Ten things you must see

Ten things you must see and top tips on how to get the most out of your great Australian road trip

Written by Paul Glover for Escape.com.au

THE Big Trip is the dream of countless thousands of Australians. They picture hitching their caravan to the tail of their shiny new four-wheel drive and heading for the Outback and the travel experience of a lifetime.

It’s a dream that is often tied to retirement, when the shackles of day-to-day commitments are lifted, but can also be a multi-episode event that runs through holidays over a number of years.

If only they knew ...

So, here we go with the best way to make a lap of Australia.

The first and only thing to do right is to plan the trip down to the smallest detail. There’s nothing worse than hitting an unexpected snag, or finding you have no choices at a critical point. And it’s always worth thinking ahead about mechanical failures and health challenges – and having the essential numbers logged in your phone.

The Big Trip is usually about a lap of Australia, either clockwise or running ahead of the sun, but it’s important to also remember that some of the important stopovers – Kakadu, Uluru, Coober Pedy and Alice Springs – branch out from the Stuart Highway that creates the north-south spine from Darwin to Adelaide.

And don’t forget some of the obvious or kitsch stuff, from the Stockman’s Hall of Fame to the Qantas museum at Longreach, and even the landmarks in the big cities. After all, there are plenty of people who have never ventured far from home before planning the biggest adventure of their life.

After driving most of Australia, the thing that always comes back to me is this – it’s bigger, further and flatter than you think. The distances in Australia are huge, especially if you spend most of your days on a home-to-work commuter run. So you should think about the right vehicle, lots of stops, and countering fatigue and boredom.

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