The Big Lap – Camp 1 – Bright, Victoria

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Day 1 of our 482 day around Australia adventure - we've been dreaming about this day for 7 years

G’day, we’re the Baile family and between September 2005 & January 2007 we travelled 46,600km around Australia visiting every corner of this great continent. Along the way we kept friends, family and over 1000 others up to date with our regular ‘Trip Log’ updates on this Expedition Australia website. We’ve recently rebuilt the website in readiness for the release of our 10 part documentary series which we’ve made about our trip and in preparation we’re republishing our original Trip Log – camp by camp PLUS including extra material and photos that were never originally published. It’s very interesting for us to re-read our adventure and we hope you’ll come along with us through this Trip Log and in our documentary which will be released on DVD soon.

Day 1 to 4

Away at Last

And we're off . . . in search of adventure.

After several missed departure dates and probably the most chaotic couple of months I can remember, we finally got away at 11:45am on Sunday 18th September 2005.

We had several friends and relatives there to see us off which was great and the feeling for the first hour or so after we left was surreal. It was hard to believe that after 7 years of dreaming and scheming we were actually on our way and what lay ahead was 16 months of relatively unchartered course. A feeling of both excitement and trepidation all at the same time.

Reality soon came back into the equation when our trusty Landcruiser, groaning under the strain of all of our gear and the camper trailer, started to overheat. We stopped at Violet Town for lunch and to let the engine cool down before topping up the radiator and carrying on. A passerby asked how long had we been travelling for and it was quite a humorous moment when I replied “about an hour and a half . . . 16 months to go”.

We finally made it to Bright, staying at Bright Caravan Park, but not before more temperature problems along the way. A cause for concern so early in the expedition.

We half set up the camper before darkness overtook us and we resolved to leave the rest of the setup until the morning as we had no idea where anything was and no hope of finding it in the dark.

We were quite happy with our queen sized bed in the Tambo camper although Jen was a little concerned she may fall out during the night which would be a 4 foot drop. I reminded her she was not in the habit of falling out of our normal bed which is only a foot & a half high so why worry – I don’t think my logic helped much.

Trip to Albury

Murphy came into play and we awoke to rain which was not so good as we still had not completely set up the camper. No major drama and only a few things got wet.

We finished setting up the camper before driving to Albury (100km away) for some bits and pieces we needed including a storage box for the roof of the Landcrusier and a new thermostat which I thought would solve the overheating problem.

Decided not to install the thermostat after reading up more about overheating problems in the service manual and concluding we may have a cracked head or blown head gasket.

Back in time for dinner and an early night.

Sara (1) and Savanna (4) enjoying tailgate breaky on our first morning

Let’s get sorted

Today we vowed to get organised.

It rained again the previous night but we awoke to a nice day and took the opportunity to go right through our gear and sort it into every day stuff, occasional stuff and emergency stuff and pack it accordingly. We realise now that if we don’t master the packing / unpacking on this trip it could overwhelm us.

I think we have too much gear anyway and we are working on ways to reduce it.

Jens’ knee still giving her trouble from overuse but hopefully will settle down soon. She’s had several reconstructions since she injured it badly as a teenager and our departure was actually delayed nearly two weeks because she needed to have it ‘cleaned up’ before we left. She’s actually only been off the crutches for a couple of days before leaving.

Girls getting into the swing of things and generally enjoying the lifestyle.

A satisfying day followed by a stir fry for dinner.

Savanna with her ARB snowman

Snow Day

Nice clear day today, perfect for heading to the snow. Managed to get a set of snow chains for $15 (normally $35), just by haggling, pays to ask for a better price.

Drove up to Hotham and made snowman (snowgirl actually) at “Big D”. Savanna had a ball in the snow with the toboggan but Sara not so sure as she kept falling over.

Had a very greasy and expensive lunch at the “Big D” cafe before a liesurely drive back down the mountain.

Met Neville and Beth from Perth that night at BBQ who were over for the Grand final. They are planning to sell their sports centre business in a year or two and take off indefinitely around oz in camper van or caravan.