Duration: As long as it takes

Where: From Melbourne, to Cairns, to Melbourne, to Broome

Kilometers planned: 18,196

The ‘Big Lap’ is a lap of Highway 1 round the circumference of Australia. Some parts from Cairns to Darwin need a 4×4 and are extremely remote – two things I’m not up for. I’m therefore planning a big U!!

The plan is to start where I am in Seymour (Melbourne) and then visit a combination of towns I have friends in, places that I visited on the oz experience bus in 2001 and have no recollection of and other places that I have visited or have been recommended.

I have no time limits on my itinerary and it could take 6 months or 6 years, who knows! I also haven’t decided if I am visiting Tasmania or not and if so, if I do it first, or on the way back. Below is the LONG list of places I plan to visit. If you have any suggestions of places I have missed (or should miss) then let me know in the comments! Seymour castlemaine bendigo shepparton Wangaratta Albury Wagga Wagga Canberra Batemans bay Hyams beach Huskisson Sydney Blue mountains Newcastle Barrington tops national park South west rocks Waterfall way Coffs Harbour Grafton Ballina Murwillumbah Surfers Paradise Brisbane Glass house mountains Mount Tibrogargan Kondalilla falls Maroochy Rainbow beach Tin can bay Hervey bay Childers Bundaburg Agnes waters Seventeen seventy Calliope Mount larcom Rockhampton Mackay Cape Hillsborough Whitsundays Airlie beach Dingo beach Ayr Townsville Magnetic island Walaman Falls Cardwell Murry falls Tully heads Tully Mission beach Paronella Park innisfail Wooroonoora national park / josephine falls Cairns Kuranda ranges Smithfield Daintree The way back down to Melbourne is the same, but with the following changes: Instead of Cairns / Wooroonoora national park / josephine falls – Atherton From mackay – Eungella national park and Nebo Instead of Surfers Paradise – Cedar Creek falls and Springbrook national park Instead of Coffs Harbour, Waterfall way, South west rocks and Barrington tops national park – Grafton, Glen Innes Barraba, Manila, Tamworth, Nundle, Singleton From Batemans bay – take the coastal route all the way round to Broome! (yes, I got lazy, but have done a lot of it before and will plan this in more detail) Let me know what you think!