All Around Oz with Annette Jones

In episode 31 of the Global Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy Collins welcomes Annette Jones from the travel blog "All Around Oz". 

As a full-time traveller who has explored Australia and other destinations extensively, Annette shares her journey to becoming a seasoned traveller across Australia, with a lifestyle many dream of. 

Annette discusses the nuances of planning a lap around Australia, offering insights into the challenges and joys of life on the road. Learn about the practical aspects of travelling, such as the debate between caravans and motorhomes, budgeting tips, and the importance of setting a departure date to turn dreams into reality. Annette also shares her favourite travel spots and the importance of adapting plans based on the weather and travel conditions.

Whether you're a seasoned traveller or just dreaming of hitting the road, this episode is packed with valuable tips and inspiration for anyone considering a life of travel.

Don't miss Annette's advice on planning your adventure and the resources available to help you get started.

⭐️ Guest - Annette Jones (All Around Oz)
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Transcript

Tracy Collins [00:00:05]:
Hi, and welcome to the Global Travel Planning Podcast. I'm your host, Tracey Collins, who with my expert guests will take you on a weekly journey to destinations around the globe, providing travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, practical tips, and more to help you plan your next travel adventure. Hello, and welcome to episode 31 of the Global Travel Planner podcast. So this week, I'm welcoming back because, actually, Annette and I started recording this a few weeks ago, but Annette wasn't very well, were you? So you've we've had to put it off till this week. So we're chatting to Annette Jones who travels Australia and other destinations full time. Now you're kind of full time traveler, aren't you, Annette?

Annette Jones [00:00:50]:
I am. Yeah. I'm loving it.

Tracy Collins [00:00:52]:
Very luckily so. I know I have to say very jealous. So so tell us a little bit about your background, Annette, where are you from, and kinda expose your journey to ending up with the lifestyle that you have today.

Annette Jones [00:01:03]:
Okay. Thanks, Tracy. That was a great intro. Thank you for your lovely welcome. You want me to kick off with where I actually started, where I was born? Yeah. Like, a start back and start. Yep. Because actually started, where I was born?

Tracy Collins [00:01:13]:
Yeah. Like, a start back to start. Yep. Because you've got an English accent, but I know you well, you've got I can I can pick it up, but I know you're speaking about most of your life in Australia, but I swear I can hear that English accent?

Annette Jones [00:01:24]:
Yeah. Some people do with just certain words. And, but, you know, my partner thinks I'm as an Aussie as Aussie, but there you go. So I was born in Manchester and, moved to Australia with my family as a £10 pump when I was 8 years old. And grew up in Sydney, married, moved to MacKay. My 2 boys were born there. Lived as an expat in Zimbabwe in Africa, and then moved to Bougainville, which is an island about 1000 ks off the Papua New Guinea coastline, and we were there for 2 years. And then I've lived sort of all down the, the, Queensland coast from Mackay, Tannenham Sands, Brisbane, Gold Coast.

Annette Jones [00:02:13]:
And, oh, probably about 15 or so years ago, I started, you know, dabbling with this thing called blogging. And I distinctly remember there was a day we were driving down the ocean road, and I thought because I was taking notes madly wherever we were going and what we were doing and so forth. And I thought, oh, God, I'd love to do this full time as a job, because I don't think it would really be a job. It's one of those, you know, you never have to work a day in your life if you love what you're doing sort of things.

Tracy Collins [00:02:48]:
Yes, exactly.

Annette Jones [00:02:49]:
So that that was when the real passion for it was born, I suppose. And it really did start probably back 2,009. I kept a a diary, I wouldn't call it a blog, for friends and family in Australia when I traveled, over to Europe. It was only a 6 week sort of, holiday, and I loved writing, and people actually loved reading it. So it was more of a diary sort of thing back then. Now, what I do is I share, information with our audience about travelling Australia. Our main point of difference is that we are quite niched and that we help people plan a lap of Australia. It's kind of, for your listeners that don't know, it's kinda like a rite of passage for most Aussies.

Annette Jones [00:03:39]:
They wanna do the lap of the country.

Tracy Collins [00:03:42]:
It's on our list, Annette. It's on our list, but, yeah, once we've finished the kinda exploring further afield, I definitely will be picking your brains for that.

Annette Jones [00:03:50]:
Oh, for sure. Yeah. For sure. Anytime. So, like, we had always planned to do some LAP or LAPs in Australia in, after we'd retired from the workforce, the general workforce, so to speak. But first we thought we'd go and live in Southeast Asia for a couple of years, work our way up to Portugal, across Europe, and and then come back and do all of that. But COVID hit. And we were actually in, Bali when COVID was sort of kicking off.

