Journeyer’s Chronicles

Soon we’ll be heading off for two weeks’ holidays in our little caravan. We have a wind up camper, which we love. It’s great to tow and store. It is surprisingly large when it’s set up; quite big enough for our family of five, especially when we have the annexe set up as well (that’s not us in the picture). Us being us, we would love to upgrade to a caravan that we don’t need to set up at each stop, but we’re happy with what we’ve got for now.

Image courtesty of Jayco Australia

Going caravanning is one of our favourite things to do. The kids have been counting sleeps for about a month now. They know which towns we’ll be going to and some of the things we’ll see when we get there. Thankfully, they forget about all the driving we’ll need to do. We deal with that set of problems when they happen.

For some people (I think) going camping is just a matter of tossing a few essentials into the car and heading off to who knows where for a few days roughing it. We like things to be a little more organised. I generally put quite a bit of thought and preparation into where we go, what we take and what we do when we get there.

Where to go

We generally have at least one beach holiday a year. The beach is great even if it’s not swimming weather. There are walks, treasure hunting, building sandcastles, fishing, kite flying, and the list goes on. Having said that we usually go during the summer and perhaps again during the spring. The kids seem not to feel the cold water as much as me and The Thinker, so they usually get at least one swim in.

However, we also like to try different types of holidays as well. That’s the great thing about a caravan. Just about anywhere you would like to go, you can usually set up camp. So when choosing where to go we look at a couple of things.

• Weather - even though I said above that there is plenty to do at the beach outside of the usual summer period we try to steer clear of the coast in the winter. The cold winds and rain tend to make camping somewhat unenjoyable. Once we have a few general ideas about what we want to do, I check the average weather details just to make sure we’re not going to be soaked or frozen when we’re supposed to be enjoying ourselves. By the same token, we don’t want to be sweltering either.
• How long do we have - there’s no point planning on traveling 2,000 kilometres if you only have a week off. While it might not be a problem for some people, for us traveling with three young kids means that about 400 kilometres a day is generally the maximum we can do. We pay the price if we decide to do more. Limiting the distances we go means we have plenty of time for pit stops and importantly we’re not all cranky come set up time when we arrive at our destination. As a general rule of thumb we do long weekends within a 3 hour drive of home. An advantage of this is we have seen a lot of places closer to home that we might not have otherwise visited. Even going 70km away is enough to recharge our batteries and do something different. We save the longer trips for our two weeks school holidays travels.
• What do we like to do - most times we try to find somewhere that has a few interesting activities or places to visit nearby. For example, The Engineer is into science and space at the moment, so we will be going to visit the Parkes Observatory. The Thinker likes history, so we sometimes visit places of historical significance. By trying to find things that match the kids’ interests I find it tends to make the holiday more enjoyable for them and who know, The Thinker and I might learn something too.
• What haven’t we done before - it is easy to find a great holiday spot and want to go back there every chance. We do that ourselves with our annual beach holiday. Other times during the year though, we like to try new places. That’s why we’ve chosen south west New South Wales this time. It’s different to most of our other holidays and a definite change of pace from the beach.

Image of Parkes Observatory courtesy of Wikipedia

Where will we stay

Once we’ve decided on the general area that we want to visit, I research the various places to stay. At this stage we only stay in caravan parks, although it would be fun to try bush camping at some stage.

• Facilities - the caravan park that we stay in MUST have a playground (unless it’s for a very short overnight stop - and only then if we’re desperate). It’s one thing the kids always ask for and it makes life so much easier for us. Setting up and packing up is so much easier when they have something to do (if we can’t convince them to help us, that is). It’s also something for them to do if The Thinker and I just want to kick back for a little while. The kids also love a swimming pool, although that’s not a deal breaker for me. I generally stick to at least 3 1/2 star, as I find the amenities at this rating are OK. Things like recreation rooms and camp kitchens are also nice to have’s.
• Reviews - I always check Badger’s Australian Caravan Park Reports. Travellers submit their reviews to Badger who owns and very kindly maintains the site for all to use. While these reports aren’t definitive - what your experience is depends on your requirements and perspective - I find them useful. I also belong to a great family camping forum whose members are quite helpful in suggesting great places to stay.
• Location - if we have a choice, we stay away from major roads, railway lines and the like. Who wants to stay in a lovely caravan park only to be woken at 3am each morning by a freight train rumbling past?

In Part 2 tomorrow, I’ll look at what we pack, what other things we need to arrange before we leave and what we do when we’ve reached our destination. Part 3 will look at how we keep the kids amused (and ourselves sane) in the car, without a DVD player.