Fact is, we have left the Big Smoke last Tuesday night. This time for good! Yes my dear friends, I mean, it’s not just for one of the countless long weekends or a holiday. No, our little family has quit the fabulous childcare, the inspiring positions at work and most importantly the home base three feet off Maroubra Beach. The time has come for us to go west. And if I mean West, then really – West! The last sight of the Pacific was at Maroubra Beach, as we drove off with our fully loaded Landcruiser Prado 4WD on a day where the Southerly Swell was roaring onto the beach more I’d ever seen before. The occurrence of a little rainbow made me smile and remember that without rain, there are no rainbows… Anyway, we’d just had enough of the unsteady, very rainy year induced by La Nina, and as we checked the weather forecast with more unstable, windy and wet weather to come along the East Coast, we decided to change our former plan, give up the cruise along the coast to visit friends in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, and just head west over the Great Dividing Range.
It is drier and sunnier over here. And also colder… as I am typing this, my fingers are freezing and longing for the cuppa hot tea. This morning we woke up at near zero degrees C, and now at 11 PM it’s way below 10 degrees C again. At least it’s dry. However, another race has started, the one to make the most of the few sunny and warm hours the short winter days have to offer at the moment. And yet, we chose this season to do our crossing of the continent, and visit the outback. The winter sun is less searing, and normally there’s hardly any rainfalls in the red center and the Northern parts of Australia. We’ll see how things will turn out this year. Apparently La Nina will still have its effects over the next couple of months, with more rain, floods and blocked roads to come.
How pleasant it is to have some time to linger in my thoughts. This kind of luxury has become very shorthanded since the kids have arrived. They are bringing loads of other kinds of little joys. I really like the idea of having a bit more time with them during this journey. But right now I’m just excited to be myself with my notebook. My three darlings are in bed, less than a couple of meters above me, in the rooftop tent under some warm douna covers…
Just a bit more than a week ago, I still had five darlings around. It was in the two bedroom flat in Maroubra, where my dear parents Momo and Yeye spent seven weeks with us, to look after the kids, and give me and my partner Anh-Dao moral support in completing all the administrative and professional tasks besides all the farewell happenings. It was a great time, and I do feel very sad about the big gap I am currently feeling. My parents left back to Europe the same day we left Sydney. More than a third of our stuff is currently travelling in a railway container to Perth, Western Australia, while we managed to get rid of a lot of other stuff such as baby furniture with the help of ebay. The job I left is still hunting around in my mind although I have left it for good. I do miss my friends and dear work colleagues - whereas the hustle-bustle of Sydney, I don’t miss it at all to date. It will probably take a few wonderful sunsets over the outback to really deeply feel that I am doing the right thing.
Coming back to Dubbo, we’ve decided to stay here for a few days for the time it takes us to get organized with everything before heading Back O’Bourke, as the people say for the real outback… I mean, Anh-Dao and I already did our 4WD training, but believe me, the car feels a lot different now that it’s fully loaded with camping gear, recovery gear, warm clothes, petrol, food and water reserves. It takes a lot to get started, but once you do set off, practice and routines reveal a lot of areas you can further optimize! To date our challenge was to put all the stuff into the car. Now we’re trying to get our logistical mess a bit more organized, so we don’t constantly loose our mind looking for little stuff here and there. We’d like to enjoy the journey and the family, and not get crazy about every little thing, so a little more preparation will hopefully get us there, sooner or later ;-) Probably a bit sooner if it stays cold and we drink tea, or a bit later if it gets warmer and we switch back to beer… haha!
I can’t feel my toes any more, it’s time to stop for now! Tomorrow’s another day! We’ll see how we can keep everyone of you posted over the next few months. I believe it will be a mix of blog, photos on flickr and daily updates of our location via the webpage of our SPOT satellite messenger. See our favourite links on the right for ongoing updates of the latter two.
4 comments:
Merci pour ce poste qui m'a rempli d'emotions en le lisant sur mon ipad ce matin autour d'un the chaud et d'une tartine grillée! J'admire votre courage de vous lancer dans cette aventure a 4, vous allez vivre des moments inoubliables (dans tous les sens du terme j'imagine!) et j'ai deja hate de vous lire ou meme de chatter si l'occasion se presente! Je pense fort a vous et vous envoie plein de bisous de Buchillon sous le soleil!
cool on se rejouit de vous suivre les amis....si vos problem se limiter a trouver les bieres dans votre coffre c'est que la vie doit etre plutot tranquil...on vous embrasse fort
dav&Sab
About travel logistics..... there is none better that Momo for this. She had every cubic cm of our Hotel Berlingo under full control - alltogether for 6 months (in several stages of course).
Warm hugs from Yeye and Momo
wow, these are intressting news from the 4bumblebs. enjoy your family time.
Post a Comment