The truth.

I’d like to start this belated post with a huge dose of happiness, a sense of wellbeing, the feeling of absolute elation as I look down the barrel of ten months holiday with just a smidge of smugness that it’s all happening. However, this post is not a Facebook update so what I’m actually going to start with is a big fat “Faaaarrrcccckkkk!!!!” as I swill down a glass of wine and sit in the stink of my unwashed self. Getting a visual?

Yes, the house WILL be rented on time. Yes, we WILL fit everything necessary into the van. Yes, I WILL have the house cleaned and empty in a week’s time. Yes, my children WILL be ever so helpful and play quietly in a corner with something which creates absolutely no mess or noise.  I do actually believe and feel all of this (except the last thing: that’s for everyone who has ever tried to clean/pack/organise anything with a sense of urgency and 2 small children in a 500m radius- we all need a laugh) will be achieved, but the getting to that point has been pretty ordinary. No one loves moving, but like all necessary evils, it is, well, necessary.

So anyway, we’re still looking for the perfect (read: any) tenant, there are still boxes standing around and everything is pretty filthy. But we did start to throw, and I mean that in the literal sense, gear into the van; the walls and cupboards are beginning to look bare and our wheelie bin has been chockas with crap from The Cleanse every week for the last month. Actually our neighbour’s bin has been pretty full too- thanks Brinkers! So things are moving in the right direction. Except for our bank account.

I watched with interest some Grey Nomads on The Project having a whinge about the demise of free camping spots in Victoria.  Essentially, millions of dollars are spent maintaining these campgrounds each year and the newly elected Napthine Government has sniffed this out. So we’ll probably be paying $19 a night to camp in what was a free site. All other campsite charges are going up a few dollars a night as well, which I didn’t think was such a bad thing since this should pay for the maintenance and perhaps addition of camping facilities. But now, having blown out on a baby hiking carrier, a dual battery pack for our fridge in the car, organisational paraphernalia for inside the van etc etc, those free camping sites are starting to look pretty sweet. So did the cleaners who were going to be doing the final clean of our vacant home… I need to buy some gloves and a mask. Please refer to the categories about being a lazy mole listed in the Cleaning Blinds post.

So while the here and now of our almost nomadic situation feels pretty frustrating, it is also very transient- we won’t be in this packing and cleaning hell for long. Eight days in fact. That is totally doable.

And if you haven’t banged your head on the keyboard yet, comatose from my ‘travel blog’ which has blogged about everything EXCEPT the actual ‘travel’ it was conceived for… tell me, what’s the best thing about Carnarvon Gorge? That’s our first ‘big’ stop, and we plan to be there in the second week of March. Do you have any tips for the Gorge itself or places on the way? After spending the first week of March in Newrybar, Harvest Café at our fingertips, the idea of Central Queensland sounds very exotic... hopefully it will smell nice too.

Or just not like bleach.