We are about to leave on our next adventure and we thought it would be a nice time to re-introduce ourselves for those who have recently joined our page. 👫
We are Dixie and Graeme and home for us is on the Coffs Coast of NSW. Life events have given us a reason and opportunity to take on the adventures of travelling Australia.
Early in 2017, after following the normal (and obligatory) research we felt we were ready to set out on our travels around Oz. From day one we have learnt so much, and have absolutely been loving our new Aussie Caravanning Lifestyle🙌.
Picking up the caravan – 2017
To begin with the research was daunting and we were uncertain as to which way to go; caravan or a motor home 🤔🙄😬? For whatever reason we decided to go with a caravan. We had a look at different vans that were available locally. Eventually we decided. With our new small modern apartment on wheels, as we call it, sorted and on order for delivery a few weeks away we headed off to find a tow vehicle (tug).
Our caravan choice was a Jayco Silverline Outback – 21.6-3 and we selected a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 2016 3ltr diesel as our tow vehicle. After two and a half laps of travelling around Oz and 3 years later we are still happy with our choices. 🙌👌👍
Our Jeep is stock standard except for the roof rack Graeme “had to have added”, and which has never been used. Graeme also replaced the original Jeep tyres with a really good set of Nitto Terra Grappler G2 tyres and he is very happy with them.The only other addition are the Clearview mirrors. We are often asked the question about how Jeep tows: Graeme often jumps up in the background with his Dad joke and always says “with a tow ball” while I cringe 😏.
But in all honesty, Jeep tows extremely well and is stable, sure footed, economical and a very comfortable ride for us. The only thing we have a complaint about is the navigation system ‘Siri’ which is outdated and it’s impossible to get Wi-Fi downloads – even when we ask the Jeep dealers. I am sure Siri is going to swear 🗣 at us one day as sometimes we don’t follow her directions because if we did, we would end up in quite a pickle. I am sure you get the idea.
Thank goodness for WikiCamps and our mobile phones📱. If you are wondering …. yes, we have considered Hema maps. But to be very honest we always manage to get to where we want to be.
We have had a few people ask us about how we budget our trips? Pretty good actually hahaha. Even though we are stretching our budget we still watch what we spend. Within reality we have found that we probably don’t spend much more than we do while we are at home. The biggest additional cost of course is fuel⛽️.
Combined we have worked many, many years to get to this point and we don’t get any additional income. We are just a couple on the road 👫 enjoying life because we can and I think we are doing quite well together.
👉👉 We are not full-time travellers and do come home to recoup, regenerate, research and head out again. Our first trip was for 5 months visiting parts of NSW and quite a bit of Qld. Late 2017 we began our first lap of Oz and returned home after 9 months away in 2018. Then in early 2019 we were away again and this time for 10 months to take on our second lap of Oz driving as many different roads as possible. Even if you travel the same road there is always something that you find you missed the first time around.
So, I hope this gives you a little insight into how we travel. If you have any questions 🤔 feel free to send them through🤗 .
👉👉PS: The above is just a little about us and our personal opinions. We have absolutely no connection or sponsorship with Jeep or Jayco.
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Happy Aussie Caravanning Lifestyle
Dixie and Graeme