Home Sweet Home!

Home again!



The caravan has been unpacked, cleaned and parked up. We're now living with space and it's time to reflect on my earlier questions.

1. Did I enjoy the trip.... Absolutely, yes, YES. Everyday was an adventure. With no firm plans and if we wanted to stop...we did.


In the morning I couldn't actually tell you where we'd end up that night. I liked that. Walking around we'd find out things about the area then follow up by visiting, reading, photographing, talking to people.

Living in such a small space meant that we had to cooperate, if Greg was at the sink I had to sit down... Shame!

I cooked and washed. Greg did all the outside work, I did a lot of the inside duties and we both shared the tidy up stuff.  

We had to keep thing tidy; things needed to be put away and organised but we're pretty good at that. We ate well, lots of healthy food. That was easy to manage with the facilities we had. By the time we hit the camp it night we were usually tired as we'd either travelled a long distance or been exploring and walking about. Greg read the paper, did the puzzles and would try to get the TV tuned (with varying degrees of success and frustration). Often we had no TV and so we watched a few videos or read.









I would cook tea, download photos and try to update the blog.

I did "spit it" once after 3 very long days of travel. With washing building up around me I just wanted to make the hurricane traveller spick and span again and needed time out to do that. Greg sensed the moment (got the message) and Rifter got an extra long walk that day.  But we didn't run out of conversations, laughs and never ever got bored by it all.


I did get a bit sick of trudging up to caravan park bathrooms and the vagaries of their shower heads.



It was good to have a bathroom on board but we didn't use the shower that often.

We also had some very cold nights which I hadn't predicted. Silly really as we were travelling in winter. It was easier when it was warm. Getting up when it's 1C outside and about the same inside was tough ...OK I'm a bit soft.. I know!

2. Rifter! He added an extra dimension to the trip, and yes there was always the frustration of not being able to go into National parks but there were lots of positives.

 

He travelled really well, slept for hours in the car on the long days, took up a small space, was easy to feed, didn't bark, wagged his tail and was always happy to meet and great others...both dogs and humans.  He often walked up wagging furiously and introduced himself and people were very happy to chat. He enjoyed sleeping in the car if we needed to do something without him so we'd find a shady tree, park up and off we'd go. Luckily it was cool winter weather. In one caravan park we even found a dog sitter that allowed us to do the scenic railway. Also he'd get us out walking. Freezing cold and we'd be walking in the park instead of coffee and muffins at the warm coffee shop. There was lots to see on this trip that didn't involve National Parks. Finding caravan parks to stay in was not a problem; it was only in Cairns that we didn't have a choice.

3. Was I homesick? Not really as I constantly sent texts, emails, photos and blogged. Probably drove everyone crazy but I just wanted to share the amazing things happiness we were having on the trip and know how everyone was back home. I think most days we had good connections....except bush camping at Minindee lakes and in the Flinders Ranges.

4. Greg did a great job of driving, setting up and manouvering the rig and had no issues. The one "ding" we had was out of our control. It was not always easy and some caravan parks were built in an earlier era so a bit tight to get into/out of. No reversing discussions of the heated variety on the trip, or any other driving discussions...from either of us! Great patience was demonstrated throughout. We got better at hitching, packing up, unpacking and remembering. everything. Didn't forget anything drastic (like drive off still attached to power, water.. thank goodness) but did leave the aerial up once, left the jockey wheel on once as we moved off and a very polite neighbour prompted us and occasionally forgot to put the mirrors on before we got out of the park....little things ... that we noticed within a couple of minutes..... It IS a bit of a business.

5. We met nice people and stayed at some great parks in the outback with a friendly "happy hour" But I reckon there are some definite "old farts in caravan parks". Mostly we avoided any of that stuff. One night out of Townsville we were underwhelmed by the happy hour brigade consisting of screeching noisy women telling not so funny stories and being grilled about ...what career did we have... We didn't go back the following night and instead chatted to our interesting neighbours. Plenty of "Dick and Dora, channel 18, Just Cruising" on the back of the vans, country music blaring types!! Triple J was our radio channel if we could get it, and the new Double J. There are a lot of retirees travelling about; of varying ages, in endless varieties of vans. Some sit and prop for ages, others are permanently on the road and other just pass through. All different.

6. I enjoyed the travelling and even though I had books to read there was so much to see out the window that I rarely read while we were driving. We did a lot of walking and even on long driving days would stop ever couple of hours for a stretch/march about. Greg went paddling a few times, probably not as often as he'd have liked though. Didn't need to pack the bathers as it was too cold.

We have a couple of short trips planned before Christmas and will make sure the van is not mothballed. There is plenty of Australia to explore yet.