So, where are we going?!

Lots of people have asked where we are going. 

So here is a photo of the map we have on our wall, the green is where we intend to go on our six month trip.

Starting in Perth we are heading to Kalbarri for five nights. This is our happy place. We often go there   for a week at a time and its good to be going somewhere familiar and relaxing for our first stop. Hopefully Kalbarri will get us into holiday mode! 

From Kalbarri we then make our way up the West Coast staying in places like Coral Bay, Cape Range National Park, Karratha, Broome and then up to Cape Leveque. We then leave the coast and head east across the Gibb River Road to Lake Argyle, then head up to Darwin. We are staying in Darwin for a week and then will head down to the hot springs of Materanka and further south to Three Ways roadhouse before heading east again through Mount Isa, Longreach and Winton. From there is is up to Cairns where we are staying a week then heading south down the coast of QLD and down the coast of NSW. We take a detour into the ACT to Canberra then hit the coast again right down to the bottom of Victoria. Into castlemaine for 10 days to see my family then over to Warnambool and up the coast to Adelaide. From Adelaide we head up through Coober Pedy to Alice Springs. We then make our way back down to Uluru before heading west and across the great central road. Back to kalgoorlie where we will stay a few nights to make our phone calls about jobs, houses etc then head off for a week to Esperance, Albany and back home to Perth.

PHEW..... sounds easy doesn't it?!!!!!

Its a total of 6 months and 20,597 kilometres. 

We have allowed extra time in Darwin, Cairns, Gold Coast and Adelaide so we can add a few bits in if we so wish. 

It looks like a lot of planning but really it hasn't been. It was just a matter of getting the map out and saying righto where do we want to go, then connecting the dots. 

Some of the places we have left off the list are Karrajini National Park and Cape York. Both places are somewhere we will go when the kids are older. With a 3.5 year old, 5 and 7 year old we just don't want to push our luck with the four wheel driving and the outback camping. We also reluctantly had to delete tasmania from our plans after I called up and found that it was going to cost us an extra $2,500 to get there and back. Tassie will be on the cards for a flying holiday one day in the future when the kids are older. 

Travelling is such a personal thing and we are only doing what is right for us.

We may add in Jabiru and Kings Canyon in Northern Territory and Port Lincoln in South Australia. If we get the time and have the money. 

But for now that is the mud map and we shall be sticking to it fairly well. 

I have a large Australian map on the wall and Matilda is getting involved in finding places to go and googling them. So far she is most interested in Coober Pedy. She has made some notes in her diary about some places she would like to visit there, including the 'Bedrock hotel' which is underground  accommodation. Finances permitting we may indulge in an over night stay there just to amuse her!!