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As seasoned road trippers we have picked up a few tips and tricks to make packing for your kids that little bit easier.  Here they are!

Give them (some) control

Both of our kids have their own travel satchel. It’s up to them what goes in it – they quickly learn that if they don’t pack it, it won’t be coming! The satchels stay with them – between the kids in the back seat if we’re driving and hanging from a spreader bar in the camper trailer once at camp. Try to pick satchels which are big enough to store some books, small games and other toys but which are also small enough to be easily carried by your child. We’ve chosen a waterproof oilskin for practicality and incorporated an adjustable length cross body/shoulder strap for comfort and flexibility.

Plan ahead

Make sure you’ve got a drink and some snacks ready to go. There’s nothing worse than hearing the refrain “Mum, I’m hungry” less than 10 minutes into the trip. In terms of snack choices, try mixing it up – pretzels, apples and baby carrots are favourite additions to our snack bag (as well as the odd packet of chips).  Make sure that you’ve got these with you in the car and that you’ve got enough to keep them satisfied while in camp.

Make them comfortable

The backseat can be a challenging place and the more comfortable you can make it for them, the better.  The key to this is organisation.  Can they access a jumper if it gets cold or to use as a makeshift pillow?  If you use an iPad or other tablet – is the charger lead ready to hand? Can they reach their drink?  If you have a back seat organiser then you have probably answered “yes” to each of these questions.  There are a number of back seat storage solutions on the market including WALKABOUT’s back seat organiser – it’s well worth exploring your options if any of your answers to the above questions was “no”.

Do you have any handy tricks or tips? If so – we’d love to hear them!

North East/West Coast

This weekend has seen us exploring the North East/West Coast of Tasmania, an area that we’ve often looked at on the map but not visited.

On our first morning we awoke to a flat tyre, which despite our predictions has stayed inflated after a quick pump up. This was followed by getting bogged and narrowly avoiding a head on with a quad bike on the Sandy Cape track. To top it off then the trailer brake caught fire as we entered Smithton, thankfully easily put out with our fire extinguisher and some friendly locals and their hose.

With fabulous scenery like this, though, its hard to complain 🙂

Camp sites in this part of the world are plentiful. We stayed at Black River and Elsewhere Camp, near Temma. Both are top spots particularly given the cost -$13 and free respectively.

A stop at Dismal Swamp is also highly recommended, particularly if you like massive slides (and having fun!)

We will definitely be back!

Australia Day Mount Field adventure

This weekend saw the WALKABOUT crew exploring Mount Field, Tasmania.

Very keen to go away but worried about finding a nice camping spot within a reasonable drive of Hobart (the Australia Day Long Weekend is the single most popular camping weekend) we had all but decided not to go away for the weekend until we thought of Mount Field.

Mount Field National Park is about an hour’s drive from Hobart.  While we’ve had plenty of day trips to the Park and have stayed in the Rangers’ Huts at Lake Dobson we have never camped there and so this seemed like a good opportunity to try our luck.

Turns out we were in luck and we managed to find ourselves a lovely spot right by the Tyenna River. 

We settled into our spot and then took a walk to Russell Falls.

After some afternoon rain and an early evening we awoke to a lovely sunny day which saw the kids head straight to the river for a dip before we headed off to explore the local surrounds.

After a failed attempt to find Marriott Falls (the track markers disappeared in the middle of a paddock) our days’ adventure saw us exploring some great Forestry tracks behind Maydena.  Beautiful rainforest and some challenging tracks.

Having had such a great time on day one we decided to try it all again on day two, this time with some friends who even brought afternoon tea with them.

We finished the day’s 4wding with this view – just fantastic:

This is a great part of the world with lots to offer.  The Mount Field National Park campground is a good option with a lot of pluses including reasonable rates (provided you have a parks pass) and who can turn down hot showers and a great river view with the prospect of seeing a platypus or two.  Picnic tables are provided and there’s also ice creams and other cafe type items available at the nearby visitors centre.  On the downside many of the camp spots are limited in size which could make life difficult if you have a large set up or if your neighbours are louder than you would like.

Despite this, next time we are in need of a nearby camping spot, this will certainly be on our list!

