To me there are 3 main types of lighting needs you need to consider:

General Camp Lighting

That’s the ambient lighting around the camp site. In Australia camp lighting has a big problem- it attracts the insects like you wouldn’t believe! You may want to think about that before you set up your camp! Keep the lighting a reasonable distance from tents and the cooking area. Although some swear by the old-fashioned gas mantle lights I find them annoyingly fiddly to set up and damage prone. I prefer the new low power LED lights which run on batteries or power and are cool to run, have low power requirements and don’t attract the insects as much

Tent Camp Lighting

Inside a tent I found that you only needed a small tent light- which run on batteries and clip onto the roof using its own magnetic strip. Not enough to read by good enough to find your shoes.

Personal Lighting

This is where LED camping lights come into their own.  I prefer a headline style torch – which keeps the hands free and works well for both reading in bed and cooking. I also found for a computer you can get LED lights which power of the computer’s USB port – though of course  this will drain your battery a bit.

Photo Credit

1. Know the current market price in the place you are selling it. If your price is not reasonable compared to what else is in the market you won’t sell.
2. Know the checks on ownership the buyer may want to make and facilitate this if possible.
3. Try to advertise late in the week, most people only have time to look on the weekend.
4. Avoid major holidays and long weekends where your buyers may be out of town or otherwise too busy to shop.
5. Check which day in local buy/sell newspaper comes out at aim to be advertise online the day before.
6. Run off some flyers and distribute them to hostels, and internet cafes if you think you will sell to a traveler.
7. If you want to sell to a local consider placing an ad in the local buy/sell ads newspaper.
8. If you are selling to another traveler know which time of the year most tourists arrive in town. Be prepared to accept foreign currency as a point of difference from other sellers.

Accommodation

Caravan Parks $20 – $35 Typically $24 for 2 people for a powered site.

Although we have a tent we prefer a powered site so that we can easily charge the electronic gizmos and the camping lights. We found that the Council owned parks in smaller centers although often well-situated next to a beach or a river tend to be poor value as they only provide an amenities block. Private caravan parks particularly in popular areas tend to include well provisioned kitchens, BBQ’s, games rooms, laundries (extra cost), swimming pools, wireless internet and children’s play areas. The best deal is to joining one or more of the main groups of private parks : Family Parks of Australia, Big 4, or Top Tourist Parks. For example Big 4 costs $40 for 2 year’s membership – giving you 10% off their rates – staying only on powered sites you save $2.50 to $3.00 per a night after two weeks you’ve paid for it. However as larger cabins can cost over $100 you can in fact pay back your membership in a few days if staying in these! You don’t need to join in advance or even when you check-in – just during your first stay at a park and they will give you the discount retrospectively!

However as we have a tent we have found as the temperatures got lower in the Snowy Mountains and Tasmania we often stayed in cabins at the parks. A cabin costs $40 – $80 depending on whether it had an en suite (usually $65) or not (usually$50). (Prices include the 10% discount from being a member of the association if applicable) All include some sort of cooking facility at a minimum a fridge, hot plate, toaster and hot water jug, and often including a microwave, bench top oven and electric fry pan. Usually linen was included though sometimes we had to supply our own sheets and towels (we could have hired if necessary).

Hostels and other accommodation.

In cities I prefer to not stay in a caravan park which may be 20km from the CBD. Instead you can pick up accommodation closer in which still provides secure parking for your vehicle. Typically this wont be actually CBD but maybe 5km out on a public transport route. For example in Melbourne we found St Kilda to perfect as their are numerous trams to the city and it is also close to the departure point for the ferry to Tasmania. Its generally the newer hostels in St Kilda that will provide secure parking for little or no extra charge. We enjoyed the Cooee Hostel ($75 / double en suite with flat screen TV and internet access) . Hostelworld is a good place to start for hostels and cheaper hotels. I also have found good self-catering apartments using consolidator sites such as RatesToGo especially if booking within a few weeks or days of arrival.

Food

Which includes – as far as we are concerned anyway a reasonable amount of beer and wine. We eat well when we self-cater, I enjoy ethnic food and tend to buy the various prepared sauces which work quite well with minimum effort. We tend to eat out in the big cities where there are great options at reasonable prices (less than $20 for a main course) but otherwise will self-cater with the odd relapse into take out pizza or fish and chips. We drink cheaper bottles of wine – a reasonable local red can be had for less than $10 in a bottle store and a 6 pack of premium beer will cost $12 to $15. Down the east coast we were averaging $200/week for groceries (including booze) and the same again for restaurants – but I think this will tip in the favor of self-catering as we get more remote. The budget of $50/day for food seems to be about right. Lunch in a coffee shop can easily cost $30/2

Fuel

Diesel has varied between $1.21 to $1.80- cheaper in Queensland than other states, cheaper to big cities than the bushWe are only getting about 14 to 16 litre’s / 100km with an older Landcruiser, which is, unusally in Australia an automatic. Also a diesel needs an oil change every 5000km so we have paid $180 – $190 for those.

