Food-Wine-Pets-Travel+ - Travel | Food-Wine-Pets-Travel+

Travel - Experienced stories from travellers

Stories about people places & experiences PLUS tips for life on the road

UPDATE: In late 2019. FreeRange became FullRange Camping - Same people - same great App & info!

There's a few 'APPS' around for people travelling this great country of ours, but none quite like the FullRange Camping APP.

But what does it do (apart from list literally thousands of campsites, caravan parks, fuel & dump points and more!?

Co-creator of FullRangeCamping Rob Catania explains more about the APP itself, what it does and the difference between the FREE and PAID versions... (and yes we have the full version we bought ourselves - and love it!!

Check out the FRC APP here: https://www.fullrangecamping.com.au/- or listen below...

As we’ve started to do a lot more trips getting ourselves ready for ‘the big one’ we’ve also purposely started to check out some of the more interesting places to stay. Sometimes it’s a showground or Free Camp somewhere and at other times a caravan park.

Of course as most 'seasoned' travellers probably know there are caravan parks and then there are caravan parks. Personally we like the smaller, more ‘personal’ parks off the beaten track.

Like the one at Glenrowan – the Glenrowan Tourist park – just 2 Km’s off the Hume highway about 2 hours from Melbourne – But what’s special about this park is where it’s located… Glenrowan. Famous for being the place of infamous bushranger Ned Kelly’s last stand! – Brian managed to sit down with the park manager Kylie Cleal to find out more...

Is this the 'ULTIMATE' sea/tree change?

While many of us have already started the 'big journey' around Australia whether for 6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years & more... some people have already made the move to downsize not only as far as house sizes (& mortgages) are concerned but as a way of making a complete lifestyle change.

And you don't have to be 60+ to do it either according to our longtime friends Lee & Jarred.

Both of them had successful careers in Sydney, a house full of pets which have moved with them to a rather unique and some might say 'remote' location here in Australia...

Lee & Jarred have in fact been quite pro-active in their new 'local community' as you will soon discover.

There's plenty of online resources for people travelling this great country of ours and one of the best we've found is the FreeRange Camping APP.

It's got literally thousands of destinations such as camping spots, showgrounds, caravan parks and much more including discounts around the country in selected retail outlets.

But what was the original reason for its creation?
Rob Catania - co-creator of FreeRange Camping explains in this short podcast.

Not far from Wangarratta VIC is a tiny town called ‘Eldorado’...

Not only does the town have an amazing history of gold and mineral mining but it's also host to the smallest pub in Victoria - and possibly Australia!

We chatted to a lovely lady - Christine Hanley - who owns 'The McEvoy Tavern' .

Ever wanted to travel this great country by car/caravan but you don't have a 'partner' or close friend to do it with? Especially as a solo female?

Would YOU do it? We met up with the most amazing lady at the free camp at Jugiong NSW - Sandra who has been on the road for about 18 months now all alone - well actually she's not alone!

She travels with a small dog for company PLUS is a great communicator so manages to make many friends along the way....

Goulburn in NSW was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city by Queen Victoria in 1863 and became THE place to live or to visit, but these days it is often passed-by with many travellers racing down the motorway.

We loved our recent visit and spent several days there.

Brian caught up with a born and bred local Jacki Waugh - to find out why she thinks the town's so special.

This is a 'Podcast with pictures' - or you can listen to the Podcast version or read the edited transcription!

Click here for the audio only version - Or click here to read an edited transcript!

For Christmas this year, instead of 'the kids' visiting us in Sydney, we thought we'd make the trip to Melbourne to be with our 6 and a half yr old yr old grandson, daughter and partner to spend a week or so in Warburton VIC for Christmas.

Lookout Brisbane & Darwin - we haven't forgotten you guys either!

But before that, we had another Christmas 'event' to attend. The New Age Tribe Christmas gathering in Goulburn in the first week of December. More on that soon!

If you love life on the road or even just the occasional 'escape' that's great!... but how much do you REALLY know about being 'off-grid'. As owners of a New Age OZ Classic 20 van we are also connected on Facebook with the New Age Owners group.

It was here we heard about the 'New Age Tribe' - a specially created 'club' that holds regular social and educational events across the country and that they were going to be in Henty, a small town almost midway between Wagga and Albury.

This is just a short video overview of the weekend where we learnt plenty of new things...

An invite to a friend's 70th birthday party in Bowral NSW was a great excuse to ‘get going’ again after our first few shakedown trips to Percy's Place – as if we need any excuse!

But this time it wasn’t as close as our trial setups have been – yes it was a whole 1.5 hours away according to Google Maps.

The offer made was to park in the driveway of the home of the birthday girl as all rooms had been taken up with close family and about 7 young kids (several of whom thought they’d like to join us in the van when we did the guided tour!!)

Anyway Ezee peezy… we decided Fri/Sat/Sun would be great – the party was on Saturday at a local dinery then allowed some chat time on the Sunday and return Monday.

Batlow… Cold? nahhh bloody FREEZING!! We experienced an average of -2deg celsius overnight and around 8-10c during the day with a high of – wait for it... 12 degrees celsius!

Of course for those people who love the cooler climates Batlow is positively warm – well certainly the locals make if feel that way. So why Batlow?... a 4.5 – 5hr trip from Sydney of around 438Klms. Well Bob and Anne Cooper – our neighbours for the past 25+ years in Sydney invited us down for the annual Batlow Cider Fest held on the 3rd Saturday in May.

But apart from our longtime Sydney neighbours inviting us down, the Batlow locals and the actual event itself, possibly the very best moments were meeting and chatting with The String Family – Joel, Sarah, Ethan and Ashleigh.