It’s about time to tell you how we’re planning to spend the seven months of our trip. We get a lot of questions about that, many are asking if we’re planning to work down under, if Robin is going to attend school, where we’re going to live. The answer is simple: we’ll be on the road, travelling with our car, a hopefully reliable Toyota Hilux, which I presented in an earlier blog post.
Just before Christmas we’ll get on the plane in Oslo heading for Sydney. We’ll be spending a few days in Sydney, more precisely in Manly, a beautiful beach-side suburb of northern Sydney. On the 27th of December, we’ll pick up our car and head south, to Melbourne. From there we continue with the ferry over to Tasmania – see my earlier blog post. After a few weeks on Tasmania we’ll return to Melbourne and meet up with friends we got to know during our trip two years ago through the Kimberley region.
Next destination is Adelaide. We might just drive along the Great Ocean Road once again (first time in 2014). It’s after all one of the world’s most scenic coastal drives. From Adelaide we head west, passing Port Augusta.
Next on the route is crossing the Nullarbor Plain (Latin: nullus, “no”, and arbor, “tree”) direction Perth. To give you an idea of distances: Adelaide to Perth is about the same as Oslo to Naples, approximately 2’500 km. Before we reach Perth, we will spend a few weeks in the Southwest, exploring its many beautiful places.
Heading up the West coast passed Perth will give us many opportunities to enjoy beach life, snorkelling, boat excursions and hopefully some whale watching. One of the big highlights of our trip will be Karijini National Park south of Port Hedland, with its narrow gorges with hidden, sculptured pools and rocks glowing like molten lava.
As I mentioned earlier I am not quite sure yet how we get to the Red Centre from the West coast. One possibility is crossing the desert, about 2’200 kilometres through remote areas. The other possibility is driving up to the Kimberley and follow The National Highway east and then south to Alice Springs. It’s certainly a detour but probably more comfortable.
The Red Centre is huge, remote, full of stunning national parks featuring awe inspiring landscapes. Uluru and Kata Tjuta are among the most famous places, but there is so much more… We’ll stay for a few weeks.
The last part of our trip will lead us to Cape York, a large remote peninsula located in Far North Queensland. It is the largest unspoiled wilderness in northern Australia and supposed to be one of the last remaining wilderness areas on Earth. We were on its southern end in 2014, in the Daintree National Park, and absolutely loved this tropical rain forest. There will be some hard-core driving but I guess by that time we know exactly how much we and our car can withstand.
In Cairns we’ll sell our car and spend a few days in a nice beach resort in Kewarra, washing off the dust after seven months on the road.
RCD on Walkabout 
Sounds like a fantastic trip! Wow, so much to see but it will be absolutely beautiful, filled with moments that take your breath away! Take care and happy travels! 🙂
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