Annette Jones [00:04:21]:
And we were there looking at villas to see which ones we'd we'd probably hire, you know, to go live there for a year. So when all that started, we thought, oh, it seems to have was worse than we all thought at first. And we thought, we'll flip we'll flip our plans, and we'll do this lap in Australia. But what we didn't know that things got delayed, and our van took 19 months for it to be built. And, well, we were in a a line. It doesn't take that long to build a caravan.

Tracy Collins [00:04:52]:
That does that does a long time.

Annette Jones [00:04:55]:
Must be a super duper caravan for that. Even things like, well, the secondhand car market went crazy. There was no secondhand cars available. Then there was no new cars available, so we had to wait 9 months for that. And then finally around, I think it was June last or June 2023, we actually launched and left our hometown, And we've been on the road since.

Tracy Collins [00:05:22]:
And you you run a a website as well. I think we should mention that as well. So that's all all around us.

Annette Jones [00:05:28]:
All around us. Yep.

Tracy Collins [00:05:29]:
Yeah. Which is, as you say, helping people plan, their lap of Oz, which is Yes. It's such an exciting thing to do. And when I just hear those words, I my my heart goes bum bum bum because it just sounds so excited. So for for us, I know when Doug and I chat about our favorite trips anywhere in the world, In the top 3, without a doubt, is it was our Outback Queensland road trip we did a few years ago. And we loved it. So I know we're gonna love it. I don't know whether we're gonna deal with a caravan or we're gonna get a motor home.

Tracy Collins [00:05:59]:
We haven't decided yet because I know that's a big issue. But so you've been traveling on the road since since last year. So so so tell me about the last year. What what have been the highlights of the last year? What have been the things that you just go, wow. This is what a life we've got.

Annette Jones [00:06:12]:
Yeah. It it's funny, you know, you should say that, oh, what a life we've got because for the first probably about 6 months I kept I kept saying to myself, oh we're actually doing this. We're actually because we've been talking about it, dreaming about it for so long. It was like we're doing it, we're doing it. You know, some of the places that have been highlights have been unusual places that, a, I didn't realize we were gonna end up in, and b, I I didn't know a lot about before I actually visited there. And one is in the Gulf of Carpentaria, there's a place called Currumba. It's hardly anything there. Like, it's a real fisher person's paradise.

Annette Jones [00:06:51]:
Yeah. And I don't know. You know when you just go to a place and there's a certain vibe about the place, and you just, you just like it. That was one place. And the scenery's beautiful. The ocean's gorgeous, but you can't swim because there's crocodiles. So that was one place. The other, the other place that really struck me, you were staying at, at Queensland, was Winton.

Annette Jones [00:07:16]:
I loved Winton. That was an amazing little town, or is an amazing little town, with, a big dinosaur history there, which is fascinating.

Tracy Collins [00:07:28]:
It's fabulous, isn't it? Yeah. It's really fantastic there. It's it's true. It's one of the Longreach and Winton were just absolutely places that I I can't wait to go back to, honestly. They're they're so high on my wish list to go back to.

Annette Jones [00:07:40]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:07:41]:
There's just something about those outback towns, isn't it? That's just fabulous. So so I'm guessing you haven't spent the entire 12 months or so in Queensland. So No. So tell me where where else have you been? And what I mean, how do you organize your year? Because I'm gonna ask this because, obviously, Queensland and well, if you get too far north, in summer, it's extremely hot. So Yeah. You have to really consider that. So so what do you do when it gets when it gets hot? And what do you do when it gets cold? I guess you kinda swap it round. You flip round where you go.

Annette Jones [00:08:12]:
Yeah, we do. So, last year, about round about this time last year, we were just coming back. We'd we'd traveled all the way up to Cape York, which is another kind of one of those iconic road trips, one of those rights passengers. It's about 650 ks's of corrugated red dirt, and I mean red, red dirt that gets in everywhere. So we say north is best in the wintertime, and our winter, we're just coming out of our winter now and and going into spring in September. So right now, we would have been heading back from Cape York in far North Queensland, and then we just sort of meandered down the coast road. Another fantastic place that I think everyone visiting Australia should go and see is Paramella Park.

Tracy Collins [00:09:07]:
Yes. Yes.

