Exmouth to Kalbarri is an eight-hour drive so the logical thing to do was drive it over two days. We shared the driving on day one and headed to Carnarvon . I didn’t really want to camp in town, so we pulled into a BP truck stop on the outskirts. It was a bit of a come down from some of our previous camps, but they allowed us to camp alongside the trucks and it was a 24 hour service station with clean toilets, hot food, hot coffee and pleasant staff. What else did we need?
Despite the comings and goings of road trains, we slept well! Rather than have breakfast in the car park, we wandered over to the shop, had a quick wash in the bathroom and ordered some hot food. Then we set off for home.
Isn’t it strange how you love being on holiday but as you near the end of the road, your thoughts turn to home? I always want our trips to go on forever. I loved our caravan and I love our camper. But I’m fortunate enough to love being home too.
Our plans for the camper were a bit of an unknown. It made sense to buy it and save accommodation costs on the way home. John’s idea was that we could sell it on our return to Kalbarri. We had agreed that we had no need for two good cars now that we are both retired and living in a small town where I can walk to wherever I need to go. John had plans to buy a cheap runaround to take him up to the golf club. We would keep my Rav 4 and use that for trips to Geraldton for shopping and Perth to see the kids.
John is not planning to do any more long trips but I love life on the road. The thing that had worried me about the caravan towards the end of our trips in it, was that John might get sick or really hurt his back and I would be responsible for hitching and towing the caravan. I can tow and could hitch too if I had to but I didn’t want to. Also, our bedroom was one that folded out and I didn’t have the strength to lift it back in. These were the things that had been in the back of my mind over the last year or two. So, I was sad but relieved when we sold the caravan and bought the campervan. The camper, although a six-gear manual, is great to drive. Yes, we both hopped around a bit at the beginning because we are used to automatics, but it didn’t take us long to get back into the way of it. At the end of every day, we just climbed into bed, no unhitching. It was so easy.
So, while John was intended putting the camper up for sale the following week, I was dreaming of taking it on trips, with or without John, and making it my own. As the kilometres raced past, I imagined making a colourful, patchwork quilt, replacing the boring grey curtains, and filling the van with knick-knacks to make it cheerier and homelier.
As we neared home, I broached the subject with John. He knows me so well and he knew exactly what I was thinking! He agreed I could keep the van and use it for trips. I was ecstatic.
It might be the end of this road but hopefully not the next or the next….
You must be logged in to post a comment.