Our Trip ‘TO DO’ List

This is not a bucket list, so if you arrived here expecting to see a list of ‘things I have to do before I die’, please go elsewhere.

This IS a list of things Dean and I set out to do when embarking on our trip around Australia. Many of the items have already been accomplished as I started writing this list twelve months ago, but have only now decided to share it with everyone.

Starting with Day 1 – July 5, 2014, these are the goals we set and the desires we envisaged for our adventures and the places we wanted to see along the way.

1. Start a blog for keeping in touch with everyone (July 5, 2014)
   See The First Day of the Rest of My Life
2. Buy a suitable car (July 18, 2014)
   See One Down – One To Go!
3. Buy a suitable caravan (July 26, 2014)
   See Our ‘Mini’ Home
4. Get through my last day at work (August 1, 2014)
   See Footloose and Fancy Free
5. Move into caravan early October
   See Happy Hour
6. Organise Caravan Living (October 23, 2014)
   See Extras, Essentials and Everything Else
7. Our first day on the road (October 31, 2014)
   See The Hardest Word
8. Dean to have one final surf at Dicky Beach (November 2014)
   See Dicky Beach
9. Spend Christmas 2014 at Emerald Beach (December 2014)
   See Emerald Beach
10. Visit the Blue Mountains (January 28, 2015)
    See Katoomba
11. Visit Tasmania when it’ not too cold (Feb-May 2015)
    See Hello Tasmania
12. See Wineglass Bay (May 2014)
    See Freycinet National Park
13. See Lake St Clair , in Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair National Park
    Sadly, this didn’t happen
14. Visit Cradle Mountain (May 2015)
    See Cradle Mountain
15. Visit the Walls of Jerusalem National Park
    Sadly, this didn’t happen
16. Visit the Franklin-Gordon Wild Rivers National Park (May 2015)
    See Strahan
17. Find the Fagus before leaving Tasmania (May 2015)
    See Waterfalls, Tall Trees and The Fagus
18. Surf Bells Beach (September 2015)
    See Life’s a Beach
19. Visit the Twelve Apostles in Victoria (September 2015)
    See The Great Ocean Road – Part 1
20. Visit The Grampians (September 2015)
    See Bushwalking in The Grampians
21. Visit Kangaroo Island (October 2015)
    See Four Days of Wonder, Walks, and Wildlife
22. Visit Clare Valley in South Australia (October 2015)
    See My (New) Happy Place (Where I visited Annie’s Lane)
23. Look for something sparkly at Coober Pedy (October 2015)
    See The Long Road to Uluru
24. Visit Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre National Park
    Sadly this didn’t happen
25. Visit Uluru when it’s not too hot (October 2015)
    See Uluru
26. Stop over in Kimba – Kylie and Yvette’s home town (October 2015)
    See Down the Stuart Highway
27. Dive with Great White Sharks – Port Lincoln, South Australia
    (Dean’s desire, not mine) Sadly, this didn’t happen
28. Drive across the Nullarbor Plain (November 2015)
    See Crossing the Nullarbor
29. Stop and see the Diamond in the Dessert (November 2015)
    Almost, the road was no longer passable, so we stopped on the Eyre highway, just west of Caiguna and I stood where the tip of the diamond would be behind me – 17 kilometres north of where I stood.
30. See the Great Australian Bight (November 2015)
    See Bunda Cliffs
31. Walk through the Valley of the Giants (November 2015)
    See Walking with Giants
32. Visit Margaret River in Western Australia (December 2015)
    See Margaret River
33. Visit Wave Rock at Hyden in Western Australia
    Sadly this didn’t happen.
    
34. Spend Christmas 2015 in Perth (December 2015)
    See Rockingham – Part 1
35. Visit The Pinnacles Desert (January 2016)
    See The Cervantes and The Pinnacles
36. Visit Nature’s Window (January 2016)
    See Kalbarri National Park
37. Make Shell Hearts on Shell Beach (February 2016)
    See Shell Beach
38. Stop over in Shark Bay (February 2016)
    See Fun Times in Shark Bay
39. Stay at Coral Bay (February 2016)
    See Coral Bay
40. See Turquoise Bay (February 2016)
    See Exmouth and the North West Cape
41. Visit the Pilbara region (February 2016)
    See Our Short Time in the Pilbara
42. Visit Karijini National Park
    Sadly this didn’t happen.  As we approached, Western Australia experienced some of the hottest weather on record and as it was 45°C by the coast, it was too hot to venture inland.
43. Walk along Eighty Mile Beach (February 2016)
    See Eighty Mile Beach
44. Visit Broome (February 2016)
    See What We Didn’t Do in Broome – And the previous couple of posts.
    (We spend eight days in Broome waiting for new tyres for the car.)
45. Experience Horizontal Falls
    Sadly this didn’t happen because we arrived in the ‘Wet season’ and all tour operators were closed until late March.
46. See the Bungle Bungle Range (March 2016)
    See The Bungle Bungle Range
47. Take a tour through Katherine Gorge (March 2016)
    See Cruising Nitmiluk Gorge
48. Spend time at Kakadu National Park (March 2016)
    See Kakadu
49. Take a cruise through the Kakadu Wetlands (March 2016)
    See A Must Do in Kakadu
50. Spend time in our (old) home town (March 2016)
    See Townsville
51. Spend time in Queensland’s Wet Tropics (April 2016)
    See Wet Tropics
52. Visit the Daintree Rainforest (April 2016)
    See Into the Jungle
53. Go up to Cooktown (April 2016)
    See As Far North as Possible
54. Sail Around The Whitsundays (April 2016)
    See A Day on the Water
55. Visit the Bundy Rum Distillery in Bundaberg (May 2016)
    See Bundaberg
56. Visit the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame
57. Visit Carnarvon Gorge
    Sadly this didn’t happen.  We bypassed both the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, and Carnarvon Gorge, due to monetary constraints.  But Dean has promised this will be our next adventure.
58. Go whale watching at Hervey Bay
    Sadly this didn’t happen.  We did enjoy the area, but arrived too early.
    See Hervey Bay (May 2016)
59. Enjoy a surf at Dicky Beach
    Dean has been surfing every day since we arrived back at Dicky Beach on Sunday May 22, 2016.  More thoughts on this, and perhaps photos, will be posted progressively.
60. Make our way home
    We made our way home in June 2016.
61. Make a New Home
    We moved into our new home in February 2017.

Other Ongoing Activities

• Laugh and have lots of fun
  See Miscellaneous Trivia
• Go bushwalking in every state of Australia
  See Bushwalking
• Surf as many beaches as possible
  See Surfing
• Walk as many beaches as possible
  (Also) See Bushwalking
• Free camp (aka – stay where it costs nothing)
  See Swimcart Beach