This article was written by the Richards family, who have been travelling throughout Australia in their caravan for the past five months. Discover the highlights of their travels so far and see what motivated them to take up the caravan lifestyle.
We are the Richards Family! Haydyn, Jess, Connor, Indi and Mackenzie!
We had a dream to travel Australia with our 3 kids and wanted to do it whilst they were still young!
So that’s exactly what we set our minds to do! We weren’t really in a financial position to do so, as we had recently put a lot of money into renovations on our house. But we had a dream so we worked hard for a couple of years and sacrificed a few things along the way!
We started a business that we grew whilst still working full time to give us the flexibility to be able to work wherever and whenever! As let’s face it- we didn’t really want to have to pull up at a random town and pick fruit!
Haydyn is a qualified diesel mechanic/farmer and me (Jess) a nurse. So realistically we shouldn’t have any trouble finding work. But we didn’t want to be pulled up for a length of time in one spot whilst the other went to work and the other stayed behind looking after the kids in a caravan park. For us, it defeated the purpose.
We left home at the end of April, our kids ages were 5, 3, and 10 months. We’ve now been on the road for 5 months and loving every bit of it! Sure there are hard and frustrating days, just like there are at home living a “normal” life, but it doesn’t take long to turn the mood around and realise how good life is for us!
From home, which is Quairading, WA, we headed north up the W.A coast! Then we hopped across to NT and we’re now in Queensland.
Trip Highlights
We have loved so many places for different reasons… but I must say so far… you can’t beat the WA beaches and you can’t beat far North Queensland and these incredible rainforests! Some of our other highlights along the way were…
Western Australia
Wooramel River Station Stay, the Ningaloo Coast (particularly Sth Lefroy & Winderabandi Point), Barn Hill Station, Broome and the Dampier Peninsula, Gibb River Road was amazing and Lake Argyle just has to be seen to be believed!
Related: Top 4WD Tracks In Western Australia
Northern Territory
Litchfield National Park, Darwin has heaps to see and do and just has a nice feel to it, Berry Springs, Kakadu, Mataranka, Bitter Springs and Daly Waters was interesting, to say the least!
Queensland
Cairns, Wonga Beach, Cape Tribulation, Daintree, Millaa Millaa has the most beautiful rolling green countryside we’ve seen and the Atherton Tablelands as a whole is at the pointy end of the overall list so far!
There are so many more amazing places but they were just a few that came to mind straight off the top of my head. We are really looking forward to heading down the south coast of QLD now!
Related: Top 5 Spots To Take Your Caravan In Queensland
What Motivated Us To Travel
Our biggest motivation to want to travel was our kids!! We wanted to get out of the rat race of life and living life on repeat and feeling stressed. We wanted to show our kids what’s possible and what’s out there! We didn’t want to wait too much longer as tomorrow is not always guaranteed!
Sure we have our moments… but what couple with kids doesn’t! We are with each other 24/7. It gets suggested to us a lot that we “have our hands full” and “gee you guys are braver than me, to travel with 3 young kids!” But it is what you make it, if you constantly think about everything that could or will go wrong then yeah… that’s not a great mindset to have…
However, we just think about how lucky we are to..
1. Have 3 kids
2. Have healthy kids
3. Spend every day with them rather than sending them to daycare for someone else to look after them!
And we choose to do this, no one forced us!
WE LOVE IT!! That is the biggest reason why we wanted to pack up and travel- so we could spend more time together as a family! We get to see all their little milestones, do lots of sightseeing and exploring together, visit new places and best of all, just hang out and enjoy each other’s company!
It’s still important though to have some YOU time and we are both pretty good at gauging when one needs to have some time out and when that happens one of us takes the kids while the other has a break and goes for a beach walk or even just goes to do the grocery shopping on their own! It’s all about communication and being on the same page!
Our home is a Masterpiece Caravans, Dynamic Triple Bunk semi off-road van and we love it! It’s big, It is super comfy and has everything we need in it. And we tow with a 200 series Landcruiser which we are also super happy with!
Advice For Other Travelers
Our advice to anyone out there that is dreaming of travelling long term is pretty simple. JUST.DO.IT!
What’s stopping you really? Your job will be there when you get back, you can buy another house. You don’t need the biggest and best setup, just stay within your means and you’re only broke if you tell yourself you are!
If you want to do something in life, whatever it may be (big or small)… set goals for yourself and make them achievable. Give yourself a time frame, knuckle down, make some sacrifices- surround yourself with people that are also doing the same thing and ask for advice on how they did it. Don’t take advice from anyone that’s not living the life that you want.
So lean into those that support your decision, not those that want to drag you down, as sometimes you can get caught up in negativity.
And go get it! Make your dream your reality!
That’s what we are doing now!
To learn more about Jess and Haydn’s adventures around Australia, follow them on social media @Richardsroundoz.
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