Miscellaneous

I would budget $40/2 a day for this one – but for the month we were on the east coast we were nearly double that. In Tasmania we were close to budget. This is the hardest thing to budget – a day pass on the trams over $6 per person. An attraction entry anywhere between $5 or $20 per person. Showing our youth hostel cards got us a surprising number of discounts on museums and attractions. A National Parks pass for Tasmania – $80 for the vehicle for 2 months. Movies – $15 per person. Internet access varies from $4 – $10 / hour. Taking the vehicle to Tasmania cost $79 each way – but passengers (and you need at least one with the vehicle!) cost at least $110 each, each way.

I thought I would do an occasional series of book reviews of books, maps and other gear that is of interest to those wanting to get off-road.
Explore Australia by 4WD by Craig Lewis and Cathy Savage describes over 25,000 kilometers of remote tracks with detailed route directions and GPS readings. .It doesn’t include the main sealed road routes at all. However if you are interested in exploring more remote corners of Australia such as the Tanami Desert , Canning Stock Route, Gibb River Road or the Cape York Peninsular then this guide is very useful. Along with the well know tracks, the 18 tracks detailed include the less-well known such as the Connie Sue Highway west from Coober Pedy, and the Holland Track in Western Australia.

This emphasis on the remote, and invariably unsealed roads, means that most tracks fall within Western Australia, South Australia and the Northern Territory. This book will be of no use to you if you are looking for a route from Sydney to Brisbane or Cairns, or even the sealed road across the Nullabor from Perth to Adelaide. Queensland is only covered by the Cape York Peninsular and part of the Gulf Savannah track. Victoria’ only mention isa single track in the Victorian High Country, and New South Wales’s single mention is in the very far NW of the state north of Broken Hill. Tasmania misses out entirely. Therefore overseas visitors are probably not going to be able to use this book as their only guide in Australia.

. For each of the 18 tracks described they provide:

• An introduction including the general description of the track a suggested time to complete and longest distance without fuel.

• Route directions are given in a milestone format which is easy regardless of the direction you are driving and in addition there is a nice strip map indicating key points of interest, camp spots, towns (if any), and services.

• Advice and warnings including any permits required an phone numbers for relevant National Parks and other services.

• Campsites are listed included whether a fee is charged, suitability for off-road trailer, off-road caravan, whether fires are allowed, whether activities such as swimming fishing, bush walking are advisable.

There is also a summary section at the back with good general advice for preparing for your trip, gear, and vehicle equipment.

The book is large format (11 x 8.7 inches) and at 3 pounds quite heavy. Our copy has covered over 30,000km of road, usually on the front seat, and is still in one piece though a little dusty. Its a very well bound book.

Available widely in Australia if you don’t want to bring it with you – though in Australia the retail price is usually around US$45, it may be cheaper to buy it before arriving. Highly recommended.

]]> http://www.budget4wdtravel.com/2007/10/explore-australia-by-4wd/feed 3 http://www.budget4wdtravel.com/2007/10/gear-list-for-camping-or-sleeping-in-a-car-or-4wd http://www.budget4wdtravel.com/2007/10/gear-list-for-camping-or-sleeping-in-a-car-or-4wd#comments Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:40:43 +0000 Camping Girl http://www.budget4wdtravel.com/2007/10/gear-list-for-camping-or-sleeping-in-a-car-or-4wd/ Over the years I’ve seen hundreds of suggested packing lists for backpackers or light-weight travelers but the list is a little longer if you are car or 4WD camping

Keeping Food Cool

Its not optional given Australia’s weather – you need to have some type of cooling either a fridge set up (which will probably require a second battery to be fitted to the vehicle) or an ice box, a cooler or esky as it’s known locally. We found a 65litre cooler was about right for 2 of us and we bought a plastic box with lid to fit inside to keep delicate stuff like cheese and vegetables from getting wet or crushed. The mid-range Coleman rated to 5 days (in practice about 3 days) worked well at can be bought for less than A$100 on sale.

