Nick & Pam's Big Lap Trip Report

[SnakeDoctor]

Amazing!

Quick question - how did you find out what attractions/things to do and see at each location?

I've sometimes wondered how much planning vs how much stumbling goes on in these trips.

[Mohawk]

Amazing!

Quick question - how did you find out what attractions/things to do and see at each location?

I've sometimes wondered how much planning vs how much stumbling goes on in these trips.

Hey, this is Pam - chief Navigator and Planner The short answer is, I had about two months planned out (up until the tip of the Cape, using Dave's excellent Cape York itinerary as inspiration, and of course following along with the SJC on Dave's Simpson Desert trip). After Cape York, we had a general idea of the things we wanted to see - Katherine, Kakadu, Lichfield, Gibb River Rd, Ningaloo Reef etc - but we discovered so much more along the way through talking to other travellers. Many of the people we ran into were Grey Nomads (so travel half the year, every year, and have some great tips) or were travelling in the opposite direction to us and we were able to exchange info and valuable tips about our journeys so far.

Some places were just lucky discoveries turning off at an interesting-looking side track.

Specific attractions in each area...again other travellers are the #1 resource for stuff to see and stuff to miss. The Lonely Planet Australia guidebook was valuable in more populated areas to learn about the history and points of interest that piqued our interest, but it had about three pages devoted to "The Outback" so became pretty useless north of Cairns until we got to Perth. i-Centres in country towns are usually very helpful but will caution strongly against four wheel drive tracks and anything with even a puddle of a water crossing (I imagine they've had a fair few inexperienced backpackers come through with rental 4wds that then need recovering). In the real outback, roadhouses will share track conditions and sometimes interesting local secrets (depending on how much they like the look of you and how much they don't want the local swimming hole appearing in guidebooks and apps and getting invaded).

There sure is a lot of interesting stuff out there - a year was not long enough.