COME AWAY WITH ME

Category: Travel

  • SIX WEEKS BEFORE WE ARE AWAY

    SIX WEEKS BEFORE WE ARE AWAY

    Lennox Head, Bundjalung Country.

    March 14th 2023.

    The last post was published in August 2021, with the sad news that we’d abandoned the trip completely. We had become victims to Covid regulations which closed borders and instilled fear in everyone that travelling would be risky, that the virus would spread wildly and that it was best to stay home. So we did.

    Now, 17 months later, we are looking at a fresh start. And still there is the possibility that our plans will be thwarted due to floods in the Gulf of Carpentaria at the moment, and earlier floods in the Kimberly around Fitzroy Crossing. I saw an interview with the Mayor of Burketown in the Gulf, where major inundation is occurring, and he said that as soon as the water subsides there will be amazing wildlife to see and the wildflowers should be stunning. He was encouraging travellers not to abandon the area during the dry season, and of course we want to support all those remote communities if we can.

    My grand daughter Sarah is now working in Fitzroy Crossing as a remote area nurse, so we should be able to get local updates from her.

    As you will see, our plan now is to head north from Lennox Head first, get to the tip of Cape York in Qld. Two couples will be joining us on that leg of the journey..Marilyn and Andrew Jeavons and George and Julie Rhodes…good friends who travel well at our pace, are flexible, independent, great fun and love adventures. In Cairns we will join up with Mike Meyers and his friend Steve to continue to the Cape. This first leg will take all of May and half of June we expect. After the Cape, we will be on our own probably…but our flexible friends could change their minds.

    Might as well not get too far ahead of ourselves on this blog though. There are some plan B’s being considered if we fail to cross the Gulf. We won’t even go there.

    Our house sitters are about to leave Karratha. In 3 weeks time they expect to be at Lennox….that’s an almighty journey with a 9 year old and a 14 month old…and 2 dogs. One dog is being left in Perth, the other in Melbourne, until such time as their owners find a suitable house with a yard and a fence. So we are not doing the full house pack up thankfully although much still needs to be done to prepare for 12 months away and to give the sitters an easy house to live in. Pablo pictured here is a fine addition to our house, along with 4 chickens.

    I have done this blog so that I can re-awaken my brain about how to actually navigate WordPress, but also to give those of you on the subscribers list a chance to drop away if you want to. I will be attempting to post to your email once a month if I can, so it shouldn’t be too annoying.

    Best wishes for now. Jenny & Nick

  • Introducing our Plan.

    Introducing our Plan.

    June 12th 2021. Lennox Head. Bundjalung Country.

    In just 2 months from now my husband, Nick, and I will head south in our little camper van. The van will henceforth be fondly named Swifty. She will provide us shelter most nights for the next 12 months. Swifty is also our supply carrier, wardrobe, ensuite (minus the toilet and shower), lounge room, kitchen and dressing room. She is all of 5 metres long.

    Slowly we will wander down to Wangaratta in Victoria for the first big stopover. This will be early September. Friends and family will join us here in a ritual of days of copious food, drinks, cakes, games, activities and celebration.

    Then we’ll recover with a wander along the Murray River, into South Australia provided the border is open. After exploring the Eyre Peninsular, Swifty will have her first experience of the Nullarbor. In November we will put down roots in Margaret River in WA for another celebration, then head further south to Albany for the summer. But that’s not even half of the trip.

    I plan to take the usual quantity of photos (many!!), perhaps take a few movies, and write about the trip in this blog. But I also plan to do a portraiture/story board project about interesting characters we meet along the way. I want to capture a single, simple, revealing, beautiful portrait of the person, or it could be a couple or family group, and write a paragraph with their story. It’s about time I used my qualification and years of experience as a Portraitist. This I will post on my blog with their permission. It will become a snapshot portfolio of Australians in 2021/2.

    Nick having breakfast at Lake Hart with Swifty, previous trip in 2018.

    I will endeavour to use the local indigenous name for the land we travel on as I write the blog.

    So if you want to follow our journey, add your email to the list.

    Cheers for now

    Jenny and Nick and Swifty