Annette Jones [00:09:09]:
It's just an amazing history and a fantastic story about 1 Spanish man that immigrated to Australia and his work ethic and vision. He, he was a real visionary in, I'd say even now he would be an extremely popular visionary because what he did back then in the fifties was just incredible for Australia, or for Queensland. So we tend to have a rough idea of where we want to go and when, and that, for us, is generally dictated by the weather because we're not very fond of the cold.

Tracy Collins [00:09:48]:
Neither am I. So this is I'm taking notes. So now I'm heading to the UK soon, so I'll I'll maybe I'm not taking, well, good enough notes, but at some point in my life, I'm I'm I'm pledging to never feel the cold ever again.

Annette Jones [00:10:01]:
Yep. Yep. People my cable always, says to me, are you sure you're, you know, you're a Pom?

Tracy Collins [00:10:09]:
You don't like the cold? I think that I think that moves it even more. Exactly. Whatnot does everyone want out of it?

Annette Jones [00:10:16]:
Yeah. Exactly. So at Easter time, we were down in Victoria, and I'm not kidding, Easter Monday, a cold snap started down there, and we then traveled sort of into South Australia. And we, we thought we would like to do, for people that don't know, that are listening, they have the most spectacular peninsulas. They have 3 peninsulas in South Australia, and they take quite some time to explore and enjoy those for, for the whole three of the peninsulas. So we thought we'd we'd do that, and then we'd head up the center of Australia, right from down south Australia all the way up to Darwin in Northern Territory. However, the weather had different ideas for us. So, we were in the Barossa Valley, and it was cold, cold, cold.

Annette Jones [00:11:08]:
So, we thought, okay, that's enough. We're just gonna head north. So, the weather does determine that for us. And we are fortunate the way that we travel. We're on the road full time. We don't have specific time commitments to be anywhere at a certain time, So, we do wing it a lot. And sometimes we miss out on a particular spot that we want to stay, like a particular, say, caravan park or free camp area or whatever, because we don't book anything. We might book a day or 2 in advance.

Tracy Collins [00:11:43]:
And how long do you stay in a place? Because there's there's a few things that just crossed my mind. One is kinda, I guess, the budgeting aspect of it in terms of, like, how can you free camp, how often you can free camp, and how long you can stay if you are free camping as opposed to then finding a campsite with or without power. I mean and I've heard these terms. I have no idea what half of that means. I guess, some of you plug in, you get electricity, and other ones, you're just in a tent. I don't know. You can correct me if I'm wrong. Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:12:10]:
And then I guess it it's kinda that. And then I you've got the freedom, I guess, to just stay there, I don't know, indefinitely if you wanted to, I guess.

Annette Jones [00:12:19]:
Yeah. So some free camps and for those that don't know, free camping is, designated camping spots. Americans, I think, call it boondocking, where you're not actually physically plugged into electricity or water. So to do that, you have to have a fairly good setup of solar panels and lithium batteries for, that stores the power once it's made. And then the biggest thing that sends people back on the grid or back, you know, back into civilization from free camping is water. Right. We we can survive off grid for, you know, weeks on end, but for water. Right.

Annette Jones [00:13:01]:
So, we're we're fully self sufficient. We have a full electric van inside, and we have some gas outside as well. So, we have 2 alternate heating, and cooking, different power sources. So, it depends. Some are rest areas that are only sort of 24 hours, so you can only stay 24 hours. Others, you can stay up to 78 hours, and then some are in indefinite. And unfortunately in Australia, the free camping is sort of shrinking and shrinking and shrinking. So a lot of councils around Australia have now, I'm not saying it's happening every week, but there are some that have been quite popular now that are that are closing.

Annette Jones [00:13:47]:
So Do

Tracy Collins [00:13:48]:
you think that's because there's more people on the road? Because obviously, during COVID, everybody in Australia seemed to go and buy a caravan, motorhome, car, whatever. Everybody was at it. So you couldn't buy one. I remember we were kinda looking with friends, and the the prices were absolutely crazy. People were like, how much? Yeah. And so I guess I don't know. Are people as much on the road as they were then? Because that was a kinda crazy time when everyone just did it. Or because it's such a popular, thing for people to do when they get older is that they've, you know, you paid off your mortgage, you've got your kids have grown up, fell in the nest or whatever.

Tracy Collins [00:14:20]:
You've retired, you've got your pension. It's like, well, you know, rather than stay in this house, we're just gonna get a van, and we're gonna travel around Australia. So do you think there's more people doing that these days?

