Lauren, a Travellers Autobarn customer, just shared her great blog with us.

Roadtrip planning

Half term happens, you guessed it, halfway through term; this means you’ll have known your potential travel buddies for a month or so by the time you’re deciding who to travel with – scary stuff! The way to get round this is pretty obvious – arrange to travel with happy, chilled out people whose company you enjoy; get everyone involved in booking, planning, playing and arranging so that one person doesn’t end up feeling like they’ve done all the work and no one can complain that they’re not getting to go where they want. My group came about from all the people who wanted to roadtrip, but didn’t fancy driving too far and didn’t care too much about where they ended up. For us this meant not having much of a plan apart from a few key things we wanted to see and a very certain notion that we were not going to spend a whole week in the car. Other people drove a lot and even drove by night (which is dangerous due to kangaroo collision possibilities), but they went about 4 times as far as we did and saw almost the entire coast North of Perth. Both sets of people had tonnes of fun so just think about what suits you and what you want out of your trip. For me, having time to relax, laugh with my friends and chill out on beaches was as important as seeing the sites. In hindsight, it might have been sensible to have a more precise plan as we had to make a lot of spot decisions that often involved turning full circle in the middle of the, luckily quiet, roads!

This is why I love my job so much, happy customers who are keen to share their travel stories and just simply looooved the pure Oz experience – and not only the shiny parts but also the unfortunate bits and pieces of a journey in an old van- and I am not talking about severe mechanical break downs but the little, almost foreseen ‘normal’ problems that can occur on such a long trip through the outback and all around Australia. Read on where Vanessa travelled and get inspired by her travel story.

Time to Dream is a short film made by Tourism Australia on New Year’s Eve 2011 in Sydney, Australia. These stories were edited together with user-generated video clips, uploaded via the Sydney NYE iPhone app, and the official broadcast footage of the fireworks within hours of the midnight celebrations.

Tell us what your dreams are for 2012. Travelling the world, skydiving, campervanning, finding a job, diving in the Great Barrier Reef, being more patient, finding the right partner, settling down, where ??? Share your dreams kids …

Enjoy watching this video and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE !

ACCIDENTS HAPPEN……….

If you want to take a fatalistic approach to accidents in the belief that ; ‘Sh*t happens, so why worry, what will be will be’

then please read on

According to our stats* a staggering 87%% of serious accidents that are referred to the insurance company are due to DRIVER ERROR!!

87%% of serious accidents due to DRIVER ERROR!!

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE we are begging you for your own safety PLEASE TAKE IT EASY.

We desperately want you to have a safe and wonderful trip around Australia.

Please remember that when you get behind the wheel of any car you are taking on a great responsibility with respect to the safety of everyone in the car under your control and other road users.

3 people survived this roll-over with just minor scratches and bruises

CLASSIC SINGLE VEHICLE ACCIDENT – DAYLIGHT,STRAIGHT ROAD– Lucky no-one was killed!

Consider these stats

• Head on collision -14%
• Failure to Stop at Right of Way – 27%
• Lost Control – 8%
• Run up Rear – 11%
• Single Vehicle Accident – 27%

Head on Collision – commonly due to Driver’s falling asleep at the wheel

Failure to Stop at Right of Way – Or driving through a stop sign or give way sign – Commonly due to Driver not paying attention

Lost Control – Commonly due to speed, failure to negotiate a bend, wet roads, or drifting to the left and when left wheels hit the soft edge the driver over corrects and starts to fish tail resulting in a roll-over

 Run up rear – Possibly the dumbest ‘accident of all time

Single Vehicle Accident – Usually a ROLL-OVER due to Driver losing control of the vehicle. – Hitting or Swerving to miss an animal, When passing on a narrow road and driver puts left wheels on soft shoulder (verge), over-correcting, and rolling the car, speed, wet roads and going into corners just that little bit too fast

It’s not just your health and well-being at stake! Unfortunately in many of the accidents above the Renters holidays were ruined and many also incurred MAJOR FINANCIAL LOSS – Please understand that the damage liability you have with the vehicle will NOT COVER YOU in EVERY CASE (Negligence, SVA’s, Drink Driving, Breaching Rental Agreement, Breaking the law, etc)

Other Stats

Most accidents happen around 10-11am (29%) and 3-8pm (39%)

And

18-21 year olds are responsible for 39% of all accidents!!!!!

PLEASE HAVE FUN BUT CONSIDER YOUR PERSONAL AND FINANCIAL WELL BEING AND DRIVE WITHIN YOUR LIMITS AND DRIVE CAREFULLY

DO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT IT!!

Just a quick reminder for the Aussie Summer.

DO NOT DRIVE ACROSS FLOODED ROADWAYS