Defining Moments

There are a few defining moments that made this trip feel real, like it was really happening and we were really going to do it..... You can talk about doing something for so long but never actually do anything towards making it happen, 2012 is the year that everything we do is towards making this trip a reality....

4WD

When we decided to take this trip we had a Toyota echo and a beat up old Suzuki Sierra, neither of which were going to get us far in our road trip! The first defining moment would have to be the purchase of our 2010 Isuzu Dmax Dual Cab Ute. We purchased the Dmax in May 2012 and while it was pretty stock standard, we knew this would be a great car to take us on our trip, after a few modifications.

Boat

We had a Quintrex 430 escape boat which we had bought new and only owned for a couple of years. We had had some great times in this boat and putting it for sale was another huge defining moment. Unfortunately we couldn't have both a campervan and an awesome boat. So we put the boat for sale and it was sold within the week! We sold it to a lovely country couple from high fields and they will hopefully be looking after our little boat and creating great memories too. The money from the sale of our boat was to be the money to fund the purchase of all our required equipment. First being a home to tow around Australia with us. We didn't want a caravan and we didn't want a fold out camper trailer.....

Campervan

Of course as soon as we sold the boat and had the money burning a hole in our pocket we had to find a camper. In all honesty Joel must of spent about two months prior to this researching every campervan available on every eBay, gumtree, camper site you can think of so he knew what was out there and knew what he wanted! I on the other hand wouldn't have known what I was even looking at! Joel found the one he wanted and we bought it, it required some work but for the price we were willing to restore what was needed and go from there. I want to apologize to the family of kids we bought the camper off who balled their eyes out when we picked the camper up and took it away from them. Sorry but we are looking after it and it is getting set for a great adventure. This was a huge defining moment, when you see this in your yard every time you look out the window there is no going back!

Work

Most people would probably just give 4 weeks notice or 2 weeks depending on the length of time they had worked at a job. I have worked for my employer for 4 years and four weeks would have been all the notice I needed to give.... However I decided to tell them in July. Let me explain why...

Firstly we have a review every year around July and it's a good opportunity to sit down and talk, secondly I really like my bosses, they have been good to me and while I have returned the favor in working for them for four years, I guess I told them now more as a friend than an employee. I wanted them to have the best chance of finding someone to replace me. And thirdly, it was probably a more selfish reason in that I didn't want to carry the knowledge around anymore, I just wanted them to know so I could breathe easy and not worry about what was going to happen when I told them. Telling them would have to be the single biggest defining moment for me, it all became real and I felt like I could think about the trip without feeling guilty for thinking about it! My bosses were great about it really, considering and I will do everything I can to help them while I'm away if they need it! Joel was lucky enough that a year ago he was going to leave his work and they asked him to stay for another 12 months while they train someone so they were already aware that they would be losing him at the end of this year. So he's been thinking about this trip guilt free for the last 6 months!

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