A preview of life as itinerant backpackers

In January and February 2014, we travelled 7,500 kilometres to and from southern Australia – the ACT (Canberra), and South Australia (Adelaide), visiting children, grandchildren, relatives and friends.  This was a really satisfying, though hectic, time, exacerbated by the intense summer heat. There were many days of record high temperatures above 40 degrees, producing a harsh summer landscape. Quite an experience after living in green, sub-tropical SE Queensland for the past fifteen years!

 

 

 

We were in Canberra for three weeks, playing with the grandchildren, doing a few handyman jobs, and doing some very intense training walks in the summer heat. Not really appropriate, as the forecast maximum temperatures for the parts of Spain we’ll walk through in April and May are only in the mid-teens!

We visited long-term friends in Shepparton on our way over to SA. This was a really valuable preview of ‘real’ retirement living at its best - free to set our own activities each day.

South Australia was a reality-check, where we experienced how hectic life is for a young family, and again, really enjoying our grandchildren there. Nonetheless, we also found time to visit many friends and relatives, comparing our various life experiences. Thank you to all who warmly opened their homes to us, enabling us to share good food, wine and conversation.

We returned to Qld in late February, taking four days to travel the 2,100 km. We camped out each night, including one night’s real bush camping.

And another night next to the river at Hay NSW)

 

 

 

 

We are now staying with our daughter and son-in-law who happen to live near to our home in SE QLD. We will be here until our departure in one week’s time. This time is also a chance to bid farewell to our Brisbane children and grandchildren, plus our social and church friends.

 

Grandchildren and grand-dog in SE Qld

 

 

 

The past two months has been highly valuable for us. We have been given a glimpse of life ‘on the road’ and Anne has enjoyed the less demanding days without having regrets about leaving full time employment. As we anticipate our nine month sojourn in Europe we will leave with thankfulness for the landscapes of Australia and the relationships of family and friends.

 

 

PS. I'll be seeing the Barber when I get to Seville ...

 

 

 

 

At the nation's capital

We have now left our home behind and started a year of travel, beginning in Canberra where we are spending time with our daughter and her family. It is very good to have an extended time with them rather than the usual rushed visit before Anne has had to return to work.  This allows us to know our two Canberra grandchildren a little better, and they us.

During our stay here, we are house-sitting, looking after someone’s dog and garden while they are away. We organised this through a house-carers’ website.

 

 

 

 

 

In terms of our Brisbane house, we have rented our home ‘furnished’, which means that we had to pack-up only our personal belongings. We have stored these in our spare bedroom. Packing up these possessions was a very valuable exercise –  realizing just how much we own – but how little we really use and need. We also discovered that some of our possessions are valuable because of their very personal meaning while many items are just ‘baggage’.  I’m sure that after we have lived out of rucksacks for nine months in Europe, our perceptions will be further refined.

Anne is adapting well to a less pressured existence and has not had any trouble filling her days. It is only two months until we leave for Europe, and we are aware that there are still a number of preparatory things to do, achieving greater fitness and endurance being one of them. Canberra’s environs provide a perfect place to extend our walking capabilities.

We notice and appreciate the different climate of the southern states to Queensland. The bush, the gardens, the clear sunny skies and the smell of a southern summer are all very obvious to us, and reminiscent on our earlier lives in South Australia.

A major expedition to Europe and some reflections on life as we enter retirement

Hello from The Macz at Burpengary, Brisbane, Queensland

Some potential readers of this blog will recall that Anne and I (Bob) went to Europe in 2011 - to Germany, Prague, Sweden, Denmark, France and Italy. All in about ten weeks. We said at the time that this was our reconnaissance trip. Well we are now preparing for the real adventure, one that we intend to start in March 2014 and end in December 2014.

The trigger for our 2014 timing is that Anne is completing her time as principal of the Living Faith Lutheran Primary School (Queensland) at the end of this year (2013). 2014 will be a period of adjustment for her as she returns to normal human existence after fourteen years of being a school principal. An extended period of travel and associated adventures might be sufficient to take her mind off her previous responsibilities!

A feature of our trip is that there will be no bus tour, no river cruise, no seven wonders of modern Europe in seven days or anything like that. We will be travelling inexpensively, and are planning a deep and rich experience of life among the ordinary people of the countries we visit.

Our broad plan is to first undertake a 1,000 km pilgrimage walk across Spain. The trek is called the Camino de Santiago - the Way of St James. We will do this walk over about three months - not in the first instance for its spiritual meaning - though we are very open to that dimension too.

After the Camino trek, our broad plan is to hire a car and drive through quite a few countries, starting in France, then going to Belgium, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Austria, Italy and maybe more places, before dropping the car off back in France and returning to Oz. In these countries, we intend to stay with host families for much of the time. More about that later.

By the way: our broad plan has been revised significantly in the past two weeks! We chanced to discover that if we don't leave the main countries of Europe after 90 days, we risk being deported! 

Luckily we've developed Plan B, which is firstly to walk faster on the Camino de Santiago, then exit the European zone in the nick of time. Then we will spend time in nearby countries that are not part of the 90-day rule. So we will be in places like Morocco, Croatia, former Yugoslav countries, Romania and Bulgaria for our second three-month period, before being free to re-enter mainstream Europe for our third 90-day period (September to December). 


For now, we are about four months away from a major adventure, making many plans, and Anne is focused on completing the final weeks of her major life's work.

Other topics we hope to address on this blog-site are details of our Europe accommodation plans (the host family system and our early experience of being hosts to travellers here in Australia), perhaps Anne's reflections on retiring, our other intentions as we approach retirement years - and who knows what else we'll be inspired to write! And then of course there's the trip itself to report on.

This posting was composed prior to the 'map' posting, but not actually 'Published' till after the first.

Bob

Hello and welcome to our blog site

The first few postings will be for test-driving the site as well as describing our progress through the medium-term rest of our lives. This posting is composed on Tuesday 19th November 2013.

Anne has five weeks to go as school principal, three weeks with children still present, the other two weeks for her to sign-off from her role, leaving it ready for her replacement. She will leave for Canberra on Sunday 29th December.

Bob will drive to Canberra early in the New Year, and we will spend some time there with family before driving to South Australia to touch base with family there. We plan to return to Brisbane in late February before flying to Barcelona on Friday March 7th.

This map gives a look at where we plan to roam between March 15 and May 30. Our starting point is Barcelona (the nearby Montserrat actually). Barcelona is near the far eastern side (the right side) of Spain. We will follow the red lines (Catalan Way) through Huesca to the blue line (Aragones Way) and then the green French Way. Then onwards across to the left side to where all the paths converge at Santiago de Compostela - some 1,100 km.

We will describe both the Camino (the Way, or the Pilgrim's Path) in more detail as we learn to operate this site.

Bob