Stop Worrying About These 11 Things When You Travel

Y! Travel Journal – Wed, Aug 27, 2014

 By Ashlee Girdner, Thrillist

A great travel recipe consists, in equal measure, of adventure and relaxation. But for a lot of people, that balance is spoiled by an unwanted ingredient: the French. Also, stress. Far too often, travelers unnecessarily get hung up on what might go wrong on a trip.

Let’s take a moment to pause, breathe, and realize that most of the worries people fret over will never happen when traveling. You probably won’t be bitten by a cobra. Nobody’s gonna know if your underwear is clean. And the odds of getting kidnapped abroad are slim to none, unless you’re visiting Venezuela — in which case, you might actually be getting kidnapped as you read this.

Kidnapping and cobras aside, the majority of travel worries are completely unfounded; or at the least, can be prevented with some street smarts and planning. With that in mind, here are 11 things you simply need to stop worrying about when you travel.

Things you only learn firsthand II

Then there was the fresh water tank.

So the instructional video said to fill it up through the water intake and that there is overflow buffer of sorts, so there will be a little bit of overflow when the tank is full.

I had been careful to (try to) refill the water tank at every opportunity. But we have not used it much. Only for hand washing (after using the toilet) and maybe washing cups or plates.

So at four different occasions when I tried to fill the tank, the water almost immediately started to overflow. Once, the water shot out of the intake port. It should be full right?

Anyway, about a week in (or about 5, 6 days), we had no problems. Then one night the wife asked, "what's that noise?"

Caravan Park overview - From Perth to Exmouth

This is a brief over view of the Caravan Parks we used, and the places we visited.

1) Sunset Beach Holiday Park (425 km from Perth, Britz, 4 hrs 40m), 21/7 (1 night). Powered Site. This park is right by the beach, with strong winds. The bathroom/toilets are accessed with a code. As it was only our first night, we did not need to empty our chemical toilet so I did not find out if there was a dump point.

The nearest IGA supermarket was about a 10 minutes walk. When we got there, we had dinner at a burger/fish and chips joint. The lamb burger I had was dry. The fish was like fish fingers. The chips were great (all the chips we had on this trip were great!) and we filled ourselves on that. But we cannot recommend the place (it is located with the IGA).

The walk back to the caravan park was in near pitch black darkness. It was bracing. Walking from our motor home to the bath was not as bad as we feared (cold, but not intolerably so). Rained during the night. The sound of the rain on the roof in the cold cold night, as we huddled and cuddled beneath the comforter was quite nice.

There was a drainage point for "grey water" at the site.

Things you only learn firsthand I

I wanted to go "camper-vanning" or a Motor Home holiday, to learn firsthand about motor home holidays.

So the 10/11 days in the motor home was as educational as I had hoped.

To prepare myself I watched the 13-min introductory video (below) several times. Particularly about emptying the chemical toilet, emptying the waste water tank (grey water, which is mainly water from the shower and the sink, which may at best be a little soapy, or a little oily. As opposed to black water which would be sewage or toilet waste).

Alternative uses for Vegemite.

So my wife loves Vegemite.

You know, that quintessential component of "How Australian are You?" quiz. Which is similar to Marmite, and Bovril. The black, gooey, too-salty-to-be-possible substance that Australians spread on their toast?

We saw a vegemite and cheese sausage at the butchers and I pointed it out to my wife.

The Butcher noticed and commented, "that's the funny thing about Vegemite - you either love it or hate it."

"She loves it!" I told the butcher as I pointed at my wife.

Later he gave us one of the sausage to try.

I don't mind Vegemite actually. I'll eat it, no problems. With toast or English Muffins. The difference between my wife and me is that she'll slather it on. I dab it on.

So for those of you who do not like Vegemite, here are the Alternative Uses of Vegemite I discovered while camper-vanning in Western Australia.

Perth and the Coral Coast by Campervan - the Itinerary

Arrival in Perth on 20 Jul, 12:50 pm.

Hotel booked: Airport Apartments by Verandah, Redcliffe

Campervan Itinerary

1) 21/7 - 22/7 (1 night) Sunset Beach Holiday Park (425 km from Perth, Britz, 4 hrs 40m)

2) 22/7 - 24/7 (2 nights) Kalbarri Anchorage Caravan Park  (151 km from Sunset Beach, Geraldton, 1 hr 42 mins) - Stay two nights

3) 24/7 - 26/7 (2 nights)  Monkey Mia - Blue Dolphin Caravan Park (374 km from Kalbarri, 4 hr 40 mins) - 2 nights

4) 26/7 - 27/7 (1 night) Carnarvon - Big4 Plantation Caravan Park (324 km from Blue Dolphin, 4 hrs) - 1 night

5) 27/7 - 29/7 (2 night) Exmouth - Exmouth Cape Holiday Park (360 km from Carnarvon, 5 hrs) - 2 nights

6) 29/7 - 30/7 (1 night) - Wintersun Caravan Park, Carnarvon - 1 night (360 km from Exmouth, 5 hours)

7) 30/7 - 31/7 (1 night) SeaSpray Beach Holiday Park, Dongara - 1 night (540km from Carnarvon, 5hrs, 44 mins)

8) 31/7 Perth (354 km from Dongara -SeaSpray Beach Holiday Park, 3 hrs 48mins).

Cab to Airport directly from Britz. Flight is 5 pm, need to be at airport at 3 pm.

The Japanese can go to extremes.

If Lotteria still has this when next I visit:




That is the "Attack on Titan" 10 patty burger.If 10 patty is too much, they have the smaller 7 patty and 5 patty versions.

More pictures at this blog.

And what do you have a 10-patty burger with? Large fries of course.




Not the one on the left. That's puny. The one on the right has 1,150 calories. Perfect filler to the 3,672,458 calories (approximation) of the 10-patty burger.