Trip preparation

What preparation is required for a trip that involves a camping road trip to a country that doesn't allow the import of most foodstuffs as well as dirty tents?!

There's not a lot to do except to check the usuals such as phone and iPad chargers, maps and routes. Plus we are making a list of all the stuff that we'll need to buy when we arrive. Most importantly however, the tent must be CLEAN!

We are embarking on a five week road trip up the western coast of Australia. We will start in Perth, swiftly drive 1,200 Km north to Exmouth and then turn around to make a slow journey south.

Australia covers a huge area...

Highlights will include seeing kangaroos (hopefully not on the road), dolphins, emus, humpback whales and plenty of remote scenery such as Cape Range National Park.

Stretching for around 150 miles is Ningaloo Reef - this is the world's largest fringing reef, meaning that we should be able to swim out to it from the shore.

Further south is Shark Bay and the Stromatolites - examples of the oldest organisms found on Earth

Comments

Charlie said…

wish i was coming!!!!

7 October 2013 at 21:15

Ruth Totterdell said…

I hope you have a good journey and your friendly host in Perth works well. I look forward to hearing about your adventures. Glad the postcard came in useful!
Ruth XX

8 October 2013 at 17:04

Mum and Dad said…

All sounds brilliant; but, strangely, we too are visiting Scarborough next week!
could compare notes?

10 October 2013 at 22:37

Rebecca said…

Want to hear more! How are you doing?

24 October 2013 at 07:38

The empty map of Macedonia and into Greece

Continuing south towards the Serbia / Macedonia border, the satnav warned of a lack of detail, "do you wish to continue with this route?" However we are not intrepid explorers and Macedonia comes with a few " be careful" warnings, so we decided to stay on the motorway :-) We didn't explore Serbia; it will wait for another trip. So it was on to the border. Here, passport and V5 were required again and also proof of insurance. We didn't have any of course. When we rang the UK insurance company call centres prior to the trip, most had no idea where these countries are. They don't understand non-EU. "Macedonia - can you spell that"? The nice man at the passport office was already expecting me to say that I would buy my insurance at the "Green card office" and he handed back one passport and the V5 and put mine in his pocket until I had the necessary paper for the Landy. Unfortunately in spite of the Land Rover being classed as PL...

Remote mountains and how not to behave in them

Prior to the trip I had read somewhere that there aren’t any mountains in Portugal - at least I thought I read it. My preparations had, as usual, been focused almost totally on getting the Landy ready and Dawn, who had been doing all the other jobs was much better informed. “What? You are kidding aren’t you? Have you even looked at a map?” were some of the words she used when I told her this vital piece of information. As it became clear, there are mountains in Portugal - not massive peaks but high elevations are common and the extent of the ranges is quite large. The most remote and wild are the Serra da Peneda Gerês which rise to 1,440m but there are three others “Seras” in the Parque National da Peneda - Gerês, in which wolves roam free. First stop on they way there was the town of Guimarães, the day after “Portugal Day” and the castle and buildings were in tip-top condition. A Polish guy from Katowice who’s lived here for twenty years was selling bilberry jam in these c...

"I'm the dog"

El Berro and Camping Sierra Espuña are nicely positioned for walking in these 'low' Sierras and of course the obligatory GR XYZ long distance path crosses the village. The campsite people gave us a couple of short walk suggestions, written on A4 and translated by some English guy, Michael Ball. We waited until the end of the afternoon, so that the temperature was somewhat manageable and then picked one of the ~1 hour walks that start at the campsite. The walk is so simple that there's no description, just a small diagram that's well annotated with the type of path (wide main track / footpath), other markers (gate, incorrect route, fence). You can't go wrong, can you? Well the first part was easy. Follow the path out of the village, up a valley, through woodland, up and up. Then reach the ridge and the marked ring of stones. Don't turn right, carry on straight across. Then wander through a few trees and down to a dry riverbed, at which point you walk the (ve...

Peelies travels

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