Planning for the Big Lap

Author: Mr A

In 5 weeks’ time, we will head off around Australia for 6 months in our caravan, joining the swelling ranks of grey (and not so grey) nomads doing the same. If you are interested in the ‘why, where, how’ of such trips, then read on.

The Why: Why would we leave a wonderful home near the beach, surrounded by friends who we share an amazing life with, with all sort of exciting things to do on our doorstep? Catherine has resigned from a job she really enjoyed, and I was enjoying starting my own consulting business.

Answer: 

1. We both have rare diseases and want to make sure we take advantage of our current good health to do things that later on one of both of us will struggle to enjoy fully.
2. We both always want to know what’s over the next horizon. It’s what drew us together  – a shared love of exploring new places and things – often in the outdoors and usually with some piece of equipment I have no idea how to use properly but Catherine works out pretty quickly.
3. Because it’s something we have always dreamed of doing together.  We loved our motorhome experience last year in Europe and felt there were parts of Australia we simply must explore.

The Where: So where should we go with a 6 month leave pass?

Answer: The Kimberley has always been somewhere we have watched programs about and gone “Wow – let’s go”. So now we are. We will drive up after a party in the Hunter at the end of May and just keep going northwest. We will finish up after a week of big drives and 5,000 plus km at Lake Argyle – a massive expansive of water that dwarfs Sydney Harbour. Then we will spend a month in the Kimberly before heading to Broome and around there,  and following the coast towards Perth and Adelaide and then…who knows.

The How: How will we travel on this epic journey?

Answer:  While on our last trip to Europe we decided a caravan would be the way to go. We hired a motorhome for 7 weeks to travel the south of France and just loved having a kitchen, toilet and shower on board, as well as not having to set up each night –  so we got back to Australia and made a plan.

1. Create the funds to buy a van – sell the camper trailer (tick) and raid my super funds (tick)
2. Research and purchase the best caravan for our needs (tick) – settled on a  relatively new entrant to the van market – Zone RV (zonerv.com.au)  – their fully off-road capable 18.6 model met our needs nicely
3. Test and learn! Get the hand of this caravanning lark  – my goodness it’s been a sharp learning curve with some bumps (literally) along the road. (Not quite a “tick” yet but the last two trips have been “ding free” so the trend is good :))
4. Rent our house out to create some income while on the road. No tick as yet 🙁 So a beautiful home on the northern beaches of Sydney is still available for a 6 month rental from the end of May! Plan B should we not get it rented – live very cheaply whilst on the road…

So – that’s the “why, when and how”. Coming soon – “Countdown to departure – what do you take for a 6-month trip?”