by Loreena Walsh | Gear Guide, Trip Planning
Travel can be a crazy experience, even the most well laid out plans don’t go as expected, especially at times where Mother Nature plays havoc! We know our way around Australia with kids pretty well. Both ourselves and the kids are used to driving long distances, and we know the average travel time to our most common travel spots which helps us plan a little more easily. Until…….
A flood happens.
We learnt these things:
- Don’t trust Google Maps.
- Don’t trust Google Maps.
Mid 2011, I was booked in to attend a photography workshop, a wonderful international photographer was holding a workshop in QLD and I was so excited. To make the most of the trip interstate, we’d booked family accommodation, had tickets to The Australian Outback Spectacular, and were looking forward to some relaxation in the sunshine. We knew what time Matt finished work so we could leave, and what time we’d arrive. All sorted right? Wrong. There was a week long flood just days before my workshop started. The Pacific Highway was blocked right where we needed to drive through, and not in just one place, but several places, The Oxley Highway was our only chance to get there via the inland route, things weren’t looking good with that under water as well. It was very lucky for me that the Oxley Highway cleared the day before we were due to leave, so I dodged an expensive plane flight and we decided we wouldn’t let natural disaster defeat us, we’d just go anyway, even if the inland route was a little longer.
Our Biggest Mistake with Planning an Alternate Travel Route.
As I’ve said, we generally know how long it takes to drive from home, to most places around NSW and QLD, so we had a “rough” idea of what we were facing. We had some idea of which way we needed to travel and the towns we needed to go through, but trying to do our research, we decided to hit Google Maps to see if we were travelling efficiently or if there was a shorter way. BIG MISTAKE! We trusted what we found. Google maps appeared to show us a shorter way that appeared to save at least an hour, we printed out the details and didn’t think much more about it. Little did we know (and we didn’t realise until we were smack bang in the middle of nowhere) that Google had sent us up a very “unique” selection of roadways!
We knew about the “correct way” to go. I’ve marked it out here in red, but we honestly thought there might be a better alternative, so perhaps naively consulted Google Maps to advise us of other possible options. Thinking it was a major road that Google was leading us on, once we hit Tenterfield we kept following Google’s advised path….
The Turn off Gave it Away…
You know you’re not about to travel up a major road, when you drive past your turn, having just mistaken it for a road into a farm, without there even being a signpost. That’s what happened. We were driving along, expecting to hit some sort of town, when we drove through a few houses, some paddocks and then my “little blue dot” on my iphone Google Map told me we’d gone past the turn. It was at that point I laughed, I mean, what else was I supposed to do!
All I can say about that road is, that it’s probably a good thing we were in a 4wd!
It Must have been a Miracle
After an extra couple of hours of driving we were running late not only to check in, but also to our dinner booking for Australian Outback Spectacular! There were some wild, crazy roads on that journey, but it was somewhat compensated for by the amazing rainforest we drove through…..
We were severely running out of time, a quick toilet stop in a rest area gave the opportunity to change into “nicer” clothes for dinner, nothing like a family of 5 rummaging through luggage in the back of a car and getting changed in the dark in the bush somewhere! We had no other choice, we’d called our accommodation and organised an alternative access to our room, and drove straight to dinner.
It truly must have been a miracle that we made it to dinner. We’d pre-paid around $300 so it wasn’t something we wanted to miss, although we did end up missing all of the pre-dinner entertainment!
Don’t Trust Google Maps
Now, of course, it may sound a bit silly that we planned our entire route just on what Google told us. Truth be told when we reached Tenterfield I had said to Matt “I’m not sure if we should trust this or if we should just go the longer way”. The longer way would have been much quicker as their would have been proper roads and not goat tracks, but we couldn’t have predicted what a wild ride Google would send us on!
So just a notice to those who do as we did and plan out their travel route relying on Google, DON’T take it for granted that it will be anywhere close to correct!
by Loreena Walsh | NSW Destinations & Activities, Photography, Slider Features
It had been a while since we’d been to a Rodeo, when Matt was actually riding bulls we’d go all the time. This is Kendall Rodeo in NSW, it was a nice day out, and included all the favourites, barrel racing, novice bullride (the kids version of this is so cute.. look at the little guy in the last photo! As well as Bareback Bronc and Saddle Bronc, not to mention the Open Bull Riding! It was a sweltering hot day, but being behind the camera helped take my mind off it, hope you enjoy the photos…..