Annette Jones [00:14:30]:
Well, yes and no. There's a lot of families on the road. So a lot of people around sort of 35 to, say, 55 that might have kids that haven't sort of flown the coop yet. And, and a lot of what, what's called here finally as Grey No Meds.

Tracy Collins [00:14:50]:
Yep.

Annette Jones [00:14:51]:
People who are retired. Is it busier this year than last? Here in the Northern Territory, we're in Darwin at the moment in the Northern Territory, and the last couple of places we've been, and speaking to the park managers or the owners of Caravan Parks, they're sort of saying things to us like, oh, it's not as busy as last year. So whether that's just an NT thing, I don't know. I believe in, Western Australia, it's still as busy as all get out for all the very popular free camps and national park camps along the coastline, because we're going next year. So, we're really looking forward to that. And I think the general feel in other states is it's just as busy. So

Tracy Collins [00:15:39]:
So plenty of people are out on the road.

Annette Jones [00:15:40]:
Yeah. So people are still buying and selling caravans and still buying and selling 4 wheel drives to to tow them, and motor homes as well. So

Tracy Collins [00:15:50]:
So would you recommend because we we I must admit, we have we have been looking online for the last few years, probably for about 5 years now. Yeah. And we kinda have our heart set. It's actually, a a business in near where we are, actually, in Redcliffe. So on the peninsula.

Annette Jones [00:16:05]:
Okay.

Tracy Collins [00:16:06]:
And, they make I don't know. Motor homes. So they're kind of a motor home, but the with the they're a car with the with, like, a back. I don't know how to describe it. So this is not a very good example of me doing it, but it's not a big massive you know when you think of, like, a motor home, you think of kind of big. I think of quite a big big thing or a car. It's not.

Annette Jones [00:16:22]:
It's Like a winnipeg sort of thing.

Tracy Collins [00:16:25]:
Yeah. Something smaller than that. It just looks really but they're so expensive. I think like, when we first started looking, I think they're about a 180,000. I think they're about 280,000 now with about I don't know if they have a long waiting list, but that they are lovely. And we have a kinda heart set on that because it would just be perfect for the 2 of us. But I know you guys have a caravan, and that works for you. And I think this is gonna be one of those ones where the decision about drying out a caravan as opposed to kind of the motor home, camper van type.

Tracy Collins [00:16:53]:
Did you try both, or did you just know a caravan was exactly what you wanted?

Annette Jones [00:16:58]:
Yeah. We did. We, we Cairf had traveled, just before he met me, he traveled up the Top End for 3 months in a caravan. I laughingly call it a caravan because I wouldn't go on with him at that time. Well, funnily enough, I've just written an article this week actually, a caravan versus a motor home, because I get asked that a lot. I get, I get that a lot.

Tracy Collins [00:17:24]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Annette Jones [00:17:25]:
We knew the type of travel that we wanted to do, and where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to see. We couldn't do that in a motor home. So, we knew that we wanted to go to Cape York, but like a lot of people leave their caravans behind, whereas we had a van specifically built for off road caravanning. So, we knew we could leave the blacktop and hit the dirt roads, and we'd be fine.

Tracy Collins [00:17:52]:
Yeah.

Annette Jones [00:17:53]:
So, you you kind of have to know if you want to do that. You can still camp off grid with motor homes these days, you know, with lots of solar panels and lithium batteries and so forth, but the biggest thing with a motor home versus a caravan if you're going off road is the clearance. They just don't have the clearance of a caravan. Look, there's a lot of for's and against's, and I go into that in, in this article about, you know, motor homes. If, if, if you want to go down to the shops, say, and it's 5 ks's away, do you pack up everything and drive down there? Yeah. And that for us we didn't want to do, but flip of that is if you're in a motorhome, the weather's bad, you pull up, you turn your seats around, and and you're right there, you don't even have to go into the weather. Yeah. But if you're chasing the sun, then you don't have bad weather.

Annette Jones [00:18:48]:
I

Tracy Collins [00:18:48]:
love it. I I love it. You see, there's just pros and cons. Well, we'll share a link to that article because I I'm desperately wanna read that as well. Because it's I think for us, when we when I spoke to Doug about he just doesn't wanna pull a caravan. He's like, I've never done it my entire life. I don't feel confident about that. So that's his that's his motivation for kinda saying that.

Annette Jones [00:19:04]:
Yeah. Yeah. And that's fair enough.

Tracy Collins [00:19:06]:
And I think that's a big thing for him. Well, I I want there's a couple of things I wanna ask you as well. Right. So I have a lot of stuff, so I would have to get rid of a lot of stuff. So how do you and I guess, see, this is a joy as well about chasing the sunshine and the weather. You don't need a huge amount of clothes, do you?

