Caravan Life

We arrived in Numurkah (northern Victoria) last Saturday, so after a week, we're all getting into more of a routine living in the van. We're here for about 6 weeks, so they had picked a nice site for us at the caravan park. Unfortunately, the people that were in that spot had car trouble and wouldn't be able to leave for 2 days. We set up in a different spot. Darren said the awning and annexe would only take 10 minutes to set up - it didn't! After poles fell on our heads a couple of times, and one of the locals came over to give some advice (which didn't work) we finally got it all set up. Then two days later, we took it all down, moved to the better site, and set up again (with less pole falling this time). This site has a concrete slab to put the annexe over, so it was worth all the hassle of moving. Much better for the kids to play in. You can see the Territory parked outside the van in the photo.

It's a great caravan park - quite small, with lots of trees and beautiful gardens. There are a few permanent residents here, and a few older couples travelling. and also some backpackers tenting it. The one thing it doesn't have is other kids. Casey, Brodie and Tara have had to depend solely on each other for company, and it's going really well. There's been hardly any arguments (touch wood!)

I've settled into van life so easily. I was a bit worried that it wouldn't be everything we'd imagined (and I know it's early days yet), but I'm just loving it. I feel so relaxed. The housework is almost non-existent and the kids have all been helping with cooking, dishes and sweeping out the annexe. We've even been getting through a bit of schoolwork.

Here are some photos of our journey so far. The rest stop at Yelarbon where we spent our first night; The free camp site at Mirrool - our second night; Tara washing the dishes; Kids in the annexe -Numurkah caravan park

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We're off - finally!!

Woohoo!! We are in the car, caravan behind. To all my friends who have been logging on, wondering if I was ever going to write another blog again, wondering if we had dropped off the face of the earth - I'm very sorry, and very happy to tell you WE'RE OFF! The last couple of weeks or so have been crazy, stressful, exhausting. Cleaning up the house and getting everything into storage was all-consuming, hence the lack of blog entries. We finally moved out of the house last Friday, but Darren still had a couple of little things to finish on the van - putting up curtains, bike rack. Then a couple of things turned into a couple more. We were parked in his uncle's backyard (the one who built the van with him). It was so hot, and we were in the way a bit, so the kids and I moved in with Darren's sister and her husband (you are angels Shaz and Mick!) Darren slept in the van a couple of nights and during a big downpour, discovered two small leaks, which he quickly fixed. Luckily we weren't on the road when that happened. We still had a Wet'n'Wild pass to use that we got for Christmas - we fit that in last Monday and had a great time. Casey and Tara have been sick with a nasty cold for the last week. And to top it all off, the real estate rang late Wednesday afternoon (we were planning to head off early Thursday) to tell us that we needed to go back and clean the marks off the walls of the house (which were there when we moved in). Still under dispute over that one!!

It has been said that you don't really appreciate things if they come too easily. Well let me tell you, I am so appreciating being in our new home - our beautiful caravan. We left the coast at 1:30pm on Thursday and got to Yelarbon, just east of Goondiwindi, for our first night. We parked in a rest area right next to the hwy and the railway line. It was very noisy, but we were so excited and had a great night in the van. We headed off again very early the next morning and had a 14 hour day in the car. Poor Tara cried all afternoon, saying "Dad, stop the car. I don't want to go round Australia. I want to go home!" She was in great spirits after stopping for dinner and was happy to get back in the van to go to sleep. We stopped for the night at a free camp spot at Mirrool (between West Wyalong and Narrandera) - population of 17. It was a lovely spot. The good thing is we only have a short drive today to get to Numurkah (northern Victoria) where we will be staying in the caravan park for about 6 weeks.

I am writing this in the car as we are driving, on our new laptop. Gotta love that! I promise there will be more regular updates from now on, so stay posted!!