first trip

Hi Prue,

Everyone has their own favourite way to tavel south, I prefer the Newell Hwy. There is less car traffic but you do get a lot of semis and b-doubles on this hwy.

There is a book called "Camps Australia wide", available in most bookshops, that contains in excess of 2000 listings for free camps, rest areas, low-cost caravan parks, national parks etc. This publication may be of some use to you. Their web site is www.campsaustraliawide.com

David

Prue, The Newell Highway is a good road all the way with only the big hill at Toowoomba and the hills south of Coonabarabran to slow you down. We have travelled this way a large number of times since moving from Victoria to Qld and having all the family still in Victoria. We alway stay in roadside rest stops, and there are numerous ones on this road. We park well off the road and if it is one that is designed for truck use we park to one end or out of their way and never have any complaints from them or about them. Often you go to bed alone and get up for a toilet break to find that 5 or 6 semi trailers have pulled in and are sleeping in the rest stop with you. They don't like to be woken up so they slow down well before the rest stop (no exhaust brakes) and quietly come to a stop. The second edition of Camps Australiawide is now available and it has a "2" on the end of the title. It is very good and covers most rest areas around Australia and well worth carrying. It can also be updated with information from the web site. While in Victoria, John and Helen Fawcett live on the road to Bright, and they are a lovely couple, who will give you information on their area. We stayed over night with them last December. I hope that you are having a Webasto heater fitted, as you warm blooded Territorians will find it a little cool down there at that time of the year, and will be opting for a powered site at a caravan park. We picked our van up in June and our first trip to Melbourne saw us without Webasto, and arriving at Dubbo for a chilly minus 2C so we opted for the caravan park. Now with the Webasto we would just camp out. Brian & Margaret.

Hi Prue, We'd be pleased to meet up with you on your way through to Mt. Beauty. Can also keep you posted closer to your visit to the High Country on the snow situation. Its been such a dry summer wouldn't be at all surprised if it will be a good snow season and early We havn't tried the Newell Highway yet - will be going that way to collect our BT end of April... can't wait! Cheers, Helen