We have been planning and enjoying 4WD touring holidays for many years, and our planning process is much the same each time, depending on the length / distance of the trip, I thought I would share a few suggestions and our process that may help with your planning for your next 4WD adventure, no matter what the length.
Depending on the distance and length of time to be undertaken, dictates how much prep we need to do, for the bigger 1 month plus trips, we have a large spiral bound notebook, A4 in size with section dividers breaking it up into 5 or 6 sections. This is called the "The BFTB - The Big F*$%ing Trip Book", it becomes the bible for planning bigger trips. Nothing wrong with a good amount of planning and research before a trip. Not all trips require a BFTB, but if it helps you, then do it for any length of trip. Everything that goes into this, gets ticked off before we go.
BFTB
So, inside our BFTB, the first section is Vehicle Prep, anything that needs to be done to the vehicle from major to minor, is added to the book, and ticked off as it is done. This section in ours is smaller each trip, because all the major work on the vehicle has already been done, so, for us it may be as little as Oil & Filter change, in other years, it has had a long list including long range tank, tyres, suspension etc etc.
The next section is Route Planning, where are we going, how are we getting there (Approx route), how are we getting back (Approx route), what are we going to do on the way, when we get there, on the way back. Now, at the end of the day, this is intended as a basic guide for the trip, it can still change at anytime, and we usually do, you might decide to stay longer, shorter, take a different route, go somewhere different because you heard about a cool spot. A sub-section of this, is the "attractions and points of interest" that you might want to look at and visit on the trip, more on that later. As part of this, once the route is planned, I start a budgeting spreadsheet, that details km's each day, where I can get fuel, approx cost, this all helps with the final trip budget.
At this point, we have usually printed out an over-sized calendar with big boxes, we make notes onto this calendar about food, camps for the night etc, handy to have. A final copy of the calendar, with all the notes is usually left at home so the kids have an idea of where we "should" be on any given night.
Food / Menu is the next section, we pre-pack and or cook a lot of our evening meals, vacuum seal them, then freeze them, we save so much space and our food is protected better, it is then an easy choice at breakfast, we decide what we are having for that evening meal, and transfer it from the freezer to the fridge part to thaw out. We usually use a calendar to help plan how many meals, then lay it out. We usually manage to carry 2 weeks worth of evening meals in the freezer without any issues.
Accommodation is the last section for us, we free camp a lot, but, by at least having an approximate goal to reach each night, it keeps us on track and helps us get a better idea of is the trip doable, without wearing us out. Again, just like the route, this can change, and usually does, we might have been heading to spot x, but find it crowded or not suitable, so we go to spot y instead. If you are staying in paid accommodation, be it camping, caravan park, donga, pub, motel, it also helps with the approx final budget for the trip.
Start at the beginning...
You have to start somewhere, and this is 100%, how long have you got to do the trip, then, where do you want to go? Will there be enough time to do what you want, see it all, what if it rains, what if I break down? There should always be a fudge factor included for the what ifs. Our most recent trip was just over 8,500kms in 4 weeks, we got home early, had plenty of spare time, almost saw everything we intended and were not worn out at the end of it. And yes, the route changed, camping spots changed etc etc. At the end of the day it is a guide, not set in stone. So, decide how long you have off, where you want to get to, then start to work on how you will get there, how you will come back.
The Route...
So, we are not ones for sticking to major highways, give us dirt roads, back roads, and we are very happy, there is so much more to see, especially if we have been this direction already, we have travelled a LOT of NSW, it gets more challenging to find new ways to get to a place, that we have not driven before, I try very hard to not take the same old routes if I can help it, both getting there, and coming back. There really is so much to see on back country roads and the small country towns that are connected by them. Don't be afraid to get onto the dirt and go explore, but, try not to make them 12 hour days, you will be worn out before you even get to your destination. We also try and find an alternate route to get home, again, we plan a route that will take us places we may not have been before.
Geocaching and metal detecting, some of our hobbies also plays a big part in helping to plan our routes, so if you have hobbies, let them help decide on the route as well.
Don't always trust your GPS, GPS nav units tend to not like dirt roads, they will happily take you a long way out of your way, if you let them, if you know you can drive a certain road to a certain spot, but the GPS says otherwise, ignore the GPS. Same with Google maps, we will cover using that to plan the route and its quirks shortly. I've had the GPS try and tell me to take a 1000km route, when the route in front of me was just 250km, of course the short route, was a dirt road, but well defined.
So, you have decided you are going to Spot X as your primary destination, and you have 3 weeks to do your trip, now lets sit down and see if it is doable, at least in the beginning according to Google maps... So, open Google maps, tell it your starting point and the primary destination. Google maps will find you a route and possibly some alternatives, this is just a starting point. Hopefully once you had decided on your primary destination, you have done some research on ways to get there, what is there to see on the way etc etc, because we are going to now start taking those into the account. If you want to stick to highways, then, do that, if you want to try some back roads, then do that. We tend to put in 1 or 2 long days to get to our "real" starting point away from Sydney, then we slow down and start the trip proper.
So, in google maps, it will be showing you a route from the point of origin, to the final destination, it tends to pick the fastest route, we don't always want that. Here is an example, I told Google Maps, "Sydney to Silverton", it has given me 3 fairly similar routes, one via Cobar and Wilcannia, one through the middle via Hillston, Ivanhoe and Menindee, the final via Wagga Wagga and Mildura, we have personally done all those routes, so I want to mix it up a bit. I want to spend a week getting there and not just drive 2 days straight to get there. Click the route that suits best as a starting point, and we will start to modify that, now that route will be blue. Now, that you have a basic route, do some quick research on places around the route worth looking at, we are going to modify our route to take some of those in, and for the sake of the exercise, ignore how many extra KMs we add onto the route. I will start with the middle route via Hillston and Ivanhoe etc. Keep in mind, the further you zoom in, the more detail you see and the minor roads now become visible.
