TRANSKRIPT 🔗
Kerryn (00:00):
In the last episode, I introduced the concept of travel your style. And I thought, what better way to start off the series than to have Phil my very own husband come in and share the mic. We're actually going to do a couple of episodes were in one, we talk about how we travel domestically. And in the other one, we're gonna talk about international because our style is slightly different and that's all part of this series. And part of the storytelling that I'm hoping to get across, we all travel differently. And sometimes the way we travel in different areas can be different. Hi Phil.
Phil (00:34):
Hello.
Kerryn (00:35):
How are you today?
Phil (00:36):
I'm good thanks.
Kerryn (00:37):
How many years have we been married?
Phil (00:38):
27 years.
Kerryn (00:40):
Hi, I'm Kerryn, the host of inspiring couples through life and travel, where we talk about lasting relationships, travel and faith amid our daily lives. Occasionally, my husband, Phil will join me at the mic where we will share life lessons learned and those tools we have implemented in our everyday lives that have helped strengthen our marriage and our relationships with other people. I look forward to welcoming others, to the mic, to talk about travel, life and amazing lessons that we can all implement to grow and flourish. As we continue to make unforgettable memories and enjoy our lives as husbands and wives. I'm so glad that you have joined us and I look forward to inspiring couples to travel brilliantly through life and travel. In a sentence or two to begin, How would you describe our domestic travel style?
Phil (01:34):
Fairly relaxed with a pretty loose itinerary,
Kerryn (01:37):
Usually heavily road trip centric.
Phil (01:40):
Yes. Yeah, because we're travelling in our own country. It's, it's easier. Although have been times where we've flown interstate and hired cars, but,
Kerryn (01:48):
And done a
Phil (01:48):
Road trip and done a road trip yet
Kerryn (01:51):
We don't tend to do as much trains or I don't think we've ever done a train together in Australia. Actually.
Phil (01:59):
No, not for holiday. No.
Kerryn (02:01):
Only to get to the airport to go on a plane, to go on a holiday overseas. Yeah. We've been on some pretty epic trips since we married. Can you remember where our first road trip was? Which was actually before we got married?
Phil (02:15):
Queensland.
Kerryn (02:16):
And why did we go to Queensland?
Phil (02:18):
To visit family and have a bit of a holiday?
Kerryn (02:21):
Yeah, mainly to I'd actually, no, well, I'd actually met Ruth before that, cuz I'd gone up to see a friend who I was bridesmaid for, but yeah. To go up together and
Phil (02:32):
Meet family, meet
Kerryn (02:33):
Family and have a bit of a look around. And then when you think about our honeymoon, it sort of really set the precedent for what holidaying was gonna be like, didn't it?
Phil (02:44):
Yeah. It was a bit of an epic road trip.
Kerryn (02:46):
What did we do?
Phil (02:47):
I don't remember how many kilometres we travelled, but it was quite a few, but we, we started heading up to a Hawksnest and hired a houseboat and we had 10 days, 10 days on a houseboat, which was lovely on the Myall Lakes. And then we went on a road trip
Kerryn (03:01):
Yeah. And got all the way down to
Phil (03:04):
Philip island,
Kerryn (03:04):
Philip island in Victoria.
Phil (03:07):
Um, so we covered quite a few Ks
Kerryn (03:08):
And did a lot of different things.
Phil (03:11):
Oh, on the way. Yeah.
Kerryn (03:12):
Yeah. But that was pretty epic and we've pretty much been doing epic trips ever since. Yeah. We don't, they're very rare. Are they small trips are they?
Phil (03:21):
Yeah, very rare. We just like go to the beach and stay there sort of thing we did when the kids were little some
Kerryn (03:28):
Yeah. Yeah. We did. Um, we had a friend who had timeshare, we've lived in lots of locations even around Australia over the years. And we've had bit of an unwritten rule that we would explore within, you know, five or six hours of that place. Yeah. As we holidayed and hence why we've done some pretty epic trips. So we've talked about the fact that, uh, our travels are usually roads trip centric. What would you say was the biggest trip we've ever done?
Phil (04:02):
Oh, the biggest trip was um, when we took the caravan and the kids and headed off halfway around Australia.
