On the Road Again!
A Reflection from the Road
There’s a definite restlessness that arrives with the cool change.
We’ve been parked up through the Victorian summer, catching up with family and friends, doing the things that full-time road life makes harder, such as long lunches and lazy afternoons together. It was good…really good. But somewhere around the point when the mornings started getting sharp and the days shorter, we both felt it. Time to follow the warmth!
The original plan was to spend some more time in South Australia. There are always more places to find, and we’d been looking forward to getting back. But a polar cold snap had other ideas, pushing down through Victoria with the kind of intent that made us reconsider everything south and west.
We looked at the forecast, looked at each other, and pointed the van north instead. That’s one of the best things about living this way: the flexibility to just change our minds at a moment’s notice.
The fuel situation added another layer to our decision-making. The global supply crunch had seen diesel prices climb to the point where we sat still a little longer than planned, watching to see what would happen.
A couple of phone calls to our mates up north, and the decision was made. More free camps and leaning more heavily on the Jimny for day trips and exploring, as it’s a far more economical way to cover ground once the motorhome is parked up, and honestly, it gets us into places the big rig never could.
It’s changed how we think about travel a little. Even slower, more deliberate. Base camp somewhere interesting, explore outward from it, move on when it feels right. Which, looking back, is probably just a variation on how we have been doing it all along.
The hardest part is always the goodbye.
Family pulls hardest when you’re heading off. There’s no clean way to say farewell to people you love, and no amount of video calls quite fills the gap. We’ve learned to live with that rather than try to resolve it. Living on the road gives us a lot, but it doesn’t give us proximity, and honestly, that’s a trade-off worth noting.
But the northern sun was calling, and we’ve never regretted following it.
The Jimny is packed, the motorhome is ready, and somewhere ahead of us, the country is warm and wide and waiting. That's enough, let’s go!
Some of our other thoughts
A Victorian summer with family and friends behind us, a polar cold snap nudging us north, and rising fuel prices reshaping how we travel. Time to head out again and see what's up the road.