your video experiences gear techniques things that have Works things that don’t so I’m

Thinking it’s to do with that side of it we don’t we haven’t got any professional quality um equipment or anything we just film on GoPros we got the DJI mavic Air 2 drone um we do a fair to time-lapse stuff on my Samsung Galaxy phone and that’s it so we got two

GoPros one drone and the phones and all the mounts and things that come with the GoPros and that’s pretty much it our gear and obviously the laptop for Miranda doing the editing um as far as techniques and stuff for filming I just point and shoot basically I did a couple

Of GoPro tutorials on what best settings are underwater or low light or middle of the day sort of thing and I just I don’t know I just look at find something that looks nice and I’m just start filming basically techniques I no just point and shoot that’s it I don’t know think it

Hey guys so there was actually one glaringly obvious Omission I made as far as the Gib River preparations um and that’s what I’m trying to address here this is more uh trip or touring prep I’m not really Gibb specific but it’s essential to make sure you have a well-maintained and serviced vehicle

Make sure your services are up to date you just want to maximize your reliability when you’re out in these remote um farflung destinations um yeah so we did the Gibb like I said east to west so we left in canara there’s a mechanic shop in caners

I forget the name we’ll put it um on the screen they actually do a preib service they’ll actually not only just service your vehicle but they’ll do the full safety inspection they’ll check all the all the brakes and the tires and make sure all the nuts and the bolts are

Tightened up check your wheel bearings um all your suspension bushes the linkages all those components they’ll just make sure that you’re ready to attack those rough roads at the Gib and they’ll also do a camper trailer or caravan service as well they’ll inspect all the brakes they’ll remove the

Bearings clean them inspect them repack them with grease and then send you on your way so yeah that’s that’s part of any good trip preparation as far as I’m concerned just make sure that your vehicle is well serviced and maintained and like I said just to increase your reliability when

You’re out on the road um one more thing I suggest is get yourself a Tor wrench as well and when you’re doing those hundreds of KS of corrugations in the evening just go around to all your wheel nuts and just check that the uh the torque rating on them is correct

You find them in your manufact factur specifications uh the correct torque setting uh cuz you don’t want them to R loose and obviously if they come loose and your tire comes off and that’s a bad day no one wants that uh the other thing

I was going to say is get a tire repair kit as well uh we use this a couple of times on the Gib once for ourselves once for somebody else um and while we’re on the subject of tires get yourself a good quality set of all terrains Highway tires are not fit

For purpose all right good set of allterrain tires and you know put your pressures down to 25 it makes it much more comfortable for your passengers and it takes all the uh wear and tear out on the vehicle um suspension components as well and minimizes your chances of

Blowouts so those two people that we helped on the Gib they were both running Highway tires and one of them just destroyed the tire and the rim and the other guy he just he had to blow out and they just shouldn’t be taking Highway Tires on the Gib or any touring scenario as

Far as I’m concerned we also had a guy Camp next to us at uh El quro he had a blowout with Highway Tires as well and he was having to pay an ungodly amount for a replacement tire from uh the mechanics at the Gib uh sorry at El quro

Um if you can take two spares it’s a good idea if you can’t like I said at a minimum tire repair kit and I also mentioned that um we didn’t need Jerry cans or anything like that there’s fuel along the way and yes there is and we

Didn’t need to rely on Jerry’s but that’s obviously 100% dependent on what your range is and how far you’re expecting to go before you hit the next service station so we haven’t got a compreh comprehensive list of where you can get fuel but it’s really easy to

Find out Wiki cams has got all that information I just don’t have it on the top of my head I know Dale does elestra does Mount Barnett does uh there’s probably a couple of others as well anyway uh we got a couple more questions to run through which we failed to get to

Um the other day so Miranda’s out at the moment when she gets home she’ll be sitting in that chair and we’ll get on with it right so here with the lovely Miranda um we got one more question to go through so if you want to read that one yep so

Um have fun is this she’s reading it off her phone I was going off the paperwork who’s more technologically SA Rand or me so it’s from Lee Nicole and they just asked um could we do a video about everything that we pack for a big trip

And do a rundown of meal planning um so Craig has done a video in terms of tools and stuff that he’s packed um in terms of what we packed for the clothes I’ll put a little bit of footage in of the little storage cubes that we use they’re

Great I mean to give you anide idea you probably can fit about a week’s worth of clothes yeah you can actually shove quite a bit into those so they pack really good too yeah they just Stack Up on the Shelf nicely so we use those um I

Yeah do have a little bit of footage of what we can fit in those so I’ll throw that in so if that’s maybe what you mean so yeah about a week’s worth of clothes go into our storage cubes um for the meal rundown for the planning it’s

Easier if it’s just a small trip so like we’re going away shortly and I’m just going to currently cook some meals and pop them in the freezer so just your usuals like make a big big mince so we can have spaghetti one day nachos the next um maybe some curries throw on a

Roast um just the usual thing on the road it’s probably similar sort of stuff but um it tended to be we’ll eat the fresh stuff first if we’re just done a shop so use all our fresh veggies and stuff for roasts and Things We tend to have and then it

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This week we run through the highs, lows, stresses and everything in between, of our 18 week trip in our MDC Robson XTT Campertrailer.

Thank you for all your questions we run through each of those also, if you have any more be sure to put them in the comments.

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