Thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
The Journey Begins
The Start of our Blog
So its Thursday 18 October 2018 and after deciding to take the plunge and leave the comfort of our lounge chairs we have decided to take Australia by our teeth and take off in our caravan on a 12 month BIG LAP of Australia in 2020.
This will, or course, all depend on lots of things falling into place but especially being in good health to be able to achieve our plan.
We have told family, friends and work of our plans. The reactions we have received have been interesting but all positive.
Our departure date was originally 1 July 2020 but we have bought that forward to 1 May 2020 so we can head straight up to the top end to enjoy the dry season. At this point in time we only have a rough plan of where we are headed which like all travellers will depend mainly on the weather.
So why blog?
I want to keep a record of our movements prior to leaving and whilst we are away and mainly to be able to let everyone know where we are and what we are doing without having to call everyone individually.
We have already started modifying our van and car. We are also going to make modifications to our house so that we can rent part of it out and have the other part of the house for our dog sitter.
Oh yes, we have made the saddest decision of all and that is not to take our beautiful Tilly with us as we believe that we will probably only get one chance at this so need to be able to travel through National Parks and other places where dogs are not permitted.
We are both feeling pretty low about leaving her behind but we know she won’t forget us and it is only for 12 months.
So cheers for now. Love to hear from you all over the next 18 months as we progress towards are dream.
Modifications to Caravan
So the caravan modifictions have begun.
George has been working hard to provide all the things I keep asking for. So lucky to have such a handy hubby!!
So we have removed the outside fridge draw and replaced it with a custom made slide draw for our food as we do most of our cooking outside. The draw also makes things much easier to find rather than have to delve into cupboards with no lighting.
So pleased with the result. Making a “shower cap” to go over draw when travelling just to keep out any dust that may get in.
Then I decided we needed more lighting outside and considering the miles we were going to cover I wanted something that wasn’t going to fall down or have to repaired or modified every time we stopped. So I got the lighting fixture strip to fit our awning and some cheap led lights and set hubby to work again.
Really makes a big difference!!
Then my hubby took pity on my poor old knees not bending they way they use so he installed a slide out shelf for me so now I can sit on the cafe seating and slide the shelf out and get to what is at the back. Brilliant!!
Bliss
So whilst my mans been busy so have I. Researching!!
How time flys
I cannot believe that I haven’t had a chance to blog since October 2018. 2019 was so hectic. We had probably our last overseas holiday to Canada in May 2019 and that pretty much consumed the first 4 months of 2019. The trip was fantastic and we were so lucky to travel with our dear friends, Lee and Kerry Hallet.
However on our return from Canada in June 2019, things just kept snowballing. I had a small hand operation which put me out of action for a couple of weeks, George was hospitalised during July and finally a small operation in August which saw him in hospital for 4 days, one of sons had a personal issue which saw me making a quick trip to Melbourne and moving him in with us in Ulladulla until late September, George’s sister, Lynette took ill in August and saw her in and out of hospital until October when she moved to Queensland to be closer to her son, cleaning out her hairdressing salon and house with the help of George’s other sister and her husband, Elva and Frank Marshall, celebration of Andrew and Keiryn’s wedding (a definite highlight), Lynette losing her struggle for life in November, December was spent organising her memorial service, travelling to Melbourne for Ty’s graduation and Christmas with the boys and finally returning to destructive fires in our area which saw a lot of people we knew losing their homes and unfortunately their life.
We celebrated New Years Eve very quietly with fires buring all around us and hoping that 2020 will be better than 2019. Fortunately so far we are all ok, I have my cousins staying with us until the danger of the fires pass as they were caught in one of the most affected areas but whilst they have some horrible stories they are ok and so is their house.
So for the rest of 2020, it will be better I am staying positive.
We are now less than 4 months before we leave and I am busy packing the things we will not need to use in the next 4 months and trying to get George to clean out our storage shed of his stuff so we can store boxes. We have decided (on advice from our letting agent) not to let the house furnished so we are also organising removalist and storage for 12 months of our household items.
During 2019 we made several modifications to the house and also the caravan. The house has been renovated to accommodate my cousins granddaughter who will be looking after our precious Tilly do until we return. The caravan has seen the installation of a diesel heater, a contra flow air system to try and keep the dust out and sealing of all holes we can find. We have also converted a couple of the wardrobe shelves to pull out draws so we can get to things easily. George has also modified the van so that we can carry our push bikes inside the van rather than on the outside. We have organsied better cover over the kitchen and bbq which should help keeping the rain off these areas. We have removed items that we haven’t used and are slowing moving the small things we will need into the van. We have also installed a solar automatic light over the door of the van for security as well as safety. George now has a weather station for the van and I bought myself a go pro to record our trip.
So over the next few months we will be busy buying spare parts for the car and caravan, packing, packing and more packing, sorting our household bills etc so that we get everything by email, finding sutable people to rent our house, moving out a week before we leave and finally cleaning the house and taking off by 1 May.
Feeling a little anxious about the job ahead of us and a little nervous of walking away from our dog, family, friends and house for 12 months.
Will try and keep the blog up dated regularly now until we leave.
