Roadtrip Prep

I've left my job at the strawberry farm. A few reasons for it - (1) We are looking to do a roadtrip all the way to Melbourne next week and we have to prepare for it, (2) my knees and legs and hands, fingers are killing me.

We thought planning for this roadtrip was going to be quite simple. We can plan and stop as we go along. However, reading about it more over the past few days have been quite a shocker. There seems to be quite a lot to prepare especially since we will be traversing the famed Nullarbor Plains.

I've been doing some research and this (https://clairesfootsteps.com/driving-across-nullarbor-plain/) has got to be one of the better sites to get some info; I'm hoping to do something similar once I've actually completed the trip (fingers-crossed). Frankly, there seems to be a lot to be done and prepped. At the start of this whole adventure, we had thoughts and ideas on what we were going to do with our vehicle - having a roof top tent for camping, or having a roof rack to put our luggage, buying a jerry can of fuel to save on fuel cost/ to perhaps save us in the middle of the outback etc. And then reality hit when we started to internalise (I say internalise because it is one thing to realise, and another to internalise and accept) that Abby does not really have the capacity of having something heavy on top of her. Her maximum load capacity on her roof is 75kg, which ruled a roof top tent out of the picture (and also 1 of those things would cost us upwards of $2-3k). Even building a roof rack with a cage up top would set us back at least $500. And so we went with the cheaper alternative, we went over to the Anaconda store and bought a $169 3 pax tent. We will also head to Kmart to get 2 sleeping bags for the purpose of camping.

With jerrycan(s), it would be slightly less complicated but we realised we couldn't actually put a jerrycan inside the car (or it is advised not to do so). What we had to do was to (again) build a jerrycan rack either above the roof (which would require a roof rack of sorts) or mount it at the back of the car, which would require a jerrycan mount. And so having a jerrycan is kindda off as well.

One of the main problems with preparing for a roadtrip which includes 4WDing is that the more you read, the more you feel like you are severely unprepared. Every blog/ website/ youtube videos tells you about the many 'essentials' you need for a trip as such. With just 3 days to go before we leave Perth, it seems like there's so much to do. This is not helped by the fact that our weekends are busy with the workshops and all. On one hand, I feel like many of these items will be important for the trip, on the other, there's a part of me that thinks a lot of it is overkill. I guess we'll only know after we have started on it. In any case, the first couple of days will actually be ok since we will be hitting a few towns (read, civilisation). It is only when we start on the Nullarbor that Abby will truly be tested. With internet going to be intermittent at best and non-existent (for sure) along the Nullarbor, lets hope we don't get stranded and we get out of it with a great story to tell.