Stove

Something to cook on gives you a lot of options even if you aren’t camping every night. The main options is either a 2 or 3 burner gas stove running off a standard LPG cylinder or a butane stove running off butane cartridges (1 burner only). A LPG cylinder can either be swapped at a petrol station or re-filled at a caravan park or camping store. The butane cylinders need to be purchased from a camping store and are not refillable. The 2 burner gas stove proved robust and the wind shield is useful for increasing heating efficiency. I like to have at least 2 burners for cooking. The cheapest 2 burners start at around A$40 but the more expensive models $80 have a stainless steel bottom which reflects a lot of heat and makes cooker faster, and cleaning easier!

Cooking Gear

Minimum list would be

• a frypan – with good sides so that food doesn’t go everywhere;

• a billy with a spot, boils water a lot quicker and can be had for A$10;

• a small pot to cook vegetables, pasta, rice etc in

• A BBQ slice, tongs, miscellaneous cutlery and some plates, cups and (plastic) glasses.

• a decent sharp knife, can opener, bottle opener

• a basin to wash dishes in tea towels, pot scrubber, sponges, paper towels

• a couple of stubby holders

Power

If you don’t have a second battery in your vehicle than you have some other options for power. An inverter in the vehicle will power gear such as laptops while you are driving. Another option solar panels originally designed as RV solar panels there are now variations of this product which will suit the camper to.

Water

You can buy 10 or 15 liter water containers at the supermarket for $5 or $7. They can be re-filled and are a good size to lift when full, I find the 20 litre one a bit heavy to lift when full. More smaller containers are easier to back and are less likely to all break and leave you without water.

Bedding

In cooler areas, and particularly in the desert in the winter, you will need all the warm sleeping gear you can get – I would recommend a good sleeping bag and a 4WD camping mat which has both insulation and inflation to make it a bit more comfortable. In warmer climates we used a fitted sheet and a light duvet or sheet on top. You can get blow-up pillows but I prefer the real ones which can be bought for about $10 each and left behind when you leave. Even if you are staying in cabins rather than camping you will often have to provide your own bedding or pay extra so its a good thing to either bring some old stuff from home, expecting to dump it at the end of the trip, or buy something cheap at Big W or Target

Lighting and Electrical

If you are going to stay in commercial campgrounds then buy a portable light used by mechanics when working on cars (cheaper at car maintenances stores such as SupaCheapAuto) which come with a cable and sometimes a battery (though watch the re-charge time) for around A$20. These give excellent light and can be hooked up inside or out.

Gas lights run off the same LPG cylinders as stoves (and you can get an attachment to run both at the same time) but can be fiddly to light. We also each had a torch which ran on re-chargeable batteries, and tent light which attached to the roof by magnet and ran on re-chargeable. Which meant of course that we needed to bring a battery charger, extension cord, and a power box for when we needed to recharge the cell phones, computer or digital camera.

Tent

In fact you don’t necessarily need a tent, traditionally a single traveller in Australia used a swag, which these days are sophisticated bags which include a waterproof outer, a mosquito net over the head and are waterproof.. If you are only going to warm or hot dry areas you may only need a mosquito net and you can get self-supporting mosquito domes which are very light to carry. If you are going to cooler, wetter areas you will need a tent and again you pay anything from $50 to $1000, but a middle of the line tent with not too many poles to put together should do for most people.

Furniture

A couple of fold up camping chairs can cost A$5 (and they lasted the trip – not undamaged but usable) or A$100 – personal choice – but make sure they fold easily. You need a decent size table which again there are numerous versions.

Personal Gear

Obviously personally clothing and toiletries, towels. Make sure you have strong sun screen, insect repellent up north and a sun hat. If you don’t have gear appropriate for the climate you will be able to buy it easily enough along the way.

Then we need to ad maps, guidebooks and vehicle gear but that’s another post! What have a missed out, what do you take camping?

The cheapest way to large amounts of money internationally is to pay a set fee per a transaction rather than paying a percentage of the cash transferred. Using an international credit or debit card means that you will be paying up to 2% on money received – that adds up to a lot. A better option is an international transfer which charges a one-off fee, but this will require you to have an Australian bank account to receive money into

Opening a Bank Account in Australia

Opening a bank account in Australia is straightforward and you can set it up before you leave home allowing you to transfer money before leaving home. For example this is Commonwealth Bank’s offering but all the major banks (ANZ, WestPac etc) offer something similar. You do however have to specify a branch so you need to sure of the city that you will start in. You will also not be able to withdraw money from the account until you are seen in person with your passport and collect your EFTPOS cards.

You will have to pay a flat few dollars a month fee but that includes all electronic transactions. So get cash out of your own bank’s ATM’s and use EFTPOS when possible with retailers and you will only pay the flat fee. To actually buy the vehicle, given the daily limit of around $800 per card per 24hour withdrawal limit you will probably have to get a bank check.

