Sarah

A wrap up of the best (and the worst) spots we stayed in on the trip

January 8, 2024

We’ve stayed in over 100 spots during our 16 months on the road (just ask Hamish, he can still name them all in order), and while we’re still five stops away from being done, I thought it was about time to do a bit of a wrap up of the best and worst of them all.

Luckily, finding three we really didn’t like was really hard, and narrowing down the top three was equally hard. That means that on the whole we liked far, far more places than we didn’t like. We’ve stayed at a mixture of places – caravan parks, free camps, low-cost camps and friend’s places. We’ve eliminated the friend’s places from this list (we liked all of them), and also anywhere where we had a solid roof (for example the cave in Coober Pedy would have to rate pretty highly).

Let’s get the worst three out of the way first.

Number one (in a bad way) with a bullet was Spear Creek SA, just outside Port Augusta. Which is such a shame because it is actually quite a beautiful spot. Often with places though it’s the people you encounter rather than the place itself and unfortunately the people running this place are really not nice. It’s a long story, but basically involves being ripped off, them not giving two hoots about it, and a whole lot of dreadful communication and actions from their end. It left a bad taste in our mouths and soured our whole experience there. Add to that, nearby Port Augusta is a pretty average town – very much a functional place based on industry, not too nice to look at, and felt pretty unsafe too.

The second-worst was Howard Springs NT, just south of Darwin. It says a lot about our Spear Creek experience that I still rate this place just slightly above it, even though we were the victims of a crime. Well sort of, since we interrupted them and they didn’t get to steal anything. I think that’s worse as we had to encounter them in our space (basically at the foot of the bed). Perhaps it would have been better to have slept through it and just woken up missing whatever they’d taken.

I found it really hard to deal with the apathy of our fellow campers here too as I came to realise that safety in numbers is a myth, and people will not help you, even if you’re yelling for it at 2am. We didn’t get a lot of sleep on the other nights after that experience (especially the next night, when they came back again).

On top of that, the sites there were so tiny we could barely fit and we were packed in like sardines (seems to be a bit of a feature of Big 4 parks actually – we don’t stay in many because of that). They’d also had water issues causing a gastro outbreak that they had had for weeks and seemed to be doing nothing about (turns out many had been to hospital as a result), and despite the nightly crime sprees, they also couldn’t be bothered fixing the boom gates or security cameras. We did have Grandma come to stay with us though, and we enjoyed our time in Darwin very much so it wasn’t all bad.

Third-worst prize goes to Mayfield Beach TAS. Again, this one is a huge step in the right direction compared to the other two, which is a good indication of how much I had to scratch around to think of a third place. This is a free camp on the eastern coast in Tasmania. It was packed to the gills every night and unfortunately we chose a spot closest to the road on a bend (not that we had a huge amount of choice). Trucks roared by it all night long going too fast and with just a little barrier between us and them. We moved on from there a night earlier than planned because we thought we were pushing our luck – one more night and perhaps we’d encounter that truck that misses the corner, plows through the barrier and into our tent. On its plus side, it was close to Freycinet National Park (and Wineglass Bay), and if we’d just been able to get a different spot within the free camping area I doubt this would have made my bottom three.

On to the good ones.

I mentioned we stayed in some good free camps. The standard of free camping varies hugely from gravel pits on the side of the road (we had no interest in those), to fantastic camps with toilets, showers and even a camp kitchen (Kimba SA falls into this category, not quite free, but a donation camp, therefore not included here).

My third-favourite free camp was Tom Price WA. We stayed here six nights and it was lovely. About 10 minutes from Tom Price township (a mining town in the Pilbara), it was quiet and had great views of the surrounding hills. Plenty of stars at night, and we could have a campfire. No facilities whatsoever, but the town had a great little area with a dump point, water and bins, so we only needed to go to one spot to take care of all the things. Tom Price is the gateway to Karijini National Park too – one of my favourite national parks (might have to do another post about those…). The town itself is alive and kicking – lots of investment from Rio Tinto and plenty of great community facilities and events.

Coming in at my second-favourite free camp is Mt Franklin VIC. It’s inside an old volcano! Need I say more. It was pretty cool driving up and around the side of it and into an almost perfectly round volcano crater, surrounded by forest. We stayed here one night more than we’d planned as it was so relaxing. It’s also close to Daylesford, and some other lovely little towns with some interesting history that we had fun exploring.

