After months of preparations, planning and fantasizing, our journey around Australia is about to begin. Well, our caravan is not ready yet, in fact it’s quite unorganized, as we’re learning the meaning of Minimalism. You see, there’s not much you really need when you go out traveling, but we’re so used to hoarding and having the space at home, it’s a bit challenging to only take what you really need, and I mean really need. The result? a full on packed caravan with way too many things and not much room left. We figured we have to do something about it, by brutally cutting down the stuff we’re taking with us.

Another challenge is packing up the house, putting everything in storage, and giving back the keys to the real estate agent, on time. We ended up with a few sleepless nights, and the hotter-than-usual weather – an unwelcome heatwave across Sydney – is not helping. Eventually we realised we are running out of time to get everything perfectly sorted and ready to hit the road, so we go with an improvised Plan B. What do we do? Use the caravan for storage and fill it up with whatever is left in the house as we sweep through it on the morning we need to “check out”. The result is a really packed caravan unsuitable for a family road trip. The kids look at it in disgust – we’re not traveling like that are we?

Of course not. We just need a bit more time to sort everything out. Thankfully, there’s a really nice caravan park down the road at Narrabeen Lake, Northern Beaches. After saying goodbye to the owners and our good neighbors, we travel north only 15 minutes drive away, and the short trip surprises the kids who are extremely disappointed… is that all? this is it? they cry out. All those talks and excitement about a road trip around Australia, and this is all we get? a trip down the road, you must be kidding me. There’s nothing like a good start…

So we end up practicing how to park the caravan in reverse, setting up the awning, and clearing up the content of our overloaded caravan. A short walk to the nearby lagoon and a play in the water helps to calm down everyone. There’s no rush, I say, time is meaningless. If we head off today, tomorrow or the next day, does it really matter? We got a long road ahead of us, literally, so let’s just take it one step at a time and make the best of it.