Life is what happens……….

The saying “life is what happens when you are busy making other plans” has been very apt this year. We realised very early in 2021 that there was no point in making any future plans, with Covid in the world any traveling decisions were now out of our hands.

The first few months of the year saw us mucking about on REAO, living life at a very slow pace interspersed with taking the odd ferry trip across to Maggie Island for the day to swim and explore the island.

In April I headed back to the Yongala Lodge to manage it for 6 weeks before Craig and I headed back up to Cairns with the purpose of firstly celebrating Craigs birthday with friends and then picking up a campervan to do a mini 3 month van adventure.

The van adventure idea came about when I was back at the Yongala. I put forth the idea to Craig and since we weren’t going to be able to go anywhere on REAO we decided it would be a great idea to do a mini adventure.

For Craig’s birthday, 4 of us headed to Cape Tribulation for the weekend where we got to do a half day boat trip out to the reef and spend a lovely couple of hours snorkeling in clear warm waters. It was an absolutely fabulous day and reminded us so much of what we were missing from sailing around the islands.

After the birthday celebrations we got ready to pick up the van. Our initial plan was to drive south aiming for Melbourne where we could catch up with some friends that live there before flying back to Townsville. Even though it was a big distance we had 3 months to do it in……..well that was the initial plan.

It didn’t take us long to get into the swing of van life with the help of a couple of great apps that we could use to decide where we would head to next. We were looking for places slightly off the beaten track, free camps etc. We soon discovered that the people we met along the way were very much like the boatie community, always up for a chat and a cold drink. We were continuously given advice of places that we “shouldn’t miss”. While we couldn’t take on board every place we “must see” where we could we did.

We knew when we started out that we were heading south and the temperatures would be dropping. What we didn’t take into account was how soft both of us had gotten living in far north Queensland and it wasn’t long before we were stopping at op shops picking up warmer clothing, stopping at bunnings to pick up an oil heater and a bedding shop for blankets which then meant we had to stop at caravan parks each night so we could have a powered site to plug in said heater.

With the temperature continuing to drop our plans continued to change going from “we will go to Melbourne” to “we will go to Sydney” to finally “lets just get to the Gold Coast”. To be fair it wasn’t just the colder temperature at night that changed our plans it was also the fact that the Qld/NSW boarder kept closing and opening. It was finally that fact that made us decide to just stay in Queensland.

We did make it to the Gold Coast where we managed to stay for 2 whole days before we turned the van around and started heading north again towards the warmer weather. We slowly made our way up the coast spending time at places we really loved (like Agnes Beach) and exploring places we had missed on the way down.

We drove back into Cairns just before my birthday which we thought was a great way to finish as we had started just after Craigs birthday. We got to spend a few more days up there celebrating with friends before catching the train home to REAO. There we got back into the slow pace of boat life with me picking up a few shifts a week helping out at the Yongala Lodge.

Early September we decided it was time for both of us to head back to work and within 2 weeks we had a job as assistant managers at a caravan park. We worked there for 6 weeks and while the owners wanted us to stay on and continue, due to a difference in management styles we decided it just wasn’t for us.

It is now mid November and we are living on REAO. We are currently in talks with the owners of the Yongala Lodge to go back there and manage for a few months which we think we will as money coming in is better than money going out. At the end of November however we have another trip up to Cairns for a couple of weeks to look after our friends apartment while they head away on a dive trip.

We are continuing to stay positive and truly believe that 2022 will see us out sailing again. Until that happens we will work when we can, when we are not we will continue to turn REAO into our home.

It has not been the year we would have chosen for ourselves however comparing our year to many other people we have been extremely lucky. We have still been able to semi travel around, we have only had to wear masks for a few days, we still get to mingle and socialise. Due to us not being able to sail we have had time to improve REAO, to build up our traveling funds and to meet new people who have turned into friends.

We know this is not forever, we will be able to sail again and until then we will just continue to try and make the most of each and every day!