My number one free camp is Bay of Fires TAS. The camping there was a bit like what we do on Straddie – sandy sites, close to the beach and no-one around! It was also our very first experience of free camping, being one of our early stops in November 2022. The beach was spectacular, although the water was too cold for me (not for the kids though). Another point in its favour were the oysters – $10/dozen fresh off the boat and they were fantastic. In fact, we didn’t surpass those oysters for well over a year until we hit Smoky Bay SA in December 2023.

Here’s my honourable mentions for the top three spots overall.

Coming in at number three is Banka Banka NT. We were only there one night but it was a memorable one. I think one of the reasons it rates so highly is that it was the first time we’d felt warm in months, and was the night that came after the disasters of Alice Springs, where we’d smashed both the Starlink and a solar panel (and by ‘we’ I mean ‘Jim’), and endured bitterly cold weather (max 8 degrees – 14 degrees below average!). That was on top of eight months of dodgy weather and was nearly the end for us. Banka Banka was the night that turned things around. We slept with the tent windows open. Sat outside without a jumper on and were surrounded by people who seemed to all be enjoying the tropical weather. Plus, they had a food truck doing delicious Indian curries.

Number two on the honourable mention list is Bark Hut NT. They had a resident crocodile! If that isn’t enough to make the list then I don’t know what is. Again, I think this place was all about the warmth, but also the feeling that we were really getting to some interesting places that were nothing like we’d ever seen before. It’s just outside Kakadu National Park which was spectacular, and where we saw so many crocodiles. Plus, it had a great pool!

Number one honourable mention is Dwellingup WA. I’d always wanted to go here (not that I knew much about it). It’s about as close to staying in a national park as you can get with a dog in tow. It’s a biking mecca, but there are so many walking trails too. We only left the park once, spending six days doing walks, paddling on the lake and riding bikes (Heidi did have a huge stack on her mountain bike here). We stayed in the Jarrah forest with barely anyone around us, which was just so relaxing. Plus, I got to do a 14km walk all by myself.

Now for the main event. Here’s my top three spots of the trip.

In number three, it’s Cleaverville WA. There were so many things about this place we loved. Firstly, it was on the beach (clifftops) so the sites were hundreds of metres apart from each other and had spectacular views out to sea. Secondly, we could have a fire. Finding firewood was a challenge (not many trees around those parts) but we managed. Thirdly, just out to sea was the humpback whale breeding ground. We sat there each evening around the fire, listening to the whales talk to each other which was pretty special. It was also close to Karratha, a town which we actually liked very much. Like Tom Price, it’s a mining town, where the investment dollars from the mining companies have actually made a big difference – lots of community facilities and events and a nice feel to it.

Number two goes to Yulara NT. It’s hard to go past a campground where you can sit and look at Uluru. This campground was enormous (hundreds of sites) and reasonably packed in, and while that normally wouldn’t be our thing, you could just tell that everyone there was a bit excited about having finally made it to one of Australia’s iconic spots. It was within the township of Yulara, and with our camp fees, we gained access to all sorts of free events and activities being held within the resorts. I took the kids to a movie and a couple of information sessions, and Jim took them to a session where they had a go at dot art painting. The kids also rode camels, and obviously we got to experience Uluru and Kata Tjuta. Plus, somehow out of all the hundreds of sites, we were put next to people that we’d actually met before, so the kids had a friend they already knew to play with.

Drum roll please…Here’s my number one pick of all sites (over 100) on our 16-month trip around Australia.

Muloorina Station SA. Just outside Moree, at the start of the Oodnadatta Track and on the banks of Lake Eyre, it was a 50km drive in from the front gate of the station to get to the camp area. Once there, we could pick a spot away from anyone else, but close to the natural hot springs – hot at the source, but then icy cold further down. Once we got here, we did not leave until it was time to go (sadly cut short but impending rain and our need to beat it across the Oodnadatta Track to Coober Pedy). It was the first real experience for me of absolute remoteness on a huge station, far from anywhere with amazing natural features. Anywhere where we feel we don’t need to leave at all gets top marks in my book. It was warm enough to swim, and all for just $10/night.

Jim and the kids also contributed their top and bottom three stays:

Bottom three – Heidi: