Hatch a holiday is a place to share our Australian travelling experiences. You can get an idea what a place is like before visiting yourself.
On our trips we take heaps of photos and video and then pick the best to share with you. I think the more photos the better! You can get a better idea of what you are getting yourself in for by looking at our photos and videos.
Looking for interesting places to travel to can be overwhelming. Planning trips can be very time consuming. Each article on this website includes a visual account ( with a little bit of text) of everything we managed to do in one day. ( sometimes I am amazed at how much you can do in one day!)
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ps. Here are our most popular travel stories you might like:
- Hahndorf, Mount Lofty and crazy bike rider
- Wilpena Pound to Arkaroo Rock
- Wilpena Pound to North Blinman & the best burger ever
- Bright,Eurobin Falls, Red Stag Deer & Emu Farm
This is us. David and Megan.
The kids have moved on and we now have time to travel. We both work full time and on the side are artists based in Melbourne, Australia.
Silly photos of silly people! We try and take selfies when we remember…( David did point out a selfie is a picture of one person – not sure what you call a couple in a selfie?)
While we have done a bit of travel in our 30 years of being together a camping trip to the Pilbara in Western Australia changed everything.
We discovered that camping was fun!
With the right camping gear and comfortable sleeping mattresses it really is a pretty good option to jump in the car and do some trips around Australia. New to camping and so many places to see in Australia, where to go next is the big question!
Camping is fun but so is staying in a hotel
You can’t beat a good hotel for a holiday either. Up until now our once a year holiday always involved staying in a hotel – often with a pool. We have already been to some amazing places but now we have another option – camping. Going camping is a whole new experience to explore and learn about.
First Camping Experience | Flinders Ranges, South Australian Adventure
January 2017 | We planned to go from Melbourne to Wilpena Pound, Flinders Ranges and back via Hahndorf and Mount Gambier for our first camping trip. The trip was a success and we had so much fun and learnt so much. In our 10 day trip we survived camping in the Summer heat ( over 40 degrees), camping when raining ( first and last days of our trip) and learnt about the pros and cons of staying at different campsites. You can read all about our Flinders Ranges camping trip here.
Winter hibernation and Dave does his back and survives Septicemia
July 2017 | Sometimes life takes unexpected turns that are totally out of your control.
Dave had two trips to emergency and spent weeks in hospital. To cut a long story short he has two bulging discs that meant a week in hospital and a week in a rehabilitation hospital to get moving again. He was home for a couple of days when he got the shakes and felt like he was getting the flu. I knew something was wrong and rushed him to hospital ( a 10 minute drive) and by the time we got to the emergency department he was shaking violently and yelling in extreme pain. ( every time he shook was extreme pain caused by aggravating the already bulging discs in his back) . They took blood tests and hooked him up to machines and pumped him with antibiotics and pain killers. After about 6 hours of treatment with lots of ups and downs, the pain settled down and he spent another week in hospital.
After spending most of July 2017 in hospital he was discharged with “Two bulging discs complicated by septicemia”. He has recovered very slowly and been getting back to work for a few hours a day and walking around with a zimmer frame. He will have a few months of rehabilitation and one of the main goals in the future is to be able to get back to camping again. In the mean time we are going to stick to cabin stay sort of holidays.
New Adventures – We are now the proud owners of a Jayco Jpod Sport
November 2018 | A well awaited foot operation for David has taken us on a different path with our holidays. With a bit of a dodgy back and recently operated foot we started looking at other options to camping in a tent. We narrowed it down to a Jayco Jpod Sport (Teardrop Caravan). We will be heading off all over the place.
Jeep transmission problems = No towing Jpod = No adventures for start of year
January 2019 | After getting back from our first little holiday to Beachport in South Australia towing our Jayco Jpod Sport, an engine warning light came on. After multiple visits to the Jeep service centre a faulty transmission was diagnosed and needed to be replaced. ( Our model jeep was on the recall list ).
With a bit of paperwork back and forth our transmission in the Jeep was replaced ( at no cost to us) – but not until late March. Unfortunately this ruled out any trips for the first few months of the year. The good news is the with the new transmission the Jeep is running smoothly! (Leading up to getting the transmission replaced it was struggling to get up and down steep hills and was doing weird jerks and stopping strangely when braking.)
We bought a Ford!
November 2019 | We made the decision to replace the Jeep with a Ford Everest Titanium. Even though we had a new transmission in the Jeep we were still concerned about things going wrong. The Jeep was five years old and time to trade in. With all the safety features that the Jeep had we wanted to get something similar. The Ford Everest Titanium turned out to be it. It has got nearly all the same features and much better towing ability.
Waiting in the Ford showroom I could see our Jeep parked in the distance and was feeling a little bit sad. We had visited so many places and even driven along the beach in it. Lots of great memories.
First trip in the Ford towing the Jpod Sport
Our first trip in the Ford Everest was to Daylesford. There is much more cabin space in the Ford than the Jeep – so packing it was easy.
Plenty of room for all our camping stuff and the dogs.
Towing the Jpod Sport with the Ford Everest was easy. You almost forget that you are towing.
And then there was a global pandemic!
March 2020 | What a year it has been. The arrival of COVID-19 changed everyones world. Social distancing and sanitiser and lots of changing restrictions have impacted any chance of travel. Working from home and Zoom meetings and catching up with family using facetime has become the norm. Missed birthday and wedding celebrations are all a part of 2020. Our world has changed – socially and economically. It’s going to take a long time to recover.
While travel restrictions have been lifted in Victoria, we are now waiting for Dave’s recovery from recent shoulder surgery so that we can get in the Jpod and getaway for a weekend trip….
Shoulder surgery recovery longer than anticipated
4th July 2020 – | It was 3 years ago we dealt with David’s back episode ( see above) and now it seems like it’s going to be a slow road to recovery with his shoulder. Its going to be a minimum of 10 weeks attending rehab once a week. He is still not allowed to lift anything heavier than 500grams.
The virus is still running rampant world wide with some countries and cultures suffering more than others. Here in Victoria we were doing well up until this week where hot spots in some of the northern suburbs have been locked down and not able to leave the postcode area where they live.
It has become a normal part of life for us to wash our hands, and apply sanitiser when out at at the shops – all whilst keeping away from other people. Hand washing and sanitising is repeated throughout the day – even when at home.
Lockdown in Melbourne, Victoria Australia
24 August 2020 – | We are now about halfway through a 6 week lockdown. What does this mean? To me it is like we are living in a weird place that I have never experienced before. I would never have thought back at the start of the year that there would be a Pandemic and we would all be in it! It affects us all so differently depending on where we live in the world, and what we normally do and how we like to live our lives. A typical day in the life of lockdown for me is not that different that it makes a massive difference. I just want everyone in society to behave themselves and follow the rules so we can all get back to our normal lives see family and friends and go on a Holiday some time soon!