Our main planner (A) has been busy. The rest of GARL (ok so that would be GRL) have been doing the “ahh we’ve got heaps of time”. Lucky for GRL some planning has been going on!!

As this is only our second blog we have probably not really explained what vehicle we are taking or how we are doing this trip. Simply put, we have booked accomodation for our whole trip and driving A’s SUV to take us everywhere we want to go along with our luggage (no real camping is happening at all).

It was time to ensure that we can actually fit what we need to take and also be real about what we don’t need. We are all starting to get excited as we realise that it is next month we head off.

For those interested the vehicle is A’s Kia Sportage GT Line 2018, so a nice sun roof, comfy seats, some nifty extras plus a full size spare tyre – now also with roof racks.

What size bags to take? Well that ended up being a task in itself. We needed to work out what would fit in the back of the car but also easy to take in/out as we move from different accomodation options at various locations.

After much bag hunting we have four 60L bags, a hard esky/cooler, a dry food bag, snorkel gear, fishing gear, beach shelter, towels, day pack, tech pack* and other items. We suddenly realised we needed the backseat for all our gear so best leave the kids at home …. just kidding!!

A roof pod was required.

We bought a Thule Force XT Small pod as this was the size that was best suited to the Kia. Now was the game of Tetris to see if it would all fit in the pod. With a bit of playing and practice we surprisingly found that we had many options and much more space even with the smaller pod.

So that is where we are up to. We have booked accomodation; purchased most of the items we think we need; worked out our rough route between each location and had a test pack in the lounge room.

We will keep you posted on our next steps.

*We are not animals, we cannot go without our tech - how would we update you and take awesome pictures, if not for our handy iPhones, laptop, a drone and a couple of iPads so little people can do school work on the go. Ohh, also another laptop for A as she will likely be doing a bit of remote work and writing these in the future.