7 Things WE Wish WE KNEW! | The Big Lap of Australia

hi everyone hello uh welcome back to another video um so today we're going to be doing something a little bit different from what we usually post out um we'll be talking about seven things we wish we knew before we took off on our trip so we sat down and discussed all the things that we wish we knew before we took off and there was seven things that really stood out so we thought we'd put together a video and maybe help someone that's in the process of planning a trip or maybe on a trip at the moment so stick around we'll list them from number one all the way to number seven hope you enjoy all right so the first thing we wanted to discuss was the setup so in our case we've got the Caravan but this could also apply for a rooftop tent a van a camper trailer whatever it may be just make sure that your setup is suitable to the sort of traveling that you're going to do so in our case we bought a fully off-road Caravan we thought we'd be you know climbing walls and going through rivers and beaches with the with the Caravan it's been we've done a little bit of that but we have done a little bit like we've gone to the tip in Cape York and we took the van with us until we got there and realized that there was semi offro yeah people so we don't really need the fully off-road thing the semi Offroad van will do what do you think anything to add to that yeah I mean with the offroad you have to keep in mind that it is very heavy yes um and that's a number one factor as to why we're sort of leaning more towards semi off-road now so if you're if you're living fulltime on the road you've got all your belongings with you um got a boat so that adds even more weight to your Caravan our Caravans a lot heavier than we thought cuz you saw all the work and all the math soers calculating all the weights it was all based on the websites that were online all based on the figures that were online and once we actually took the Caravan and took it home 240 kilo heavier in tear weight without any additional accessories or options cuz we picked it up pretty standard um and also the ball weight was about 100 kilos heavier so yeah if we could go back I would have waited the Caravan before we took it home so all got in a semi Offroad yeah so I hope that helps you out that's our first point moving on to number two so number two number two this one's it might not be a big deal to some people but because we're living in it full time it does sort of I hate it I hate it I hate it it grinds your gears over the long term so it's the fridge um because we've got the hybrid Caravan we've got we don't have a fridge inside we don't have fridge we have an upright fridge we've got the slide out chest fridge so when we go shopping and buy a heap of food and we fill up our fridge it's really hard to find what we have and sometimes things go off before we get the chance to use it because it goes all the way to the bottom and just digging digging through the fridge to find something um yeah it's quite frustrating so if you can get a caravan or put in an upright fridge if you've got the space for it unfortunately we don't have the space for it in our Caravan we didn't no I mean we could have given up a whole storage covered which now we're starting to think that we probably should have cuz an upright fridge is very important um I mean where would we put that's true so we're giving up storage I mean it might be something that you're probably thinking it's no big deal but when you're living in a caravan and all your food is going to be there forever sort of thing it gets pretty annoying when you go looking for one small thing in the chest fridge good luck trying to find it when it's all the way at the bottom and you're piled up so a chest fridge is in our opinion we've got two chest fridges two chest fridges so we've got a drink one for the car which helps like water and your drinks but then our Caravan ones solely for food yeah so that's something to keep in mind get an upright fridge if you're planning on doing this for longer than 3 months we reckon it's it's pretty important all right all right so that brings us to number three which is weather and seasonal factors that's right so with your weather and your seasonal sort of changes it's not as simple as just summer and winter you've got your wet season you've got your stinger season and we were in can's in sort of mid to late October and they say your stinger season starts on the 1st of November uh and we went to Fitzroy Island on the 31st of October that's right and there were no stinging outs and then the first of November the Stinger Nets were all out so that made it a bit a little bit difficult for us to navigate to swim swim and to be really comfortable and it also started getting a little bit too hot for our liking being in a caravan um so I suppose one thing you want to keep in mind is when you're planning your trip make sure that you're going to visit these beautiful places at a time that's probably most suitable uh you know probably like your winter time for your very north northern states like your Queensland and your cans and your poor Douglas where there's no stingers and the weather is just beautiful we're here so we spent late spring there and we loved it don't get me wrong but the sting of season did give us a little bit of limitation yeah we kind of knew what we were getting ourselves into but our Caravan was ready late August that's right so so and we really wanted to do Cape York in 2023 instead of waiting another year so that's right so that's one thing I mean yeah if we hadn't known what we know now we probably wouldn't have rushed and done Cape York and then sort of landed back in tropical Queensland in Stinger season ear Beach was a bit of a ear Beach was a tease singers everywhere and it was also very hot being summer cuz of and the water was lovely it was like Blue Waters and you really wanted to just dive in but Stingers stingers and I've got a bit of a heart condition and I don't really like flying so can you imagine getting stung having to jump in a helicopter whilst you got a heart condition with what they describe as Dreadful anxiety is one of the symptoms yeah I'm not I'm not mucking