Surely today is not the day ? We woke up in the caravan in our drive . We spent the last three nights sleeping in the van as part of the process of packing up , fixing up the house and letting our friends move in.
The day started with a 6am trip to Maccas at Ringwood for a coffee. As we were getting back into the car a young “dude” on a skateboard threw a part emptied caffeine drink can on the pavement . My civic duty kicked in and I shouted , chased , huffed , puffed then put the can in the bin for the little litter bugger. Lucky for him the road runs downhill!
After many intense weeks of activity getting the house fit for rental ( read – delayed Reno , shed mis-delivery , completing 3 years worth of to do lists etc etc we found ourselves kissing the girls goodbye ( I was in the lucky position of doing this with 7 females Jodie , Georgia , Keeva , Andrea , darcie doo , beau and pip. Two families , two dogs and three family friends . Tears all round stimulated by excitement , sadness and trepidation from all possible angles !!
So we set off, picking horseshoe bend bush camp near Mildura . Its 7 hours drive from melbourne, a river setting with a 7 day forward view of 30 degree plus blue sky weather . The plan was to organise all those things that hadn’t been finessed before leaving ( like what goes where in the car and van through to where we were actually going for the next 364 days ! )
As is my want i was keen to have a little campfire by the river to achieve that quintessential Aussie road trip scene . I was met with the frankness that comes with 25 years of marriage and a solid north west upbringing.
” You dont need a fire – its ot !”