Annette Jones [00:19:21]:
No. You you do need what I have found being on the road. I I thought that I'm gonna leave in t shirts and shorts, you know, but even in Central Australia where it can, like, it it could be 30 degrees during the day, it gets quite cool at night and in the morning. So, you might need a pair of leggings or, you know, a jacket or, or so forth. Or you might get stuck like we did in the wrong part of Australia at the wrong time of the year, and you're freezing. And I literally had to go buy some winter clothes.

Tracy Collins [00:19:53]:
Yeah.

Annette Jones [00:19:53]:
Because I didn't have any on board, which was, you know, rookie mistake. But now I have, like, you don't need a lot. Look, seriously, you could wear the same things over and over and over again. You have 3 outfits that would do you really. It's just you're not seeing everyone.

Tracy Collins [00:20:11]:
I know. It's it's sounds it sounds ideal. I just like the idea of having a, you know, pair of leggings and a top and and just lots of t shirts and some sarongs in a swim costume. And it might obviously flip flops because I'm English, but thongs if you're Australian. Yeah. Yeah. I I mean, it just sounds fantastic. Now the other thing I have to ask you, there's a there's a couple of things that always interest me.

Tracy Collins [00:20:30]:
So one is, like, how how much it can take with you. 2 is cooking. So do you cook in the van or do you tend to do barbecues outside more often?

Annette Jones [00:20:39]:
Oh, really? Yeah. Like, I might do some veggies inside, and Kev might do something on the barbecue. We have an air fryer, so I always do a roast every week. We love roasts. So, that's a pom coming out. And that's what I

Tracy Collins [00:20:55]:
was gonna say. Yeah, they're definitely there.

Annette Jones [00:20:59]:
So, and, you know, then it's great for sandwiches and so forth afterwards as well. So, we do a mixture of both, and I just cook. You know, people say, what do we cook when you go camping? And we pretty much, I just cook as I used to at home. I cook pretty much everything from scratch. So, I just do that. I've got a thermo mix as well, which is a bit extravagant, but this is our home. This is where we live.

Tracy Collins [00:21:25]:
Yeah.

Annette Jones [00:21:26]:
Yeah. And we're on the road full time.

Tracy Collins [00:21:29]:
I guess you don't have, like, a big store like, I just thinking about in in our kitchen, I've got, like, a big cupboard with all my store. And I suppose you have to think about weight with with a van in terms

Annette Jones [00:21:38]:
of do.

Tracy Collins [00:21:39]:
So yeah. You have to think about you can have lots of tins of whatever because it's gonna take up too much weight. So do you plan your meals ahead so you know what you're gonna buy, and then it means that, you know, you've got what you need? And you look at them,

Annette Jones [00:21:51]:
and so bloody organized, but I'm not. Because sometimes

Tracy Collins [00:21:57]:
Yes.

Annette Jones [00:21:58]:
You know, I might plan 3 days ahead when I'm going to the supermarket to buy, you know, whatever. I get a little bit more organised when we do big trips that we know that we're not going to be able to buy. Or if you do buy, they're going to be double the price because you're in some out back town in the back of Whoop Whoop. So when we went to Cape Sorry. Your your readers are going to get a lot of Aussie. Our listeners are going to get a lot of, Aussie sayings, aren't they? So we went when we went to Cape York, for example, we stocked up on some fresh meat that I froze down and things like that. You do tend to sort of make more plans around meals when you're doing those longer trips between stores and supermarkets. Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:22:49]:
And then the next question. So these are just funny things that come up in my head, I guess, that's why. I'm just thinking of but it's things that you don't know because I've never been in a caravan. I've never camped. I've never or have bought years ago in a tent under duress. Right. No. So I now feel like I need to now as being Australian.

Tracy Collins [00:23:06]:
I feel like I need to get into this. I need to be exploring and trying all this stuff out. But what you do when you right, Kate. Now, washing washing your clothes in Australia, not generally if you live in warmer climates. You wash it and it's dry within about 20 minutes because it's so warm. So, obviously, with water being a thing Mhmm. How do you do you tend to, again, wait until you're somewhere that you've got access to water and then you can do your washing? I assume you've got a washing machine in in

Annette Jones [00:23:30]:
your caravan. I do.

Tracy Collins [00:23:32]:
Yeah. I know. I love it. I love it.

