Getting Prepared...

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We have less than 10 weeks until we depart on the trip of a lifetime. Between packing up the house, school, work, the boys’ football and organising our trip, Team Free are extremely busy.

We leave the Gold Coast on the 17^th June and will arrive at Heathrow, London via Kuala Lumpur London on the 18^th before turning around a few weeks later and spending the next 4 months ‘Overlanding’ back to KL before flying home.

Having been in the planning stage for the last few years, it’s hard to fathom that we’re about to do it!!! It’s going to be great to catch up with Don, Emma, Andrew, Frances and many others in London from London Rowing Club. London is where we got engaged back in 1995.

Jackson, Harrison and Hunter will undertake Term 3 at Kings via the internet and email. We couldn’t do this when we were at school many years ago. All their work will be pre-loaded on to the laptop before we go. Kings Christian College have been very supportive of this family adventure through 17 countries and 16,000km over 4 months.

We have been busy packing up everything around the house and working out what we need for 4 months on the road. It’s not too much……..a few t-shirts and pairs of shorts, jacket, thongs, board-shorts and a good pair of shoes each will do the trick. Plus a few things to keep us warm should things get a bit cold in Siberia and Mongolia and a few things for all the swimming we plan to do in South East Asia.

We can’t wait to meet many people from many countries, taste different foods, experience different cultures and share these memories as a family.

Our next update will be most likely just before we leave, or when we’re on the road………

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Photos

Planning
A bit of planning over a beer and a glass of red.

Scotch-garding
Water proofing the backpacks for the 'monsoons' of South East Asia.

Hanging out to dry.
Drying out the backpacks after being scotch-garded.

Our Backpacks
This is what we are living out of for 4 months.

Comments

[Anita Disley]

woo ho
We are getting very excited for you all. I am looking forward to the final itinerary (with dates) so we can start our own map and show the girls where you will be each day! Looking forward to the updates!

[Team Free]

Getting close.
Yes, the clock is ticking and we have plenty of work to do. Russian Visa's arrived this week. Next .....China.

[Sunny Boy]

This whole trip looks soft to me. Scotch guards? Don\'t they protect the Queen or something? When we travelled we wrapped our shared pack in a plastic bag (second hand, we couldn\'t afford a new one)! And what\'s this 10 packs for 5 Frees? I suspect one (or two) of these is for Marcus\'s hair care products! When we travelled we only owned enough to fill one small pack between us which we also doubled as our sleeping bag of a night. I look forward to getting bogus photos of the Free family in all sorts of challenging situations across Europe and Asia when in reality they dine in Michelin starred restaurants and sleep under feather down doonas in 5 star hotels. Mix up a tablespoon of cement Team Free, and HARDEN UP!

[Team Free]

Thanks for the support
Team Free can only wish to be half as tough as The Wilsons. We will be posting plenty of photos from the Hilton.......I mean Backpackers!!!!

[Janine]

Have a wonderful trip Team Free!
Envy is a bad thing:-)

[Team Free]

Don't worry, we will.