It Starts.......

2020 is here and thus the year of our travels around Australia begins. We are not yet on the road but I thought it would be good to record our adventure even as we get ready to hit the road.

We are aiming to leave at the end of term 1 (the end of March) but there is still lots of work to be done to meet that deadline:

* 3 years of renovations on our house need to be completed (we are almost there)

* Our whole house needs to be packed up into a shipping container (luckily Dave is at master level for packing tetris)

* The house needs to be rented out

*The van and ute need to be packed and all modifications completed

*We need to decide what to do with our 2 dogs Amber and Jezy. Unfortunately I think they need to stay behind but we need to find somewhere for them to go.

Easy, right? I'm horrified at the amount of work that needs to be done! But a deadline gives us something to aim for so let's see how close we get.

So, as we begin this blogging experience (a first for me), I thought I should introduce the family and the plan

Starting at the top is Dave, our amazing man of the family, who can fix pretty much anything (thank goodness). He is likely to be chief driver on this trip as he makes a terrible passenger (works for me) and, as mentioned above, is at master level for packing tetris. He has done all the modifications on both the car and van himself.

Next is 9 year old Elly, clearly a Captain Marvel fan. She is our crafty kid and she loves any opportunity to build a cubby house. While she is excited about the adventure, she is very sad to be leaving her friends. It is thanks to Elly's new-found love of riding her bike (thankyou school bike ed) that we now have to figure out how to take our bikes on the trip.

Wonder Woman here is 7 year old Charli. She is our cheeky monkey and is always getting up to mischief so she will be keeping us on our toes. She is a bundle of energy (unless she is asleep) so it will be interesting to see what kind of antics she gets up to. She is also massively into sea creatures but especially turtles so I am sure she will be super excited to build her knowledge in this area as we travel.

Finally, there is me, Elysia. Mummy, teacher, navigator and author (of this blog anyway). I am a kinder teacher and am studying a Masters in Play Therapy so will be head teacher at the Bonfield caravan school, which could go really well or could be an absolute disaster. I will probably be head chef for much of the trip too which will be extra challenging as both myself and Charli are gluten intolerant.

You may be wondering where the Bluey and Bingo part of the blog title comes from. Well, in addition to our family of 4 we will be bringing a little Bluey and Bingo plush toy as our trip mascots. The girls received these toys for Christmas and we have found many similarities between our own family and the heelers in the show Bluey, especially the personalities of each of the characters. They will be joining us both as a bit of fun and to remind ourselves to play and enjoy the amazing opportunity we have of this time as a family unit.

The Plan:

Hit the road at the end of March. We will be driving our Mazda BT50 and towing our Jayco Expanda Outback. We begin in Melbourne and start heading west to WA and around the coast. The trip from there becomes a bit more fuzzy so we can make decisions as we go. We are on no fixed timeline, happy to stop and work if the opportunity presents with the thought that we will be away for at least 6 months.

Should be an interesting road ahead!

Official Countdown:

Days until we leave: 89 (hopefully)

Boxes packed: 0

Boxes left to pack: Too Many!