Annette Jones [00:23:35]:
Yeah. It's a top little top loader. It's the whole 3 and a half kilos it can hold. So it would take, like, one queen-size sheet. That, that would be it. That's our time,

Tracy Collins [00:23:46]:
it is.

Annette Jones [00:23:46]:
But when you're off grid, you tend to well, if it's warmer climates, you might be in Ubaidas or Swimmers and a sarong, that, that sort of thing. You tend to, because water is, is such a thing, and you wanna conserve water, you, you might jump in the shower, get wet, turn it off, soap up, rinse off, and that's your shower. None of and you might not shampoo your hair as regularly as you would if you were in civilization. I tend to I, I don't do any washing off grid at all. I think we've got enough clothes that we can get by for possibly about 2 weeks, if we have to. Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:24:33]:
That sounds good.

Annette Jones [00:24:34]:
And then, you know, if we're doing that sort of camping, then I know we're gonna be somewhere warm. So you could probably save your water that you're showering with in into a bucket sort of thing. Do whatever washing, hand washing, if you really were pushed, you know?

Tracy Collins [00:24:52]:
It just all sounds like such an adventure.

Annette Jones [00:24:54]:
I have

Tracy Collins [00:24:54]:
to say.

Annette Jones [00:24:55]:
It is an adventure. I know. Adventure.

Tracy Collins [00:24:57]:
So where are you guys? At the moment, you're in the Northern Territory and you're in Darwin, which I haven't been to. I've been in the Northern Territory. I've I've only been to Uluru before. I've not been Okay. That's it. We did a we did a trip when we first arrived in Australia. We went there for five days. Flew into itself, I think.

Tracy Collins [00:25:11]:
Yes. From what I remember.

Annette Jones [00:25:12]:
It was a

Tracy Collins [00:25:13]:
few years ago now.

Annette Jones [00:25:13]:
Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:25:14]:
But we haven't been back. It's kind of on my on my absolute wish list. Then whenever I go up to the Andorra Lava Tubes, because that's a place that we absolutely love in Queensland. And wherever I go and I sit in I you've actually been in Andorra, there's, like, a big big sitting area that you can sit in. It's all kind of just got, like, a a roof on it, but it's all open air. And every time we sit there, we'd get the map out. There's there's all these leaflets, and it's got the Savannah Trail. And I I just the Savannah Way.

Tracy Collins [00:25:39]:
That's it. Savannah Way. Yeah. And every time I go there, I say, Doug, I can't wait to do this. I can't absolutely cannot wait to do this. And it's like we get on the road, and we turn our car the opposite direction, and a little bit of me just goes sad at that Yeah. At that thought. So go on.

Tracy Collins [00:25:53]:
Give me some inspiration. Where are you guys off to next? What are your plans for the next, I don't know, 6 months, 12 do you know?

Annette Jones [00:26:00]:
Yes. Well, we were going to. See, this is what happens. We're just back from Bali. We've been in Bali. While we were here in Darwin, we thought we'd nip over to Bali for 3 weeks, so we've been there, done that. Came back, and whilst we were over there, in the last week we're over there, we get a phone call in the en suite in our home, has sprung a leak. So it needs renovating.

Annette Jones [00:26:26]:
So it was like, do we go back? Do we patch it up? Do we, you know, what do we do? Anyway, we're going there to do that. So we're going back to Hervey Bay.

Tracy Collins [00:26:35]:
In Queensland?

Annette Jones [00:26:36]:
Yes. Sorry. Queensland. What we were going to do is go across to Queensland and then go just inside the Queensland border, like outback Queensland and then back down in, into South Australia. So now we'll zip over, do this for a month, this renovation, and then we're going to head down to South Australia, hopefully do one of the peninsulas in that time. Then that will take us to around Christmas time where we'll be in Bendigo for Christmas, and then in February, we're heading over to Tasmania.

Tracy Collins [00:27:15]:
Oh, 3 months. One of my favorite places. Yes. Yeah.

Annette Jones [00:27:19]:
I can't wait to do that.

Tracy Collins [00:27:20]:
Just love Tasmania. Honestly, when I talk to people in the UK and they they talk about Australia, I say, 3 things that you need to do. 1, you need to go to Uluru. I'm a fan believer, but you really need to go. There's something about Uluru. That's So It

Annette Jones [00:27:31]:
really is. Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:27:33]:
The other one is do an outback Queensland road trip. And the third one, I always say it. Not this is no necessarily the the the say the order that I would say in any of these 3 or all of these 3. And the third one is Tasmania because there is just something amazing about Tasmania as well.

