Lightening Online

Can you believe that??????

100 sleeps until our planned departure date.

Assuming we leave on time (and one should  never assume when married to a farmer), the time between now and when we leave is the same as the time we’ll be away.

This is both exciting and scary.  I’m not sure if it means we’re running out of time to get done what we need to do before we go or whether we’re going to be gone quite a looonnnggg time.

I’m not sure I’m going to get everything done before we go so I may need to sit down and work out what does and doesn’t matter. I’m almost too scared to write myself self a list because:

a) It’ll feel unachievable
b) I’ll send myself nuts trying to achieve it all
c) I’ll go away dissatisfied that my list isn’t complete

3 Kids And A Caravan

If you’ve yet to subscribe to our family travel blog, I’d encourage you to do so now.  Without regular internet access, we won’t be able to publish on a schedule but my plan is 4 posts per week - one from each of the kids and one from me.

You can use the following to subscribe directly to 3 Kids And a Caravan:

Subscribe in a reader

Just a note: if you subscribe via email you need to visit a confirmation link delivered to your email address in order to complete the subscription process.

Yes, I will still be blogging here but over there you’ll get a multi-faceted view of the trip and my own posts will be slightly different.  My plan for my posts over there is more of a “weekly round-up” type post whereas here will be my usual “brain dump” of whatever I feel like writing about at the time.

We Need Your Help!

I would really like to approach some companies with the thought of sponsoring our travel blog.  Not huge amounts but a few dollars for some spending money (particularly for the kids) on our trip.  The more interest the blog has in terms of readership, subscribers and links in, the better our chance of being able to do that.  So if you’re so inclined and would like to help us out, adding a link to your blog or blogroll, tweeting about us or helping spread the word in some way or anything else that might help us build a bit of exposure would be greatly appreciated. 

Somebody Pinch Me

I can hardly believe it’s 100 sleeps until we go!!!!  SQUEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, not upside-down exactly but we’re looking at changing our minds and heading off the way we intended to come home and coming home the way we intended to head off (or maybe come home an entirely different way).

One of my favourite hobbies is to plan trips. I love to sit down with a blank sheet of paper, a map, a calculator and a pencil (for some reason I prefer to write in pencil when I’m doing this). Then I plan how far we’ll drive each day, how many kilometres that will be and what town we’ll stay in.

When we planned our trip to Darwin a number of years back, I think I got almost as much pleasure from the planning stages as I did from the trip itself.

With our “big trip”, we’re trying not to plan things too closely. We have, however, been looking at a number of route options and planning a very broad timeline to ensure that we fit in the things we really want to do during our time away.

Today I’ve been playing around with the first 2 weeks of our trip away (with a change in direction) and things seem to be falling into place quite neatly. Hopefully that means we’re on the right track with changing our minds on which way we’ll head off. There are a few details we need to sort out before we can be sure that we’ll stick to this plan. And, with 5 and a half months to go, anything could change between now and then.

I am having fun plotting and planning though!

2009 has been a momentous date in our minds for quite some time now.

The first thing I whispered in my children’s ears this year?

“We’re going on our big trip THIS year!”

For so long it has seemed like 2009 was so far in the future and now it’s HERE!

Of course, the scary thing for me is that now it’s here, I’m afraid it’ll all be over before we can barely blink.

But I’m determined to savour every moment.

Hopefully you don’t get sick of me talking about our “big trip” before we even leave as I suspect you’ll all be my sounding board as we make preparations (and it feels like there are a LOT Of those to be made).

Christmas this year had a distinct “trip” theme about it. The kids each got their own toiletry bag, complete with toothbrush, toothpaste, shampoo, soap and a face washer. We’ve already been giving them a good workout at the shack but their primary purpose if for the “big trip”.

They also got a digital camera each so that they can record the trip through their own eyes. Already I’m amazed at their photography. It’s a great way to see the world through their eyes.

Next on my list of things “to do” is to look through the Back To School sales for school supplies we might need during the trip. I want the kids to each keep a hand-written journal/diary of the trip, complete with photographs and other pictures. I’m not sure yet what to use for these journals. On the one hand, I think something with a plastic sleeve would be good to keep them protected (as I imagine they’ll be read over and over). On the other, I’m thinking a book with lined pages will be easier for them to write in. I’m kinda hoping something will magically jump out at me but if you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

Now will somebody pinch me because I’m not sure I can actually believe we’re going to do this trip - THIS year!!!