- When a park ranger asks you if you have stayed the night in the spot where they find you, answer no or speak in another language. If they ask how many people are in the van, get someone to hide in the toilet quickly or to lie on the floor and say one less than there are. We didn't do this and ended up paying $ 60 on our first night.
- Avoid parking at camp sites so that you have more money to spend in the bottle shops.
- Industrial estates offer large, free parking if you make sure you leave before people arrive for work.
- When looking for a parking spot to stay the night, check for water and electricity supply, toilets and showers which are fortunately abundant in Australia, not like the koalas (the road signs are misleading!).
- The free gas barbecues found at so many of Australia's beaches are brilliant. Just get some meat and garlic bread from a supermarket, some beer from a liquor shop and you are all set for a sunset party.
- You may be lucky and find unmanned laundrettes with plugs in them. Put your washing in and whilst you are waiting, charge up your mobile phone or camera battery etc.! I spent about 4 hours in one laundrette one morning!
- Exploit jolly people. We spotted a group of young people having a house party so popped across to ask them if we could possibly fill our water tank from their garden tap. It's the hieght of cheekiness in a country which has water shortage problems but you've got to seize the opportunities when you can.
- Always have enough people in the motor home for someone to lie on the bed at the back and look out the window when you are reversing, another to get out and check the height of the trees and the rest to check whether all the knobs are in, so to speak, on the cupboard doors, the gas is turned off, skylights are closed and the outside storage spaces are locked before lifting that clutch up.
- Keep your eyes extremely wide open for koala bears. We didn't see a single one in over 3 weeks.
- Make sure there are always some beers in the fridge. You'll need a couple after driving several hundred kilometres down a road with no bends in and so will your travelling buddies sitting in the back where the air conditioning from the front doesn't reach.
- Don't book a flight to Uluru, central Australia, in the middle of December unless you want to be the roast for Christmas.
- Kitchen roll can be expensive. Instead of giving in to this “luxury item”, start collecting paper towels from any bathrooms you are in.
- If you've just past your driving test (like Robbie), wait til the outback driving stretch to volunteer to take the wheel. Sixth gear, foot down and keep the wheel straight. You can't really go wrong.
- As the people from the hire company told us, don't drive at dusk because the chances of hitting an animal are higher and the insurance doesn't cover damage caused by hitting kangaroos.
- Consider whether it is worth paying for extra insurance. We paid an extra $10 a day to get the liabiliity down from $1000 to $500 but were told that it doesn't cover damage to the roof, tires, windscreen or damage caused by hitting animals. We wondered what exactly it was covering. More than $500 damage to knives and folks maybe?
- Avoid "Mc Donald drive thrus" (you'd make it through but your roof wouldn't).
- Five people cannot make decisions quickly. When at supermarkets, each person should be allocated an item to collect instead of five people debating about, for example, whether to get a cheese and onion sandwich spread for $3.00 or a prawn and crab spread at $3.50.
- Take heed of the road sign: “Stop, revive, survive”. We didn't have any problem with following such instructions, reading them to be "turn the engine off, it's time for a beer." And remember, if you go for a drink at a road bar when your driving stint is over for the day, bring your electrical appliances and try and sneakily plug them into one of the bar's sockets . You'll be recharging your batteries in every sense.
- Despite the lack of personal space, learn to appreciate the luxury of the motor home by constantly comparing it with the smaller “Wicked” vans you see driving around. You'll be grateful for at least having a bed to sleep on and will feel terrible about complaining about the fear of rolling off your bed (which you share with someone else) above the driver's seat onto the floor a couple of metres below. Robbie, Eva and I are downsizing to a “Wicked” van when Anita and Wolfgang go home for our final stretch from Adelaide back to Sydney and I know I'll be thinking “if only I had a bed to roll off from!”
- Think ahead. You don't need to go on all the excursions to islands when Australia's coast offers great beaches for free. If you are a group of people, hire a couple of snorkels and share.
- Look inside the toilet before sitting down. There may be spiders or frogs.
