Today is our 34th wedding anniversary. WOW! 34 years! In that time we have lived in Germany and Australia, raised two daughters, owned two houses, visited some other countries and had a variety of jobs. In 2016, we made a spur of the moment decision to rent out the house, buy a caravan and head off on an indefinite trip around Australia. That was five years ago and possibly the best decision we ever made. (Click this link to read more about how it all started https://workingholidaypress.home.blog/2019/03/08/how-it-all-started/)
The little church where we got married. Herons Creek NSW
In June 2018 we made the trip to Cape York. We left our van at Mount Carbine Caravan Park. You can store your van there for free if you stay there before and/or after your trip to the top. After our little adventure in the Aurukun forest, (see previous post https://wordpress.com/block-editor/post/workingholidaypress.home.blog/580 ) we made our way along the corrugated-tarred-corrugated-tarred road.
When Thomas and I stop somewhere to work, we spend our days off exploring the surrounding area, learning about the region and experiencing living in that particular location. As we are currently based west of Mildura, it wasn’t long before our interest turned to visiting the point at which NSW, SA and VIC meet. The first thing I did was look on maps to see how to get there. Read More »
When the sugar cane harvest finished we headed back down to Sydney/Newcastle to see our daughters and grandson. Christmas was not far away and we had to admit we were missing the girls and really wanted to give our grandson a big cuddle. Read More »
We settled near Mackay for the winter of 2018. Thomas was employed as a truck driver to cart bogasse, the dry, sawdust-like end product after the sugar cane has been crushed. The bagasse is stockpiled at the local sugar mills who then burn it to produce electricity. I found the whole process of sugar production fascinating, from the machines that cut the cane and spit it into trucks which remain in exactly the right position to catch the cut stalks, to the network of train tracks throughout the fields, supporting locomotives pulling long snakes of carriages carrying the harvest to the mills. Photos and videos of transformer-like machines, trains and trucks were a big hit with our three year old grandson.
So back to the summary of our trip so far and the lessons we have learnt along the way.
We worked for a few months in Sydney, saved a bit of money and set ourselves up for freedom camping, armed with Wikkicamps, my new bestie, we could not drive out of Sydney quick enough. Still under twelve months on the road, we had learnt a lot but still had lots to learn.Read More »
In April 2016, my husband Thomas and I were living in our house in Newcastle, NSW Australia with our English staffy, Beni and a cat Mossy. We had jobs and we had a mortgage. We had health insurance. We had two beautiful grown up daughters and our first grandson, who was five months old. We had friends, we had a computer and wifi, we had a big tele, a dishwasher, a coffee machine. We had a couple of cars and a boat. We had everything
Looked good on the surface but something was missing. We weren’t happy. We were both getting bored with our jobs and looking for better ones. Would new jobs take away this feeling of just working to pay our bills? The feeling of being dictated to by society’s rules…… “work hard until you are 65, 67, 69; take four weeks holiday a year; paying off your mortgage is your first priority; you must have health insurance;” etc etc.
Even though we both worked, we didn’t seem to be saving much money. It seemed to cost a lot to keep those vehicles insured and registered, to keep the mobile phones connected, to have health insurance. It costs money to have the clothes you need for work, petrol in the cars, social outings to keep us stay connected.
So one day we decided to sell everything we own, buy a four wheel drive and a caravan and hit the road in search of happiness. Almost three years on and I have the urge to share this experience, so started this blog. I will start at the beginning, write often, sharing our experience of travelling around Australia, with our dog, working as we go to fund the trip. Welcome aboard!
The3ofus 