The lad (Oakie) had a absolute blast in the week leading up to the accident though. From having he and Arlo near being trampled by alpacas, to having the poor baby sitter chasing my two and her gang down a dirt road as he broke out and Arlo followed, as well as her dogs all decided take off! That was my Oakie small but mighty in EVERYTHING he yelled about!

Oakie was my anxious rescue boy who made my house a home again when we became a two dog household. Arlo was fine as a single boy, but it also felt like we had space for another. It took us close to a year and a good four applications we'd missed out on until Oaks parents (a young couple expecting their first childliving in an apartment made the right choice to give him the space he needed (a farm to live on as apartment living was not for him).

Oakie screamed in the car, screamed at everyone and everything but he was a lovable soul.

When I lost him, I was thinking what is the wildest adventure Arlo and I could do in honour of Oak? ...and the trip to The Tip was born. I even bought a new toy, was Oakies favourite, to tag along with us on the journey!

Then, along came Dave. He was a 'lil foster boy, or so I told myself 7 months after loosing Oakie!  Two weeks into fostering, he stayed. He broke me when I took him to the vet to get his nails trimmed and he snuggled in to me like "nope you my safety, dont hand me over". This is how we ended up a double house hold again.

Dave is still a baby and has a level of anxiety around people and the big scary world, but travelled amazing in the car. This made me think, well The Boys and I are doing Cape!

All I can say is Just Bloody Do It! 
You will miss out on seeing some things if like myself you go solo or if you're a couple but your dog is your kid and you'll not leave them with a sitter etc.
My theory was I'm almost 40, if I don't do it now with my boys, will I actually ever do it? The answer was "I'm not getting any younger and I'll never own a caravan to do it in comfort, so while I can, do it following the KISS principle and just go!"

I took 5 weeks off work and knew I had minimum 7000kms to cover the return trip. We drove a 2017 Nissan Qashqai with a uniden UHF installed and a hardkorr battery box / isolater installed and wired into the car battery with a 100AH battery which ran predominantly the fridge set up, (then when on powered sites over night / when in camp ran off power)

We used a coleman swagger tent, which allowed us to have a inflatable single bed take the medium crate... which Dave was supposed to sleep in but Arlo kept claiming it and a fold out doggo bed from T&S but you can get similar styles at BCF.

We also took:
Pet fencing
A 90ltr dometic fridge freezer (this was great for storing pre made meals and taking favourite foods with us)
A companion rover 100AH power pack
Travel Buddy 12v oven
A 240v / 12v adapter to inflate / deflate the bed at non powered sites
The boys travelled in Solvit car booster seats (which we bought from My Dachshund Online about 10yrs ago, these have since been rebounded)

 

 

In loving memory of Oakie and Naomi's dad Max, who's dream it was to travel up to Cape York, Sadly he passed in December 2024 from a long battle with prostate cancer.