Travel influencers Jordan and Harry Vick reveal road trip pitfalls to avoid

Before Aussies load up the car for a post-lockdown road trip adventure, there are a few things these travel experts want you to know.

Road trip mishaps can strike anyone – even seasoned travellers like Jordan and Harry Vick.

Over the years the South Australia-based influencer couple have become well acquainted with Australia’s great open roads, driving their van deep into remote parts of the country and capturing incredible moments they share with their more than 50,000 combined Instagram followers.

Now, as travel restrictions ease and closed borders finally reopen, more people will shaking off the cobwebs of lockdowns by heading off on their own road trips, a trend the couple expects to continue.

Jordan and Harry Vick know a thing or two about van life.

“I think that trend was heading that way pre-Covid but since Covid it’s just spiked, obviously because we haven’t been able to travel and everyone’s got a bit of the travel bug, because it’s part of our culture I suppose,” Jordan told news.com.au.

But it’s not as easy as just fuelling the car, packing the boot and heading off. The couple – who spent 11 months on an epic cross-country road trip just before Covid-19 – said there were things first-time road trippers needed to keep in mind, including pitfalls that they themselves had fallen in.

Jordan said one near-disaster struck them as they were heading to Townsville via the Barkly Highway, between Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory and Cloncurry in outback Queensland.

“There’s very limited petrol stops and our fuel tank wasn’t as big as we thought it was,” she said.

“It got down to the last 10 kilometres of fuel in the tank before we got to the next petrol station.

“A lot can go wrong unfortunately. What we’ve found is no matter what vehicle you set off in, you do find yourself running into a flat tyre or a breakdown or something like that.

The couple went on an epic Australian road trip before Covid-19.

They share their adventures with 50,000 Instagram followers. Picture: Supplied

“It really doesn’t matter what vehicle you’re in, there were always people parked along the side of the road trying to work out what’s going on.”

Keen to avoid any future dicey situations on the road, Jordan and Harry use devices like the GME UHF Radio and Personal Locator Beacon so they can always call for help if they run into trouble – and communicate with each other if they become separated while exploring an area.

“We’ve been lucky to visit some incredible places but you do find yourself in the middle of nowhere. You might be chasing a sunset and it’s getting dark and you’re 35 minutes on a bushwalk away from your vehicle in a campsite or a national park,” Harry said.

“You’re following the sunset and you want to get around the next corner, to that next ridge, to push it and get a good shot or live that moment, and those moments are pretty incredible – but sure enough you’re not only 100km away from any sort of town, but you’re now a good 35 minutes’ walking distance from your vehicle that is your home.

“The struggle there is if I go off on a walk or Jordan goes off and we stray apart and we need to communicate and something goes wrong, that’s one of the challenges.

Harry and Jordan Vick.

“We had a GME XRS-370C (two-ray radio) set up in the bus and we had some handheld ones in our backpack when we go bushwalking, and just being able to radio between one another and having the confidence that if something did go wrong, whether it be snakes or falling down ridges or anything like that, you’ve just got that confidence in being able to radio back to camp or to a town.”

As well as communications equipment, proper planning is essential, the couple said. That includes food, knowing exactly where you’ll be staying, and understanding you may spend long periods of time without mobile phone reception in some regional and remote areas.

“You’ve got to think about all those fundamentals,” Harry said. “A lot of people want to hit the road and get into some rural places but it can be a bit intimidating and threatening when you’re so far from home, and/or you don’t have reception.”

But once you’re set up, the rewards of a road trip are worth it, as the couple has discovered.

After some international travelling and shorter camping trips in an old Subaru, Jordan and Harry decided to embrace van life by taking their vehicle, dubbed Luna, on the road and discover Australia.

They say it’s essential to be prepared. Picture: Supplied

They spent nearly a full year exploring Australia on a pre-Covid trip that took them up the middle of the country to the Northern Territory and back down the east coast, home to South Australia.

“My personal favourite spot would have been the Red Centre,” Jordan said. “There’s so much history and we absolutely loved it. There’s a beautiful free camp outside of Uluru that we found with other people camped up and it had a little view of the rock, which was amazing. “There’s so much to see … and it’s so raw and isolated.”

For Harry, a must-see spot is Wallaman Falls, an iconic waterfall in Girringun National Park in northern Queensland.

“It’s magnificent in size,” he said. “Mission Beach (between Cairns and Townsville) had a good little vibe to it, with lots of friendly locals, and another favourite would have been the Eyre Peninsula, which is in our home state, but feels like a world away – it’s very rural and rugged out there on the coastline of the South Australian peninsula.”