..from “exploring” to “explored”!
30,000 kms later, we’ve finished our caravan trip around Australia!
We hitched the caravan to the back of the car last July and set off from Geelong with little expectation and no goal, other than taking it slow and exploring Australia.
The plan was to head west, keep the ocean on our left and keep on driving until we looped back to where we had started, but of course it was never going to be that easy & things didn’t go quite as planned (see Part 10: We broke down in Fitzroy Crossing!), but nonetheless, it was an incredible trip that we’ll never forget!
We started off by skipping Victoria, Tasmania and south-east South Australia (as we’ve spent years exploring these areas, especially the Great Ocean Road) and headed straight for the Fleurieu Peninsula to the south of Adelaide, before leaving the coast and getting our first taste of the Australian outback at Flinders Ranges. From there, it was back to the sea side, and we followed it all of the way across the Nullarbor to Esperance, past Margaret River and Perth then up the west coast.
About half way up the west coast at Exmouth, we again headed inland to the incredible gorges at Karijini, then past Broome and into the Kimberley where we broke down. We ended up spending two months in Fitzroy Crossing (we were interviewed by the ABC about being stranded – listen here!) and with plans to spend Christmas at the Grampians and welcome the new year with a canoe trip down the Glenelg River, rather than continuing our loop around the country, we made our way to Litchfield National Park and Darwin, then drove straight through the centre of Australia, passing Alice Springs, Uluru & kings Canyon.
After spending some time back in Victoria and the lower south-east of South Australia, we crossed the Australian Alps, took a quick look at the ACT and followed the coastline up to Byron Bay, slightly venturing into Queensland, then calling it a day and heading home.
We wrote about almost every place that we visited, covering over 75 campgrounds, more than 30 hiking trails and created about a dozen travel guides! You can read all about them in our Travel Guides, Campgrounds & Hiking Trails section on this website.
Take a look at our entire trip in the 23 blog posts below!
Have you been around Australia or are planning on going? We’d love to hear about your trip in the comments section below. If you haven’t been and have no plans, then let us know where your favourite place is that you’ve explored in Australia so far!