Driving Judy crazy with her C3 to W A

[penny_wise@aapt]

Would like to thank all who offered advice on our trip to W A, in the C3, I shall go out and buy a hand held u h f radio, and a portable small fridge, now the only problem is where do I put, The lady? in any normal day trip to work, she loads the car, with baskets for this and that, not frrgetting the make up trunk, books, mags, and dont forget the carving knife just in case, two mobile phones, just in case, the baby seat just in case, I have no Idea how she manages to fit one 2 and the other4 year old, in the baby seat and amongst, their drink bottles, change of clothing just in case, 20 ltrs of orange juice.books games and other things, 18 months ago I put the baby in his bassinet in the boot, closed the lid put the other in the BABY Seat, along with all the usual junk, took hold of the lady somehow squeezed her in went on our way, some 1k down the road the lady wanted to know where baby was, I had forgot, went back to daughter, baby was not there, must be among the junk, nope, all this and its only a 15 minute drive from where we live, needless to say baby was quite content& asleep in in his basket. not going through that again. thanks to all tony.

 

[Graelin]

Family bonding

We did the Adelaide to Perth trip along with XTC driving our 206 GTI in September. We had luggage for myself my wife and 12 and ten year old Daughters.

Now to fit all this requires a certain degree of planning and disciplin. We used soft luggage such as two backpacks used for our Euro trip in 1992. If we can survive 3mth back packing then we can fit in two weeks of holiday clothing. Both Kids had a sports bag as the limit.

On the trip back I also had all our breakfasts for 4 days in the mini packs of cornflakes etc three bottles of 2ltr water stored along rear of boot where the seat reaches the floor, another 2ltrs in a juice bottle. We had at least two full packs of small boxed fruit juices in the boot plus with all the drink holders on board 4x 1ltr water and there is space for 15 small bottle drinks in the cabin spaces.

We had in car entertainment in a DVD player in the back for kids plus CDs for us which we seldom used anyway.

Before leaving, ditched the space saver for a full size spare. I also had a car bag with the jack spare headlight bulbs, windsrcreen cleaner, car cleaning stuff, first aid kit etc. Used the radia to keep in touch with xtc.

Also had video cam plus digital cam tissues in soft pack and wipes.

My goal which was achieved for safety reasons was no heavy loose stuff of any kind in the passenger cell. These can be lethal in an accident.

When packing use all space for example my dvd accessory speaker fitted inside my spare shoes all shoes are void spaces to fit socks undies etc. All spaces in car used such as the rear beam across the boot has access holes. So spare wheel nuts for the steel wheel there plus dish clothes and any soft things that fit in there.

I did take pics of all this and how it fitted so can send by email if you wish.

XTC gave advice about booking Eucla we did not and the budget acom is not suitable for dogs the RSPCA would close it down! I had to sleep on floor with head out the door to get cool air and watch the scorpion walk past.

Go ahead do this trip We enjoyed it immensley and I would have no hesitation in doing it again. As XTC mentioned we did not get good economy on the Nullarbore with heave winds and my load did reduce economy as well. (More than I would have thought).

The secret is do not use hard luggage with soft you can mould to the available space.

Hope this helps you

Graelin