On our way - finally

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After 9 months of careful planning, and much more dreaming, the day had arrived:
Katrina, Stewart, and their 3 boys off on a journey across Australia in our trusty Kulger, and our Jayco Freedom caravan.

We headed out of Sydney and into the wild (OK, we got as far as Tamworth for the first night).

This morning we spent packing the caravan – after a quick trip to James’s place to fix the weight distribution hitch, and a quick drop in on Ian to pick up a non-existent camera battery, and cleaning the house.

Big thanks in advance to JP for housesitting. It is great to know that we don’t have to worry or be concerned about our house.

Thanks also to Mum for doing some washing while we’re away – and for helping us clean the house.
Thanks to MIL for helping out this week in getting things into the caravan, and ironing Katrina’s clothes!!!

We left today at 12:15pm – full of enthusiasm and excitement. Comment was passed that it seems almost anti-climatic to actually get on the open road.

First night and we’ve made it to Tamworth – Australia’s country music capital. It is the first time that we’ve almost run out of petrol (feeling like we’ve been running on fumes) – in retrospect, we had a number of litres left, but it doesn’t really bode well to see that silly orange light reminding you to pull over at the next possible service station.

The biggest learning of the day was that it takes much longer to get anywhere with this van. I was almost frustrated at the slowness of the trip – and hated going up hills (60kph in a 100kph zone). The other frustrating point was that the New England Highway is not a main road. There are so many small towns and each town takes the speed limit down to 50kph – mix that with the myriad of roadworks, and a caravan, and time just drifts away.

Song of the day – Stay the Night ,by James Blunt

New car game – pick a word, and then find song lyrics with that word in it.

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