In a few short days, hubby and I are setting off on the ‘adventure of a lifetime’. We are taking off in our 4 wheel drive and 16 footer caravan to see our big wide wondrous country, Australia. Someone even suggested that we are having “an adventure before dementia”. Ha ha ha!

We live at pretty much the central point on the eastern coastline of Australia, a place known as the Gold Coast. From here we are heading in a southwards direction and taking our time stopping at some of the splendid places along the eastern coast. Once we reach the bottom of Australia we are going due west, as far as the Western Australian coastline, then heading northwards as far as Broome, Western Australia.

I have marked here on a map where we intend to travel:

The driving distance around Australia is approximately 20,000 kilometres, however we are cutting off Northern Queensland so we won’t quite be doing that distance. Whether we manage to do this distance in six months is uncertain – but we hope to get over to Western Australia at least.

The organization and preparation that has gone into our trip was ginormous! Firstly we shopped around for a new caravan that had all the features that we wanted and was capable of doing the trip. Then we had to add accessories such as solar power panels, reversing cameras, CB radio, GPS, water and petrol containers and so on. Phew, it has been both an exhausting and expensive exercise!

We then deliberated about what to do with our house. We do have a 25 year old son living at home temporarily so eventually he agreed to live in the house (and pay rent) and has organized a couple of friends to move in with him (who will also pay rent). This was a great relief as we did not like the prospect of packing and storing all of our furniture and personal belongings for such a short period of time and renting our house out to strangers.

Our jobs were another consideration. My hubby was able to take six months unpaid leave but I decided to retire from my part-time job. I am now officially a retiree, which is a bit scary! Hopefully the rent on the house will cover the cost of outgoings and leave a little bit extra for our trip. We intend to travel fairly frugally and stay in free camping areas where possible to cut down on expensive caravan park fees. However we will check into a caravan park to use facilities such as laundries and free wifi a couple of times a week.

Basically we will be free spirits and will go where the wind blows us! If we like a place, we will stay and look around. If we don’t like a place we will keep going. So with this in mind, and a 4 wheel drive and caravan packed to the rafters, along with our Labrador dog, we are free-wheeling and heading off for the adventure of a lifetime!

You will be able to read all about it as I take photos and write about our travels, the people we meet and the places we visit. So stay tuned!