hello people.
well. this is the beginning of what i hope is a succesful travel log about a succesful trip around australia.
Doin Oz. The Big Lap. Crossin the Paddock. you know what i mean.
we are planning to begin our adventures in a couple of months - late october.
well, thats when we hope to drive off, the adventure has already begun!
this trip has been in the making for a few years now.
it began a long time ago (late 90s). road trips to dwellingup etc with 6056 crew gave us our first taste of life in the wilderness.
the next big step was driving to coral bay for the first time (2004), in our A/C less hyundai in the middle of summer.
it was painfully hot in the car, the tyres melted of their rims, the tent was uninhabitable.
but still, we fell in love with the open road and life in the outback.
we loved coral bay so much that got married there last year. yay for us!
looking back, our next big point of preparation was packing up our lives in perth and moving to karratha for a year (2006). its no easy feat, shoving your life in to a storage unit and starting again elswhere.
its so much easier not to. its so much easier to stay where you are and stick with what you know.
most people do.
but it was an invaluable lesson, and gives us confidence that we can pack up and do it again.
Towards the end of our time in karratha, we bought the one thing which made this big trip seem so much more possible. our Nissan Patrol - '92 diesel - fully supercharged and setup for road cruising.
The previous owner customised it especially for towing a van long distances. perfect!..... well, not quite perfect. it has failed us a couple of times- most memorably when we had to walk the final 12kms of a 1200km trip to our own wedding. bumma. but apart from a couple of hiccups the big girl goes alright and my confidence grows constantly.
The next big purchase which set our big trip in stone, was our caravan (2010). Its an 18.5 feet long poptop which was made in 1980. its the same age as us! thats old hey?! but, just like us, its in really good condition for its age and we love it. when we towed it home for the first time, it felt like our dream was really materialisng.
And our dream has been coming closer to reality ever since.
every week we cross a few more things off the 'to do list' .
i cant remember ever being so focussed on one thing. its all i think about.
i think you would say i am obsessed. but i feel like i have to be.
it takes alot of effort to break out of the rat race.
it feels like the tentacles of day to day life wrap around us and wont let us go.
but soon we will be free
exploring the country that we call home, but have seen so little of.
thanks for reading
hopefully future posts will be a bit more interesting
this is just a test really. testing testing 1 2 check check. can you hear me?
