Eight Months On the Road – Update from Pamela and I

Looking down on Hat Head from Smoky Point Lighthouse

The 5^th of April marks the eighth straight month of our trip and we wanted to send out a quick update on our progress. It seems like these last two months in Australia have gone in the blink of an eye. Pamela and I are having a great time checking out the coast of New South Wales. So far we’ve spent two weeks in Batemans Bay, a week in Sydney, two weeks in Forster and a week in Coffs Harbour. The New South Wales coast has so much to offer that we could easily spend another two months exploring as we just love it. Up next it’s the Queensland coast, where we will spend at least the next five weeks traveling between the Gold Coast, Bundaberg and the Sunshine Coast. We’re really looking forward to meeting up with family and friends in the Gold Coast area.

In the whole we’ve been on the road 245 days and over these past 245 days we’ve traveled nearly 110,000 kilometers (58,000 miles) which is more than twice the circumference of the Earth. If that seems like a lot to you then you’re right, it was actually too much all at once. The first six months on the road had us seeing and doing so much that it was quite hard to keep up with where we were and what we were doing. These last two months have been quite the opposite; reading, sleeping, cooking and beaching are on the agenda most days with the most critical thing being shell collecting. Life has been really-really nice and relaxing which is quite the contrast of the first portion of our trip. Pamela is as tan as I’ve ever seen her and thankfully my tan line is the only thing receding on me. Don’t worry parents, we go through sun block like water these days so no sunburns.

Work…Unfortunately it’s getting closer to that time when we need to start looking for jobs and a more permanent place to live. Believe it or not I think it will be good to get back to work, at least for a while. I’m not sure how hard it will be to find a job but we’re not too worried. We’re estimating sitting down and really looking for work during the month of May but don’t hold us to that just yet. As for housing we’re constantly on the lookout for beachfront or near beachfront apartment deals somewhere in the Gold Coast area but we’re still not 100% sure. We know we definitely want to live close to the beach so it will be just a matter of where we can find work or quite a few prospects for work.

Health-wise we’re both doing pretty well. We’re both much tanner than when we left eight months ago and I’ve definitely gained some weight. Unfortunately I cracked a rib about four weeks ago so have been off any rigorous exercise since then and I’ve definitely felt the lack, especially with all the ice cream. Thankfully the rib is nearly healed and I’m already back swimming a bit, hopefully I can surf again in a few weeks. Pamela’s still in great shape, I’m not sure where she puts all the ice cream though. Oh to be 26 again…

Thanks so much to everyone who continues to read our posts and look at our pics. We hope you’re enjoying the stories and pics. For those of you outside of Australia I hope the photos inspire you to come visit.

Cheers for Now –

Pamela and Dave