Kerryn (04:08):
Yeah. So we did basically we did east to west.
Phil (04:11):
Yeah. Across the bottom.
Phil (04:13):
We, we did get up to Carnarvon, which is probably halfway up WA
Phil (04:17):
Three, quite
Kerryn (04:18):
Half, not quite halfway up WA then ended up settling in WA but yeah, so that was a bit of, um, caravaning back in the day, we had four kids under 10 in a, um, pop-top caravan, which is for any international people, it ha opens up has probably about a third walls with the kitchen and seating area. And then it opens up and the beds come out at either end. That was, um, it was great fun, lots of work, but we definitely don't regret it. Did you enjoy the caravaning aspect of that?
Phil (04:56):
Yeah. I mean, it was a bit, um, a bit of hard work with the kids, just the setting up every day and stuff like that.
Kerryn (05:04):
When you think about domestic travel, what are some of the first good moments that come to mind? So if you not so much favourite places, but if you were to just think about our holidays, what are the memories that pop into your head first?
Phil (05:19):
Oh, just so many of the places we've seen that the beauty of the nature in Australia from the wild coastline to the desert Plains, you know, it's quite a big difference up into the mountains.
Kerryn (05:31):
For me. I think it's that point where you've done a massive drive for the day and you've discovered these unique little places. Like the thing that was actually jumping into my mind was that, or convict settlement out in the middle of the desert in WA Lindon, um, or something
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like Lindon, it, um, yeah. Was just this dry thing. But then we got to the coast and we set up camp and, you know, just point where you just take a deep breath and chill in the afternoon or sit in a cafe. And I really do like sitting in cafes and just watching the world go by anywhere in the world really. Um, but yeah, that's a pretty cool moment discovering those ruins that are very Australian. As the kids have grown up. How do you think how to travel style has changed over the years?
Phil (06:18):
Changed quite a bit. Well, it's just the two of us so much easier not to have to cater for all the kids as well. Isn't it? We can, we must do our thing, but having to get 'em all bathed and dressed and fed and stuff.
Kerryn (06:32):
So what would you think apart from the taking care of the kids, what do you think has changed in how we travel?
Phil (06:42):
The drives are more enjoyable. I was dunno. I dunno. More spontaneous. Yeah.
Kerryn (06:47):
I mean, we would quite often when we would stop when the kids were younger, it would be, we would always try and find a park or, yeah, I, and I'm not talking about the big trip. The big trip was a bit different. We were using a maps book and we were always trying to make sure we stopped where there was a toilet. But when we were travelling, when the kids were little, it was always like McDonald's was our first place for lunch. Or we would be stopping to make sandwiches at a park or have a picnic on, at a park where the kids could play. Whereas now we can just pull up at a would stop, I guess, have morning tea, watching cattle trucks drive past in a small, almost nothing country town like we did on the last trip.
Phil (07:27):
I think one of the big difference is when we go somewhere, we can actually take more time where the kids are. Can we go now? Can we go now where we can have a look and read the history and, and a bit more time? Yeah.
Phil (07:40):
That's something you really quite enjoying is joy. Isn't it? Most of the time is reading all those little information boards that people have poured their heart and soul
Phil (07:49):
Into. Yeah. I like to know the history.
Kerryn (07:52):
I must admit I'm probably a bit more of a glancer, but for all of you people out there that do pour your heart and soul into it. Know, that if we stop near them, they are being read and they're being enjoyed and all your efforts are not in VA. As we get into this couple's travel. What sort of things would you like to see honed a bit more in the way that we do our road trips?
Phil (08:18):
I think we both would like to try caravan again to be able to take a house with us in a way. And yeah, I think that's something we'll be doing the coming years.
Kerryn (08:28):
Yeah. We actually trialed van life and hired a camper van. And one of the biggest things for me was having to pack up every time we went out, we don't tend to spend a day sitting on the beach, doing not a lot or staying at the caravan park and just chilling. So most
of the time, every morning we would have to put everything away, secure the van, pack up the site, drive all around and then quite often come back to the same site. And I much prefer the idea of having a caravan that we can walk out, forget to put the sugar away in the morning and have it sitting on the table or something little like that. Um, but yeah, caravanning is definitely something that we would like to do, but until we get the caravan, is anything in the way that we travel, like in the speed that we travel or in the last episode, I talked about how we've got this two-night minimum rule when we travel internationally and thinking about even our north coast road trip, which is the latest trip we did, we didn't really do a lot of two nights stops, except when we were visiting people.
