The travel diaries #1: Live your life by a compass, not a clock
If not now, then when? That pivotal question changed my family’s world.
After putting off our quest to do a lap of Australia for several years, due to time restraints, finances (or lack thereof), work commitments, school, family life and a host of excuses (cleverly disguised as reasons), we asked ourselves this one question and it flipped everything on its head.
Why not go now? Why not just take a leap of faith and do a half-lap while we can? We had put this dream on the shelf for far too long and it was gathering dust as each day passed.
Because sooner than you know it, we’ll be sitting in armchairs, frail with grey hair and wrinkles, wishing we had done ‘the big lap’.
Coming to the decision
We don’t want to spend our years waiting for our life to begin. After all, this is not the practice run or dress rehearsal, this is not the preview. This is it. We can’t wait for the right time when everything magically falls into place. We need to make it happen.
To aid our decision, we had recently embarked on what was supposed to be a 1.5-week trip to Birdsville in outback QLD, to once again attend our favourite event – the World’s most remote music festival, Big Red Bash.
For the fourth year in a row, we packed the ‘rig’, set off on a great Aussie adventure and once again had the time of our lives dancing to tunes under the stars and kicking up red dust in the Simpson Desert with thousands of other campers.
When it was time to head home as initially planned, we changed tact and decided to keep heading north for a ‘night or two’ instead of the planned route home back south to Victoria. Without even consciously realising it (or perhaps subconsciously we did, but didn’t admit it to ourselves or each other), we got swept up in the magic of orange-hued outback sunsets, spectacular scenery, remote outback towns and pubs, natural waterholes, hot mineral springs, and a star-studded sky.
The ‘few days’ turned into five weeks and every day we would wake up, spin the compass and choose which direction we would head. It felt rebellious, liberating, fun and exhilarating as we threw caution to the wind and turned our back on the logistical madness of raising a family. We decided weekend sports, school, work, and other life commitments could all wait.
This spontaneous five-week micro-adventure had been life-changing in many ways – I don’t say that lightly.
Before we knew it, we had pretty much done the entire east coast of Australia!
This trip confirmed it all for us. We needed to dust off that ‘big dream on the shelf’ of travelling around Australia and stop waiting for the right time, because the right time was staring us in the face.
Our connection and family dynamic was stronger than ever, the kids were at the perfect age to travel (7 and 11 years), and we were in an all-time sweet spot.
Instead of taking a year off or selling the house, we decided four months would let us do a half lap of WA and NT comfortably, without making some major lifestyle changes.
We can always come back and do another piece of the puzzle later, but for now, a smaller more achievable goal was calling us. If we didn’t take the leap, we would no doubt regret it.
So here we are, about to embark on the journey of a lifetime. To explore our great motherland, connect as a family unit on the road and take a bite-sized chunk out of the Australian map.
Because, if not now, when?
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Planning for the half-lap
Once we reached this decision (on our way home from the five-week trip no less) we immediately swung into logistics mode. We headed home and gave ourselves three weeks to tackle everything we needed to make this plan happen.
This included tasks such as:
- Packing up our house for rental and emptying our home contents into boxes and into our garage. No mean feat let me assure you.
- Meeting with the kids’ teachers to discuss what needed to be done from an educational perspective (Grade 6 and Grade 1 respectively)
- Packing the caravan with weight, space and capacity – all crucial factors.
- Prepping the caravan (e.g., service, dual battery system, fans installed, DC/DC converter…the list went on).
Financially, we decided to aim for spending the same amount on the road (as we do back home) and if we break even, we will be fine. If we come in under, even better!
Oftentimes, you often end up spending less on the road since you’re not dining out with friends, paying for sports and extra-curriculars, falling prey to late-night online shopping (yes, guilty as charged!), or buying daily coffee.
We also made the call to do a mix of ‘free camps’ and powered sites along the way to keep the costs down.
In terms of itinerary, we’re well-accustomed to ‘winging it’ and know it works best for us. So, we’ve mapped out a rough idea of which direction we would like to head (Victoria to SA, NT then WA and home) and the rest will take care of itself.
Wrapping it up
Here we are, about to head off on a grand adventure. Follow our journey as we navigate our way to freedom and help us spin the compass and choose which direction next!
We look forward to sharing our travel adventures, uncovering some myths of what life on the road is really like, sharing some tips on what may (or may not) work for your family (including some snaps of places you must add to your list), hearing from the kids and their perspectives of ‘life in a van’ and hopefully share some laughs along the way.
From the happy travellers!
Megsy, Matt, Daisy and Jasper.
Insta @traveltalesblog
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