KI

Well, we're in Adelaide and back from Kangaroo Island.  I'd tell you all about it but I'd rather just let the photos tell the story.  Sorry Deej, didn't take the camera in for the dive!  Didn't see any sharks anyway...  phew!  ;)

It is strange being back in a "city."  Even though Adelaide is small comparatively, it feels so built up after spending a couple of weeks in country towns!


Enjoy the pics:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150977529860613.773691.630110612&type=1&l=4616d22e5b.


Much love,

J.

Lessons from week 1

Well, we've survived a week on the road.

And by that, I mean we've had a blast.

 I've been meaning to post again in the last few days, but was planning on putting up a video that time has inhibited me from finishing. I've decided I'll get to that eventually and chuck it up.   So for now, let me share with you some things that we've learned from the last week.

 1. Turns out we bought a 4WD.  
One of the funniest things so far was saying a few days into our trip that we won't be doing any intense 4WDing and aren't too keen on doing much sand driving.  So far the only 4WDing we've done has been on sand and we attempted a 34km 4WD track a couple of days later.  Lol. 

2. Robyn obviously doesn't understand the concept of "camp food."   
The food out here is amazing!  When we first dreamed up this trip 3 years ago I was picturing 2 minute noodles and the occasional egg.  But nope, Robs has managed to make meal times a real treat, even with a limited pantry.

 3. I actually am scared of sharks.   
So we were keen to go for a spear whenever possible and our first opportunity was in Victor Harbour, in a little stretch of ocean the locals call "shark alley" - a name I'm sure is used to scare the tourists away.  We started swimming across and couldn't see beyond 3 metres below us and decided after 10 minutes that it would be better to stick closer to the rocks. I'm sure we would've been fine but it does spook ya a little...

4. We packed well. 
Thankfully, we haven't said "oh no, we didn't bring ... !"at any stage yet.  It's a funny thing touring, knowing that everything you need needs to be somewhere in the car.  Makes it interesting when you think you've lost something...  Also means you better make sure you have the key when you lock it!

5. I've converted. 
From loathing to loving, public toilets are now my friend.  If they had a Facebook page, I would like it.  Those little things you normally hate about them (they smell, usually lack toilet paper, never have soap, etc.) are forgivable for me...  The pros far outweigh the cons (especially when the alternative is to wait till we get home or bring out the long-handled shovel) and thankfully we have our own materials to make up for the general lack.  One of the inevitable outcomes of not packing your own toilet I suppose.

 That's all for now, folks, but I'll leave you with some pictures from our dive at Piccaninnie Ponds last week.  We were testing out our waterproof camera.

 Much love!

J.

Humble beginnings (a woman's perspective)

So I figured you'd probably wanna hear not just from me but from Robyn as well, so she's written this post.

But just to get us all ready, here's one of my favourite pics.  I call it, "Like father, like daughter."

Talk soon.

J.

The adventure has begun! It took us a lot longer than we anticipated to sort out our belongings at J's parents' place and load up our troopy, but after throwing the last things in the back of Russell at 5:30 Saturday night we finally managed to get on the road. First destination: Warrnambool.

It's pretty fun being self-contained in our troopy! All we need is a place to park and we can crawl into the back to sleep. Port Fairy was that place and much appreciated was that sleep. Before making our way to church in Warrnambool, we stopped off at the beach and then explored Tower Hill Reserve. We walked to the peak and quickly made friends with the locals - kangaroos, rabbits, wallabies and emus. Yes, emus! We sang our hallelujahs on our descent back to the car happy snapping at the wildlife on the way and then headed off to church.

We have since arrived in South Australia and are starting to feel like we are actually on the road now. We've visited the Blue Lake in Mount Gambier (the brightest blue you can imagine and an average of 80 metres depth and up to 200 meters in the deepest parts!), we've spent the night at Mt Schank and climbed to the top of the crater as well as right down to the floor of it and are having fun fiddling around with our set up, showering in a bucket and cooking on a gas stove. Japanese okonomiyaki was on the menu tonight and boy was it yummy! 

