We're still talking to each other!

Having talked to someone before we left who said he and his wife would last about one day travelling together, I think we're doing quite well :)

I got up early to walk a little way out of Tibooburra to get this photo at sunrise. There are piles of granite around the township and this stone was balanced on just three points

Don't quite know whether Bun wanted to fly off the edge here! I think he's planning on only having photos of the back of him appear on the blog :)

This was one of the 'much better' dirt roads that we've been on!  There had been rain in the general area in the last couple of weeks and so some of the roads were pretty bad.  There were times that we went back to about 25-30kms per hour because of ruts and corrugations.  There is also some pretty lucky wildlife out there too because we missed an emu by a tail feather and a little goat put the brakes on very quickly and just missed the side of the truck.

We went from Tibooburra to Wanaaring to Bourke to Louth to Cobar to Broken Hill and we are now in Mildura again.  We would have liked to go to Ivanhoe or White Cliffs or Tilpa but roads have been closed and we figured we had given the caravan a bit of a workout already.  It doesn't look so clean anymore :)

We will stay in Mildura until Tuesday when the truck has it's first service then we will head home.

Saw this sign in the pub at Pooncarie and thought it was a good one for the blog!

And we're off!!

We left home on Tuesday and went through Mildura and part way towards Broken Hill and spent the night beside the Anabranch Bridge.  It only took Bun about an hour or so to find a dog to cuddle :).  I did some driving during the day and apparently it only took an hour or so for me to scare him!
I continued driving the next day and was passed by a semi for the first time without incident.
We decided that we could take things pretty easy as this is really only to get used to driving, towing, etc, so we stayed in Broken Hill for the night.  We are so going to turn into grey nomads, pulling in for the night at about 3pm haha.

So it sounds like 4pm is happy hour for grey nomads??

Thursday we headed towards Tibooburra, calling into Packsaddle Roadhouse about 1.30pm.  After a leisurely beer turned into a couple more, we decided to stay there for the night.  The company both sides of the bar was great and the hot chips for tea were the best we've had!  Friday morning we headed to Tibooburra with a stop to climb up a mountain (well, large hill?)

Our truck and van are actually in the second photo too so we were pretty high up! Think we scared away the goats as we climbed up.

Today (Saturday) we took a drive out to Camerons Corner where the 3 state borders meet.  Bun enjoyed a beer at the Roadhouse/Pub.

We've decided to stay on tomorrow night as well and do a couple of drives through the National Parks before heading off on Monday, probably towards Wanaaring because Bun's heard about some guys catching Yellow Bellys there.

Wish the Drive-in still worked! Bun looked a little lonely :))

Catch you all later

I attended a great class on Sunday in Adelaide on bag making and picked up so many helpful little tips! Nicole said we want our bags to be handmade rather than look homemade. So good to spend a day doing stuff with others who 'get it'!

I was pretty happy with the result, looks quite professional I thought.

In other news, the storage boxes for the truck were picked up last Friday and then on Wed/Thurs we had a UHF installed.  Water tanks are filled and the fridge is on!

We plan to head off on Tuesday for a couple of weeks, still unsure of a direction as we'll wait and see what the weather/rain does.

Brrrr!

Sometimes it's so cold outside that you start work a little later than normal :)

Things are moving along nicely :)

Bun and I spent last weekend in Sydney catching up with our brothers.  We stayed with Tim and Gail and Max on Friday and Saturday night then caught up with David and Natalie on Sunday.  Checked out the respective houses as they've both bought new houses and renovated in the last couple of years and we worked out that we hadn't been over to Sydney for 13 years!! It was way past time for that visit.  All in all, a relaxed weekend with family :)

Well I finished up at work yesterday, having holidays for the next 5 weeks. I will be going back for 2 weeks in August so that Ian and Narelle can have some time away then that will be IT!
We hope to pick up the tool/storage boxes for the truck on Tuesday and then spend the next couple of weeks getting the truck and van organised so that we can get away on our 'trial run'.  I borrowed a labelling dymo thingy from Kim at work and had a little play last night.



Loving how organised it looks :)

In the process of using the internet to get visas for the USA trip at the moment as that is getting closer. Callie is getting excited and I have to admit I'm looking forward to it too. Just under 11 weeks to go!

Bun finished picking oranges yesterday too so that's another thing off the list. We look like heading off from here during the second week in October so that is going to come around pretty quickly with everything else going on.  It's starting to feel like it's actually going to happen now as there was a long time with nothing to show for the planning going on in the background.

Cheers :)

Something to ride in and something to sleep in!

Unfortunately I think the dogs think they'll be coming too :)

A couple of big weeks!

We had a lovely family type celebration at the start of June for Callie's 21st.  She was happy to have family and a couple of close friends go out for tea and then they kicked on later at the Renmark Club. Of course, the big payoff comes when we head to USA in September, 12 weeks and counting!!

Finally the caravan is in Winkie! We picked it up on Saturday afternoon and spent a few hours with the dealer being shown how everything worked. The bed is made and a few things have been put into drawers but as someone said, it will take weeks probably to work out the best spot for everything :)
So now we have something to ride in and something to sleep in!

Bun has managed to get a crew of backpackers to pick the oranges, they started yesterday and so hopefully the crop will be all off by the end of next week.  That's also when I will take a break from work so we should get a chance to get away for at least a couple of weeks with the van to have a trial run.  We want to make sure that everything works with the truck and the van and also see how good our packing skills are!

We are heading to Sydney on Friday for a very quick visit with Bun's brother and my brother before getting back Sunday night.  Ben let us know that he will do a quick road trip and catch up with us at Tim's on Friday night.

Although we still have a few months before we leave, things are going to be busy so time will go quickly, after all it's already about 11 months since we first made the decision :)

Cheers