Organised chaos

...and the art of getting away on that long awaited trip in one (mental) piece

09.08.2012

Okay, so this is the first entry on my new blog. After mucking around with three different specific "travel blogs" doing my first entry and losing every one though to one deal or another (and a great deal of frustration!!) I decided to go back to what I know. Good old Blogspot. Simple to use and familiar.  I will try really hard to update often (depending on internet access) to keep you all informed as to what we up to on a week to week (or day to day depending on how good I am lol) basis.

I woke with a sense of wonder this morning. After many stops and starts, today was the actual day we were to set off on our 12 month foray into the unknown. There's been months and months of frantic packing, researching, updating and adding to our caravan and 4wd, stops and starts and just general mayhem as we hurtled headfirst into what some might deem a daunting prospect.... 12 months away, squashing five (and at one point 6 when Mitchell joins us) people into a 23 foot caravan. Sounds like fun and a nightmare at the same time? It is... but very doable. Turns out the caravan actually has lots of room (an oxymoron in itself I think.. when is a caravan roomy you might ask?) with lots of hidey hols to stash our things into. I actually think the hardest part is over. We have said goodbye to family and friends and to everything that is familiar and today is the start of a new adventure.

We actually managed to leave the house around 11am this morning. Clever thinking on my behalf really - I said to Chris try to be on the road by 10am knowing full well the poor man (who's worked his butt off since the day he stopped work lol) would never be ready by that time but would most likely be good to go an hour or so later. It worked. Once we figured out where all the extras were to go - camping chairs, tables, tools, Riley's school things etc etc etc ... things moved pretty fast with lots of toing and froing and hey Chris, hey Carolyn, and Mason, where are you? from one end of the carport and house to the other as we double and triple checked we had everything we needed. After saying goodbye to Gary and Bec who were madly starting on their end with the unpacking of their things into their new house (which most of you know by now is our place), we made a stop off to mum and dads for a final goodbye and a quick photo session of the 'Big Rig" as Chris likes to call it. Jake quipped "This is just like when we leave for Busselton. Dad never leaves without one final check on the tires or petrol." Sure enough on leaving mum and dads, we DID have to make one more final stop - to check the tire pressure on the caravan tires.

We made good time to our first stop The Guilderton Caravan Park. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Good driving weather. See mum and dad.. we waited for the sun lol. Not a raindrop in sight. Guilderton is lovely. The caravan park is right on the beach, where the ocean meets an estuary. Setting up the van and things we needed for comfort didn't take too long either once we bagged our spot,caravan plot number 113 right next to a gorgeous shady tree, with the added bonus of not being too far from the showers, loos, bbq's and well, everything. It wasn't long before the men all wandered off to check out the best fishing spots leaving me to my own devices. I kicked back, learned how to work the big pond internet when there's no WiFi (which there's not at this park) and just catch my breath to decompress from the busy mad weeks we left behind.

The guys ventured out into the cold around seven tonight (after a scrappy dinner I whipped up using the caravan kitchen for the first time) but didn't manage to catch much. Just a few tiddlers. They are going out on the boat tomorrow. Hopefully they will have more luck. Will let you know.

Adios till next time