Damo's Family Lap

[Rip'n'Shred]

After having our rural property near Singleton NSW on the market for a month or so we accepted an offer and started considering our options for suburban Hunter Valley living. Nothing really excited us, and we quickly realised we’d have nowhere to go soon. A plan was hatched over a few beverages one weekend and before we knew it my long service leave was approved, the wife’s notice was given. We were about to live the dream. Pack up everything and follow the sun throughout this wonderful country of ours for the next 5 and a bit months. Why not……. No mortgage, no debt, reliable income, no dramas. The ordeal of packing a whole house and a 20m x 10m shed full of 9 years of accumulated bargains began to take hold, and the never ending list of jobs to do to the Patrol quickly overwhelmed and took priority over packing anything. After all, the Patrol would be our life blood of the trip, the key to a successful journey, and possibly a lifesaver in some of the remote areas I was constantly daydreaming of.

I decided to compile a list of necessities the big patrol would need. The list of works blew me away. I had pages and pages scribbled in my pocket notebook and quickly came to the realisation of the cost of me being a bit of a slack arse for last couple of years with house extensions and reno’s taking priority over mods to the big rig, as well as the reality of approaching 10 years old. I admit to being a little over the top but it’s in my nature and being an ex-mechanic, I was going to ensure I done what I could.





Over the next 4 weeks I burnt many many hours in the shed stripping and rebuilding, modifying, installing and repairing everything I could think of. More details of this is in my build page for anyone who may be interested. Meanwhile the misses packed the whole house into boxes, sorted out the kids school, and dealt with the sale of a hell of a lot of unwanted goods, including our farm animals. I then packed the entire shed and moved everything we own into storage. The relief when we drove out the driveway for the last time was unexplainable, despite it being 4pm!!! LOL It was on 14th Sept 2016.

We were on our way!!! Homeless and debt free. We dropped off the dog to a friends, the cat and wife’s car to her Aunties and headed north. We got to Heatherbrae for a quick KFC dinner and continued on, keen to get anywhere for a free camp. We showered at Taree service centre and continued on to Kew for our first night, a free camp behind a pub in a big gravel carpark. We slept like babies that night!