Only had a quick scan over the thread so I'm sorry if I am hashing stuff already mentioned. I am a no sar, do details flyer all the way! Obviously leave a flight note with a responsible person on the ground (siblings for instance are most definitely not on the list!) and give them a call when I land, try to use someone at the destination aerodrome where I can so I can get weather updates if required!
When I am doing GA flying I even slip into Essendon, Mooroobin etc... without a plan, just call up at the entry and ask for clearance through, have not been denied yet. Only time I have been told to remain outside C/A is if I only wanted to transition through a zone.
As for flight flowing, we spent a few years in the states and I did a fair amount of flying around Michigan while we were there. Flight following was about the norm for any trip over about 20nm! If you wanted to have any hope of flying in a straight over a long trip it was really the only way. The controllers just treated you like a VMC, VFR version of an IFR aircraft even though you did not submit a plan, handing you over where required and giving all the subsequent frequencies if need be. It was not uncommon to even ask the controllers for vectors, distance and time to your destination at current speed, like a radio operated GPS! It saved from your track ending up looking like a massive slalom course due to weaving between the hundreds of tower zones at all the airports or from cranking the radio dial every 10 seconds and requesting another tower transition clearance!!!! Apart from that have not used flight following in australia yet, so no comment on it over here!