Phil (09:41):
I think that's different in your own country too, because you know where you want to get to. And you've seen a lot of the the stuff along the way before. So where it's, if you're travelling somewhere, it's all-new, then you, you stop and look around more where it's on highway. You've been down before you just try and get to your destination.
Kerryn (09:59):
Yeah. Like when we came home from the north coast, port Macquarie was our last destination and we pretty much came
Phil (10:05):
Home from port
Kerryn (10:06):
Macquarie, stopped in to see a friend. And that was it. This is for you Phil to reflect on what are some of the lessons you've learnt about you and we've explored Australia?
Phil (10:18):
How much I like discovering about our history. Yeah.
Kerryn (10:23):
I think for me travelling Australia and even going back as far as our epic road trip on our honeymoon was the fact that I don't like sitting still on a holiday. No, I sitting and just going to the beach every day is not me. I would try it if you wanted me to.
Phil (10:45):
And we have, we need to try it again. I think cuz sometimes I would like a
Kerryn (10:49):
Slower,
Phil (10:50):
A slower pace where we could actually just chill, maybe throw a fishing line in.
Kerryn (10:55):
Yes. When we get our Caravan, we will do that. Having to learn how to, I guess, relax and not make it all about discovering the destination is something that I need to learn. But the thing I've learned about me is I haven't learned it yet.
Kerryn (11:12):
As we get ready to wrap up a little bit, what would be just a couple of bucket list destinations we're yet to visit in Australia?
Phil (11:21):
There's a couple of ones that really, yeah. I'd love to do the Great Ocean Road, which we've talked about so many times over the years and never quite done and also Tasmania I've never been to and also at the centre and into Darwin and that sort of stuff. Not to do those ones about you.
Kerryn (11:38):
Yeah. For me, I really wanna do Copper Pedy in the middle of Australia, the Opal town where everything is underground and yeah, I've Tasmania is on my list. I have done technically I've done a bit of Tasmania before, but
I was in a band, so I didn't really see a lot, but I've been to Tasmania. So yeah, that would be good. And definitely, the great ocean road does keep popping up and anyone who follows us on YouTube or a part of anything on social media know that last year we tried twice to get to South Australia and we still haven't got there. That's on our, that is definitely still on our list. But at the moment I think it's more than a bucket list. I think it's just a determination to actually get that holiday done and not get it, like not get it done in that the sense of we need to get it off the list, but just to actually it achieve it.
Phil (12:34):
It's been frustrating being have to postpone it a couple of times. Yeah.
Kerryn (12:38):
Because the first one we had to postpone within, I think it was a week of going due to COVID restrictions and all of that. And then the second time we deliberately hadn't booked anything. So it wasn't quite the, but there was still that, oh, I was getting so close and it didn't happen.
Phil (12:58):
If someone has been listening to us today and is thinking, okay, so this whole relaxed domestic travel road trip sounds like a good idea. What are some of the things that you would include or exclude if you were chatting to them? Like what would be something that you would say if you're gonna do a road trip? Definitely think about including this,
Phil (13:23):
Oh, I'd skip the Macs and the highway truck stops and pull into a small town and go to a cafe there. Those sort of experiences are, are far better. And the food's a whole lot better. Usually.
Kerryn (13:36):
Usually. What about, what about excluding?
Phil (13:39):
Excluding?
Kerryn (13:40):
Yeah. What would you say to
Phil (13:42):
Stay away from the fast-food joints?
