Going, going, going, going, going… gone

Over the last few months there has been a lot of goodbyes.

After announcing our travel plans to our colleagues, friends and patients in Barham, a warming period followed of people applauding our plans and at the same time regretting our departure. We feel the same. Going is great, leaving is hard.  The support we felt both morally and materially was very much appreciated. We worked right up until New Years Eve.

We thank all our patients and the medical trust who have stuck with us for all the years in Barham as well as Ochre who we worked with for 8 and half years now.

There were a few things that needed done to Jack before we could leave.

The Vic road worthy was the first hurdle. After that we had Jack on the Grease pit of Lake’s busses and I learned all there is to know about Jack’s grease nipples. There are quite a few I now know.  (Just next to the red back spiders.)

I have been struggling to understand and work the electric system of solar, inverter, generator, shore power and batteries.  We replaced the bus batteries and added water to the house batteries. One of the cupboards has been removed and this is now our 3^rd bunk bed.  Then there was the issue with fitting our car with tie down points for travel in the trailer. 

It was impossible for me to leave without a boat fitted somewhere. After surfing the web and looking for options I decided on a Ridged Inflatable Boat (RIB). The benefit for us is that it can take quite rough water conditions and still keep us save.  Also it deflates, so it will take a little less space in the trailer. Downside is that crocodile teeth and RIB’s don’t match so it will not be very useful up north. After more surfing I found a RIB that has a solid hull made of fiberglass from Mercuri Marine: The Ocean Runner 340.  All it needed was a 15 HP Yamaha engine and little wheels on the back for transport. The first boat unfortunately had small holes in the fiberglass hull so a new one replaced it.

The boat is now suspended from the ceiling of the trailer and can be lifted up and down with a winch that is attached to the ceiling. For easy loading in and out of the trailer a ramp was made to fit as well. Anthony Thomas did all the work on the trailer and it could not have been done any better.

For 4 years we have been living in a great house just outside of Barham. It is part of the O’Neill’s dairy and has been a most amazing place for us to live. Apart from being out of town with all the freedom one could ever want, it also came with 8 mature stone fruit trees, apples, citrus and grapes. We have more than enjoyed the picking, eating and preserving of the spoils of the land.  Besides the fruit and extensive vegetable garden we also had 20+ chickens supplying us with eggs and meat and we fattened a few pigs at a time from kitchen and garden scraps. Then there was also our apiary of 15 beehives that gave us enough honey to swap for other people’s produce and sell a little on the local farmers market.  Living on a dairy meant an almost endless supply of fresh milk that we loved to drink and also sometimes made into soft and hard cheese. Between all that and the hams and bacon from the pigs we did not need the local supermarket half as much as most.  Leaving means saying goodbye to our house and to this life style. We have taken some produce but will soon run out and have to face the reality of unripe tasteless fruit and vegetables and questionable meat.

Packing up took a bit longer than expected (as expected). Christel’s initial estimate of leaving on the 7^th was not met, nor was my target of the 12^th. We weren’t in a great big hurry and wanted to pack things properly, throwing away things we would not enjoy unpacking in a few years time. Also we needed to draft off what we would take on the bus. Slow and steady particularly in the 42 degree heat. We had a few friends come to the rescue for packing things in boxes and then carting it all to our storage containers. We also had a lot of help cleaning the house as we cleared room by room.

The last few days of packing were rainy and we were worried that Jack would get stuck on our driveway so our first night in the bus we spent 150 meters past our driveway on the road. Not the most romantic first location. The third night we actually moved into town where we parked at the Barham footy oval. It was remarkably comfortable with even electricity hook up. We could have spent a few weeks there easily.  After two more nights Jack took us to Kangaroo Lake, because we had to stay close to Barham, because of electrical problems to the bus. Over the weekend we tried out the boat for the first time on Lake Kangaroo. Laura screamed ‘it was totally wicked’, the boys thought it was ‘awesome’ and I agreed with all of them.

On Monday the 19^th of January we had sorted out our battery issues and finally actually officially drove out of Barham/Koondrook to get our adventure officially underway.