Freedom

We're off to Hong Kong and Australia a week on Friday, and I admit to feeling a certain sense of trepidation. Lee, if he's honest, would rather camp around France for the summer again, and I must admit I'll miss the tent this year. What I'll miss most, though, is the freedom and flexibility to do what we want when we want. Of course, we're always tied to our ferry or tunnel crossing (although that's more flexible than a flight), and we often book a hotel or the odd campsite in advance. We also usually have a rough itinerary in our heads - probable routes and destinations and ideas for possible campsites. But the beauty of it is that we're not tied down to anything. If the weather is cold and we fancy heading south sooner than planned, we can do. If we particularly like a campsite or there's lots to do in the area, we can stay a bit longer. If our neighbours are too noisy, we can move on to another campsite. Nothing is set in stone, and there's no pressure to be somewhere at a particular time.

This holiday is going to be very different. Although we've included a ten-day drive along the Queensland coast in our itinerary, Australia is way too big a country to be able to drive around it all - that means, of course, that we've had to book a lot of flights. In fact, including our stops in Hong Kong, we have ten flights booked for this holiday. Flights don't just tie you down, they tether you with unbreakable cable-ties. Although in theory the flights could be changed in an emergency, one change in flight has a knock-on effect on all the other flights and accommodation - not to mention the potential charges involved. And even a short flight ends up taking almost a whole day once you allow for travel to and from the airport, check-in times, customs and waiting for your luggage. Although we're going for over five weeks, a large amount of that time will be spent on planes or at airports, and it doesn't actually allow for as much time sightseeing as you'd think. At least when we're driving around France, we can please ourselves, stop when we want to and see things on the way. Not to mention the fact that we don't have to check-in with anyone and our luggage stays happily in the car (this in itself is a huge plus - no grappling with cases and hand luggage to contend with!).

In theory, our ten-day drive from Cairns to Brisbane should provide a little more freedom. In practice, however, it's just not - well - practical. In France, we have a tent - that means you can turn up pretty much anywhere and be able to find somewhere to sleep. Even the busiest campsites usually have at least a few pitches free, and when you have no set route, it's easy enough just to drive somewhere else if they're full. In Australia, we won't have a tent. No, it's not because we're scared of snakes, spiders and kangaroos (although they could certainly cause some issues) - it's more to do with the practicalities (or impracticalities) of packing a tent and all our camping gear and taking it on the plane with us. Which leaves us with hotels, motels, B&Bs, apartments, etc. All well and good, but a little more likely to be booked up in advance than campsites. Add to this the fact that Australia is so much less populated than France, and therefore there just aren't quite so many overnight places to choose from. When travelling with kids, you just can't take the risk of not having anywhere to stay for the night. It's easier to find somewhere with room for two than four, and it wouldn't matter too much to us if we didn't find somewhere until late, whereas the kids need their sleep. Lee and I could sleep in the car if it came to it, but I wouldn't want to inflict that on the kids (nor inflict all of us sleeping in the car on us, for that matter!). The bottom line is that we have had to book all our accommodation in advance to ensure we have somewhere to stay. We'll still have the option of driving straight from one hotel to the next and arriving early or taking a more leisurely drive and arriving later, which will make a change from the rigours of airport check-ins, but this part of the holiday is still pretty much set in stone. We've even booked a few trips in advance because we're scared they'll get booked up and won't be able to fit us in if we don't!

So all in all, it's a pretty different holiday for us. I could tell you fairly accurately exactly where we'll be at any given time on any given day - I have the five-page itinerary to prove it! In theory, this should suit my control-freak personality, but the laid-back part of me (there must be one somewhere!) loves the spontaneity of our camping adventures and the freedom of not knowing where we're going next. Of course, I neglected to mention the time when we drove around the Carcassonne area of France for three hours and tried around 20 campsites, none of which had room for us. We ended up in a convoy of camper vans, caravans and cars with roof boxes, all clearly in the same position, and all desperately hoping to spot a campsite before the others. We found somewhere eventually, of course, but it wasn't very nice, and we had to put the tent up in the dark with two very tired and hungry children moaning at us. I do remember the mounting feeling of panic that we had nowhere to stay and two children to worry about - suddenly that freedom was not looking quite so attractive. So at least this time we know we've got somewhere to stay every night - and, thanks to Trip Advisor, we know our accommodation will be nice. And if I really get an urge for spontaneity and freedom of choice, maybe I'll go for a strawberry ice cream instead of my usual chocolate...