This post is part of Aussie Wordless Wednesday over at My Little Drummer Boys be sure to head over there to discover some more great blogs and photographs.
by Loreena Walsh | Family Travel
Australia is known as the lucky country, and for good reason, for those of us who live here, we really are blessed with an amazing gift. Sure, there’s things that aren’t how we wish them to be, but for the most part we’re blessed with AMAZING Australian nature and wildlife, a great laid back culture, great healthcare, great education and the opportunity to live our dreams if we really want them enough. I’m not going to get into arguments about what may be lacking in the areas of health care and education, and you wouldn’t either if you really took time out to compare our standard of living to many countries in the world!
With that being said, I often wonder if our country is so amazing, why is it that so many people I know have travelled overseas yet never visited Kakadu, Uluru, The Kimberley’s or any of the other amazing destinations we have right on our doorstep? There are people risking their lives for the chance to live in our country, and yet so many Aussies tend to flit off overseas for their family holidays. What happened to the great Australian family holiday? The one where you take a family road trip and explore what our rich red soil has to offer?
There are so many reasons to stay home and travel Australia with your kids and skip the overseas holiday for now, here’s our top 5 reasons for travelling Australia with your family 🙂
- 1. You’ll discover just how little you know about Australia and you’ll learn heaps! In the days when the furthest I’d ventured from home was 4-5 hours, I honestly thought I knew what Australia was about. Oh boy how wrong was I! Venturing into different states and regions of Australia is sometimes comparable with exploring a new country! There is a vast divide between what life is like in Cities or coastal regions vs life in remote communities and outback towns. There’s even a huge difference between our Capital Cities. People speak a little differently, have different stories, and different issues, yet we’re all uniquely Aussie and that connects us all.
- 2. You’ll support local industry and help keep people in jobs. Australia has faired reasonably well in in respect to the Global Financial Crisis, but that doesn’t mean that some industries haven’t suffered. Our healthy economy means that it’s become cheaper for Aussies to travel overseas and more expensive for people to visit us from abroad, that makes for a tourism industry that’s feeling the pinch. If you can’t afford to stay in 5 star hotels, there’s plenty of ways to make travelling around Australia affordable, by camping, or choosing family cabins, caravans or even camper trailers you can spread your money further than otherwise possible. Every little town you visit on the way, every small business you support will be oh so grateful!
- 3. You’re children will be inspired! This is especially true if you’re living in a large suburban area or city. Heck we live in regional Australia and our kids are still blown away each time they explore a new corner of our country. Children are inquisitive by nature, they love to discover and explore and there’s lots of opportunity to do that on the road. Not only will they learn so much about the country that’s nurturing them, they’ll learn about other cultures too. You’ll meet lots of people travelling from a wide range of countries on the road, and it’s great to listen to their stories and lifestyles back in their homeland.
- 4. Bridge the Gap! Theres no excuse not to visit friends in distant places if you’re travelling Australia on your own schedule. Take the opportunity to do numerous road stops on the way, discover all the great towns and landmarks and treat yourself to visits with people you don’t get to see often. Staying with friends and family can save you money too.
- 5. REALLY get to know your Family! Not only will travelling give you a chance to reconnect with those you’ve been missing, but it’s also one of the best opportunities to get to know your own family. In our busy schedules it’s easy to pretend we’re spending time together, but more often than not it’s just fleeting moments of chit chat. Living on top of one another brings about amazing opportunities to not only get to know your children, it also allows you to learn and explore together creating memories that will last a lifetime and help shape your children for the future.
While I absolutely understand the desire to travel overseas, I truly feel that people often push aside exploring their own country simply because it is there, and they feel it will always be there. Life truly is too short to not see Australia, and I can’t recommend enough hitting the road with your children, no matter their age to open your hearts and minds together to forge memories that are unforgettable!
by Loreena Walsh | Photography, Slider Features
Yesterday we stopped at the 2 most Christmassy houses in the area, the kids love it and the street is lined with cars as people get out to take in the gorgeous, gorgeous displays…..
This post is part of Wordless Wednesday, a link up with My Little Drummer Boys & Faith Hope & a Whole Lotta Love