Many more adventures to come,

R.

Country folk, bittersweet goodbyes and hectic departures

Well, we've finally made it!  D-day has arrived and we've managed to make it out.  Except...

We're in Bairnsdale.  I thought we were heading west first?  Strange way to begin then, going 3 hours east to start a westward trip.

Allow me to explain.

So a couple of months ago we decided to get Russell sent into the mechanic to have a good check-up prior to leaving on his epic trip around the world's biggest island.  Because we've pretty much only had bad experiences with mechanics in Melbourne, we decided to go with one that Robyn's Dad (Geoff) has used for many years and has lots of experience with 4WDs (Geoff also has a Troopie).  So Russell went into Peter's in Bairnsdale for a thorough inspection.

After hesitatingly handing over 7K, we were happy that we could trust that the work had been done and done well.  The only problem was that within a few weeks we started experiencing a few problems with 1st gear (one of the gears Peter replaced).  It was clunking a bit at random times, and when Geoff and I took it out 4WDing, it jumped out of 1st gear in low range going down a hill.  Definitely not something you want happening when you're on a dangerous steep track in the middle of nowhere.

Peter suggested some possible causes of the issue, but had from the beginning said to bring it back to him if we had any problems.  After a couple more tests we decided this was necessary, and being used to getting ripped off by mechanics I was naturally nervous about having to pay for whatever work was required (especially because the cause was possibly unrelated to the gear work that Peter had already done).  Gearboxes take a day's worth of work just to get the thing out and have a look.  You can imagine my relief when Geoff relayed the message that Peter wanted to make it clear that there was no charge.  My favourite line?  "Tell him he's not in the city anymore."

Which pretty much brings me to the next best part about the country...  how both willing and able people (and particularly Robyn's relatives) are to help out.  We totally have to send out a massive thanks to Geoff, Robyn's uncle Lloyd and my brother-in-law Mike.  These guys did so much for us and aside from helping us save heaps of money, I learnt a whole lot that I'm sure will help me out when I have to do some of my own repairs/mods!  Be patient with me outback Australia, I'm just a clumsy city boy.

Oh and as you may have noticed, it's the afternoon now.  It might surprise you to discover that I've actually just gotten up.  That would be because we arrived in Bairnsdale at 6:30am this morning.  We've had about 3 weeks of saying goodbyes and hectic times trying to get everything finished up and now it's almost come to a complete close.  We said our farewells to my immediate family last night, whom I beat in our last game of Dominion for a while (yessssssss), who prayed for us and expressed their best wishes, then left Hoppers Crossing at 11:30pm to start our trip to Bairnsdale.  Unfortunately we still had to drop off a few things (including our faithful little Suzuki to Robyn's cousin in Narre Warren!  Filling out VicRoads forms at 2am in the morning is a rather bizarre experience) and were both struggling to stay awake on the freeways.  Robyn took the first leg, we powernapped for an hour and a half in Traralgon, I took the next leg then Robyn took over for the last 45 minutes.  Lucky I'm travelling with a Rayment...  these guys can just drive and drive (Don't even get me started on Geoff flying in from New Zealand and jumping straight into the car to go the 12 hours to Bairnsdale non-stop.  Or the several times he would take the family up to north Queensland and drive over 20 hours straight with only a couple of short breaks!  The Luke Rayment Legends are merely the continuation of a legacy already long established my friends...)!  We literally arrived here while everybody was getting ready to head out for the day and I just collapsed into bed!

So we've kinda started our trip...  At least, though, we get these extra few days to polish off the rest of what we need to do.  Or at least, we're hoping we will!

So next time we check in we'll hopefully be somewhere that's actually further west than my place!

See you then.

Much love,

J.

P.S.  I wanted to post some (before and after) photos of our troopy but the camera's in the car! Which is currently at the shop...  Will chuck em in later this evening!