And just like that a YEAR has passed....
And what a year it was.......
As you can see from the map, it's not exactly a Lap of the country but still, loads seen and loads of learning points too. The statistics also provide an interesting read (although slightly skewed by Covid and its various lockdowns/border closures).
Over the last 366 days (2020 being a Leap Year)
We have travelled 24,509 kilometres (15,229 miles)
At an overall cost of AU$32,340 (does not include cost of storage in NZ or various UK commitments). That's approx NZ$34,036 or GBP 17,859. $88 a day to fuel, feed, accommodate, entertain all 3 of us. Not bad eh?
We visited 49 fuel stations and pumped a total of 2730 litres.....8.98km per litre...at a cost of $3,482.30.
We may, or may not, have also consumed $3491.59 worth of alcohol so perhaps some of Von's family do have the right idea about not drinking!
Dennis has cost us, including his tooth extraction, a grand total of $3683. Frankly he needs to start paying his way...
We have stayed at a variety of accommodation options over the year, breaks down as follows:
Paid Campgrounds - 123 nights
Showgrounds - 9 nights
Freestays/Donations/Pubs - 74 nights
Stays with lovely friends - 160 nights
Which goes to show that we have some amazing friends!
But it's not just about the statistics , we may have actually learned a thing or two too... So, here we go.....what we have learnt?
1. 'She's a Bloody Big Country'.
When we consider we had a period of Hard Lockdown (2 months) it is quite amazing that we managed to clock up over 24,000 kilometres. We've just completed a Lap of Queensland which has taken us around 4 months and, as can be seen from the opening photograph, it barely tickles the entire country. Admittedly there is a vast swathe of 'not much' in the middle and also areas which we can't access in the type of van we have but, blimey....
Suffice to say we are itching to get over to the western side of the country. Our plan for 2021 is to head to South Australia and, depending on Border openings/closings, then Western Australia followed by the Northern Territory. Fingers crossed.
2. 'She's a Land of Extremes'.
If we just look at the last few days, we have been in temperatures up around 40C and then, just a day later, were reaching for the blanket as it dropped to 16C. All three of us have found the extreme heat hard to deal with; lots of carrying Dennis over sand and pavements to the cool patches or nearest water source. This was a little tricky when out west in Winton and Longreach where the drought meant not many water sources so it was a dunk under the van shower for D and cold showers for Von and I!
The heat mixed with humidity was really tough in the Tropical North of Queensland and it was getting hotter too. Bizarre to think we were in frost just four months ago.
This year we've had the lot, starting with bushfires, then floods, then cold and then heat all bringing different challenges. And no, we don't have air-conditioning but do have awesome diesel heating. (This choice was deliberate as we will be taking the Van back to NZ where the extremes are more likely to be the cold variety!)
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| A "lake" in QLD, that's the boat ramp on the right... |
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| Along the road from Derek & Irene - the aftermath of the fire |
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| Frost in Clunes |
The advantage of a Big Country is it's filled with an amazing array of 'Wow' moments which we hopefully covered in our blogs and Facebook posts. The colours, the big skies, the amazing mountains, the waterfalls, the art - ancient and modern, the many 'Lookouts', the night stars, sun rises and sunsets and of course the wildlife - scary and not so scary!
The challenge for us as the year ends is to not become too complacent with the Awe & Wonder and to still be excited by the moments.
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| An awesome whale in Hervey Bay |
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| Silo Art continues to take our breath away |
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| Big skies abound |
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| Lake Lascelle, Victoria |
Prior to embarking on this journey it would be fair to say Von had largely been absent from our relationship (!). In fact, almost half of our 17 years together has seen her away at sea or overseas. In the meantime, in Sydney and then in NZ, I was working part-time and building a place in the community with friends, neighbours and my lovely residents and colleagues at work. We had both really embraced our new home, Birkenhead, and our new country as citizens of Aotearoa. With this in mind, I have, at times, grieved for the life I had in NZ whereas Von has thoroughly embraced being away from the pressures of work. So, this difference between us has created a bit of tension and then throw in living in a space which is 6.3metres long and about 2metres wide! And, of course, Covid has added to the challenges but, by and large, there have been far more 'Ups' than the 'Downs' and we feel so very fortunate to have this quality time together.
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| Always learning, always laughing |
5. That Dennis has, by far, the biggest following...
When we embarked on the idea of this adventure, I remember someone saying to me "what are you going to do with Dennis?". It was never a dilemma; he was always coming! Dennis has really done so well on this journey and I'm so proud of him...from his impeccable behaviour at campgrounds to being patted and cuddled by numerous strangers. All saying "What is he?", "How old is he?"....7....."Really!". Only yesterday in Nimbin did we have an adult woman sitting on the pavement cuddling him and wanting to take him on a date. Mind you, it was Nimbin so she was probably floating in another mind dimension.
Big Ds patience knows no bounds; posing for photos with dog statues, artwork, selfies with us and starring in his own series of 'COVID-19 Lockdown' movies.
