Our van has been serviced and the exciting task of packing for a long road trip is our next task. Every available nook and cranny in the Toyota is soon to be crammed with essential kit. Clothing, duvets (called doonas in Australia), pillows, pots, pans, cutlery and kitchen utensils. Then we hit the local K-Mart to stock up with more essentials - an Italian coffee pot and a couple of parafin (kerosene) hurricane lanterns are a must. K-mart sells just about everything you could ever want, at very cheap prices. We buy a tomahawk for chopping firewood and lots of other camping knickknacks such as spare rope, tent pegs, guy ropes, a broom, a bucket, a spare water container, insect repellent (the ubiquitous Aerogard) and a few packs of large citronella incense sticks to fend of mozzies. We even buy a small electric fan for the expected hot weather to come. 

After K-mart we hit a large camping shop in the inner city suburb of, wait for it - Camperdown. Our purchases here include a folding table and a couple of camp chairs, a couple of large, sturdy tarpaulines and three tent poles. My plan is to erect a large tent-like awning off the side of the van so we can sit in sheltered comfort, whatever the weather.

Everything has to find a home within the tight confines of our little van. As well as all the aforementioned stuff we have a spare petrol can, a simple toolkit, a first aid. Then there are our toys and books. Lots of novels, a Lonely Planet and a Rough Guide find homes on a shelf. Our Apple mac laptop is secreted under a seat and my guitar get pride of place on the back seat, cushioned amongst the blankets, pillow and towels. For travel tunes, essential on any road trip we are using an iPod with an iTrip transmitter so we can play our entire music collection through the van's FM radio. We fill up the freshwater tank, check the oil and tyre pressure, and with a full tank of petrol we are at last ready to hit the road, southward bound for adventures unknown.