So, 2 weeks left of our time here at Epenarra Station and we are starting to really feel the pull of the road each moment. 

We’ve worked hard over the past few weeks to get the van all in order and to be honest we are better set up now than before we left home! Amazing how much you learn as you go on this adventure.

We’ve had so many projects and also done a full service on the van ourselves, including servicing the air conditioner. We’ve learnt the plumbing system from top to bottom, and there is nothing on our Thetford toilet that I couldn’t fix now!

We’ve installed a battery box to the car for our secondary battery when we don’t have the van hooked up, with a lead and Anderson plug or cig socket anywhere you could possibly think you might need one!

I’ve dry lubed everything that might possibly ever want to move on the van. Dog was lucky she got out of the road or I might’ve given her a squirt too!

We’ve cleaned and waxed and polished from top to bottom!

Oh and on top of all that, we’ve been working our day jobs and trying to get out and enjoy this place as much as we possibly can in the meantime.

This week we have our first visit from family with my father-in-law and his partner driving halfway across the country to see us for a few days, so we are really looking forward to being able to share this place with someone from back home and then it’s full steam ahead, 5 more days of work and we’re done! Clean the house, and off we go!

We’re heading back to Alice Springs for 10 days or so initially. We are getting the vinyl replaced on the front of our van with checkerplate as it is starting to perish, so here’s hoping we don’t discover any further damage underneath it when we go to do that job! And then that should be it for the van for a while, fingers crossed!

Having been in this area for 6 months now has allowed us to follow up on some medical issues and we are taking the opportunity to see some specialists before we head out of range again for a while too.

Crispy has to see an eye specialist, just a check on a known condition, and I (Frannie) am getting orthotics, having discovered the poor state of my feet after getting a job where I am on them for 9 or so hours a day for the first time in a long time.

It’s been tough here, with sore feet and long days, then the working through the heat of the peak of summer, and now the almost unbearable flies, but it’s also been an unforgettable, one-of-a-kind experience.

We’ve seen places not many people ever get to see, made friends in the local aboriginal community, and boy, have we learnt a lot of new skills here! I could even put “Quad Bike Salesperson” on my resume confidently now!

We’ve been very lucky to find this place as our first job on the road. We’ve made new friends, had wonderful places to swim with no crocs, and been made very comfortable with our own house and everything.

We were able to save a heap for the next leg of our journey, and pay for all our new gadgets including the suspension upgrade and new 4×4 tyres for Brutus that Crispy dreamed of having (but that had to be put on the “one day” list before we left home as we just couldn’t afford everything at once!) .

Now, the trick will be, once we leave Alice Springs, to settle into a slower mode of travel. No looking for the next project or job or thing that needs fixing and just to learn to enjoy the road. I. CAN’T. WAIT.