The 'Van'.2 | Tuesday Travels

Photos courtesy of Jack

If you read yesterday's post you will know that plans are finally on the move. Quite literally, as Jack managed to find and buy a new van over the weekend. He's been meaning to get a car since his parents left Australia at the beginning of January but he hasn't really been able to find one until now. I woke up Sunday morning, tagged in photos of this old thing, very confused. However, an upgrade from the literal rust bucket we were driving around in before he left (hence the .2 element of the title, you never know one day we might be driving around in a shiny new van, if Jack gets his way anyway).

Jack managed to get it a lot cheaper than the asking price and has now stripped the whole thing out and is preparing to rebuild the back. It may look a bit of a rust-bucket but it's perfect for what he needs for working until I get there, and for what we need for travelling once I do get there. It will essentially be our first home in a sense. No, it's not a two bedroom flat with a spacious kitchen diner and scope to extend (I've possibly been watching too much Kirstie & Phil) but it's still exciting.

Jack's in his element as he's finally got an excuse to pick up tools again and get building and it also means we can start looking at places we want to see and stop at on the way to Perth. If you've read previous Tuesday Travel's you'll know that we plan to drive all the way to Perth and so now we finally have a mode of transport it's very exciting.

We know, already, we want to stop in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, the obvious points of call I'd imagine. However, we're lost on places to stop between Adelaide and Perth. It's something we'll be looking into over the next couple of weeks, but with me busy with the course and Jack busy re-designing the back of the van, or our home for the few months following May, it's probably not going to be a quick planning process.

Anyway, enough with the wooly stuff I suppose I should tell you a  bit more about the idea behind the van. Essentially Jack is going to re-build with a bed in the back. That way we can travel as much or as little of the day as we want, stop whenever and kip down for the night not having to worry about booking campsites in advance and making sure we get to a certain place and a certain time. Obviously, we will stop at campsites when we can, we will have to do some washing eventually, but at least this way we know if we're still driving at 8pm we can just stop when Jack gets tired of driving and not have to worry about finding a campsite. Obviously that sort of lifestyle isn't for everyone and to be honest if Jack hadn't managed to find this van and got it so much cheaper than it was priced at we'd probably still be looking into cars. However, now the van is in our life I'm very happy and excited to get on the road in it.

Only 96 days to go.