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| This map lives on our caravan table. We may have added an inland soup sea or a pasta mountain range from time to time. You will also see that we are well ahead of the blog - a combination of the number of photos we take, me writing quickly enough and our lack of internet, especially in the Kimberly. |
This is the second in the 'not a travelogue style of blog
post'. These are some of our feelings and
learnings but I thought you might be interested. We would be happy to answer any questions –
leave a comment, email us. We would love
to hear from you.
Travelling is not
like a holiday – this is an interesting difference. With a holiday you plan to relax. We are planning to experience and we do. We push ourselves to learn, we take ourselves
outside of our comfort zones, we are removed most of our support networks, we
don’t veg these days. I really hadn’t
realised how hard long term travelling is.
But is still worth it, every second!
There are no weekends
when you travel – well obviously there are still Saturdays and
Sundays. But they are travel days
too. You take tours, do the walks, move
to new destinations, you keep travelling pretty much the same as any other day
(although in the country you do need to check on opening times especially the shops). This means that you don’t have
a quiet time each week, or even get a sleep in (that's what home is for).
A sense of humour is essential,
I mean ESSENTIAL – that’s it.
You can never see it
all – obvious but hard to accept.
Doesn’t matter how long you travel for you still have to
prioritise. You also have to be flexible
and change your plans as you go (harder for us control freaks).
Kids do learn well
when they experience it – we are continually amazed with how much our kids
absorb and what they come out with now.
It is quite funny seeing them gobsmack a ranger or guide with their
knowledge :)
Everyone learns lots
– David and I are learning all the time.
About dinosaurs, geology, indigenous culture, geography and
history. But also about ourselves. This is one of the hardest, bravest, most
amazing things we have done. We better
be learning from it.
You don’t need so
much stuff, really you don’t need it – firstly caravans are small, second
you can’t jam pack them because you will go over their weight limit. From a four bedroom house to an 18ft Jayco
Expander. We have so little stuff these days – and we don’t need it. In fact I still clear out more stuff from the
caravan because we don’t use it. The
really interesting question – how will we be when we return??????
You can still lose
things even when you live in an 18ft box – yes I do mean inside the
caravan. I guess we may need even less stuff.
You do get to know
your family so much better – how could you not. OK I am a pretty involved mum anyway, but we
spend all day everyday together. I know
my kids and my husband so very much better.
I have done amazing things with my family. I get to share so much with them. I hope this
makes us better parents.
You don’t actually
like your family everyday – some days just seem to SUCK. There are days where nothing goes right,
everyone is tired, you aren’t feeling well, the kids are totally grotty,
etc. The hard thing about travelling is
there is nowhere to escape too. In some
respects you just have to suck it up and move past it (maybe with the help of
the odd libation from time to time).
There is very little
time for reading fiction – we seriously thought we’d have more time for
reading. By the time we get the kids to
bed, download and sort the photos (we sort of take a lot and we have four cameras in the family), charged the cameras for the next day, paid any bills,
researched the next stop, written the next blog post, as well as keeping on top of birthdays and stuff back home – well its past bedtime.
Dust gets everywhere
– especially red dust. OK we have doors
that seal, windows that shut, we wipe feet BUT NONE OF THAT MATTERS. It still gets in and on everything. The dust
that ate the caravan, it is like a scene from a B grade alien movie. And don’t get me started on the car……
You need really good
walking shoes – OK we are on a budget.
We cut corners where we can, we don’t eat out lots etc. BUT you don’t skimp on good shoes. They are essential for not letting you slip
and fall, for not killing your feet beyond the first 10k, for not falling apart
in the middle of the outback where there are no real shops. So thanks to Athletes Foot for putting us
into our Merrells – we love them !!!!!! (and just so you know, no we have no
sponsors or financial interest in anything I mention on this blog - mores a pity)
You still need to do
the ordinary – OK we might be in amazing Kakadu or the marvelous Daintree. But this doesn’t stop our hair from growing,
the boys from growing out of their clothes, things from falling apart or even
us getting bored of the same DVDs or music.
So we do like a big town occasionally for a good lot of ordinary.
You don’t have to
wash so often – and by this I mean us, kids, clothes, towels, sheets –
everything pretty much. We have city
standards and pretty high ones at that.
You can’t really keep that going on the road and the probably not
surprising thing is – it isn’t necessary.
We don’t smell, we are still hygenic, we haven’t been mistaken for
vagrants, what else matters.
You spend a lot of
time in your car, a lot – so plan it well.
We do audiobooks, comics, spelling bees, I spy, car cricket, DVDs (not
often), music and yep looking out the window.
On long drive days I plan lots of snacks, lots of drinks and some treats
for late in the afternoon. We always
stop for breaks. Sometimes we ditch plans and cut drives short – we don’t drive
tired and we try not to drink before drive days.
Food and fuel is
outrageously expensive in small outback towns – and there is no
choice. We have paid over $2 per litre
for fuel, $6 for milk and $9 for a small block of cheese. There are towns where
fresh produce is limited, everything is shipped in frozen. The thing to remember is that our van doesn’t
do off road – so these are reasonable sized towns, not remote communities. Imagine living like this all the time.
Kids need kids. The thing our boys miss most is their
friends. They have become experts in
picking up instant friends wherever we go.
Of course the kids they are playing with are usually travelling as well
and they are missing their friends too. Its funny watching them find other kids
– they get almost like a sugar rush and go hyper. David and I miss our friends and family most
as well. I suspect there might be a
dinner or two, a BBQ or three at our house when we are back.
RANDOM ONE LINERS (yep
I can do short):
- Australia is bloody huge and really really varied
- Most of Australia is red or brown and bloody dry
- The dry is really well dry - we want to see the wet now (a future trip in the making)
- You packed too much. No, you still packed too much I promise
- Good communication is vital, but hard some days
- This is not a sprint it is a marathon, and like any marathon you get tired in bits
- Termite mounds change all the time and are really cool (in the NT people dress them up)
- You can do without wifi, tv, facebook, internet, even blogging. Yep really
- Your kids can do more than you think they can
- The photography is amazing but hard work
- Willy willies are common in the outback and really cool looking (especially with leaves or over burnt ground)
- Australia really is better seen in person
- The scenery even in the in between bits is amazing
- In the top end you will drink a lot of water – not all of it tastes nice
- You can reverse park a caravan (if I can you can)
- You cannot keep a van floor clean – not in the slightest so give up now
- This is the best thing we have done in a long time – we love every day (even the sucky or hard ones) !!!!!!!!!!!
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