around with that so I think we need a bit of context there irangi irangi is what I'm talking about yeah they call them Stingers though yeah so yeah do your research uh you know we're from Victoria so when it comes to Eric Ki I can't say I Knew Too Much about it I know the jellyfish was a bit of a problem but you're cani yeah we didn't we didn't know too much about it well like it'll be okay the Heat like we expected but the Stinger the Stinger season wero how prevalent they were did take us and how small they are and how much damage they can do you probably already knew that but we thought we would mention just playing around make sure you're going to get to the hottest places in Winter and the coldest places in summer obvious stuff yeah where what is it Fe it's February now and we're in the hland coast hland yeah which is nice oh weather's lovely here it's beautiful here the weather's not too bad bit of overcast the why we going to the coast Coast is hot so we're about an hour and a half 2 hours in land and it's really nice uh yeah but the coast is hot so yeah just plan your route make sure that you're going to get the most of where you are at every time that's our third Point number four is how expensive the coast can be during school holidays public holidays Etc and Christmas holidays and Christmas holidays my goodness so if you're traveling full-time how surprised were we at some of the rates that we were getting offered I re can they tripled they tripled like school holidays and especially Christmas holidays that's true so that's another thing you want to plan around weather and season is pretty important I mean it's hard to avoid school holidays and that but we were in like the most sought after location in Christmas so early Beach Christmas New Year's we ended up paying a lot more than we usually would have it was worth it it was but if you're living on the road and you're trying to save a bit of money maybe plan to go Inland for those sort of big public holiday times you make sure you have something booked in advance oh yeah or have something booked well in advance as well or else you end up paying you know we've heard of people paying upwards of $100 per night for for a site so you're doing that for a week it sort of adds up it's not too bad if you're on a holiday but if you're living on the road you want to keep that in mind so even public holidays like Australia Day we struggled to get a site because everything was booked out we're in NSA in NSA yeah so we ended up paying a lot more than we usually would so just keep your eye out on the public holidays and navigate a round out as well and it'll pay you dividends if you can do free camping during those times it's helpful too absolutely but again it was Peak summer and because of Stella we need we need powered sights well that ties into that ties into our previous Point as well because we're up here in Queens land in summer we sort of need power living in the van or you're planning on doing a long trip and you want to save a bit of money then do just that so we have moved because it did start raining slightly and battery died and whatever we started the fire and we finish up this video I think we're at Point number five five so Point number five was having a dog now this one's for your dog owners that are traveling we love it we love St we love didn't change it for the world no even if it means missing everything every National Park we we love it so one thing we should have done though and we sort of wish we knew earlier is look at a map of Australia and look at all the national parks pinpoint the ones that you really really want to go to and then plan around having dog sitting for the day or you want to stay there t night book it in so you don't really have to miss out I mean I'm sure not every single National Park is worth going to but there's going to be a few that are worth it so we sort of you know by the time we were nearby we were you know we went to a couple like Fitz Island was a national park so we planned Stella's grooming around that so that's another good option good idea yeah that worked out really well a lot of grooming places offer dog sitting for the day at usually no extra cost and you can go and do what you want to do for the day while your dog's getting groomed and looked after of course but we found that the national parks that are near the bigger cities you know Sydney um go Coast Brisbane they're harder to find your groomers Andor dog sitting last minute so you want to plan and make sure that you've got it booked in cans was perfect for us cuz bought a couple of days earlier and everyone had time it was amazing um so that's Point number five for your dog owners that is helpful plan your national parks so that you we'll move on to number six now number six is about speaking the locals local knowledge yeah so you want to go ahead and take us away yeah so Point number six is you might research an area like as much as you can and find out what you want to do the key spots but we found that we missed a lot of places um that like we would have missed a lot of places if we hadn't spoken to the locals much so many places to see yeah like hidden gems that you don't usually hear about but the locals know oh the locals know it is and they know everything about it I agree it doesn't hurt to have a chat to you know your neighbor or someone at the serway or wherever it may be just have a chat you know and he'd be very surprised to how much there actually is to see in that particular Town yeah you might go there for the main attraction but if you have that one or two conversations in that town there's so much more you know and we've been led to some amazing places that aren't very crowded either the locals know yeah like even at Caravan Parks like the Caravan Park owners or we the person at the front desk yeah we've been very surprised to how many locals actually go to their local Caravan park for the weekend yeah and uh you know we didn't think that was a thing but it is and we've had a chat to them and they've led us to some great places and yeah we're very thankful so you know if you're not a very outgoing person I mean Sophia is not very I don't know outgoing you'd say but I am I don't mind the yarn