Almost there now

We'd had a very full-on 2 years. Once the dust had settled from 2015, we decided that this would be the year H would take long service and we would put the Stormtrooper (our Landcruiser) to good use. At the time, we owned a Jayco Finch and figured we could set that up with a few modifications to enable free camping all the way to WA (Broome has long been my dream). I had my reservations about the old Finch, considering we haven't fit in there comfortably for a few years now, and as time got closer (and nobody seemed to be getting any smaller!), a stroke of good fortune put us in a position to buy a new van, if we wanted to...

Some people would undoubtedly think we were crazy. New caravans aren't cheap, and we had to buy new to accommodate our requirements. Our ideas on what we wanted actually fluctuated on a scale between a hard-floor camper trailer, designed to sleep 2 (the kids could sleep in swags) and a fully decked out beast (to sleep, shower, toilet and entertain the lot of us). There was one camper trailer styled van that could do everything for us, but was such a new design and for so much money that we just weren't sure. We originally thought that by buying new, we'd be able to walk into a caravan lot and say "We'll take that one!", drive-away, no more to pay, but it doesn't actually work like that. Since buying a van had only become a possibility in May, we were running out of time which knocked out a few contenders. The camper trailer to sleep 6 was one of those (it was a Bruder-6), JB Scorpion another, Jayco Basestation another...

By another stroke of good fortune, H had to have a small operation (that's not the fortunate part), and I went to visit the caravan yards there in the city. I came across a design that I loved; it wasn't in an offroad van (another of our requirements), but from the moment I walked in, I could just imagine us all in there. After speaking to the guy, who spoke to his boss-guy, who spoke to the engineer-guy, who spoke to the manufacturing-guys, it was determined we COULD have a new van ready by the end of June. But we only had 2 days to decide.

We didn't win the lottery, and we don't generally have a lot of money to throw around (4 kids will do that to a family), so this was a huge decision. Because H was still off work, recovering, we had those 2 decision days to really think about what we wanted. In the end, we decided that this had happened in perfect timing to support our travel plans; the 'trip of a lifetime' so many people wait to do until retirement to do (and we may also do again in 20 years, but nothing in life is guaranteed). We had often thought about upgrading the Finch, and it would be silly to squeeze everything into it for this trip, only to upgrade later. I'd learned from the research phase that second-hand family vans aren't that easy to come by, so there is always the option of selling it once we do return. So here it is, our Masterpiece Optimum - due to be handed over tomorrow, and then we can pack and begin our adventure... (ok, so I can't find the pictures on my computer, TBC...)