Money on the Road

Australia is very wired when it comes to paying for items. Its rare that you will need cash and the most common means of payment is EFTPOS where your card is used to direct debit a linked account. Often retailers will allow you to withdraw cash as well, usually up to a limit.

However a card will not get you anywhere and in outback areas you should probably always carry the equivalent of a 100 liters of fuel in cash for the rare occasion when a remote station supplying fuel doesn’t have EFTPOS or the telephone lines are down (which are required for the transaction to be authorized). A credit and/or debit card from your home country is a good idea as a totally separate way of paying in case anything goes wrong with the local account.

Sydney to Perth 4110km or 2550miles (4 hours flying time), Sydney to Cairns is 3143km or 1950 miles (3 hours flying time)

Sydney to Melbourne is 9 hours if you drive up the Hume Highway, and see, well highway, or you could take a couple of weeks and actually see the gorgeous coastal scenery along the NSW and Victorian coasts on the Princess Highway.

Which is to say planning a trip across Australia and ending up in Perth doesn’t necessarily mean that you should return to Sydney for your international flight. Now that mainstream airlines have started to price tickets as two one-way tickets its no cheaper in general to buy a return ticket.

In general your route options for arriving and departing Australia are :

flights from Europe via Asia: major airlines which fly to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth include Qantas, Air New Zealand, Singapore Air, Malaysian, Thai, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines . These airlines fly Australia via their Asian hubs (e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore or Bangkok), normally a free stop over and some will continue on to New Zealand with a free Australian stop over. The budget airlines of Asia are now expanding too so that its worth checking out Air Asia X, Oasis Air, Tiger Airways Virgin Blue(which also does internal Australia, New Zealand flights)

flights from North America via the Pacific: this route is still not open for competition so your options are more limited and include Qantas, Air New Zealand, United and Virgin Blue. Flights are typically to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and possibly Cairns There are other indirect options via Pacific destinations such as Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti but are more expensive and only worth it if you wish to stop off.

flights from North America or Europe via the Middle East: Emirates use Dubai as a hub and fly direct to the east coast USA – Dubai and direct to Perth as well as Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane

flights from New Zealand: Qantas, Air New Zealand and Virgin Pacific have the most flights direct from Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane Cairns, Adelaide and Perth (direct only AirNZ)

flights from South America:are limited and expensive – your option is basically Aerolineas Argentinos from Buenos Aires, via Auckland to Sydney and LAN Chile/Air New Zealand from Santiago via Easter Island and Tahiti.

Budget Long Haul Flights. Its now possible to fly around the world on budget airlines its a fast developing area which is all good for the average cost of airlines as often your full-service airlines will match the budget price anyway! However check out this link you want to persue this option

If you are actually camping for $20-$30 for 2 adults you will get a a camp site with or without power, a common ablutions block, almost always with free hot water, occasionally hot water requires a gold coin ($1 or $2) and almost always a coin operated washing-machine and a washing line. The site will often have a pad of concrete on it for the annex next to caravans – though less dusty for tent camping as well. You may or may not get grass depending on the cost of water locally.

The price difference between powered and un-powered is about $5. A powered site gives you access to a (single) power point is just that on a junction box so a 10m extension lead and a multi-point power box are must haves if you are going to power camp. It always annoyed me that I was charged the same amount to run a battery charger, laptop and a toaster as the guy next door who could run his aircon, satellite TV and microwave for the same price.

Most grounds have some type of BBQ gas or electric, often free sometimes a gold coin – start saving your change!

Less often you will get a camp kitchen which can have any or all of stove, oven, microwave, electric toaster and jug, fridge, freezer. Very occasionally they will also provide pots, pans, plates etc. If a place has a backpacker accommodation as well then there is sometimes the option to hire these items but if you are camping.

Often also there will be a small shop for basics, a games room, a TV room (usually locked at 10pm), children’s play areas.

In the more expensive parks you basically have resort facilities including large swimming pools, spas, tour desks, restaurants, bars, children’s programmes, courtesy buses.

Tourist Park Associations

There are 3 groups of tourist parks in Australia – all of which offer a VIP card or similar where for a small fee you join and then get a 10% discount on accommodation plus their printed guide listing all their parks.

We found these to be excellent value and ended up joining all three and saving money on them all. All the parks are independently owned and operated but we found that with the 3 guide books we had a pretty comprehensive list of properties, including location maps so you know how far out of town they were. It also made booking quicker as you didn’t have to always give all your details again. There is no point joining before arriving in Australia you can join at the first park you stay at and generally get a retrospective discount on your stay. They will happily take an overseas address too.

