Our next trip away in Ripley is just on a month away. So we have started getting her ready for action.
Kelly has been busy making new chair covers, and I have been fixing a few minor structural issues. For example, I needed to reinforce the fold-away table with a few extra brackets after someone (who shall remain nameless) fell onto it whilst he was trying to override Kelly’s remote control of the TV by manually changing the station.
Full contact station changing. It’s a thing, right?
OK, but at least I didnt get stuck under the dashboard.

As I mentioned in my previous post. I think the biggest challenge for me will be to install a UHF radio. On paper, and on YouTube this seems a simple enough project.
But I don’t do simple.

We have also started doing some research into our proposed route.
Our last trip away we simply winged it, deciding on-the-fly where we would head to the next day. This worked out really well, and we stumbled across some great places.
But there was always this nagging feeling that we may have just driven right past the turnoff to a must-see attraction or a super interesting township.

So this time we are reading up on the places and things we want to see beforehand, and then routing accordingly.

It looks like we are going to head down to Victoria, revisiting Daylesford, before heading across to explore the Grampians National Park. Then we will rattle down to check out the Fleurieu Peninsula, then swing up over Adelaide and the Spencer Gulf before dropping down to Port Lincon on the Eyre Peninsula.
We are still looking into the things to do and see along the way, so this is just a rough napkin-sketch of how the route is developing:

At this point in planning the trip, the big decision we need to make (and we need to make it soon) is whether or not we are going to make the journey over to Western Australia.
This would involve the quintessential of Aussie road trips across the 1,200 km Nullarbor Plain, a section of the Great Australian Bight coastline of South Australia.

The Nullarbor Plain is the worlds largest exposed bedrock of limestone covering some 200,000 sq kilometers in total. The name Nullarbor comes from the Latin words “nullus”, meaning no, and “arbor”, meaning tree.

Despite the lack of trees, semi-arid environment and hypnogogic ramrod straight road, the trip is supposed to be iconic, with spectacular views that seem to induce gushing experiences describing the vast beauty of the land and the humbling of the spirit.

But.
It’s a long way. Over 3,000 kilometres from home to the far side of the great limestone plain. Then we would want to have a damn good look around Western Australia….before turning about and making the return trip.

We are not in any hurry. Kelly has 3 months long service leave.
It’s just that the longness of it out, and then the longness of it back again is messing with our minds a little right now.
You know, that feeling you get when your bowel squooshes up against your comfort zone?
We will think about it a little more.

We probably need to stop thinking and start driving.