life on the road

We've been away from home for two months now and it is feeling like a feast I can hardly digest there is so much to take in.

The ever changing landscape, (although I must say the sugar cane fields in Queensland are a dominant feature in the foreground), so many new people with stories and delicious meals to share, beaches, campgrounds, rainforests each with their different feeling to adjust to.

River and Sol are travelling exceptionally well. We have clocked up 3000 kms now and it only took pulling over twice to lay the ground rules of being in the car - no fighting in the backseat - for them to settle in to the long days of driving.

Pete and I made the decision to buy them each a portable dvd player for the 400km plus days. This might sound like a given for many but it was kind of a big deal for us!

The only screen time our boys get at home is ABC TV or movies on the weekend. The dvd players have come in handy but for the most part River and Sol have settled into the road trip and don't really bat an eyelid at 4 hours in the car in a day.

I'm surprised at how much I like tent living. It simplifies everything. We have four plates, four bowls, four sets of cutlery, four cups, a box for a pantry, a heavy duty esky is our fridge, we each have an overnight bag of clothes, a few books, a few toys, bedding and well, that's about it!

Having said that, clothes still need to be washed (sometimes even by hand!) and folded, everyone still gets tired and hungry and along with "are we there yet?" comes "what's for dinner?" and "where will sleep tonight?" but before we eat or sleep we actually have to put up our house, the tent.

Just like at home we have our rough days where things don't flow, moods go up and down, patience is lost, and found and we look forward to the sun setting so we can start all over again tomorrow.

To anyone who has ever for a moment dreamt of hitting the road with their family I say do it. In two short months, that sometimes have felt years long, our family has made memories to last our lifetimes and put into practice the art of letting go.

We have let go of the familiar, the known, the school run, routine. There is very little that is routine about being on the road. Plans change from day to day, week to week. Sure I try to keep a rhythm to our days that revolves around meals and teeth being brushed and clothes being changed but that is about as routine as things get.

Having freshly washed and folded clothes is such a pleasure when you are on the road, as is sleeping in a real bed on the occasional nights we stay with friends or pull into a roadside motel when it is too late to put up the tent.

River and I have just in the last week started thinking about home, wondering what it would be like to be back there, wondering what our friends and family are up to.

Having been a keen traveller all my adult life I know that homesickness is part of travel so I just push those thoughts aside, knowing that the weather will still be freezing at home, that our dear friends and family will be there when we get back and that this journey we have undertaken as a family that goes beyond sight seeing is not yet complete.

I suggested to River that we phone his favorite friend from school and he was happy with that idea.

How about you? Do you have the travel bug? What's your remedy for homesickness?