There’s a lot to remember when you travel with a caravan — routes, fuel stops, campsites, the van itself. But there’s another side to caravan travel too: the places that surprise you, the campgrounds you’d return to, the moments you don’t want to forget.

That’s exactly why I use a caravan travel journal.

I don’t fill it in perfectly every day, and it’s never another job waiting at the end of a long drive. It’s a practical travel companion — somewhere to plan the journey before we leave, jot notes on the road, and record what I’ll want to remember later.

Planning Before You Leave

I start using my Travel Companion while a trip is still taking shape — noting where we’ll start and finish, rough distances, possible overnight stops, fuel stops to check, and a backup plan if the day doesn’t go to script.

This matters most when towing through regional and remote Australia, where a fuel station might have limited hours or a road could be affected by weather. Writing the plan down doesn’t remove the spontaneity — it just gives the trip a sensible starting point, while still leaving room for a detour that looks interesting.

The Daily Road Journal

This is the working heart of the book. On a travel day, I record the route, distances, fuel and road conditions — the practical details that build a real record over a long trip.

The facing page captures the day behind the kilometres: how the caravan felt, what needed attention, what worked well. Rather than a confidence score, I just note how I actually felt — relaxed, alert, tired, proud. Some days that’s a paragraph. Other days, one sentence is enough. A travel journal should be useful on the road, not something you feel guilty about leaving blank.

Arriving, Reversing and Settling In

Arrival is often when tiredness and impatience creep in — it’s tempting to pull straight onto the site and start reversing. Instead, I use the arrival section as a reminder to pause first: trees, taps, power, slope, drainage, neighbouring vans, and how much room the awning will need.

The Sketch My Site page gives you space to draw the entrance and turning room before the van starts moving. And for the reverses that eventually work but aren’t anyone’s finest hour, there’s a page called The Reverse We Won’t Talk About. There are no prizes for reversing quickly — repositioning and getting out to look are both sensible parts of the process.

Remembering the Campsites You’d Return To

Campground details fade faster than you’d think. The review pages record the practical side — access, shade, facilities, reception, noise — alongside how the stay actually felt, and whether it’s somewhere another woman towing a caravan would want to know about before she arrives.

The Woman Behind the Wheel

My favourite section. It’s not overtly about confidence — it’s about noticing what’s become easier, what no longer worries you. Growth on the road is often quiet: you manage a tricky entrance, make a good call in poor conditions, and simply carry on. There’s space here to note a time you trusted your judgment, a mistake that taught you something, and the milestones — your first tow, your first reverse, your first solo-planned trip.

A Practical Companion and a Personal Record

I created Women Who Tow: The Caravan Travel Companion because I wanted something more personal than a logbook and more practical than a blank notebook. It works whether you fill in every page or only open it when a page is useful. Over time, it becomes more than a planner — it becomes a record of the roads travelled and the woman behind the wheel.

Ready to start your own? Women Who Tow: The Caravan Travel Companion — A Practical Journey Planner and Personal Road Journal is available now.

👉 Find it on my Books page →

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Plan what you can. Trust what you know. Enjoy where the road takes you.