New Car has arrived

As the old Pajero (NP model) was getting a bit long in the tooth (6yrs 157,000km) it has been replaced by the latest NT model.
It was delivered on Friday 24th April 2009 with 28km on the clock. It's pretty much the same car as the old Pajero, a Turbo Diesel (DiD) with 5 speed Auto Transmission.
The work to be done between now and departure:
- Fit Roof bars and mount Solar panel
- Wiring for caravan connector
- Drive 1500km and do 1st service
The trip plan is coming along well, I'm spending a lot of time with Lonley Planet travel books and maps ........

Committed To Go

As of today we are committed to leaving. We are booked into Cable Beach Caravan Park at Broome, arriving on June 20th. There's still a few little things left to do before we can depart - just as well we have another 25 days before we take off.

Last Trial Run

Easter 2009 - our final Caravan trail run. We are camping at Mitta Mitta Caravan park - our first trip where we reply on water tanks, solar panel and gas hot water system. All goes well, we spend 4 nights in Caravan and kids are asking if we could make the caravan our permanent home.
In another 4 weeks it will be our home, at least until August.
I'm starting to plan the trip so I can get a rough idea of timing along our route. The 13 week trip suddenly looks like it should really be 20 weeks or maybe even more, so many things to see, so little time.
I wish we were part of the real (retired) gray nomads so we could take 12 month to go around.

Getting Started

In May 2008 we purchased our Caravan - a Coromal Lifesytle 700 - from Nathan and Linsey Colyer in Caboolture, QLD. The deal was done over the phone and they were kind enough to drive the 6mth old Caravan to Tamworth for us where we took it over and traveled back to Albury with a quick over night stop in Parkes.

During 2008 and early 2009 we had numerous short caravan holidays so we can get used to life on the road and make minor (but important) modifications to our setup. In March 2009 we set the departure date: 18th May 2009. Now the countdown has started .........

Blog site established

Got a blog site now......
These days a trip isn't worth doing unless one can blog about it!