What seemed a lifetime of packing, sorting, re-sorting, re-packing, then resorting to just dumping stuff into boxes on the off-chance we’d need the items, we shoe-horned everything into Tinfish & Minty. The time had come to shut the door on the house and get on to the open road…..In true Towns Time, although I feel we truly excelled this time, 26 hours later than originally planned!

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We’ve made a “loose” plan of where we want to go, mainly to ensure that we hit the North and dry season at the right time, around May. Australia is a big country, but we were surprised that even when planning a moveable route in weekly intervals we would still be heading at quite a pace.

After hugs and goodbyes with our friends gathered to wave us off, we headed South down the M1. The trip had started!! First stop, down to Perisher to the ski lodge we go skiing every year, even if we haven’t meticulously planned the route, we knew we’d want an easy first stop after a crazy last few months at work and packing up and ‘Beachcombers’ is home away from home. Alex is keen to hit all 8 States and Territories, the most Northern, Southern, Western and Eastern points, the highest point & and Geographical centre. We realised only a few weeks ago that we hadn’t got Australia Capital Territory on the list, so a quick drive by Parliament House on the way South ticked off that State!

We were spending our first week with our good friends The Julio’s and their extended family from Venezuela, so we knew we would be relaxing our way into the trip with fun, laughs and great food. With Minty stuffed to her gunnels, we’d made great expectations of spending a proportion of the week sorting the boxes (to be fair there were a few just with food and drink for Christmas) so we’d be organised when officially getting on the road… Alas, it’s amazing how quickly time goes by when starting to relax a little… it turns out exploring the outdoors, chilling and enjoying great company far outweighs sorting boxes!! That job was to be left for another day.

The kids had already informed Santa where we would be this year and thankfully he found us. The carrots, mince pies and whiskey left out had all been enjoyed and in return lots of gifts had been left by the tree. Excitement ensued and soon the floor was a sea of ripped paper and lots of goodies to be enjoyed. Coincidently, many perfect for the trip! Santa’s a good man 😉 Alex and I cooked a large turkey this year, and so we could enjoy drinking champagne while doing so, The Julio’s took all the kids out for a walk in the afternoon. Perfect!

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We also had another milestone to be ticked off early in the tour; the highest point in Australia. Only leaving an hour later than planned, we soon found ourselves on the chairlift at Thredbo taking us up to the start of the walk to Mt Kosciuszko peak, a whopping 2,228m high!! Alex started the walk confident in the kid’s ability to complete the 14km return walk in the allocated 5.5hours we had left before the chairlift back down the mountain closed for the day… Call me a pessimist, I was less so! 200m into the walk, OK, maybe 300m, I heard a little voice behind me, “my legs are hurting, are we nearly there yet?”, hmm, this could be a very long afternoon! We made it to the first look out and stood admiring the vast wilderness, while I tried to ignore the exclamations coming from beside me; “I’m not walking that far, it’s miles away!”. While it’s the highest point in Australia, when looking from afar, the peak is a little underwhelming and hard to tell it is the highest point!

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We continued to cajole the kids a little further but another 500m down the track, they voted with their feet and were not to go any further. Julio’s parents and sister were also happy to stop and so they kindly took Lexi, Reo & Lucia back to the lift while the rest of us carried on. We were only half way to the peak, so we needed to get a wiggle on to ensure we’d get back for the last chairlift. Without dragging so many little feet behind us we were soon carried by the wind and at the top! Julio Jnr (8yrs) managed it no problem and the return journey seemed easy and we were back with the others for a rewarding cool beer and ice-cream for the kids with plenty of time left before the last chairlift!

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The week passed by quickly and it was already starting to feel like we’d left Sydney longer than we had. With lovely walks and a great week of weather, the Snowy Mountains is a place we love to return to both in the winter and summer. With no fixed plans in place after the lodge, we decided to stay around the corner at Tom Groggin campsite where we’ve camped previously. It’s been a great start to the trip, and as we waved farewell to the Julio’s as they returned to Sydney, it was a firm foot on the right pedal; let “Towns on Tour” begin…