Roadtrip From Bordertown to Perth

This trip is being created under the basis of a 12 person group, though easily modified to suit smaller or larger groups.

Starting off strong with a big one, a trip involving a minimum of 31 hours driving, that is the same amount of time as listening to One Directions “That’s what makes you beautiful” 552.5 times. Along the way there will be chances for lots of sightseeing, plenty of poor quality instagram pics and if played non-stop from departure time, enough time for one suitable game of Monopoly.

Itinerary

Day one

The trip will start in Bordertown, SA, right on the South Australian/ Victorian border, working as a meeting point for all the group members living in Victoria.

• 12.00pm (Noon): Meet up at local cafe “Cafe La Vie” for a quick lunch and a famous chunky milkshake. Also ensure everyone fuels them cars, fuels expensive at highway servos, and take advantage of the supermarket right across the road to buy a shit tonne of road trip snacks.
• 1.00pm: head off from Bordertown, heading straight up the national highway A8 towards Adelaide and Coonalpyn, which will be our first quick stop (arriving at approx 2.20pm) to look at the local silo art and for a bathroom break for the weak bladdered people.

• 2.30pm: back on the road and travelling non-stop to Adeliade (unless a stop at Murray bridge is wanted, which is fair enough looks quite nice, but I have know idea whats there so you do you) with an estimated arrival time of 4.30pm. To book into the accomodation for night one.
  • option one: The Windsor Garden caravan park which for 12 people will cost $336 for the night, or $28 each. The accomodation would be a series of family cabons that each consist of two bedrooms one with a double bed and the other with two bunk beds. They also have their own living space, kitchenette and bathroom
  • option two: The second option is the Grosvenor Hotel Adelaide, which is a bit more expensive, but quite close to the centre of the city. This one comes in at a total cost of $534 for the night or $44.50 each. Each room has 2 double beds and a private bathroom.
• While in Adelaide if arriving on a Friday, you might want to take advantage of the late night shopping (until 9.00pm) on Rundle mall, and stop by one of the many pubs and cafes as well for dinner. Or simply order some food to arrive to your door to enjoy in the comfort of your room. Adelaide also has a series of beautiful gardens all worth a look at that completely surround the city centre.

option one (The Winsor Garden Caravan park)

Option 2 Grosvenor Hotel

Day two

This one is a big day or a huge day depending on how your feeling really.

• 7.00am lets hope you didn’t have a big night last night because we ae heading of early, grabbing a quick breakfast at maccas on the way or, if you were organised eating them damn tasty, very affordable, chocolate filled croisants from coles, and moving out.
• The trip branches off at this point, where either you head up to Flinders ranges, making it a huge day or don’t – if choosing flinders ranges decide early and pack lunch for the day.
  • 12.00pm:FLINDERS RANGES arrive in time for lunch at the mountains, allowing an hour and a half for exploration and lunch, make sure to drive along some of the amny tracks throughout the mountains. Have a look into the ranges, as there is so much to see and do, therefore it will be easy for each person to determine exactly what it is they want to see themselves. Also check and make sure there are no vehicle entry fees as they will need to be taken care of prior to arrival as tehre is no service there.
    • 1.30pm back on the road headig straight to our next overnight stop at streaky bay, expect to arrive around 7.30pm
  • 12.00 pm:If choosing to by-pass the Flinders ranges, uved gained yourself a fairly cruisy day, either sleep in and catch lunch at Port Augusta, or maintain that 7.00am start and arrive at Kimba (located halfway across australia) to eat at either Cafe’ Kimba or Eileen’s and take some fabulous photos with the giant gala, halfway across Australia sign and silo art. Also they appear to have a pretty amazing play ground.
  • 1.00pm: After a cruisy hour spent in Kimba it’s time to keep moving travelling the final three hours for Streaky Bay, to arrive at 4.00pm
• check-in at Streaky Bay accomodation at the Discovery Parks caravan Park. There are a series of cabins available however, I would choose the Delux 2 bedroom beachfront cabin, which sleeps six, with a double bed 2 bunkbeds a private kitchen, bathroom, and living space. This will cost $610 total or about $51 each. There is also a cheaper option that will cost each person about $6 less each.
• For dinner tonight I feel the best option would be fish and chips on the beach or something of a similar vibe. Make a lunch for the next day.

Day three

• 8.00am start, heading into the major driving now and moving off across the Nullarbor, where our first stop will be at the Bunda cliffs to literally look at the edge of Australia at the Bunda cliffs.
• 12.15pm arrive at the bunda cliffs for packed lunch and sightseeing/photo taking, the cliffs span 200km so, probably won’t stay in one spot for too long and continue along.
• 12.45pm move on from Bunda cliffs heading towards Eucla, which is just on the other side of the Western Australia border and the last fuel stop before the 90 mile straight. From there on there are small towns without much oportunity for another stop until Norseman another 8 hours away
• 9.00pm arrive in Norseman to check in at accomodation at the Norseman apartments. Each apartment is a fully contained two bedroom unit that have a flat rate of $190 per night for 2 people and $20 per extra person. Which will result in accomodation at $57.50 per night. In accordance with all supermarkets that aren’t in Victoria the Norseman supermarket will be closed by the time you arrive and there does not appear to be many cafes or restaurants so, this would be a good night to prepare something in advance for.

Day four

• 10.00am On the final day of driving, we’ll start pretty late giving everyone a bit of a chance to recover from the previous long day, our first stop for the day will be to Kalgoorlie to do a tour which I’ve been told is unmissable and unforgettable which is the Kalgoorlie Brothel tour.
• 12.00pm arrive at kalgoorlie and head to one of the many cafe’s for lunch, by the looks of it Cafe 312 is a popular one, following this do a bit of sightseeing a head over to do your tour, make sure to book in advance and arrive on time. I’ve heard that Carmel the lady of “house” can get quite aggravated by late (was gonna comers but I was like hmmm questionable wording for the brothel tour, but you get the point).
• 2.00pm with the final 6 hours to Perth we leave Kalgoorlie for our final stop.
• 8.00pm arrive in Perth and head to our final destination for however long in Perth (personally would remain for 5-7days before heading back). Two possible holdiay rentals include the:
  • Lloyd housewhich is a 6 bedroom 3 bathroom home that can sleep 15 people, it costs about $830 (in October) per night which will be around $70 each per night. So for a 7 night stay each person is looking at $485 or $350 for a 5 day stay.
  • The other option is a large house with a pool which is quite a bit more expensive coming in at $103 per night per person or $512 for 5 nights or $717 for 7 nights. The house features 7 bedrooms, sleeps a maximum of 12 people, it also has 5 bathrooms, a pool and a large backyard.

Total accomodation costs for the trip up and back, assuming that the same stops are made both ways and for 7 nights in the middle at Perth can range from the cheapest at $758 per person to $1023 per person assuming all the more expensive accomodation choices are taken. On top of this remember that you will need to have a fair bit of money put aside as your fuel costs as you will be covering a lot of ground, and so I would suggest making sure you’re travelling with at least three people per car so that costs and driving a=can be split making the trip more enjoyable and affordable.

Essentials packing list

• have someone bring their laptop and HDMI cord for movie nights
• a good esky or car fridge to keep food good on packed lunch days
• a first aid kit – someones bound to get injured on any holiday
• car mobile chargers
• jumper leads or jump starter for your car
• and get your road side assist and car insurance sorted

And for your convenience here is a pooly executed but well formatted and designed for printing packing list outlining the things I would want on this trip.

Don’t hesitate to leave any holidays that your interested in the comments section and I will have a look into it 🙂