Leaving Aussie from Melbourne

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Finally! It had been a long wait having booked the flight to London in September, to Sweden in October and Greece in December.

I had been in Adelaide for a month before we set off and Tomas only a week.

Here we wait for check in for our Royal Brunei flight to London.
In Adelaide I mainly cycled to and from the local library to scan photos spanning back decades. An effort in trying to stream line my life and get rid of stuff.

Doing this brought back loads of memories some good and some not so good so. It was good preparation for this trip. Try to only make good memories and remember them by special photos.
We will not be able to do this indefinitely. It will be a special time and we will want to have it documented to be able to relive the happiness.

I decided to only save images that brought happy feelings as other feelings made me avoid looking at the images altogether, so out those bad memories of the past went so that in years to come they may fade.

The long weekend in June was filled with party, party, party as wonderful friends and family worked around our dates to welcome our company and make us feel special.

Another rewarding event was in catching up with an old school friend from 34 years back who recognized my sister in a supermarket. Amazingly after such a long time it felt so familiar and easy.

Tomas arrived and resumed work after only 1 day break. Driving into the office to do his NZ job he brought with him like a normal member of the rat race but with a different attitude brought by a new environment and the knowledge of what was not very far ahead.

My brother drove us to the airport and sister in law made a special visit to wish us the best, share our excitement and help us to feel blessed. Hopefully my mother would be happy to have her space back.

PACKING LIGHT

These are some post notes on our packing and how packing light was important for the way that we wanted to travel. We wanted to be mobile and carefree.

I carried 7.3kg total upon leaving Australia. Tomas carried much less as he saw it as a competition as to who could pack the least. He did pretty well but it turned out that in order to be comfortable much was borrowed from my pack. The scarf to protect his neck from the sun, sunscreen, umbrella, insect repellant, Toblerone (yes, I packed one) amongst just a few small items.
I carried much more diversity in clothing, all were extremely lightweight and took very little space and weight though.
Shoes take much weight and space so we only carried 1 pair comfortable walking shoes, flip flops/thongs/ handles (same thing depending on where you are from) and for me my Teva sandles as well. All of our most heavy, bulky items were worn onboard when flying

Packing light has had enormous advantages. Carrying only cabin baggage meant nor having to check in luggage saving time when arriving anywhere, not having to wait for the baggage to be unloaded from the plane.

In London for Easy jet went it meant we didn't have to wait for baggage drop to open before passing through security, which is open as early as you arrive. We went through 5 hours before our flight making us more relaxed and avoiding a queue.

It also meant we were more mobile when travelling to and from the airport, able to use public transport and walk, where possible, obviously saving travel money and getting a more local experience. This experience is valuable from my point of view but I know many travellers that prefer to avoid local contact as much as possible.

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Photos

Our luggage
Carry on bags only

Roxy Wrapped Up
Cold nights in Adelaide but sunny days

Tomas backpack
4.8 kg when leaving Adelaide

Comments

[Sue Harcombe]

What a great attitude!
Go girl!

[Kirsten]

Packing light
When you get back, I could use a few lessons. :-)