We initially stayed at an impressive Big4 camp ground on the Sunshine Coast liked what we saw and joined that group. Once we got to Tasmania we discovered that Family Parks of Australia had the best coverage of locations so joined them – as we were staying in cabins because of the weather we saved a heap of money there. Finally we stayed in a Top Tourist Park in Darwin because of its location again in a cabin and after a week they gave us a free membership – nice! You will not always find an affiliated campground – for example there are heaps of campgrounds on the Cape York Peninsular and also there are campgrounds at Kings Canyon and Uluru (Ayers Rock) – these aren’t affiliated to anyone though – its not worth their while to be part of an advertising network as you will be staying with anyway because of their location.

Top Tourist Parks

They claim with 190 properties to have the most number of parks in Australia. We ended up staying for a week in a cabin at Darwin and ended up being given the membership for free – which was a nice touch.

Cost: $25 for 2 years

Discount: 10% up to maximum of $25 per stay

Family Parks of Australia (FPA)

Cost: $25 for 24 months

Discount: 10% up to maximum of $20 per stay (sites) or $40 per stay (cabins)

Includes properties in New Zealand as well

Big 4

Cost: $40 for 2 years

Discount: 10% up to maximum of $30 per stay.

Hope these details help – questions – leave a comment!

How to plan a big trip may be daunting – but essentially can be broken down to a few simple steps.

Working out where approximately you want to go is one of the first things to do. If your list only extends to a quick trip down the coast from Cairns to Sydney, then you don’t need a 4WD. Its probably best to understand this before you buy one! Although urban 4WDs are common in Australian cities as elsewhere, its absolutely beyond me as to why you want to own something which is expensive to run, hard to get around a parking building in and is much easier to roll-over in an accident than a conventional car.

Step 1 Shortlist

So step one is list out the key places you want to see. A theme might help some possibilities are:

• the ultimate wine trail e.g. Hunter Valley, NSW; Rutherglen, Vic; Barossa Valley SA; Margaret River, WA

• the geographic extremes: northern point, (Cape York, Qlds) southern point (Cockle Creek, Tasmania) eastern point (Byron Bay, NSW) western point (Denham, WA), highest point (Mt Kosciusko, NSW) and lowest point (Lake Eyre, SA)

• the big lap – right around the coast or as close as the road will take you – about 30,000km in total.

• Gorgeous scenary: Kings Canyon NT, Karajini National Park, WA, Mungo National Park, NSW, Franklin River, Tasmania

• Great diving/snorkelling spots including the Great Barrier Reef, Whitsundays, Qlds, Shark Bay, WA, Exmouth, WA

• Iconic outback destinations: Birdsville, Qlds, Gibb River Road, WA, Cape York, Qlds, Broken Hill, NSW, Longreach, Qld

Step 2 Route Planning

Now put those places on a map and draw a line between them – you may find that you have to go a bit out of your way to keep that line on any sort of road. You need to make some sort of guess as to whether there is any fit with the time you have available. Be aware that if you only have 6 months, you may not have time to see the whole country. We found that anything more than 500km a day was a very long day.

Step 3 Timing

Next step is to consider the weather. The weather in Australia is extreme, going to the northern tropical areas in the summer i(Nov-Mar) sn’t just silly its a waste of time if you want to drive the dirt road to Cape York – it will closed because of flooding and you shouldn’t drive on closed roads because a) if caught you will face significant fines for the damage you have caused and b) if you are not caught you might well die out there. Also a shade temperature of 50C isn’t unusual in the centre of Australia – your life expectancy during the day without water is about 1hr. Engine oils don’t work as well either in those temperatures so its rough on you and the vehicle. So avoid the northern tropics and central deserts between October and April, but these are good times to see the cooler states of Victoria, coastal NSW and the SW of WA including Perth. North of Mackay you cant swim from the shore during the stinger season which is approximately Nov to April (you can swim from off-shore islands and dive or snorkel the Great Barrier Reef which is well off-shore).

Step 4 Initial Plan Developed

So combining your must-sees, with your time frame and starting date that should give you enough of a plan to at least book your flights and decide where to fly into and out of. Of course at the end of trip the plan is always a bit of a laugh to look back on and see how far from reality it actually turned out to be so I would labour it on a day to day basis. We found in practice we had a general direction worked out and but our speed of travel often varied based on how interested we were in the area, what the weather was doing, and our general desire to go somewhere else.

Step 5 Execute

Go do it – but if you check our trip page you will see it doesn’t always go to plan – but that’s another post!

What’s your experience of travel planning – leave a comment I’d love to hear from you!