Kerryn (13:46):
For me, it would probably be, I would include stops when you want them. This travel your style series has come out of the fact that everybody he travels differently. So as an example, my brother will get up at four o'clock in the morning and drive for 10 hours straight to get to a place. Whereas we might get up at four o'clock in the morning and have a five-hour trip planned, but we usually have a couple of stops in the way, which is what we did when we started the Northern new south Wales road trip. We left before sunrise. We had a couple of things we wanted planned, but it also meant that we got to Tamworth, which was our first stop mid-afternoon. And we were able to
Phil (14:30):
Relax
Kerryn (14:31):
Into being there instead of getting there exhausted and not doing a lot. The other thing that I would include if you are a coffee drinker, I got a little hand pump that makes espresso coffee and it has been a game-changer. Still figuring out the milk thing. But the fact that I, cuz I don't drink instant coffee, I know I'm a snob. The fact that I can go and have a coffee every morning, we don't have to go and buy it. So it cuts an added extra expense that does add up, um, every morning that was a
game-changer. And it, another thing that we find quite useful is one of those apps that shows you where free parking is. Or if you are in a caravan or a van where it shows you where you can camp for free or cheap, um, and where the caravan parks are.
Kerryn (15:25):
But it also shows you where you can stop along the road. As I said before, when we did the trip with the kids, we were able to actually look up in the book that we had and find rest stops that had toilets. So we knew which ones were worth pulling into and which ones weren't before we got there when you are dealing with children, you're able to give them, you know, we've got 20 minutes till we can get to a toilet or whatever else and all of that sort of thing. Uh, so that was really valuable. Some of the things that I would exclude is other people's expectations. Don't let other people tell you what to do. And yeah, as Phil said, we can get fast food by the big chains anywhere. So try other things, try something new.
Kerryn (16:09):
As we finish Phil something I would like to do as a, something a bit fun to finish an episode where I've got a guest is to do what I'm calling the quick five-game. Are you keen?
Phil (16:21):
Yes, I am
Phil (16:23):
For quick five, the quick five-game, I'm gonna pull out something a different topic to each time or a variation of a topic. So in today's game of quick five, I want you to use P which is the first initial of your name to answer these next five-word associations I give you. Okay. We set. Yep. Let's go town in Australia,
Phil (16:49):
Proserpine.
Kerryn (16:50):
Beach,
Phil (16:50):
Palm beach
Phil (16:51):
Drink
Phil (16:53):
Pina colada.
Kerryn (16:54):
What?
Kerryn (16:55):
Food
Phil (16:56):
Pizza
Kerryn (16:58):
Piece of technology.
Phil (17:00):
Well, that's a bit of a hard one. What's a P for technology, printer. I guess
Kerryn (17:06):
That was the first one I thought of. And just as a little bit of plug while we are here, Phil does have a YouTube channel called Phil talks tech where at the moment he is focusing on a 3d printer. So if you wanna learn about that, I'll put the link in the, just in the show notes below and you can find out all the things that he's finding out about 3d printing.
Kerryn (17:28):
Thank you for joining us today, Phil, how was that? Chat to your wife on a microphone?
Phil (17:33):
Good
Kerryn (17:34):
And um, yeah, we look forward to welcoming you back. We've got a couple of other definite conversations coming up and a few more slated for later in the year. but we are gonna talk about international travel and some of the things that are included in our international travel style, I think that's about episode six. That will be got a couple of other things. We had talked a bit about, uh, relationship building stuff over the years as well. And just whatever else takes our fancy really. But we would love to be able to chat to other people about their travels. As I said, in the previous episode, we know people who walk for holidays or cycle and all of their holidays are planned around cycling. And I would love to sit down and have a chat with some of those people, even people who enjoy cruising, there's different styles of cruising.
Kerryn (18:25):
And I would love to hear how you cruise and what you get out of it. Sometimes talking about what you get out of a holiday can help other people to start looking and thinking about holidays differently.
Kerryn (18:37):
I wanna thank Phil for joining me today here at the bike. As we talked about our domestic travel style and some of the things that we've learned are important to us as we travel domestically. I hope that this has inspired you to think a little bit more about the way that you travel and some of those things that are important to you, that or things that you can give yourself permission to drop in your next domestic travel adventure.
Kerryn (19:06):
Thank you for joining us today. If you got value out of today's podcast, why are not consider subscribing and leaving us a review, we would love to hear from you. If you're looking for information, why not check out the show notes below we'll include helpful resources. And of course, any information that our guests need to share with you until next time, continue to travel brilliantly by inspiring each other through life and travel.