Arrival in Australia

Here I am at 2am and can't sleep (jet lag & heat), so time for an update.

While I don't wish 24 hours on a plane, with a 2yo toddler, on anyone... The journey over to Australia was not too bad in the end, and nobody accidentally got left behind or od'd on tranquillisers. This may be a matter of perspective though, with this observer commenting after three very intense days of wrapping up life in the UK.

We have been welcomed into their home on the outskirts of Brisbane by Marius, Bridgette, Alecia, Liesel and Abbey (my brother, his wife, 2 daughters and their dog). Despite Abbey being the most chilled out dog in Queensland, Jake seems to be quite unsettled at the moment and won't go anywhere near her without freaking out. Hopefully he just needs a bit of time to adjust to not being "home" - just before we left the UK he was walking around the empty house saying ,"all gone, oh no".

Did I mention that we have arrived during a heat wave? No, this does not just feel like a heat wave coming from the British winter into Australian summer. We have actually arrived into a proper heat wave, with the temp yesterday being 39°C where we are staying at the moment, and 49°C up the road! Yesterday the kids playdo melted. Don't worry, it didn't stop us from making fire and chucking some steak on the braai :)

My brother and I did a recce to a camping store that Bridgette had found out about. I'm sure this is where Santa spends the rest of the year! I could easily spend half our trip budget there, but managed to display great self control and only walked out a few hundred $ lighter - I picked up a few things for the camper (food grade hose, spreader bars, ramps, etc). I'll be back though. Speaking of the camper, I am over the moon with my internet purchase. While my brother did give me feedback on it before I gave the nod, it was a lot of money to hand over without seeing it or having much experience of offroad campers. My research paid off in the end and we have exactly what I was looking for within our budget: a quality used camper with great canvas, that has been looked after and has most of the necessary modifications that I would have made to a brand new unit (eg kitchen unit, internal led lights, marine carpeting, etc).

Now we just chill out until we can get our truck. It should arrive in Brisbane within a few days, but could then take up to 3 weeks to clear customs & quarantine, before we try and register it for use on Aussie roads.

I'm off. Going to try and get some sleep.

Et