Where the Hell have I been?

**Mad Aussie** · 07-10-2012, 09:06 PM

Hi all. Some here who know me may have noticed my absence of late so I thought it was time to make contact and maybe explain what's up in my life lately.

Dreams of Travel
For some time now, my wife and I, have been grooming our business so we can travel more. Ever since we got together we've wanted to travel, and in lieu of being able to go overseas much, we've endeavoured to see as much of our own, and neighbouring, areas as possible as many of my threads here at ph.ca have shown over the years.

Earlier this year, we decided to get very serious about all this and make some very serious commitments to the cause. We started selling off our lives.

Basically, anything that wouldn't be able to fit in a small 4x4 and a roughly 17ft long caravan (trailer to you yanks???) had to go.
Man, does that make you take stock of your life and force you to prioritise even the sentimental things.

So, garage sales and lots of ebay sales have come and gone now, and most of our possessions belong to other people now.

We were ready to leave the 4 bedroom, brick and tile home we'd had for 7 years and move into a caravan in order to reduce costs and pay off our personal and business debt before hitting the road.

The destination is … Australia and then NZ. The timeframe is … unknown. We don't care. If we can be out there for several years or more then we will be happy.

Family Comes First
A visit to my brother, the one suffering from cancer and still going through chemo and extensive physiotherapy added a slight change in our plans.
He and his wife were struggling to survive now that their income insurance had run out. With Graeme needing so much care, and their 5 yr old who possibly has some form of ADHD, Mandy is unable to work at her bookkeeping job to supply income. They were going to loose their home.
Their property is an acre and needed some care and attention. It also has a large shed which needed serious cleaning out but it was somewhere I could make an office.
Also in the yard is their outback pop up caravan.

We offered to rent their caravan and shed if that would help them keep their home and buy them more time for Graeme's treatment and rehab to work well enough for Mandy to take on more work. The offer was gladly accepted and we moved less than an hour north to the Sunshine Coast a few months ago.

Job Vacancy to Scratch Balls
Since being here, I've simply been pretty much flat out every day between my own work here, travelling to Brisbane to for install work with my carpentry, fixing up the property, and looking after my nephew and brother. My bikes hate me and turn their heads every time I walk by now.
In the past few months I've fixed toilets, cleaned out a huge shed and created an office and workshop, levelled a large driveway, fixed leaks in roofs, fixed a high pressure water cleaner, put up gates, put up doors, made soccer goalposts and taught young Dean how to play, made a small boardwalk across a boggy section, done work on cars, cleared and burnt fallen branches and palms etc, made ramps for the ride on mower, and quite honestly … dozens of other stuff I've forgotten about. I think in the past few months I've found time to go fishing for about 2 hours at a time about 4 times. I haven't found time to take photos or visit websites I'm afraid. No time to scratch myself ...

Where to?
So, from here? We'll … it's hang around here for awhile longer, Christmas perhaps, maybe longer, and continue to help out and set ourselves up for our new lifestyle.

I sold the 2010 Lancer and bought an Outlander SUV and now need to get that set up with suspension airbags, electric towing control etc etc. We need to get those debts paid out and buy our own caravan and set that up with solar, batteries, generator, internet etc etc.

Once we are ready the plan is simple … drive around the country in small hops, staying in each location for whatever period of time it takes to see and enjoy the place as well as ride the trails and roads for our cycling websites adding video, maps and info, and collecting more advertisers for the sites.
We also plan, as we travel, to do a travel website specifically for this type of journey/lifestyle.
This may all take several years to complete here in Aussie, where we will either go around a second time, or ship the lot to New Zealand and do it all over there as well.

Big plans, lots of work to do, but we've committed to the dream and our time here with Graeme and Mandy is helping greatly to condition us to what we face.

I am sorry I haven't been around much lately, and hopefully this helps to explain what I meant in my New Zealand thread when I said it was too much work doing the thread for the few comments I was getting. My time was precious and others things became a higher priority.
Hopefully those who were following the thread took the time to visit my Flickr and see the rest of the journey anyhow.

Anyhow … hello to all.

**Runmonty** · 07-10-2012, 09:34 PM

Wow - they are some changes. Congratulations on what is a very exciting and courageous move. I hope it all goes well for you.

Make sure you get in contact when passing through Adelaide and please update us with the new website info.

**JAS_Photo** · 07-10-2012, 10:00 PM

Wow! That sounds like quite the adventure you will soon be on. It takes a lot of guts to throw out the status quo and just do something like that. Best wishes to you and your family, M.A.

**Barefoot** · 07-10-2012, 10:43 PM

Hmmm...just the sort of thing Ibarionex would be interested in.

Best of luck mate.

**Matt K.** · 07-10-2012, 10:52 PM

Totally amazing MA; time to BE and take it all in, live it, breathe it, taste it. With all the warts that life offers, but also with all the rewards "BEing" gives you two. Somehow I envy you for taking this step with your wife. I don't think many of us can do this, or have the balls to do this. I am looking forward to the bits and pieces of your travel, so at least I can live vicariously through your images .... best of luck to you both!

**Marko** · 07-10-2012, 11:21 PM

Thanks for taking the time to share that with us MA. What an adventure you are on - Thinking good thoughts for your whole family.

**Mad Aussie** · 07-11-2012, 12:13 AM

Thanks Runmonty ... would love to hook up when we are down there ... local knowledge is everything

JAS & Matt.K ... yep ... it was scary ... especially selling off things we had worked our whole lives for. Equally as hard was selling things we'd just bought within the past few years such as a big TV, Sidchrome and other top brand tools etc.
However, on the other side of the coin, what a breath of fresh air it is to not be a slave or tied to your possessions!
Furthermore, there's new exciting purchases along the way as well, such as all new fishing gear (bought 3 new reels, 1 new rod, and other gear), cold and rain weather clothing, an SUV we love (which will need a 'Nudge bar', spotlights, UHF radio, and other toys installed), learning to use and cook with new equipment, etc etc etc.
But, instead of sitting static in a house in Brisbane ... we'll be seeing new places, trails, scenery everyday, and meeting interesting people as well. Who knows? I might take some photos along the way

Marko ... thanks for the thoughts. I'll definitely still try to find time to visit ph.ca when I can. I might have to actually schedule time in for it

Barefoot ... don't know who that is yet but will go look. Thanks for bumping my NZ thread.

**mbrager** · 07-11-2012, 12:41 AM

Wow. I can breathe out now, having read that long answer to a question I'd definitely been asking. Good luck and I'm sure you will stay in touch here.