Now, I don't want to go via Wagga Wagga to Hillston as Google suggested, I want to visit a heap of other places like Cowra, so I click the route and drag and drop it over Cowra, now the route is very different, but we are going via your first POI / town, I next want to go via West Wyalong, so, after Cowra on your route, click and drag the route to West Wyalong and drop it, again the route is very different, but, Google is still deciding the final parts of your route, past West Wyalong, or, the last route point your clicked and dragged. Do the same thing, click and drag / drop the route again, until you are happy with the modified route, keep in mind, Google Maps has a silly small limit of like 10 or so route point modifications per route, which sucks. Now, you can see the route the way you want it, if it has messed up between 2 points, click and drag the route between those points and drop it onto the road you want to be on. You can remove a route point by just clicking on it. Google Maps will have also updated the distance which is pretty accurate, but the time it thinks it will take, which, once you get onto dirt roads, is WAY WAY WRONG. If you are happy with this, at least as a start, save it to your bookmarks. You are well on your way now to planning your trip!
If you need to break the trip planning into smaller segments to get around the limit on route modifications, then do so. Now, do the same for your return, find a different way to come home and plan it the same way.
A few words of warning on Google Maps and what it can do, while I am planning like above, I am often switching between map and sateilite view, Google Maps occasionally messes up bigtime, and will route you onto some non-existent farm track through a field, if it does not look right on the map, switch to satellite view and have a proper look. If it has got it wrong, adjust your route so it is fixed. Lastly, Google maps are not the be all and end all of mapping, there are many alternates such as OSM and PAPER maps, especially when going even more remote locations.
Once this route is at least in a basic form, you can then determine, how demanding your days are going to be, will you be constantly driving every day or will there be short days, no driving days etc. Adjust if you need to til it suits your style of holiday.
Vehicle Prep...
Your vehicle needs to be in good condition if you are going remote places or doing a longer trip, get it serviced, change those worn tyres, put in new suspension to help with carrying a heavier load and deal with the corrugations, a bigger fuel tank, better driving lights if you will be driving at night. Does anything need upgrading inside the car, do you need a cargo barrier, a fridge, a second battery etc How will you store water, food and other camping gear? Look at your past trips and learn from them, it is a question on the home journey on nearly every trip, what can we do better, what can we change etc. Make a list of the must do items and the nice to do items and put them in your BFTB, the further out you plan, the better spread out the expenses will be.
Our big 2017 trip, we started the BFTB for that trip 2 years before the actual trip as we had a number of costly upgrades that needed doing, so we spread the cost out over the two years leading up to the holiday and it was not as painful.
Pack a few spares, a tyre repair kit (Watch a video on how to actually use one!), a tyre deflator (Watch a video on how to use one), perhaps radiator hoses, but if the current ones are dodgy, replace them before you leave on the trip. The last thing you want or need on a trip is to break down, shit happens out there and you need to deal with it, but the more preventative maintenance you can do the better.
Prepping The Food...
We try to make our life on the road as easy as we can, so, a few years ago we picked up a good vacuum food sealing machine and we have been prepping food and pre-cooking meals before we leave home, vacuum seal and freeze ready for the trip. The width of the vac sealing rolls is a perfect width for our freezer and it saves so much time, and, the food lasts longer. But, before we actually start the prep, we go to our trip calendar, figure out how many nights we will need and start deciding what we will take with us from the beginning of the trip.
We write on our calendar, roughly what we will have each night, and that helps us also plan the sides that go with it, be it steamed vegies, pasta, potatoes or whatever, it helps with the shopping list for "dry foods" before we leave. The vacuum sealer comes with us on the trip and plugs into the inverter to seal raw meats and cold cuts when we restock, a very handy item to have and use.
Accommodation...
Most of our nights are in free camps, low cost camps, or, occasionally pubs, depends on how long it has been since we had a shower. When you have your route sorted, everything else just tends to flow from that, we use the WIKICAMPS app on the tablet or phone to help research potential places to camp, it allows you to read reviews, see photos and generally get more info about a campsite. You may have decided to get to a certain location at the end of a day, but then you see WIKICAMPS has a spot 15k's out of town, so, that becomes your destination for the night. WIKICAMPS is also available for Microsoft Windows, and most of my pre-trip research is done in the Windows 10 app on the bigger screen.
Does not matter where you decide to stay, make your notes on the main calendar to help keep you organised. If you are staying in accommodation, add the cost to your budget spreadsheet to keep the budget planning up to date. Once again, nothing is set in stone, circumstances and routes change while you are on the road, so, again, this is all just a guide.
The Pre-Trip Budget...
As you can see from the above, there are plenty of opportunities to create a pre-trip budget, fuel can be easily researched with the Wikicamps Fuel app, accommodation costs are easy to research either in WIKICAMPS, or, on the internet or with a phone call to your intended nights abode. If you know your approx fuel usage when loaded up, add a few more litres per hundred KM's on to your usual usage and figure your range on that, that will help you plan the fuel stops and approximate cost for the budget. One our trip up the Oodnadatta track etc, the first 4 days of the trip we had a bad head wind and that smashed the usual fuel economy, so now, I'll be adding on 5L per 100km as a guide.
So much information can be gained from some searching on the net, or in the right apps, it makes it much easier to plan a budget and a trip from the comfort of your home.
I find planning the trip an enjoyable part of the process and class it as an integral part of any trip we undertake, even weekends, a degree of planning goes into those. I hope you may have picked up a tip or two, or maybe some inspiration for your next adventure.