Hitting the road with everything we own and being masters of judging a book by its cover.

We hoped to experience this view but got out of there before we could appreciate it. Credit: fullrangecamping.com.au

After a casual start to the day we pulled out of Lawnton at 11am, making our way for Yarrabilba to collect the rest of our belongings from storage. We parked up in the Storage King yard and spent four and half hours squeezing the very last of our possessions into the Ranger and the van—it was tight, and if we had one more box there was not a chance it would have fit.

By this time, it was late in the afternoon and we had run out of daylight, leaving us with the question of where we were going to pull up for the night. Our plan was to head for Byron Bay (for no other reason than the whimsical thought of checking off the Eastern-most point of Australia), and while that is only a couple of hours drive, there was no hurry to be checking off our first night drive, and dark-of-night van parking once we got there. Alicia, being on the pulse, found a free camp less than 30 minutes away in Beenleigh. It had mixed reviews, with a couple highlighting a few less-than-ideal characteristics, namely, feeling as though their life hung in the balance, and being a campground for the homeless, whilst a few more considered it a great place to pull up for a night.

It was around 7pm that we pulled into Beenleigh’s Hugh Munz park to find the rest area was bustling with campervans…and make-shift tent accommodation. We pulled into the first, and only, available space, right next to what I could only describe as the tent-mahal—its sheer size was an impressive achievement. It’s Winter, and 7pm, and with no lighting where we pulled up, it was pitch black. We sat for a while to take stock of the surroundings, and when I got out to have a look around, I was met by the ever-so-faintly familiar aroma of pot, and a few questionable-looking characters having a few evening drinks and spitting, or was it vomiting, from park benches. You know, I try not to judge a book by its cover, but I’m really terrible at it—at the end of the day, this place just didn’t have a good feel about it, and with the arrival of the meals for the homeless van, and along with it, the sea of people taking up the offer of a warm meal, we decided make a move. Look, I get it, finding yourself in less fortunate situations in life does not make for a bad person, and yet, sometimes it does. In any case, after such a big day, and feeling perhaps a little uneasy, that night just wasn’t the night to find out.

In all likelihood it would have been perfectly safe and fine, but I think you just have to go with your gut, and our gut instinct was that it didn’t feel right. And so, we had our first experience reversing with the caravan at night after all, and in complete darkness at that. With Alicia guiding from outside, we negotiated bollards and industrial bins to snake our way out in reverse and, I have to say, using handheld radios and the push/pull system, we nailed it. We parked up for the night in a 2-hour caravan parking bay at the Coomera BP truck stop, after talking with the staff inside—if you’re upfront, people will generally help you out. As expected, it was busy with trucks coming and going, but we all managed to have a great night of sleep.

From here, we’ll be making our way south and leaving Queensland for, well, we have no idea how long, actually. We had originally planned to have our baby in Beaudesert, Queensland, with the idea to head South for a short while, do a house-sit in New South Wales, and head back to Queensland for the rest of winter, working our way back down to Beaudesert closer to the due date. A benefit of having no set plan, or particular time constraints, is that it can make available other opportunities. It turns out we couldn’t get into the Beaudesert birthing program as we’d hoped, and after some extensive research, Alicia found it was possible for her to be part of the birthing program in the Hunter Valley region, New South Wales.

We have another house-sit arranged for the end of the year, a couple of days before Christmas. This will be a four-and-a-half-week stint in the near-outback town of Warren, New South Wales, so after the baby arrives, we’ll be floating around a bit until then, giving us some time to adjust to living in a confined space with 2 young kids—we’ll have to put a return to Queensland on the backburner. Next stop, though, Byron Bay.