Surfing Australia -  Road Trippin’ On A Budget

Posted by: Kat Dawes | Mar 30, 09

Here are some tips for independent and seriously budget road trips in Australia.

By far the best way of seeing what you really want to see in Oz is by road. The buses don’t go everywhere, nor do the trains. If you want to head off into the middle of nowhere and find your own secret spots, or see the real Australia outside of Byron Bay, how else are you going to get there without a load of hassle? If you live out of a car or van, you can also live very cheaply, avoiding even the $20 for a hostel bed. Plus you can often wake up with a bed’s-eye view of the surf…

You can sleep in a car or camper van on the streets okay, but don’t try it next to the beaches; you’re likely to get moved on and probably fined. Go inland a mile or two and you’ll be fine. Don’t park up in big convoys of travellers, try not to look obvious and leave only footprints. There are a couple of books/guides aimed at camper van travelling which show you the nearest free camping spot. You can usually stay one or two nights, then you have to move on. Most of these spots have facilities like water taps, toilets, barbecues, even electricity hook-ups.

There’s very little four star/leaded petrol south of Sydney all the way round to Melbourne, so get an unleaded vehicle, or a dual-fuel one if you can (LPG). The backpackers’ car markets are the place to get the best deals. You can wait for a bargain where the seller just has to drop the price to get rid of it. Or if you’re seriously skint you can hang around the airport waiting for travellers to dump cars that they just couldn’t sell in time. This happens a lot at common exit points such as Cairns.

Don’t believe car sellers when they say it has no problems! Go for something that is mechanically sound, even if it has nothing (camp-gear wise) inside it. Take it to a proper garage, not a ’backpacker-friendly’ one. They might squeeze you through the tests, but you’ll be in for problems later.

Make sure you have car chargers for everything electrical! If you can get a solar charger, all the better — try a PowerMonkey. http://www.powertraveller.co.uk/

Clean Up
Showers, loos and free plug points are easy to find. Most beaches have cold showers as well as public toilets (and free gas barbecues!), and the lifeguard clubhouse might let you pay for a hot shower. Some caravan parks have pay-to-use shower blocks, so have some 20c pieces in your washbag.

Swimming pools — there are lots of outdoor and sea pools, some of which (like in Newcastle, north of Sydney, for instance) have very nice hot showers for nothing.

—KD