At the end of 2016, after my last Italy trip, I was lucky enough to gain a place on a school funded trip to Central Australia. I absolutely loved it, and really wanted to take my own kids on a similar trip to experience some of their own country. So I had this mad plan to fly us to Darwin, hire a campervan, and drive us down to Uluru and Alice Springs over the course of 2 weeks or so. Insanity. And yet! My mum decided she wanted to come with us, so the four of us packed our enormous bags, and set off for what truly turned out to be an adventure. Sometimes it was hard, some days I was cranky and over it, and others enamoured by the enormity and sparseness of this big country we live in. The kids loved it and enjoyed seeing places they'd only ever heard about, despite being in our own backyard (so to speak!)
The first day we were up at 430am for an early flight to Darwin. A long flight (for the kids) at about 5 hours or so from Sydney (and an hour and a half to there from Melbourne). We got a taxi to the Britz depot, and collected our campervan. That took a while as i had to be walked through the operations and watch a video on how to operate everything from driving it to using the water and emptying the toilet. We were staying not far away at a caravan park thankfully, so getting used to driving the big beast was not too overwhelming straight up. That said, I then had to negotiate parking at a shopping centre so we could stock up on food for the first part of the journey. Almost drove in to a part with low clearance - good save...
The humidity was getting to us and when we got to the park and started trying to unpack and get organised, it all got too much. I threw up my hands and said stuff this, lets go for a swim! The kids and i found the park pool and cooled off - best decision ever. Afterwards I had a well earned glass of wine. Also a brilliant decision!! The kids claimed the top above the drivers bed area, mum had the middle of the cabin and I had the back bed.
The first day we were up at 430am for an early flight to Darwin. A long flight (for the kids) at about 5 hours or so from Sydney (and an hour and a half to there from Melbourne). We got a taxi to the Britz depot, and collected our campervan. That took a while as i had to be walked through the operations and watch a video on how to operate everything from driving it to using the water and emptying the toilet. We were staying not far away at a caravan park thankfully, so getting used to driving the big beast was not too overwhelming straight up. That said, I then had to negotiate parking at a shopping centre so we could stock up on food for the first part of the journey. Almost drove in to a part with low clearance - good save...
The humidity was getting to us and when we got to the park and started trying to unpack and get organised, it all got too much. I threw up my hands and said stuff this, lets go for a swim! The kids and i found the park pool and cooled off - best decision ever. Afterwards I had a well earned glass of wine. Also a brilliant decision!! The kids claimed the top above the drivers bed area, mum had the middle of the cabin and I had the back bed.
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