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It's official! We are on the road! Dannii and James have formally and definitely commenced their Great Australian Tour!!
Yes folks it's true. After weeks of dilligent and organised packing and preparation (hahahaha well, packing anyway!) we are on the road.
For everyone following our journey welcome to our first ever blog. And I do mean first ever. Neither of us has blogged before! Apologies for bad spelling, grammar, jokes and photos. I promise we'll get better. Sheesh! We've got 12 months to do that!
Yes that's right. We've packed up everything into a storage unit, given up our lease on a lovely little place in Fremantle WA, managed to negotiate extended (extended, EXTEEEEEENDED) leave from work and have begun the trip of a lifetime over around and through Australia for a whole 12 months! It is exciting, terrifying, exhilarating and above all else something we've both wanted to do for a long time.
Even with both my and Dannii's awesome planning skills (note tongues firmly in our cheeks here!) we didn't get off to the best starts. We did head out on what was originally planned to be the beginning of the tour with a two week tour through the Pilbara region in July but unfortunately Dannii received sad news from back in Melbourne two days into the journey. We high tailed it back over east where sadly Dannii's Dad passed away.
So back over west we began the task of re-packing, re-evaluating and re-planning our trip. Where we had originally intended on travelling clockwise around the country at first heading north we now had to change direction and head south east and anti-clockwise to avoid being as effected by the wet season and to fit Tasmania into the trip. We also had to finish the trailer which needed the rack to be reinforced and meshed to allow us to store all our gear.
Lots of aluminium mesh and a new battery drill later the trailer was ready to roll. Shopping lists, to do lists and memory jogger lists were made, lost, re-made and followed. The final press was on for a departure date of Thursday 14 August. We nearly got there if not for a couple of last minute time munchers. We managed to sell Dannii's motorbike (no, we couldn't take it with us) and we made the decision to replace a cracked windscreen in the hope it would save us money and heartache down the line.
So, all packed and ready to roll we hit the road the morning of Saturday 16 August bound for Hyden, WA and the famous Wave Rock. A massive thank you to Jodie and Mark (Dannii's sister and her fiance) who let us stay with them while we were technically homeless and packing for this trip.
We've now made it to Wave rock and walked the huge chunk of granite. We even watched some Asian tourists have a massive stack while running up and down the formidable slope for the camera. "We knew that was coming" is an understatement. Only a couple of minor scrapes and bruised egos but definitely entertaining. More so because I could easily see myself doing the same thing :P
And now as the sun sets over the plains and we sit sipping our cold beers and ciders we look forward to the journey ahead. Tomorrow the Holland Track greets us as we make our way east northeast to Coolgardie and then Kalgoorlie. We look forward to keeping you posted on our travels and we hope that you enjoy reading about them.
Cheers,
James and Dannii
- comments
jen mick henry xxx Yay!!! So excited to follow your adventures!!
Hannah Clayton Have fun guys! Look forward to updates :)! X
Kellie Can't wait to read about all your adventures
KKE Good job guys! Thanks for sharing ur Oz expedition with us... We look fwd to the laughs. Stay safe always xx
Gilesy Now that's living the dream. How many minutes did you wait for the Japanese tourist to go arse up? Had a similar experience at red bluff watching one trying to paddle out to go surfing... Hope you both have a f***ing cracking adventure