We've only had a few big worry moments, the slab fracture of the tooth involving surgery, a bad reaction to a worming tablet and standing on a Bull Ant. Thankfully, we have avoided any snakes or crocodiles but he has been particularly excited about Wombats/Kangaroos and the occasional camper who has felt it necessary to take a CAT on holiday!
Given the abundance of wildlife at Kangaroo Valley we are so grateful that Derek and Irene have taken him to their hearts and made easy our prolonged periods of residency. Thankfully Dennis has not disgraced himself.....as I write this he has just barked at someone in the campground! He can't be perfect all of the time haha.
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| With a big turtle |
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| With his Tropical Queensland mates |
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| With his Brokeback Mountain mate |
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| D loves the Silo Art too |
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| Poor Dennis |
Thank goodness we are travelling at this time of technology (especially with Covid). We had invested in a wifi modem for the Van with a hard wired rooftop aerial which, even in some fairly remote areas, has still allowed us to connect to friends and family with Zoom, Facebook, WhatsApp and Messenger. Also to be able to access Netflix, iTunes and Amazon for Kindle have made life quite comfortable. We had deliberately chosen two different providers for our phones to cover all eventualities as Telstra tend to have the bigger coverage but every now and again Optus surprises us!
The "lovely" part of connectivity is to be able to see so many smiling (generally) faces of friends and whanau which really means a lot when we are having homesick moments. Good for morale.
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| Mr Bonfield in Bramhall |
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| Zoom'ing to Auckland |
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| Doreen (and Haze) in Leeds |
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| Kim & Okkie in Northcote |
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| Louisa in Whangarei Heads |
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| Yamasakis in Canberra via Messenger video(ready for a virtual game of cards) |
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| Our neighbours in Birkenhead via WhatsApp (socially distanced Friday drinks) |
7. That COVID-19 has been S*@t !!!
It's fair to say that this trip (and everyones lives) have been affected in some shape or another by this wretched disease. I don't want to make this blog all about it but as it has affected everyone for most of the Year it's difficult not to mention it. We learnt from our relatively short 'Lockdown' that routine was key as was seeing the humour. Some of my funniest memories were the crazy things people were doing to stem boredom although I am still not sure Dennis is recovered from his 'Mission Impossible' dangling!. I loved our afternoon dance off on the deck at Kangaroo Valley with Irene.
Covid has taught us to be flexible.....
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| If only Boris had done the same... |
8. That a Budget is a Good & Bad Thing !
We always knew it would be a tight budget and as can be seen by the figures at the beginning of the blog we have kept close attention to it.......well, Von has! We were working on a $100 a day and, at year end, it has come out at around $88 a day. Somewhat amusing our alcohol spend was greater than our fuel spend. I am very grateful that Von has kept us on the budgetary path we agreed at the outset and she is better at spreadsheets than me - I just need to remember we don't have the same income as we used to have! Generally it has gone well and Von has been like a magician conjuring meals from very few ingredients. We have had to compromise on some of those more touristy trips that are ridiculously expensive and, instead, revel at the free landscape experiences. (see previous Awe & Wonder paragraph).
In conclusion a Budget is a necessary evil and I am very glad it has included a slush fund to fulfil Museum fees or the occasional Flat White for the driver !!
9. That we don't need much Stuff...
Linked with just how great the Van has been is the realisation that we have made an entire year wearing pretty much the same items of clothing, bedding ( I should point out that they are regularly washed...in case you were worried we had gone feral) and miscellaneous items we had originally packed. We have also been fortunate that we have been able to swap out some of the Winter & Summer items during returns to 'home base KV'. As you may have seen in Vons previous blog everything has a use or it goes......and I'm still here !!
I do wonder whether our de-clutter for storage in NZ was enough now and that when we get back we'll wonder what on earth we're going to do with it all?
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| Four packing cells of clothes each...eeek! |
10. That it's Good to take a risk...
When we first started this year we did sit and wonder whether we had done the right thing....and still do on occasions. There was no going back once the house was sold and work had finished, and Dennis was sat in a crate waiting to board the flight! This year has flown by so quickly and I wouldn't have changed a thing....well maybe not have a World Pandemic? Or maybe no bushfires....but other than that it's been a rollercoaster of a ride and we still don't have to, or want to, get off. We've discussed whether should we go home early but we think we'd always regret not fulfilling the initial plan which was The Big Lap.
A wise friend once said to us 'get comfortable being uncomfortable'...and she wasn't wrong.
We also want to thank all of our friends and family who have been following us on various social media and the Blog. You have been with us every step of this road trip so far and hopefully will continue...it's awful that so many of you have had plans affected/changed/cancelled this year. We feel somewhat guilty that we have been allowed to gallivant around at least some of Australia who, like NZ, have fared quite well during COVID. Fingers crossed 2021 brings some positive changes to the situation.
Kia Kaha xxxx
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