so you know whether it's you whether it's me it's definitely a good idea to do that and we wish we knew that earlier on in our trip just have a chat you know what's the best place you've been to it's an easy conversation starter and um everyone's pretty friendly we haven't come across anyone that's maybe a few few people where I'm sure there has v I can't remember anyone we haven't come across too many people that have not wanted to have a chat but that's Point number six is that six yeah yeah all right so that's point point number seven the last point I'm sure there's more but this is what we thought of seven important ones yeah seven important ones is the importance of having a hobby so we spend 24/7 together which is great we love each other other but um I feel like you need your own thing you're in a caravan all the time you bump into each other and you know as much as we love each other you sort of need that thing to do on your own Y and Sam has fishing I've got the fishing on the boat sorry he not a big big fan of the boat so that's my time away I do go on the boat like Rivers but if he goes out into the ocean or if it's choppy I can't tag along yeah um so I like that we we appreciate our time together better when we have a little bit of time apart I like to read does a lot of reading I like to paint but I haven't yeah usually it kind of set up painting in a caravan back home she used to paint a lot sometimes she'd take Stella for a long walk on her own cuz she does love a hike yeah I'm not big on Hikes but I will do an occasional one um so yeah it is very important to have your own thing if you're going with your partner and yeah just have one or two things that you like to do on your own or you know make it your thing whether it's fishing reading um I don't know going for a walk what else could there be crafts crafts art and craft used to S likes to go shopping so if we get to a big city she takes the car and goes for a nice little shop and means Stella hang her out in the Caravan um grocery shopping now yeah grocery shopping I I don't like doing grocery shopping she does all that you enjoy it I love a good co STP that's pretty much it I mean again it we're sure there's more points there's probably a lot more but this is our take the first one in my opinion is most important the Caravan setup make sure that you look at your weights you look at your setup one thing I probably didn't touch on is we got the pop out the pop top and the pop out we thought it' be right it get very hot yeah we don't like it it gets really hot and um do your research before you go and spend a lot of money on a setup so we probably rushed it a bit uh we bought you know we saw three Caravans and we bought the third one and we went to a few shows we did we did but yeah we we didn't you don't know what you don't know so we're sharing this with you now if you're looking at a hybrid off-road Caravan really think to yourself do you really need an off-road hybrid Caravan I mean well we didn't think we'd get screwed around by the weights as well well yeah I mean based on the weight that we bought it on it would have been fine an extra 240 kilo on the table it makes it a little bit hard cuz that takes away from our belongings you know and we left things behind we left the annex behind we left the anex behind came with like 20 different poles one gas bottle we only have one gas bottle um and it's still you know and they borderline over they said the fridge and the little what's that the pole bar yeah they put a bowl box on top we're not going to mention any games but if you've been watching us you know unfortunately yeah I mean the weights weren't what we thought they were and if we hadn't known what we know now I would have taken my own scales and or hide a third party company to weigh the van before I took possession um unfortunately it is what it is I've spoken to them I've let them know that it's an extra 240 kilo than what we thought and they said it is what it is I said the website said this they said don't worry about the website I said they changed the website they changed the website as soon as I told them uh so yeah it puts us in a position where we can't carry water we can't do much off- grid camping but if you've watched this far we have a surprise in our next video um it's very exciting we've discussed this for a few weeks now and uh it's been very very hard it's been a very hard decision to make but we're closing in and our next video we'll have the decision made we'll have the decision made and you'll get to see it's a big step but go we had to we had to do what we we had to do what was best for us um and that's why we wanted to make this video because maybe we can help someone out that's watching this yep if uh yeah this is if we knew what we knew we wouldn't be doing what we doing of does that make sense I don't know anyway thanks for watching it make sense next time in the next video yeah you'll see what we've done but as for now we'll leave you to it um we're at this beautiful spot in uh Sunshine Coast hland in the hland con conondale conondale so it's a hip Camp um dick and Jenny run it and it's called riverrun on hip Camp if you're around I highly highly recommend it they are amazing people and they've got an amazing place it's beautiful they've got the river we show you a little bit of it now we'll give you a bit of a thing we got the merry river behind us there's no one here it's quiet they're very friend all the room to run around st's love and life I just like yay yeah so we'll wrap it up yeah we'll leave it in the next video for our next surprise thanks

Channel: 360 Explorers

Views: 5,766

Keywords: big lap, planning tips, travel mistakes, road trip, travel planning, exploring australia, australian adventure, travel advice, trip preparation, travel knowledge, travel experience, 7 things, travel preparation, australia trip, trip planning, wish we knew, big lap aus, lap of australia, big lap of australia, caravanning, new to caravanning, caravan tips, caravanning australia, caravanning tips, caravan tips and tricks, caravanning for beginners, adventure planning, ozlap

Id: Yj9azaa8Org

Length: 19min 25sec (1165 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 01 2024