Inspiration can come from many places – and in many ways. For some, it might be as simple as a slogan on a t-shirt or a sign in a shop window. Others may only be able to find it out in the fresh air, when they’re miles away from civilisation. What’s important is finding your own source of inspiration in life and using it to make your life better.
Here at CW, we make it our mission to inspire you, our readers. Every van we hitch up, every trip we take is planned to be inspirational – or, at least, aspirational.
In this issue of CW, we bring you our adventures from two very exciting – but polar opposite – trips in two parts of the country that couldn’t be more different.
The first is Part Two of AL-KO’s Toughest Tow Test in the Victorian High Country. Last month, we set the scene and went touring in a couple of onroad van, pushing them past the limits of what many caravans would be capable of. This month, it’s the Offroad Odyssey – three adventure-seeking vans built for the rough stuff and sporting full offroad running gear. And we didn’t take it easy on them! On this trip, we saw the very best of the High Country – from the gorgeous green valleys to the spectacular high alpine plains and most of the rocks, rivers, and tracks in between!
At the exact same time as Toughest Tow Test was happening, another, slightly more sedate but, nonetheless, inspiring trip was underway. The Editor of The Wanderer magazine, Ali Millar, and I set off from Melbourne in a brand new Avida Birdsville motorhome bound for Perth. We had few plans, only a vague itinerary and an arrival date seven days and 3900km later. That week, we encountered more Australian landscapes in seven days than many people see in a lifetime. We travelled through western Victoria, over South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, right across the Nullarbor into eastern WA, then across the entire width of that enormous state. It was the first time I’d seen many (but not all) of these places, and I found the diversity staggeringly beautiful. We hope you do as well!
We were inspired to undertake this trip by the 17,000 women who are diagnosed with breast cancer in Australia every year (99 per cent of diagnoses are women, although men can get breast cancer, too) and the countless others who are fighting to find a cure for this insidious disease. So we decided to run a funds and awareness for the National Breast Cancer Foundation during and after our trip. Along the way, we collected donations from campers we met in caravan parks and we’re hoping you, our CW readers, will help us reach our fundraising target. If you feel inspired by the adventure, please throw a few bucks towards helping the NBCF achieve its goal of zero deaths from breast cancer by 2030. You can donate here.
This editorial appears in Caravan World #564. Subscribe today for the latest caravan reviews and news every month!