HOWLETT'S HOME PAGE
Where Are We Going?
We live in beautiful Alexandra, Victoria, an hour and a bit north of Melbourne. From here we are heading west along the Victoria/South Australia coast, across the Bight and down and around the WA coast all the way up to Darwin. From there we will head down to the Red Centre and somehow find our way home! We thought doing a 'half lap' in 6 months would be better than trying to squeeze the lot in and feeling like we had to rush things - not what we want to do. Depending on work options back home as we near Darwin, we may continue across to Queensland and possibly travel for longer.
Why Are We Doing It?
Travelling around Australia with the kids is something we always wanted to do 'one day'. Financially and career-wise, we weren't sure when it would be best to do this. A health scare for me (Mark) earlier this year made us re-assess our priorities and having heard stories of the 'Big Trip' from other people..."life changing"..."the best thing we ever did"...we decided NOW was the time (even though the health scare was a false alarm!).
A Bit About Us...
The Kids:
Hi everyone! My name is Emshia, and I am 9 years old. My name comes from South Africa, and I absolutely positively love dogs and puppies! I am in grade 3 and I am turning 10 next year. We are going on a trip for six months, and I am sooo excited! But I will really miss my friends. We are going all around Oz (except for Queensland, and Tazzi and NSW).
Hello everyone, my name is Rory. I am 6 years old and I live in Alexandra. I am so excited to go onto our trip. I am so excited to go and have lots of sleeps in our trakkie (our nickname for our Trak Shak camper).
I love wombats and Pokemon. I have just finished Prep at St Mary's primary school and I am so excited to be in Grade 1.
The Grown-ups:
G'day! My name is Sharyn & no more than a year ago the idea of doing a trip like this would have freaked me out completely! I have always been a comfort kind of girl who had never been camping before I met Mark. Motels and nice B&B's have always been my thing over roughing it. I needed my shower and my straightening iron and my modern conveniences. But over the past year things have really changed for me, and now here I am facing 6 months on the road and I couldn't be more excited!! Over the last 6 years Mark returned to Uni from a very well paid job to follow a passion to be a teacher, and then started his new career and these times have been very challenging for us all. After Marks health scare, the juggling balls that we had been throwing in all directions all seemed to settle and we gained a real perspective on what was truly important in our lives. And thats where this trip comes in. Financially it makes no sense, career wise for Mark it makes no sense, but family wise it is absolutely crystal clear. So I'm leaving my straightening iron at home along with 95% of my wardrobe and with the bare minimals, I am ready to have the trip of a lifetime!
Marks bit...
You know it's amazing how quickly your life can change and how easily it can be done. Years ago we walked into a travel agency for a chat and walked out with a booked trip to Europe (good salesman). This time the salesman was a reality check and it helped to make things a bit clearer for us. Going back to Uni to do teaching and now actually being one has been great but I have missed out on sooo much time with Sharyn and the kids in order to help other people's kids! This trip will help to reset that balance and bring us closer together. Our kids are growing up so fast and I don't want to look back and regret not being there for them, which appears to be the case for most dads these days. Sharyn deserves a husband who is around a lot more...well she may change her mind on that after 6 months of 24/7. So, with no house or job to come back to, we're nearly off and to tell you the truth we don't care about those things because we're going to have the best experience a family could ever have!
Our trip preparation
We only decided in about June of this year that we were really going to do this trip, so preparation time hasn't been quite as long as we had hoped! That may be why 2 days out from leaving, the storage system in the back of the Prado is still being built and we still haven't even packed our camper!!! But we have had our Wish List beautifully presented in excel and we have visited it religiously. Thank goodness for Online shopping!!
Mark has really been preparing for this trip his whole adult life, as he has been buying bits and pieces over the many years, bought many 4WD magazines and been to many 4WD and camping shows. We had a two week trip up to Central Australia (Ayers Rock/Kings Canyon/Alice Springs) in the mid year 2007 school holidays to see how we'd all go on the road, (a bit of a dry run in fast forward! ) and we had the best time of our lives! So we knew we were on the right path. Now whether we have got all our goodies or not, we are just going to get out there, and do it!
Sunrise over Ayers Rock
Our Set-up
Mark has owned 10 cars in his lifetime to date and 4 of them have been 4WD's. Our latest baby is our 98 Grande Toyota Prado. We bought it in immaculate condition from a lovely family in Geelong and we are rapt with it. We had it put on gas a month ago and as mentioned before, a great friend of ours is making our storage unit in the back. Mark will add more to this when he has time...he can say it much better than I can...
Which I will! The Prado already had Old Man Emu suspension on it when we bought it; this brand is renowned for quality suspension so it was all good in that department. It also had two batteries so we were right to run the fridge in the back. The drawer system has come up a treat and we're stoked with it. Thanks to 2 mates in our 4wd club for helping to put it together and another for cutting it up! We also put a bullbar on it before we left and an Anderson plug to charge the camper battery on the road. There's heaps of other things we have done and bought so feel free to ask us a question as chances are we might be able to answer it for you.
Our Camper is a 2002 Trak Shak and we just love it! We weren't planning on getting a new camper as we had an old but good Windsor Sunwagon that was great for us, but when we were on the Oodnandatta track, (and we actually made it into Oodnandatta!) and then our wheel rim went rolling off and then our doorhandle fell off, and we saw the amount of dust that got into all of our belongings inside it, we knew it was time for us to invest in a new dust proof, off-
road camper. Mark had been researching best campers for families and after we looked through a families Trak Shak set up in Alice Springs we knew it was our dream to get one. We loved the set up and the space! Fortunately for us we found a Trak Shak for sale near Shepparton and it very quickly became ours! We actually haven't been away in it yet, but have spent quite a few nights camping out in our backyard!
Our Trak Shak in our backyard
OK, we're on the road and we're about to ad some pictures to the Photo Album and report updates in our Blog. We're getting there!