The list you’re about to read features all of the things that I have found we can’t travel without or wish we had. Here are some ideas of things to consider having for your next camping or caravanning adventure. The reason why you don’t really need these things to travel Australia but they’re good to have is because they just make your camping trip more memorable and in most cases, easier! Its totally A-OK to travel Australia without them too!
1. Party Lights.
While our party lights aren’t put on display every time we set up, they do create a brilliant ambience when we have new mates over for happy hour. Our lights are 240v and suitable for outdoors, so they plug into our outdoor 12v socket via a Dometic 12/24v can inverter. Our party lights are from IKEA.
2. A second fridge.
I can’t begin to explain to you the emotions I went through when our caravan fridge completely carked it literally out in whoop whoop. Adam can’t begin to explain to you the emotions he went through when we had to empty all of the beer out of our second fridge in the car to save the food. This happened to us more than twice and if we weren’t travelling with a second fridge, we would have been screwed. Or at the very least, eating Mi goreng packet noodles for days and days and days…
3. A top quality torch.
Yes, you can get away with a simple, budget torch but if you spend a bit more moola, the light show is outstanding. Adam has been a huge fan of the LED Lenser high powered range for at least a decade and although he has tried many other brands, including “unbelievable” deals from eBay, nothing has come close to the quality and endurance of German engineered LED Lenser. We own several types, however if you can only afford to fork out for one, you can’t go past the LedLenser MH11 adjustable, rechargeable head lamp.
4. Battery powered blower.
Yep, it’s pretty random but bear with me. You can use the blower to expel dust from every nook and cranny, from the interior of your vehicle to the air conditioning vents on your caravan. Also, how else can you start a fire, if you don’t have a blower? Not only that, having a battery powered blower means you have a good excuse to bring along your battery powered grinder, battery powered drills, battery powered rattle gun and battery powered spotlight! Milwaulkie are a great choice, but any brand of blower of similar quality will do the trick too.
5. Push bikes.
Huge pain in the arse to store but worth their weight in gold for the kids. We only wish we had room for more, so we all could bring one each. After beginning our travels with only scooters, it didn’t take long to realise they are fairly useless on gravel paths and subsequently were barely used. We picked up two upcycled push bikes from a local tip shop in Tuncurry, NSW, for a grand total of $50. There is no concern about the bikes being stolen, as they were so cheap and surely if they were pinched, the thief needed them more than what we did!
6. Aqua shoes.
Perfect for when you’re rock hopping around beautiful waterfalls, pebble filled river beds and exploring rock pools. Just gotta remember to pack them in your bag before you set off! You can get really affordable and good quality aqua shoes from Decathlon.
7. A hammock.
Requires two appropriate trees at a set distance apart, which can be hard to come across at times. Interestingly, the best place to hang a hammock is directly over water and we’ve managed to pull off this trick several times. We have a cotton OzTrail single hammock which has shrunk significantly (probably because its been used over fresh water creeks), so we have ordered a double hammock from Decathlon. I’ll let you know how the new hammock is going in a review in a few months.
8. Fishing and spear fishing gear.
In our case, most times, it would be cheaper to just buy the fish from the shops than endure the lost lures, money spent on bait, new fishing lines and spear gun repairs. But hey, it’s a sport and keeps the boys out of court.
9. A Kayak.
We are having a great trip without kayaks, BUT there have been many times where we have mentioned “ How good would it be to have a kayak here?” If you can store one on your camping rig, take it!
10. A Tinny.
Same as a kayak but bigger, heavier and more cumbersome to get off and on the rig. We don’t have one but Adam has mentioned MANY times “You’d need a boat to get the most out of this spot.” There are so many people who travel Australia with boats! Serious tinny envy from our camp.
11. A caravan.
It’s totally unnecessary to have a caravan to travel Australia but geez it’s bloody good to have! Sleeping off the ground, having a permanent kitchen inside and loads of storage are just so good! You can read more about our Magnum Transforma caravan here on the blog.
12. A drone.
Besides getting some amazing images, we use ours to scout out a 4WD track to suss out if the van will make it. Adam has also used our Mavic drone with a peg and cable tie to cast a baited fishing line! There are strict CASA regulations that you need to adhere to when flying a drone and having some common sense helps too. If you think you can handle a high powered remote controlled car pretty well, you’ll be able to handle a drone easily. Travelling with a drone is unnecessary, you will still capture amazing memories without one, but we’ve found ours has more than one use and is pretty good to have.
