If you’ve been following our progress in preparing for our trip around Australia, you’ll probably recall that in July we shared we were somewhat behind in the build of converting our bus to a motor home and mobile billboard for our mission. And that it had been a particularly frustrating but full-on month. If you didn’t get a chance to read where were we up to in July, you can do so here.
Progress on Bus Conversion
Well I am excited to report a fair amount of progress has been made since our last post. BUT, we are nowhere near where we had expected to be build-wise at this stage. It’s a little daunting because all of our plans have been geared towards the bus being ready in November. This would give us a good solid month to wind down our business and pack down the house entirely and move everything we need into the bus during the month of December, ready to travel in January. We plan on spending the first 6 weeks just travelling and getting used to living in the bus and testing out everything. Does anything break? Have we taken too much? Have we not taken enough? Do we need other equipment? etc.
Israel has spent countless hours on the phone, emailing, and visiting the guys converting the bus for us. I won’t bore you with the discussions but suffice to say, at one stage, we even contemplated having the bus moved to another company to finish the conversion. After many conversations, a plan of works to complete stage 1 was agreed. Last Monday we took a drive up to Newcastle to check on the progress and we were happy with the progress that’s been made. Israel is going up again next Monday with the expectation that Stage 1 will be completed and we will be able to pay the final payment for that stage, plus sign the agreement and pay the deposit for stage 2. Please cross your fingers for us that stage 1 is complete.
Notwithstanding the delays, the builders have committed to still having the bus ready on time. Our challenge is that yes we want it on time but this will also be our home – we don’t want the quality to be sacrificed for the sake of it being ready on time. It’s a balance and I guess we will just have to adjust plans if necessary.
So here’ some updated pics on where things are at:
Equipment Purchases
Over the past 12 months, we have been compiling (amassing is probably more appropriate) a list of equipment we’d need to purchase for the trip.
We took advantage of the Father’s Day sales, and here’s the stash we got. There’s ramps and snatch ropes for if we get bogged in the 4WD, fire safety blanket and extinguisher, fishing equipment, a tent that can be put up in under 3 minutes (to minimise the domestic “discussions”), jerry cans, self inflating mattresses, sleeping bags, mechanical tools, safety triangles for breakdown and more. Our indoor photography studio has fast been overtaken by all our equipment purchases and a mini studio Israel has built to take better photographs of the lunch boxes and recipes I make.
Decluttering
Anyone who has moved knows how much ‘stuff’ (polite term) you accumulate. The last time we moved was 8 years ago, and we did not have the luxury of decluttering. Our beautiful daughter had arrived 7 weeks early and we realised that our apartment was not big enough for the 3 of us, 2 staff and our growing photography business. So we basically found this place, and within a week had moved, set up business and unpacked. And started learning how to be parents.
Now this move is very different again. Moving into a bus, we do not have a lot of room, so lots of ‘stuff’ has to go or be stored. Our plans are to be on the road for 18 months, so storing lots of ‘stuff’ will be expensive. We decided that we would need to be ruthless – lots of ‘stuff’ would go. We have been trying to declutter a room every month. This month’s focus was the kids’ bedroom. I wish we had taken before and after shots but alas we didn’t. We got rid of some chests of drawers, desks and chairs a couple of weeks ago. This was easy. This week we started to attack the book shelf (we are big readers and so are our kids) and the toy cupboards and drawers. Here is a just some of what we have all agreed will go.
We will shortly be having an online sale of books, toys etc and so we’ll be sure to let you know in case you’re interested in some toys etc in good condition.
Next month we turn our attention to decluttering the areas relating to the photography business (that’s our office, meeting room and storage areas). That is going to be BIG!
Schooling
Ok what to do about schooling has been a challenging task.
Next year our son will be of pre-school age and our daughter moves into year 4. By far, the biggest block I have about this whole trip is signing the form for school saying Indrani won’t be going back there next year. Some days I am wracked with doubt about whether this trip will be good for her. Some days I feel plagued by guilt that she will be saying good bye to her friends she has gone through kindy to 3rd class with. Then other days, I am absolutely 100% convinced this is an opportunity of a lifetime and she will flourish. On days when I am feeling concerned about it, I immerse myself into a Facebook group called Families on the Road, Travelling Australia. It only takes 10 minutes and then I feel like: “Yep she will be fine, this will be great for all of us.”
Schooling options for people travelling are usually homeschooling, distance education or unschooling.
Israel and I really liked the idea of homeschooling which allows us to set our own education philosophy, write our own curriculum (using normal school topics plus others we like) and this could then be taught based on where we are. So for instance, if we wanted to do an Australian History piece on gold mining, then we would do that in Ballarat where we can do practical activities to support the theory. I have done loads of reading on this and was quite excited because one of our wedding clients who has an education background was going to help us evaluate Indrani and write a curriculum specific to her. THEN when it came time to register with the Board of Education, we discovered that NSW is the only state that requires you to have a static address in order to get registered. They also conduct inspections of your classroom and a host of other requirements.
We have contemplated not registering, registering in another state, and unschooling all together.
But I think we have finally resolved that we will register to do Distance Education and see how that goes. I still need to continue my research with this and work out what Distance Ed school suits Indrani. Academically she did brilliantly in her NAPLAN and ICAS so I want to make sure the school is able to help us continue to build on where she is academically.
The Root Cause Mission To Transform Children’s Health
If you’ve found this post via my newsletter, then you’d know about my Mad Food Science™ Program for kids. I love this work and believe in it so strongly and can’t wait to take it on the road. The big dilemma that faces me with this is actually getting the program into schools, and then actually making some money from it so I can continue to do it. My next challenge is to see if I can get some funding and support from The Department of Education. So if anyone out there has a contact in the Dept who you think may be able to help me, please let me know. Contact me on 0401 649 289 or email belinda@therootcause.com.au
I am also looking at what other ways I can serve you, and how I can then use this to create products which will make money and allow me to keep funding the Mad Food Science™ Program. If you can help me out by completing this short survey it would be very much appreciated. It will take only 3-5 minutes.
Well I think that summarises some of what we have been up to in August and September. Please keep following us, your support keeps us going with our mission!