Annette Jones [00:27:47]:
It it really is. And we did a a 2 week trip down there, which was pre our van. We just hired a car and stopped off. We traveled that same way. We, you know, just winging it wherever we went. And we kept saying, can't wait to get back here with the van. Can't wait to get back here with the van. So, that's happening.

Annette Jones [00:28:10]:
And we thought, because you have to put your car and the van on the Spirit of Tasmania, And it it's quite a hefty price to do that. It's upwards of $2,000, 2 and a half $1,000 return, depending on the size of your car and your caravan.

Tracy Collins [00:28:30]:
Wow. I'm I'm absolutely I'm gobsmacked when you said that. I thought you were gonna say $200. Wow. Wow.

Annette Jones [00:28:36]:
Your car, caravan. And see, because it's a 12 hour trip, and, I am not good on the water at all. So it has to be night time so I'll at least go to sleep, hopefully. But we're going to have a smooth sailing. Of course you're absolutely. The night that we sail it's going to be like glass when we go over it. So we thought, gotta make it, make the most of it, and we'll stay for the 3 months. And no doubt, gosh, apparently summer in Tasmania is the month of February.

Annette Jones [00:29:09]:
Oh, okay. Any other any other month during the year, you need gloves, hat, and a jacket, maybe.

Tracy Collins [00:29:17]:
I was gonna have

Annette Jones [00:29:18]:
to say with you.

Tracy Collins [00:29:20]:
We were there in January a few years ago. I can't remember what year that was. Maybe 3 I can't remember. But it was very hot. It was incredibly hot. I think it was the hottest that it'd ever been at Cradle Mountain. It was, like, 42 degrees or something. It was, Melbourne was also having a massive heat wave, and Tasmania got it as well.

Tracy Collins [00:29:37]:
And it was it was very dry. So that was a bit of a worry as well because obviously, risk of fires. Yes. And it was very, very hot. So the animals were struggling a bit because it was it was hotter than they'd they'd experienced. So yeah. So I don't know. Maybe it'll be, hopefully, not as hot as that because that was not pleasant.

Annette Jones [00:29:55]:
And it

Tracy Collins [00:29:55]:
say it wasn't good for the animals either. But what I loved about Tasmania is I mean, I love cherries. So the cherries are the side of your hand. So that, for a start off, was that was me won over. But, also, they just have on the side of the road, they have those honesty tables, box, whatever you wanna call them, and you can go and buy potatoes, and they had the cherries is always come cherries and I can't apples, I think? I can't remember.

Annette Jones [00:30:16]:
Raspberries.

Tracy Collins [00:30:17]:
I do remember raspberries. There you said it. Raspberries. It was fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. You're gonna have a absolute ball. I'm very jealous. I'd be very jealous if I wasn't traveling myself.

Tracy Collins [00:30:28]:
But

Annette Jones [00:30:29]:
You have not mentioned the wine trails.

Tracy Collins [00:30:31]:
Oh, well, okay. Well, now I have I have my husband who doesn't drink so that I can go and try those, and we've done those in South Australia. But I have to say, I enjoyed when I think about it now, it was not the wine that's cross it was the fruit and the raspberries and the cheese and ice creams and all that sort of thing that that totally, but, yes,

Annette Jones [00:30:50]:
it's amazing. Gets and runs.

Tracy Collins [00:30:54]:
Oh, wow. So perfect.

Annette Jones [00:30:55]:
Well, we can't wait. And Tassie has, for such a small state, it has a very high amount of free camping.

Tracy Collins [00:31:04]:
Okay.

Annette Jones [00:31:05]:
So which is fantastic because that that is the preferred camping that we do like to do, get away from.

Tracy Collins [00:31:11]:
Well, and also that balances up the fact that you've gotta pay a lot of money to get there. Yes. So if you go, and at least you've got the free camping options. That's that's brilliant. That's worth that's I'm following that away as well for future knowledge.

Annette Jones [00:31:22]:
Yes.

Tracy Collins [00:31:23]:
So but I'm gonna ask you, Annette, though, for anybody who's thinking about planning a trip, doing the lap of Oz

Annette Jones [00:31:29]:
Yeah.

Tracy Collins [00:31:29]:
And they're in the early stages of thinking about it or the kinda it's just a bit of a pipe dream. What would you say for anybody, like myself, who's at some point knows that I really wanna do this?

