FIRST MONTH ON THE ROAD

Snakes: 3

Koalas in Trees: 2

Platypus: 0

Doctors Visits: 1

Distance: 2070km

Stops: 11

Kangaroos Spotted: Hundreds

Fights: Thousands

Ok so to be fair, at the time of writing we are probably closer to 6 weeks on the road but time has taken on a different meaning since packing up and hitting the road. Our first month on the road has taken us to some amazing places so far and has us itching to get further into the unknown and off the beaten track. It’s also been a test run for our set up as well as how we’ve adjusted to a completely new way of life. Bedtimes have become a thing of the past with the kids often still awake and gimping about by the time we turn in for the night. Showers either seem to happen multiple times a day per person, or not at all. My greatest wish in life is now for a washing machine I don’t have to rummage around for gold coins to use.

There’s a lot of you families and couples doing exactly the same thing as us – putting “life” on hold for a year or more to actually live. Reading all your stories one thing which I’ve noticed is that many of you have prepared for your Big Lap for almost as long as you’re planning to be on the road. You’ve researched, you’ve installed, you’ve modified and you’ve purchased all the right gear. While we’ve talked about doing this trip for years, its been more wistful discussions rather than actual planning. From the time we purchased our 4×4 and camper trailer we had a little over a month before we took off. We’re very much new to this, and learning as we go along! A lot of people ask about our set up and our gear so I thought I’d put together our favourite “life on the road” items.

Kmart Booster Seat

You know how you go into Kmart needing to pick up one small, cheap thing and end up with a receipt as long as your arm. Well this was one of those trips. This $30 gem of a product has been our biggest lifesaver. We didn’t have the space to bring his old highchair with us, but this completely folds up to barely anything. It’s a fantastic way to contain and occupy an active toddler. It’s Ryder’s eating table, his car racetrack, TV lounger, outdoor seat and activity table. It’s constantly covered in food but we just take it in the shower with us and it cleans up easily with a bit of soap – overnight and its dry. Just last week we went into Kmart to see if we could get another one just as a spare and there were no more left – Kmart if you are listening please stock more of this camp-lifesaving product!

Kathmandu Child Carrier

We’ve only just recently purchased this and after only a couple of uses its already proved it’s spot on this list. Ryder loves walking on hikes – but half the time it’s in the wrong direction. Even then, his little legs only have a kilometer or two in them.  After spending multiple hikes carrying Ryder on our shoulders we picked up this bad boy in Sydney. It’s got a harness seat for him, but also has a good sized inbuilt backpack and multiple storage pockets. The metal frame also makes it double as a child seat for when you stop on a hike.

Now for anyone reading this who is now worried that our top two items have all been around containing our baby, rest easy because number 3 is…

Camping 1.5L Slow Cooker

Given our tight weekly travel budget, I argued with Daniel about buying this in Woolworths for $20, amongst a tirade about how every time he comes shopping it ends up costing twice as much. However he now has it here is writing for all the world to see that on this occasion (and this occasion only), that I was wrong. We use this pretty much every night – chop up some veg, some meat and some hours later you’ve got something that even Gordon Ramsey couldn’t complain about. We’ve done everything from pasta sauce, stews and curries in this. It’s small enough that it doesn’t take up much of our limited space in the camper, the downside of that being it only does enough for the two of us. Super easy to clean as well. Nice work Woolies!

Two Burner Camping Stove

You can pick these up in pretty much any variety store – we bought the Campmaster brand and its served us well. It comes with a BBQ Grill/Hotplate which a lot of other ones don’t come with – it just gives you a whole lot more cooking options. We definitely wouldn’t be able to get by without this – best of all it doesn’t require any power so you’re completely sorted when freedom camping.

Polaroid TV/DVD Combo

While I hate to admit it, we are parents who use TV as a bit of a babysitter. Back when we had an actual home the TV was on from the time we got up to the time we went to bed. While we don’t watch it anywhere near as much as we used to, it’s just a little bit of “home comfort” we’ve bought with us. It helps occupy the kids during the stressful pack up days, and it buys us about another 30 minutes of snoozing time in the morning (with Ryder sitting in his Kmart booster seat). The DVD player means that if our antenna doesn’t get good reception we still have entertainment options. We brought our Google Home and Chromecast which makes us feel all high tech while “roughing it” camping.

As I said, we’re still very new to this and there’s many things we still need to get better at. Other than the obvious space issues and my own washing machine, I can’t say there is anything we’re missing from having a house to live out of. We’re carting a lot of stuff around but I can say honestly all of does get used. On our next stop back in Sydney at the end of April I think we’ll be able to offload a lot of the summer clothing.

The next big thing on my list I want to get done is to get a house battery installed in the camper – either solar powered or charged by the car. From what I’ve found out so far it’s an investment to get installed, but will pay off quickly in terms of the free or low cost camping options it will open up to us. Without it right now it means that we are restricted to campgrounds with powered sites which are great in terms of the facilities but it eats into the budget a lot. More importantly, they don’t give us those authentic camping experiences which you get from camping out in the beaches and bush – and it’s getting off the beaten track which has made this the dream for so long.