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Published: January 28th 2009
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Tis true, today is our 9th Wedding Anniversary and as much as we love our little home with it's beautiful surroundings, we can't wait to be somewhere warmer this time next year!
The countdown to the off is in full flow with more and more emphasis being placed on the search for a suitable adventure vehicle. This includes hours being spent on the internet rather than cooking tea! We'd originally thought the decision about 'what vehicle' was totally straight forward ... campervan, has to be, doesn't it? Well apparently, no, it doesn't! Now the idea of a 4WD and a caravan has crept into our collective minds so we're checking out more possibilities. It's not just us two that we need to consider, Sarah's Mum and Dad will be coming out to Australia sometime in 2010 to take up where we've left off! Now they've had the luxury of a previous trip to refer too, oh yes, they've done this before! We're not sure the camper was ever given a name but this "little" beauty was their home for a number of months as they toured Oz a few years ago. We can almost hear the looks of shock on your faces now!! They had a fabulous time and the van did them proud. We're hoping to emulate their adventure but in something a little more spacious! So our search continues. It's being helped by other travel-bloggers who are offering support and advice along the way, many consider a campervan ideal whereas others feel a 4WD & caravan will give us more freedom to explore parts that otherwise might stay unreachable!
Some of our favourite bloggers,
Kangaroojack have a trailer tent
and a 'swag bag'
.... they are clearly an adventurous couple who are relishing the outdoor life and everything it brings! The question is, would anyone fancy their chances zipped into a swag bag with Darryl for a night?! Survival would surely come at a cost!
In other news, we've started to pack our house up so Mum and Dad can move in and look after it and our cat for us while we're away! "Tiger" our larger than your average kitty kat has quite a shock coming when she finally wakes up from the 23 hour snoozes she takes and realises we're not coming back at the end of the week ... well, not just yet! So there's a mass clear up going on at both of the houses as Mum and Dad's will hopefully be rented out for the duration of them living up here at ours and then them travelling around Australia.
Then there's been all of the bills etc for our house throughout the rest of 2009 and 2010 to consider. So that's meant since we sprung this mad cap idea on ourselves only last April, we've been saving for the trip and saving for the bills over the coming year. We've been economical and luckily Sarah's Mum and Dad are generously assisting with the cost of the adventure vehicle but more than anything it's just proved to me how much money we waste on rubbish!! That sounds familiar ... is that something I was told when I was younger?!
So where are we up to now then in terms of being ready? We've got a plan, we've got a travel diary, a travelblog, a laptop (touch wood) that will help us keep the travelblog up to date on our travels, we've got a lift to the airport (!), we've got 2 suitcases with things in them that we think we need, we've got passports, driving licences, travel insurance, tickets, visas ....... and we still have 86 days to go so it's not too bad! In an attempt to save money on our travels, Sarah has even 'gone back' to being a brunnette!!! Who knows how long it will last but she got through Christmas not being blonde ... although it hasn't stopped the 'blonde moments' so that's clearly not associated with hair colour afterall!
Next on the agenda is sourcing some travel chargers for the laptop and camera batteries. We've got it on good authority from fellow bloggers
KangarooJack that solar power is the way forward ... which makes sense considering Australia is hardly lacking in sun! We think we'll need to keep things charged as we're going to try to blog each day seperately when we start the adventure, whether we'll manage daily uploads very much depends on the amount of McDonalds and Starbucks Coffee houses we can find! We're learning from others that 'the golden arches' are a welcome sight for Skyping and Blogging!
And there it is, this time next year we hope to be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary in a tiny place called Nelson not far from Mt Gambier in Victoria.
So, I suspect the next update will be just after the 19th March which is the first of our 'hit the road Howells' parties!
Thanks for listening and we'll chat to you again soon.
All the best from Darryl and Sarah
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