Final Phase Preparations and the Bigger Picture

Final Phase

Well! I'm all but ready to go now and everything looks pretty snazzy. I've been living out of the van for most of this week and everything has gone pretty smoothly - if anything I have overprepared.

Regular preparation is not this neat; from 2009

It's lovely, though, I like a well ordered space. Short of a few desirables - stove, shower, sink, electricity, washing machine - there's no reason it wouldn't function well as a semi-permanent residence. Considerably more luxurious than camping off the back of a motorbike!

The plan is to leave tomorrow morning, first thing. I have no idea how I'm going to get out of bed early enough (8 hours from right now), but I'm having breakfast in the mountains with a friend tomorrow morning, so it will happen somehow.

The Bigger Picture

I keep getting asked questions which should be up here, so I'll address the big picture here.

Having just finished at uni, I'm taking 12 months off from fulltime commitments to go on an adventure and get out and see Australia. I'll be working wherever I can, which I think will be predominantly hospitality (for so many reasons). The sketch at the moment is to go first to Bright, in Alpine Victoria, then when the holiday season quietens down head to Melbourne for a month or so: I need to be back in Sydney mid-March til the start of June, to get myself into a job for 2010, among other things.
From then I'll head out and about, wherever I can get work, but also making sure I get around: I could head to the snow, but I also want to do the Northern Territory in winter, Adelaide as well, and I need to head to WA whenever I can get a bit of work on the farms over there with Dad's half of the family. Last thing I think I'll head back east and do Tasmania next summer.
It's only QLD and NZ that are being left out, but I should leave something for another day, shouldn't I? Riding NZ sometime is definitely on the wish list.

I do have my loverly van, which as mentioned is quite an acceptable abode, but I'll be hoping to secure somewhere affordable to stay if I'm going to be anywhere more than a week or two (hence first choice being work in a hotel).

I'll be trying to keep up with this blog, and my motorcyclists' take on the odyssey as well (2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com), though if I can't get good net access I may have more of a twitter presence than anything else (www.twitter.com/JohnSBaxter also updates my FB status).
If you don't know how to get updates about these you should email me and I'll make a mailing list.

It feels like I am missing things... ask me questions and I'll answer those later.

Thanks for watching -
HERE WE GO!


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@JohnSBaxter
2009-traveldiary.blogspot.com
2009-motorcyclist.blogspot.com
jsbaxter.com.au (coming soon!)