Stanthorpe, Australia

When Nick and I first met, he always made it clear that he wanted to travel. Who would have thought that after 30+ years, 3 children and 6 dogs, it would finally be happening!

But, no-one ever said that there would be so much work involved in getting ready! Thank goodness for the Internet – Nick has been reading blogs from fellow travellers, following current affairs, researching methods of moving our vehicle (but which vehicle) and buying maps (!!!) for countless years, and as he approached retirement age, the frequency increased! Is there such a thing as a “Travel Planning Widow”?

Over the years, we have changed our planned method of travel – first a motorbike (but which sort?), then a BMW R80GS affectionately called “Zwartje Piete”, then an Ural Outfit, then our trusty
Toyota Troopcarrier. Would we camp, should we take a trailer, should we take a caravan, can we take said trailer/caravan over the roads we are planning on travelling? What visas will be required? Do we need a Carnet?

And always the big question – which way will we go? Due to unrest and conflict, we finally settled on shipping the Troopy to Vladivostok in Far Eastern Russia and then driving across Russia, through Mongolia, to Western Europe. This won’t involve any Carnets for the first leg (thank goodness!) and we’ll only need to get Visas for Russia & Mongolia. By the way, why is it so complicated to get a Visa for Russia??

Unfortunately, due to age and various other reasons, we are taking the Troopy and not going on a motorbike. The up-side of this means that I’ll be able to pack more than 2 pairs of undies and a toothbrush in my luggage! So then, Nick had to kit out the Troopy in preparation for the adventure.

Thankfully, when he first bought the car 22 years ago, he got it fully fitted out for off-road travel – improved suspension, diff-locks, bull-bar and side rails, cargo barrier, roof rack, dual fuel tanks, winch and other technical stuff too boring for me to understand but I will fully appreciate once we’re on the road. As we have used the Troopy, we’ve added improvements to it – storage drawers in the back, third door (passenger-side door), and we are continuing to add to it – 100 litre water bladder, a new fridge. We also replaced the old RFDS radio with a Sat-Phone (second-hand). Nick has built a storage unit that sits in the back and will compartmentalise the storage – this box goes here, the fridge there… I think you get the picture.

So now in less than 8 days, we will be boarding a plane for Vladivostok, via Bangkok and Seoul and we will FINALLY begin our adventure.

BUT first, Nick decided that we needed to do a couple of shake-down trips to check that everything work. So, when our friend Sabine came to Oz for her holiday, we took her up north to Lawn Hill National Park and Karumba. On that particular journey, we took our Track-Trailer Camper (+20 years old) and tested the capabilities of the car – could she still stand up to be being shaken and rattled to death? We had a few minor hiccups – we lost the top of the Snorkel and few a fuse in the fridge (who ever heard of an 8-Amp Ceramic fuse!!), but everything passed with flying colours.

After we finished making the final adjustments to the interior of the Troopy – we added Mafia-grade tinting to the back and rear windows, applied insulation to the inside of the back and rear windows (no-one is going to see what is in the car), we were ready to head off on another shake-down trip.

Nick wanted to go to the MotoGP at Phillip Island again, so he drove down whilst I visited Sydney for a week before flying to Melbourne. He picked me up at Melbourne Airport (that was a whole other adventure) and we drove to Geelong at the end of October, before continuing along the Great Ocean Road to Kennett River, Princetown and Warrnambool before heading north to Nhill and Broken Hill.

Along the way, we slept in our tipi tent, on the stretchers that we are taking to Russia and generally we’ve used every piece of equipment. We froze in Princetown (why didn’t we pack clothing for Russia?) and boiled in Nhill when we were “blessed” with a HOT westerly wind.

We had a wonderful time exploring the Great Ocean Road, visiting a Cheese Factory and a Chocolate Factory (yummy), spend a couple of days exploring in Warrnambool and decided that it was a lovely town and well worth a return visit. We visited one of Nick’s Meccas – Westprint in Nhill, which make and sell specialist maps (4WD/Off-Road/Exploration).

From Nhill we headed north to the Menindee Lakes where we got to practise our mud driving (don’t get caught in a rain storm at Menindee Lakes), before visiting Broken Hill. We had a great time there and got to go underground at an abandoned silver mine which was built for short people! From Broken Hill we went to Moree (via Nyngan) and spent a few nights, recovering in the Thermal Pools and generally relaxing after driving some 5000 kilometres. From Moree, we went to the farm at Stanthorpe (to unpack) and then home, where we prepared to Christmas and packing up a house and moving to our farm at Severnlea, which is near Stanthorpe.

Who ever said that retirement was boring? And we didn’t think that we would drive 12000 kms in just 3 months in “preparation”!

If you have enjoyed reading this Blog, we’d love to hear from you and will continue to add blog-postings as we continue on our great adventure. Still to come will be blogs on the joys of packing and getting your Visas!