Overland with Kids

Andrew has his practical skiils assessment for Australian visa early April. We have booked an independent towing course for our off-road caravan plus our vehicle and us have arranged to take a visit to Stuart at Foley’s, both over Easter. We also have a mechanics course booked for a day initially, toward end April. We are arranging for our old paper-based driving licenses to be changed into the new fangled photo-id versions. An import  number plate for caravan is on our ‘to do’ list this weekend. So things are starting to move a bit - slowly but surely. It’s been worth the lengthy research, consideration, re-checking and hanging on before doing any major works to our base vehicle to ensure we don’t make any expensive mistakes and, to ensure our final configuration and load will suit our needs (as well as the vehicle). 

We plan to have vehicle fitted out in time for summer this year and have a good idea of what we want but just want to make some final checks and ask some questions via discussion with Foley’s and mechanic first. So watch this space as our vehicle begins it’s transformation in the next couple of months.  

We have refined our summer ’shake down’ trip this year - which is now just to France, Spain and Morocco. Still a fantastic opportunity! We have 7 weeks in total but decided if we tried to do more it would end up being a bit of a driving marathon (Algerian border has been closed with Morocco since 1994 so to try to move in the direction we would have wanted would not be possible anyway). So, this way we get to spend some quality time in each place, chill with the children and see the things and places we want to see. Still a busy itinerary if we want to get the best out of the time and the money spent, but we feel, a much better plan overall.  Jessica can’t believe she will see a real desert! Our trip starts Monday 13th July from Dover to Calais with our farthest point being Lake Iriki in Morocco, or thereabouts, before poodling homeward bound at a reasonably relaxed pace northward, along the Atlantic Coast. We have France and Spain pretty well taped in terms of itinerary and route and what we want to get out of both etc. but we are still working on the finer points of Morocco. We will take a ferry finally on our homeward bound route from Bibao, Spain to Portsmouth to save racing home on a long journey through France with the children (we will have already spent a great deal of time in France in any case on the initial journey out). In total we will have about 20+ days in France, 7-10 days Spain (really just passing through in both directions) and a total of approx 20 days in Morocco. France and Spain will be largely within our comfort zone but Morocco will kick us outside of this which is what we need - terrain, thinking, wits, planning, environment etc. - we feel a good introduction for our bigger trip to see how we all fare.  So far, we have been looking at driving to Oz with children a little through rose-tinted glasses - not actually true, but we think and need to get a better idea of how we will actually cope by putting ourselves and our children through our paces.

We had originally planned to fly to Oz to validate visa (providing us an additional 5 years! to get there) but it’s taking longer than planned to organise but no great shakes.  

Other news is that we investigated a short trip to Peru (flying) without the children in May this year to do a 4-day hike to Machu Picchu but decided against A) due to cost and B) time really required to spend properly in South America as oppossed to an expensive, flying visit. The appetite is whetted however and we’ll dream about the possible prospect sometime in the future. The want to do it all is outrageous but feet are now firmly back on the ground for Oz next year (and finally finishing DIY etc. on our house this year, in time for our trip).

We’ll be in Spain, dog-sitting beginning April and have our first Couchsurfers staying with us from Spain beginning May.

We made £300 over the past 3 weeks on eBay - not bad for a bit of de-junking around the house. We have more to do but are a bit knackered following all the post, packing, photos, descriptions, answering questions etc. so are having a little rest before starting up our second blast. Trying to be a professional e-Bayer between full-time work and children and decorating and dreaming about our forthcoming plans can be a little tough! The children sold 3 of their books and raised £3 so far so thanks to those who purchased.

In terms of fund-raising plans, we have printed tickets for forthcoming Pesky Rat puppet shows later this year, have sourced puppets and commissioned and paid a deposit for a full adult-size Pesky Rat costume (Andrew will be wearing and says he is quaking in his boots about the whole thing -says if there ever was a challenge then this is it - he is more worried about the puppet shows than travelling the world!!). We are planning on participating in a May Day fete to help raise awareness toward our cause and also arranged to have business cards printed so we can give to friends, family and people we meet along the way as contact details (we just received and they look cool!).

It’s Anne’s birthday this week - 42 - aaaagh! - (cough! - 22!) getting older!! and definately in the midst of a mid-life crisis! She needs a night out with her girlfriends and some alcohol !!!

We’ve been following Ollie and Jen of Jollyfollies.com final preparations as they plan to leave in approx 4-5 weeks time. Also, checking out the Naismith’s Drive-to-oz.com recent return and their final fame through a series of press releases about their trip - a nice end to a great adventure! 

We are getting very impatient (or Anne is!) as just want to go NOW - but appreciate we have to wait for a number of reasons - still doesn’t make it any easier and Anne is driving Andrew mad meantime (nothing unusual there!). There is still just over a year for us before we go! Like kids really waiting for Christmas sometimes!

Thats’ all for now! Map route and itinerary for summer trip to follow shortly.

Diary (Blog)