For the last two weeks we have been trialling living in the van up in Canungra, in the hills of the Gold Coast. For the first week, the kids and I stayed at Mum's while he finished the plumbing of the water tank, sorted out the solar panel and batteries etc, and basically figured out how we could live in and out of our van, comfortably.
Meanwhile, the kids and I packed up all our clothes and all the schoolbooks and resources, toys and pantry food from Mums, and started to take them up to the van, load by load.
After a week or so Geo and Will had a pretty good system going, and we're collecting, cutting and splitting firewood each day so we could cook on the fire at night.
This was the evening we had homemade sourdough calzones in the camp oven, with stewed pears cooked on the fire that we then enjoyed with custard for dessert!
The campground we stayed in was pretty open, and although the road behind us was quite busy, we faced out across a huge paddock with trees to the creek and a lovely view of the hills. It was peaceful, full of wildlife and very cold! Especially at night! But oh, the stars were amazing!
In the middle of our two week trial, our friends the Dwyers came to visit. The kids had a blast exploring the creek, climbing the trees, running around the paddocks and engaging in general acts of mayhem.
Unfortunately it rained that night so we didn't get the enjoyment of sitting round the fire for very long!
But the next day we thawed out in the sun, the ids played frisbee and had a Nerf war while climbing up trees before snackng on fruit salad and popcorn. All in all it was a glorious day!
When the Dwyers left it was time to start sorting and packing. We still had to work out what was coming in the car and what was going back to our storage shed. And I still had to clean out and empty Mums place too!
We lay everything out in the paddock and sorted it into piles. It was really hard deciding what could stay and what had to go.
Our van is starting to look really comfy though!
It was nice to wake up to the birds and a view of the trees out the windows!
The day before leaving though, we had a willy willy come through camp, and our lovely yellow gazebo was lifted into the air, and then dropped to the ground in a broken heap! Poor Will had tried to hold on to it, but felt like he was going to be carried away with it as the wind was so strong!
He did his best but the gazebo broke in several places, and we decided to make do without replacing it. The fabric went into storage, and the broken frames went to the tip.
Finally, we were all packed and ready to go. Our trial taught us to keep everything well pegged down at all times. It taught us to get used to walking to a toilet block with a torch in the dark of night, and to plan ahead for a fire for without good coals you can't cook much! It also taught us that we are all happiest when Nature is our backyard. Next stop, storage shed and then finally hitting the road.
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