THE WATSON'S HAVE RETURNED TO WANDERING!

Well the wandering Watson's are back wandering the country side. I can’t believe that it’s been three years since we left on our last journey, but here we are again a week into the latest adventure. This time it feels less ‘holidayee’ more like an experience for our family. The excitement is still there but the feeling of unknown and anticipation has been replaced with the knowledge of what is ahead of us.

Five weeks ago in a mild panic I wrote this………

“So apparently in 4 short weeks we are leaving on a trip around Australia…..4 weeks, the house isn’t packed, the house isn’t rented out yet, the education of the children isn’t organised, I do however have beaut new hiking shoes, new bras and undies to hang on the caravan park clothes lines, the kids have new coats, new runners, new jumpers, I have ‘appropriate’ camping clothes, a  new low power kettle option and a kindle to read a million books on. I have transferred all my cd’s to my computer and purchased an iPad to use for ‘educational purposes’ (aka facebook)…. oh and apparently we will get as far as Beaufort before we need to start looking for work as we have spent all our savings preparing for the trip. Despite all this, in four short weeks we will be departing on the next wandering Watsons adventure, broke, slightly shit scared, not emotionally prepared for close confinement and not sure if the feeling in my gut is excitement or a panic attack!!!!

In amongst all this preparation and packing, the thing that is pressing on my mind the most is, should I buy new doona covers for the camper to make it fresh and ‘holidayee’?????………… yep that’s the most important thing floating around up in my brain keeping me awake at night. Not how much do I really like baked beans considering we have no income to buy food, not can I make enough money from busking to support a family of five?, but what can I decorate……hehe.”

Now five weeks later we are a week into our ‘experience’ we were waved off by Ballarat family and friends, spent a lovely couple of nights catching up with Mick and Jo and Andrew and Di before we made our way across to Adelaide. We stopped in Adelaide for a few nights to catch our breath, to organise ourselves and the camper a little better. To realise that everything that wasn’t sorted a short 5 weeks ago is, it feels good to finally feel like we are prepared to continue on, to get the last minute items we didn’t have time to get and today it finally felt like we were on holidays!!! We got up and the sun was shining so the kids and I rode our bikes along the beachfront, we played at playgrounds and visited Meagan and Ruby in the morning, we watched movies and relaxed at the camper and then I had a lovely evening with Adi catching up for a drink after she finished work.  I think today I finally felt like we were ready for this ‘adventure’

Oh and those doona covers I was losing sleep over…..haven’t got them yet but what a great excuse to have a little shop in every town we visit!