Out of the Darkness

Since the pandemic began, our lives had been cloaked in a dark funk, there were a lot of unknowns and to a certain degree, a sense of helplessness. In spite of the situation we were facing, Sue and I decided that we wanted to travel more and the motorhome we had was not going to be able to take us to the places we wanted to explore. We hoped that all the restrictions of movement was erased soon and planned of finding a suitable mode of transport that would help us access places that our Nissan Civilian could not.

After doing a lot research and extreme due diligence, we had settled on AAV4x4 Australia’s Global Xplorer, based on the Fuso Canter 4x4. A deposit was made in February of 2021, the truck was shipped from the dealer in Queensland to AAV upon the shipment of camper from South Africa. AAV converted the truck into the Global Xplorer, a very capable overlanding vehicle. We took delivery of the Global Xplorer at our house in Melbourne on 31st August 2021, we could not take delivery in Brisbane where AAV4x4 are located due to border closures and the travel restrictions that were in place.

A decision was taken to ready our house for sale, get rid of nearly 20 years of stuff, what we did not get rid of went into storage. Our cars are also being stored as we will be looking for a base in a rural location, an area still to be determined. It has been a very frustrating 6 months of so trying to get things done to and around the house due to the restrictions, curfews and the ability to move around. Trying to get trades people to do the work I did not want to do myself was another level of frustration, supply shortages, high demand for trades people only added to the mix.

Sue and I took the bold step and gave notice to our respective employers that we would be retiring at the end of July 2021. It was a decision that we grasped and have never regretted it. We are now self funded, as I write this, it is a week to the auction and a new chapter is about to begin. The anger, the frustration and the continued disappointments will subside as we adapt to new environments. Life will still be life. we are more than looking forward to living it.