the beginning to a new era / blog #002
Our first stop on the road
It’s been a little over a month now since moving our lives onto the wide open road, selling almost all of our belongings, saving all of those loose pennies and bravely trusting our guts to live a life close to our dreams and closer together. It never ceases to amaze us just how vast this incredible country is. We’ve been moving slowly, which is fitting for our family unit and has been a huge help during the transition into our new lifestyle. Blake and I have done bits and bobs and travelling and car-style living, but we hadn’t thought the transition would hit as hard as it did. An important part of the whole thing, new foundations, similar routines and re-learning the flow of our family dynamic. The bittersweet feeling of saying goodbye to family and friends after packing up and moving away from familiarities probably makes up the most of this transition and in ways it’s still hitting home. Carrying our loved ones in our hearts and knowing were never too far away is a nice slice of familia we’ll take with us wherever we go.
Andrew Drynan Park, Running Creek
We have visited a handful of real beautiful places and campsites. Free camps make up most of where we’ve stayed so far. We left off from north Brisbane early December and our first stop was Andrew Drynan Park (on the border of NSW and QLD) for a couple of nights before making our way to Mullumbimby to meet up with Lily, a photographer from Argyle Street Studios. It was special to have our photos taken, and sweetly timed right at the beginning of our trip. We then landed at Winegrove, a free camp called Lilydale snuggled right up on the Clarence River. We spent a little over a week here, melting into our new lives and living simply - waking up with the sun, going for walks, spending time at the river, cooking on the fire. It’s crazy how much life slow downs when you do, and there’s a bit of a test of surrendering that comes with it. A funny moment was loosing our solar panels off the top of our car and then finding them days later on our way to town, out of pure luck at the front of someones gate, in one piece and good as gold. Grafton has been our local town while we’ve been by the Clarence Valley, popping in for supplies and all that jazz. We really love it here too. The people are nice and the buildings are old and beautiful.
Grafton Art Gallery
For Christmas and New Year we had our family come and visit whilst we all road tripped together, it was the best month and there was a whole lot of love and fun shared. We spent some time at Yuraygir National Park NSW, Gibraltar National Park, Lilydale and Nymboida River. We’ll be covering these spots and what we found along our way in our next blog post - so many good moments and adventures to share. It really was the best solstice holiday and will be one to remember.
Blissmas day at Boundary Falls
We are currently hanging in the Clarence Valley and have loved exploring the many beautiful areas that surround it. It’s funny in ways, we haven’t made it really that far from home base but we have seen so much in between. We both like the relaxed motion of turtle pace, and so does our little one too. We have also taken the opportunity to get some upgrades for our car and set up. We switched out our roof top tent for an Oztent and we couldn’t be more stoked. We loved having our ARB Tourer rooftop tent and it’s kept us comfy for almost 5 years, but for multiple reasons getting a top quality ground tent has made our set up so much more suitable. Gypsy is also getting new suspension and getting a few things done before we go off the beaten track, which were super excited for!
Our new tent! The Oztent RV5
We met an incredible women named Louise through the local community page who kindly has welcomed us into her home while we get the car done in Grafton. It’s been so nice getting to know one another, learning about her life as a traveller, mother, artist, caretaker, homeschooler and so much more. She has the coolest garden full of tropical plants, we’ve spent most of our time hanging about there doing all sorts - making yummy meals, eco-dyeing and playing. As well as a couple dips in the pool! The days have been relaxed as we recharge and unwind in this sweet town - going for walks to the park and around the streets, to the book shop and visiting ‘Heart & Soul’ cafe. It’s been real nice to be in this atmosphere and appreciate it. Most of our time so far has been spent out in the bush, which we love the most, but it sure is good to meet kind faces, shower daily and feel a bit more human, if you know what we mean (haha).
Louise’s Magical Tropical Oasis
This weekend we are meeting up with a couple of our favourite people and heading out to another camping spot, yet to be decided. How fun, every day is new and with that comes a brand new adventure. We’re looking forward to spending some quality time together enjoying the days under the sun and nights by the campfire.
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