On the road

At last we were on the road, settling into our new chosen life for the next year. As mentioned in my previous post, there was a little bit of an adjustment period, however very quickly we were in full embrace of what was ahead of us. We would set-out as far south as possible for the next two and a half weeks, until turning back up to Brisbane for some prior commitments and events. This meant that the weeks ahead would be rather fast paced and we would use it as a sort of 'trial' period to see what worked and what we needed to change in the van.

Setting off from Lennox Heads (where Nicole's parents live), we visited a few locations on the Northern NSW coast. We were quite familiar with this area, so whilst we didn't stay long, it was also a great safe space to spend the first few nights. Learning our way around the van was a fun little learning curve. At each phase of the day the Van would be configured differently, from having it set-up as a kitchen to a dining room and finally a bedroom for the night. There are definitely optimal ways of doing things to make life easier and we would eventually figure these out.

Overall, everything seemed to be working well until it became apparent that we absolutely hated the cumbersome effort it took to access the fridge. Having to remove mattresses and break a small sweat is not what you want to go through when you just want to get some milk for your morning coffee. Thankfully this was the only major flaw we would find in the build, and eventually this would be changed upon our return to Brisbane a few weeks later.

Sunrise - Brooms head

Venturing down the coast we would pass through some stunning locations. Australia has an infinite amount of beautiful beaches and it was surreal to know we could drive up to so many of these great locations, park up for the night, wake up to majestic sunrises and go for a surf. The surf conditions were not at their best those days (or maybe my ability is not the best for those conditions) but we managed to have a number of solid surf sessions at Point Plomer and Newcastle's famed Merewether beach. Regardless of what was happening in the water, there was never a shortage of things just outside of it with fantastic ocean walks and cool towns across the NSW coast.

One of the highlights included Newcastle, a city built on the back of heavy industry but now a vibrant place with so much to offer. Visiting our good friends Gordon and Katrine, we spent a few days exploring its Ocean Baths and café scene. I would say Newcastle is one of those surprises that you don't here too much about but there is so much on offer, especially for a chilled beach lifestyle.  We could have stayed there for a while but with a week gone past it was time to keep heading south.

Ocean baths - Newcastle

The next few days would see us travel through the central coast, visiting a number of national parks just north of Sydney before skipping through the NSW capital to continue our coastal journey. At this point in time we had done over a week of travel and over 1000km in the van. We were definitely going at a fast holiday pace, something we acknowledged at the time was not going to be sustainable over the next year but we were also keen and filled with excitement to see as much as we could in the first run.