Since deciding that this year would be ‘the year’ and spreading the news far and wide, my beloved and I have heard endless impassioned variations of “we’ve always wanted to” or “we’re hoping to one day” (do the same)… etc.. etc….
No worries, I’m glad for you. But if you’ve always wanted to and you one day will, then… just do it! Not hard. Quit jobs, sell house, have mega garage sale, stuff all remaining belongings into storage, pull kids out of school, jump in the caravan and hit the road!
It’s certainly the reason we’re doing it – because we’ve always wanted to. That plus, we don’t want to wait out our whole youthful, energetic (err, sort of) years just to follow the grey nomad crowd and clog up the roads with oversized house-on-wheels-RV-style ‘exploring the great outdoors’.
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a caravan and we like to be a little comfy – it is a whole year, we need more than a tent and two pairs of shorts each. But not much more. We’re also determined not to just drive from one place to the other looking out the window admiring the scenery, and only enjoying it from the comfort of our camping chairs sitting on the sturdy concrete slabs next to the toilet blocks of every caravan park with a slight beach frontage.
We’re finding it could be quite easy to fall into this trap. Tired from driving, we spend a day checking out the town, stocking up on groceries and doing a load of washing, only to need a rest day the next day. We see plenty of people through our travels that set up and stay for only a night or two, before hitting the road and trawling to the next seaside or outback town for another day or two. We constantly wonder what these people would be getting out of their trip. Sure, a lot of driving and R&R, but how much do they really explore their surroundings and what do they learn about the place they’re in for only a night or two?
To avoid this trap and really explore as many aspects of travelling round the country that we can, these are the unspoken ideas we employ throughout our travels: we often stay in one place for at least a week; do as many outdoor / nature based activities as we can: bushwalks, bike trails, beach trips; avoid costly and commercialised ‘tourist attractions’; visit museums, exhibitions, local historical sites; and educate ourselves and our kids about a place and its people as much as we can.
Have you done a similar trip yourself or are you living your dream in another way? Post your story below..
