From sunsets to sunrises, from silliness to silo’s we have been on the road for 21 weeks now and not without its challenges. We set off early March down to the Peninsula, caught up with friends not the road and some that lived down that way. It was our way of getting to know what it was like, not living in the van as we had been for 18 months but moving the van from the Yarra Valley to anywhere we desired. We spent 3 weeks there until, for family reasons we were drawn back to the Yarra Valley.
Now we found it pretty easy to get used to living in a caravan and I think we had it pretty much worked out, but the hardest part was taking the step to move the caravan to a different location. See the caravan had been on my parents property since July 2021 and we had moved into it permanently in late November 2021, so we were pretty used to scooting around each other in the confinements of the van and working at moving things from one place to the other to be able to use the stove or prepare meals. We had designated the bed as the storage space for during the day when we need to move things out of the way and organised a routine of where everything goes from the bed at night. We had mastered our things like a game of tetris and it was working well, but moving from where we had gotten quite comfortable with was going to be a challenge in itself.
We decided to do it slowly and made our first move to see friends that were travelling on the road at Dromana (Victoria), then on our own to Rosebud (Victoria) only 5 minutes down the road from Dromana. You have to admit, we knew the caravan had wheels but we just didn’t have any experience in making them move. Scary stuff when you are not used to it.
Only 3 weeks into our journey we were back in the Yarra Valley, back at my parents property until we were happy with knowing that our family reasons were resolved. Of course where you are back to familiar grounds you tend to do what you know and that is order things online (you have an address so you know your parcels are going to get there) and make appointments from doctors to dentist and everything in-between.
Our stay ended up being stretched out to 10 weeks, enough time to think that we were never going to get going again and enough time to make it harder to leave. Taking the first step setting off on a lifetime adventure as with the shop it is easier to make the decision than to make the move and this was exciting but nerve racking with so much of the unknown.
So we finally again set off on 18th June 2023, again not without its challenges. I had been having issues with my back and hip and the pain wasn’t going away. Whenever we went over a bump in the road and there were so many of them, (don’t you love Victoria roads ????) I had to hold myself braced against the chair of the car, the floor and whatever else I could hold onto to limit the movement as with movement came pain and with pain came lots of tears and swear words. A very colourful ride indeed but not one I enjoyed at all. We got as far as Shepparton (Victoria) and we stayed there until my back and hip was better. As it was getting better Gil hurt the middle of his back and was at the chiropractor too. We were two decrepit individuals.
Three weeks into our trip and my son ended up in hospital, so a trip to Maroondah Hospital (Victoria) a few days staying at his place till he was well enough to come home and I was back in Shepparton, but we had to make a trip back to Mooroolbark (Victoria) where he lived the next week to move our stuff out of his unit and up to the Yarra Valley because he was moving house within the month. Hence the 3 week curse.
Finally back on the road, everyone is well, fingers crossed as we are about to hit the 3 week mark again.