Annette Jones [00:31:39]:
Yes. The number one thing, and we get this all the time, is, like, I'd really like to do it, but things get in the way, and we want to leave in such and such a date. You have to set a date. This is if you know that you, I mean, you're, you're off doing your thing and so forth. But when you come back and you say, right, we're doing it, number one thing is you set a date first, and then everything else will fall into place. It'll be a lot easier because there are more vans available now and whether you buy new or secondhand, the wait times aren't the same for new builds as they used to be. Some some manufacturer, like our manufacturer is still as busy as anything, and they they're doubling their capacity in their workshops and so forth rather than extending their wait times. So, you'll get an idea of the wait times, then you can plan your leaving day, set it in cement, and then work backwards.

Annette Jones [00:32:46]:
So I've got a, a little ebook that helps people do that, and I've got a couple of bonuses where I take you through 12 months beforehand, and what you need to be doing each month as you're getting closer and closer. And then I have another bonus that is a 12 week countdown to when you're going, even down to making sure the rubbish is in the bin before you leave on the day that you're walking out the door sort of thing.

Tracy Collins [00:33:13]:
So You got everything covered?

Annette Jones [00:33:15]:
Yeah. And I take people through how to pack their house up and and so forth. And some of the big questions are, what do I do with my house? Do I sell it or do I rent it? So they're all the sorts of questions that need only you can answer, really.

Tracy Collins [00:33:32]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Annette Jones [00:33:33]:
I pose some questions about, do you do you actually like where you're living? Would you like to live somewhere else? And so on and so forth. But I would still advise people not to sell real estate until you are a 100% sure that you no longer want to live there. You want to live over the, you know, in maybe a different state after you've travelled. Who knows? But

Tracy Collins [00:33:55]:
Or maybe you just wanna travel forever.

Annette Jones [00:33:57]:
Yeah. Maybe. But that it it it's more than security. We've heard a couple of stories where people have sold up, and now with real estate booming over the last 12, 18 months, they can no longer buy back into the market where they used to live. So they either have to move to a country area where it's cheaper to buy or move completely, you know, in interstate. So I'd always say, no matter what, if you've got real estate, keep it. It's it's probably only gonna go up in value in the time that you're away.

Tracy Collins [00:34:33]:
Yeah. No. That's good advice. That's so we'll link to your Facebook group. And you've got Instagram, I'm assuming?

Annette Jones [00:34:38]:
Yes. Got Instagram.

Tracy Collins [00:34:39]:
Yep. Instagram. So all your socials, YouTube, are you on YouTube?

Annette Jones [00:34:42]:
I am, but I have done nothing on YouTube. Mel, who used to have the website before me, she all the content on there is from her and Brandon, But we have Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and Planning All Out Australia, the group.

Tracy Collins [00:35:01]:
Perfect. So we'll link to all of those, and we'll link to your ebook as well. It's an ebook, I'm assuming. Yep?

Annette Jones [00:35:07]:
Yeah. It is an ebook.

Tracy Collins [00:35:08]:
Done that? Perfect. Yeah. We'll link to all of that in the show notes, which is great. I'm glad you've got all those resources because, you know, when you're planning something like that, it's it's like we do for our UK travel planning

Annette Jones [00:35:19]:
Exactly.

Tracy Collins [00:35:19]:
Group and everything that we do. You know, people need experts to help them with this.

Annette Jones [00:35:25]:
They really do.

Tracy Collins [00:35:26]:
Because it's you know, you need people that have already been there, done that, got the t shirt, have learned the lessons because then you don't have to do those mistakes. Yes. And that's that, you know and and that's just a way of life, isn't it? We we kinda get there, we do it, and we share our expertise and knowledge. And that's exactly what you guys are doing. So yeah. I mean, thanks so much for coming on, Annette, this. Week, honestly, I could talk to you forever about this. It's just amazing what you guys are doing.

Tracy Collins [00:35:50]:
It's what a fantastic way to live.

Annette Jones [00:35:52]:
Yeah. It it really is. And apart from all the beautiful things that we see and and and the experiences that we have, we've met some terrific people along the way as well.

Tracy Collins [00:36:02]:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Perfect. Oh, thank you so much, Annette.

Annette Jones [00:36:06]:
Thank you.

Tracy Collins [00:36:08]:
Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Global Travel Planning podcast. For more details and links to everything we discussed today, check out the show notes at globaltravelplanning.com. Remember, if you enjoyed the show, please consider leaving us a review on your favorite podcast app because your feedback helps us reach more travel enthusiasts just like you. Anyway, that leaves me to say, as always, happy global travel planning.