Author: Mr A
Location: Bulahdelah, NSW
Lucky in so many ways…that we went to such an awesome wedding yesterday and shared in the happiness of our friends getting hitched. Lucky also that we have headed off today for our next big trip, 6 months of caravanning around this beautiful country, initially heading up the east coast. Also a lot luckier than the folk in Tathra, on the NSW south coast, who have just lost their homes and caravans in the terrible bushfire. We were camped in the caravan park ourselves a few weeks ago. Really terrible destruction down there, it’s hard to imagine how devastating it is for these families to lose everything. Also lucky that after having my eyes checked this morning all is still well and the stent (fitted a few years ago) is still working properly to reduce pressure and save further deterioration in my vision.
This is my first post for a while, it has been a tough few weeks and I haven’t really felt like writing, so today decided to reflect on a great weekend, and count our blessings.
So feeling a little dusty after the weekend’s celebrations, and root canal treatment this morning, we collected our caravan from its parking spot outside our local bowlo, and pointed the Cruiser north. We had originally thought we would only make it to Wisemans Ferry today, but after a quick getaway decided to push on up up the freeway to Bulahdelah, a small RV friendly settlement now bypassed but looks still to be thriving, with the first donation camp beside the river being full. We carried on to the edge of town and found a nice $18 site on the showground, maintained by volunteers from the Lions Club. Plenty of room, nice grassy spots, toilets and water. Starting to feel a little excitement now that we have months stretching in front of us of the travelling life.
The plan is as follows; head up the east coast of NSW this week, through the rain by the sound of it, then meeting up next weekend with some fellow Zoners just north of Coffs Harbour. Then making a friend’s property in western Brisbane home for Easter, then more friends in Noosa for the following week. After that we actually haven’t decided more than “keep the ocean on our right”, we tend to only book about 3/4 weeks ahead. Most likely we will go up into the Northern Territory before heading down the centre to be back in Sydney mid September.
We are again travelling with our “adventure cat” Tassie, who seemed quite excited when we pulled up today and there is a new view for her. However, we have left behind our big double kayak, after using it for the last weeks down the south coast. It’s just not practical to travel off road with the 7.3 metre kayak balanced on the top of our roof racks. Instead we have put the little inflateable boats back in the car.
What else are we doing differently on this trip? Well we returned to to our pre-travel regime of fasting two days a week. Cutting out pies and snacks, and getting back to our fighting weights. It was a fasting day today, so tempting as it was being a little hungover to pile some fatty stuff in on the road, we resisited, and the first food since the wedding dinner last night is one of Catherine’s amazing veggie Pad Thais. Just delicious! It’s hard not to treat every day like a “holiday feast”, but when you’re travelling long term thats a recipe for getting over our recommended weight, as we did last year.
So here we go, we’re on the road again!
