Setting Out

29 June 2018 /

Well, we did it – we quit our jobs, packed up the Jeep, and we’re on the way to a year of Australian adventures!

We’ve been on the road for a week now, and as expected, the weeks leading up to departure were chaotic with many, many deviations from the plan. But, as of our departure day (Saturday 23 June), we were homeless and unemployed, so there was really only one way to go – pack the Jeep and get out of Sydney!

Even though it was impossible to imagine how we’d fit everything we wanted to bring into the very limited space we had available. Even though Nick hadn’t finished all of the updates and modifications we wanted to make to the Jeep. Even though I hadn’t had the chance to go grocery shopping, and the only tucker we had was a rather eclectic selection of tomato paste, oatmeal, canned tuna, peanut butter (leftovers from a too-recent Costco run…), and some VERY nice wine gifted to us by friends and colleagues. Even though we were really sad to say goodbye to our friends, and both were feeling totally overwhelmed…it was time to go. And after a few last visits and goodbye hugs, we were off – for real!

So. Much. Stuff.

The first stop, Lake Wallace, near Wallerawang NSW, is near enough to be in the Blue Mountains and only about a 150km drive out of Sydney. We had intentionally planned to cover a small distance the first day, as we figured we’d be late getting out of Sydney (we were), and if anything went wrong (like not having the chance to buy groceries) we’d be close to shops and supplies. Big bonus is that Lake Wallace is a free campsite, with flushing toilets and hot showers (very rare for free campsites), so we were easing into our new nomadic lifestyle…as much as we could, anyway!

Lake Wallace at dusk on our first night

Lake Wallace was absolutely beautiful. We arrived with not much time before sunset, so heated up a couple of canned soups for dinner, and were quickly chased into the tent by the rapidly dropping temperature. It was the coldest that first night of all the nights so far – another camper told us it was -5C around 7am – and the morning dew left everything covered in frost.

Frosty!! Lesson leaned not to leave the camp chairs out when the forecast is this cold!

After running some errands in the nearby towns of Lithgow and Bathurst (including buying groceries!) our next stop was just outside Cubba NSW, and was only a very brief overnighter at a free roadside rest area. These roadside rest areas where camping is permitted are very common, but they aren’t particularly interesting or beautiful, usually no campfires permitted, no picnic tables etc.

The only interesting thing at some of these roadside rest areas is the wildlife.

From Cubba, we had a long day of driving ahead as we wanted to put some significant KM’s behind us. About 560km in fact, which took us to the tiny town of Wilcannia, NSW. We stopped for two nights and took the opportunity to spend a day getting a few unfinished projects completed and re-packing the poor Jeep, which had been packed up with minimal organisation and maximum chaos and last minute panic.

We also walked into the town, which has an interesting history. Wilcannia used to have a terrible reputation as a violent and dangerous place, which seemed to stem from its history as a ‘dumping ground’ for the government to transplant aboriginal people from different areas of the state. I don’t imagine that anyone would be terribly thrilled to be uprooted from the life they knew and transplanted to a completely different place, living with strangers who may not even speak the same language, who are all equally as upset as you.

Our awesome campsite at Wilcannia.

The town is very safe now, although still in the process of restoring itself and working to embrace the tourism trade. We enjoyed a coffee at the small local cafe, and poked around some of the public outdoor art installations, before returning to the campground.

Wilcannia is starting into Outback NSW and we were very happy to see the red soil, emus, empty spaces, and open road stretching beyond.

The open road ahead…

MVP Awards:
MVP awards are things that we found awesome or valuable recently on the trip.

So, Where Exactly Is This?
Here’s a screenshot of this leg of the journey from WikiCamps! The red is what we’ve already covered, the green is featured in the post you just read. You can also follow us live at this link – our satellite device pings this shared map about every ten minutes.

Sydney to Lake Wallace
Lake Wallace to Dubbo
Dubbo to Wilcannia