The push back south

Well with mark heading back to Sydney I spent the night back out at silverton. After spending a bit of time talking to some other travellers I lit the fire and had some nice steak cooking in no time. Around 3am there was a bit of rain but the good old B&W Simpson swag handled it well with not a drop getting in. At day break it was a slow pack up and a quick shower and coffee and I was on my way. My plan was to go and checkout the lakes around menindee and then head over to mungo np. Well 100 and a bit km down the road I get to menindee go to turn in to the np to checkout the lakes but came to a quick stop with a big sign telling me the road is closed due to the rain overnight. So back out and take the turn to wentworth a couple of km down the road which is the way to mungo np only to yet again be turned back due to another closed road. So after contemplating my next move I made the call to back track to broken hill and head south down the silver city hwy. with a very uneventful day on the black top I made my way south of mildura did some exploring down the mallee track and its off shoots then back on the black top for a bit then off into the scrub for the night. Sometime around midnight the winds began to blow getting increasingly stronger and the rain began to get heavier until the rain was blowing side ways it looked as thou it was raining as many leaves as it was water. With a few good size branches coming down and what sounded like a good size tree not to far away I packed up and hit the road. So a good night/morning driving. I now love my led light bar, it left my hid lights on the bar for dead. With a much better white light that didn’t reflect of the signs as much and much better spread (180•) and about the same distance. Now sitting in ballarat having a coffee thinking I will hit Lorne for a few days fishing 🙂

Corner country

Well it’s been a couple of days so thought I would update you all on our WALKABOUT adventures.
So last time we had just arrived in Broken Hill. Once in town we found a quick feed and resupply of food and then made our way to Penrose park, the caravan park/ old picnic park at Silverton. After we checked in we made a straight line for the shower block and our first proper shower in days. After that we headed to the best place in town, the pub. Here we got to see the publican teach a couple of pommy ladies why you never except a challenge from an outback bar maid. I won’t go into detail but let’s just say when you are told to look one way and put a funnel down the front of your pants expect to walk out with a cold wet crotch lol. After everyone had stopped laughing themselves silly at the pommy ladies expense we made our way to the beer garden to enjoy a few quiet ales and a pub meal ( I could say the meal was nice but……) we finally headed back to camp and on the way bumped into one of the locals wondering the streets of Silverton that made a bit of an Arse of himself ( yes the donkey 😉 ). Once back at camp we started the fire and continued to enjoy the night with a few more cold ones before hitting the swags.
The next morning we hit the road and after a quick refuel headed for Cameron Corner, about 500km north. A few hours later and about 330km of combined tar and dirt rd we arrived at Tibooburra. Here we stopped for lunch at a upturned 12 oar boat on poles that is a monument to the Charles Sturt expedition. I don’t blame them for ditching the boat around here and am amazed they made it as far as they did. We then continued to the corner dodging the sheep, cattle, roos, goats, emus, wedge tail eagles and lizards.
Once at the corner and after the obligatory stops for photos we made our way into the corner store and proceeded to have a couple of cold ones with the 1 local and the husband and wife behind the bar. Soon we were joined by a couple more and then a couple more who seemed to be the owners. And wouldn’t you know it at a bar in the middle of nowhere with 8 people in it 4 of use were from Tassie, the 2 owners from Wynyard (west coast) another bloke from Woodbridge (south of Hobart) and of course yours truly from Hobart. As sunset wasn’t far off we made our way the couple of hundred meters to our campsite and rolled out the swags and light the fire and in no time had the T bones cooking over the fire as we watched the sunset with our feet up and beer in hand. With the warm weather I kicked back the top of the swag and enjoyed going to sleep while watching the amazingly clear nights sky. In the morning it was back on the road and the drive back to broken hill. Once back in broken hill Mark made the decision to head back to the big smoke of Sydney with a gearbox that had started making a noise in Melbourne in 2nd gear now getting noisier in every gear but 5th. So after a quick goodbye and a shuffle of a few things between vehicles I have made my way back to Penrose park for the night to contemplate where to head now as I was planing on heading down the border track but without a second car it’s probably not the best way back. So stay tuned to see where I end up next 😉