we are right at the begining of the planning stage. we decided that for us it was 1 of 2 options.. 1)we either buy our first house together(john is 47, I am 33 i have owned a house before with my ex husband,john has never owned a house) and stay put,put the kids thru school,take our 4wks a year holidays but not go anywhere so we could do up the house OR
2) we say bugger it,save our wagtails off,buy a van and travel.Work as we need to and enjoy our lives as a family before they up and leave the nest.(currently 14yrs,10yrs+3yrs)
What better education can your child receive than seeing and learning our beautiful country!
19mths and counting until we go.Van purchase is about 8wks off(getting excited)then its lots of little trips to sort out any problems!
We are saving sooo hard for this and to be honest i dont think we would have saved as hard for a house deposit.
And we are proud to say that we are 100% debt free and will be doing this trip on the money WE have earned,not what is borrowed on the plastic fantastic!
All your stories make me sooo excited that i cant wait to go out there and see it all for myself!

Interesting post. I wish you all the best Sparrow and hope all works well for the both of you. Hope to do the same, just having problems making "the" decision.

Good on you Magicbob also, understand how you feel.

Regards
John

Hi Magicbob,
Glad I didn't offend you. I suppose some of what I was saying stems from the fact that I recall January 1989 quite vividly as It was when my father died at 62 having been retired 6 months at most. Had a near new Range Rover and caravan in which they (mum n dad) were to commence their retirement dream of travelling around Australia etc.
My point is mum is now going to turn 85 this year and has enough money to not need an aged pension thanks to my fathers excellent fiscal mamagement in the past. However she does not have the trip memories to think back on just a thought of what could have been....now a thought spanning 21 years or more. She has done overseas trips etc but readily admits it wasn't the same as going away in the van with Dad.
So Bob it is not all about money in my humble opinion but a balance...what if Dad settled on a few dollars less???and done the trip, at the end of the day if you asked my mum she would suggest the memories/photo,s would have been much nicer than nothing.
Sorry for seemingly hijacking the thread to a degree also.
regards Alan.

51 weeks till blast off, after seven years off planning and saving and now its less than a year to go, do you think im excited, that would be an understatement.

Hi Geobay,
How are you going to last the 51 weeks ????? Only about 9 years and 51 weeks for me!! and thats on a wing and a prayer.
Good luck to you.
Regards Alan

49 weeks to go, not that we are counting.

Well, we are two weeks into our new " travelling around Australia" lifestyle.

It's been good thus far, weather could be better, we are in Swansea NSW at present and it's been wet, cold and windy. But things happen for a reason....

Late last year, the handle broke on the hatch in our Jayco motorhome. We contacted Jayco Sydney and this was immediately replaced under warranty.

When we lived in our house the MH was on a incline in the driveway, so we never noticed any leaks in the new hatch, but since we are in Swansea with so much rain, we realised that some of the sealing must not be quite right since it started to leak.

We contacted Jayco in Newcastle in the morning, by mid afternoon the same day they had removed the whole hatch and replaced all the sealing - it now is watertight.

Just goes to show .....

1. How the rain can be in your favor and
2. That Jayco are very effecient in fixing any warranty issues. We are most grateful!

Heading north tomorrow towards Coffs. No fixed plan, just see how far we get.

I just love the fact that I can get up anytime I like with no alarm clock !!! yee haa!!

Hi Sparrow

Have just purchased a Jayco MH. Would sure like to know how you are travelling. All updates would be appreciated.
We also had a leak near the hatch, Jayco fixed it as well.

Good travelling
John and Ailsa