The last time I spoke to you personally about what has been happening on our journey to travel Australia with kids, I shared the difficult reality that our plan to have no plan certainly hadn’t gone to plan! We’re still waiting for test results to come back for Matt, although most nasties have been ruled out, so that is a huge relief of sorts, but I also have some other wonderful news to report:
We’re one step closer and I want to show you what dreams look like:
I know that my dream, and your dream won’t look exactly the same, but I can’t share my feeling any better than showing you the what the defining moment of knowing this adventure was all real looked like for me.
Sure we’d moved, sold our stuff, survived the chaos of 9 people living in one house together (huge thanks to my brother and his wife for this one),
Yet, this moment I’m sharing with you now, this was the real first view that everything we’d given up felt worth it, that what we’d set out to achieve was really going to happen, that one very important step closer to our dream happening and things were falling into place. I looked in the rear vision mirror and I could clearly see our new home tagging along behind us 🙂
WE ARE THE PROUD OWNERS OF A JAYCO SWAN OUTBACK!!
Sure, she’s not the latest, flashiest model, but she’s all ours, to live in, to enjoy and to tow behind us and to become our home as we explore this amazing country that is Australia.
We chose to go a Jayco outback camper mostly because we knew that a full van would be a little bit too restrictive for what we wanted to do as well as costing more to tow. We also knew that a flip top camper trailer, while being slightly more “offroad” than the Swan, wouldn’t afford us the little bit of luxury that this camper will.
I’ll give you a tour soon, but each end pops out to a queen bed one end (the kids are sharing that side) and a double bed the other end. There’s a dinette with lounge chairs and table, and a larger U-shaped lounge, as well as a fridge, water tank and sink, gas cooktop and griller, a microwave (we’ll probably remove that for added storage space, and lots of cupboards and storage that means all our kitchen gear etc can stay set up and we won’t have to unpack and pack quite as much as we would in a full canvas camper.
It has a kitchen side awning which is great for shade and privacy on the kitchen side of the camper, and an awning with full annex on the door side of the camper. It runs off 12 volt or 240volt, and we’ll be hooking up some solar panels to keep us powered when we’re bush camping.
So, that my dear wanderlusters is what has us excited at this very moment.
If you’re travelling Australia or planning to, what are you using for accommodation? Got any tips for us on owning the Jayco? Please comment below…. Â Â
Awesome! Congratulations. We don’t have the Outback version but we have a Jayco Swan. It can get tedious taking it down and putting it back up again when you’re doing one-nighters so travel light, light, light.
You’ll be putting it up in your sleep after a few weeks.
Thanks Lisa 🙂 We’re super happy, and yes I can totally see how putting it up and down constantly would/will get a bit much. I feel happy we’re going to be (mostly) slow travelling so here’s hoping there’s only a few one nighters! Trying to figure out what to pack and not pack is turning into an interesting process, it’s amazing how I keep thinking we’ll need things, and then changing my mind, it’s amazing what you can live without in such limited space!
Hi guys
looks amazing!
we are hoping to head off on 12 month trip around australia in april next year and buying a swan outback too! just waiting on farm assest sales and we will be proud and excited owners too!
ur website is great, excellent info
thanx
Emma 🙂
Hey Emma,
Thanks for stopping by. We’re so excited and relieved to have things finally falling into place. You won’t regret the Swan, we’re loving it during our “test living” at my brother’s place while we sort the last of our stuff. Can’t wait to hear about your adventures! Loreena x
Hi there
interesting blog – congratulations on taking this kind of action. I’m sure you won’t regret it as you look back on your life. I’ve borrowed one of these things before and went camping for a few days during an event in South Australia but beyond that, I’m a bit ignorant.
Where do you park it to sleep? Is it always in a caravan park or do you use other locations?
Thanks
Angus
What a great site! We have just made the (huge?) decision to hit the road in our Swan as well, although we will need a few months to get organised. Looking forward to reading about your travels and tips :).