ROAD LIFE
Are West Oz trips miles and miles of driving? Yep, they sure are! You’ve got to be prepared to put the hours in, 2 days driving for 2 days sailing is normal – off road, sketchy tracks, the lot! The flies? Yep, they are pretty much all over the place all the time too, a bit of extra crunch with your breakfast in the morning! But personally, after one day of sailing in NW Australia, all the negatives fade away! Long clean walls, section after section, the place goes off!
Living in a van is definitely a sink or swim test of any relationship and you certainly get to know one another very well! But I have to say it’s surprising how quickly you get used to it and how comfortable you become. When we were based around towns we could even train in the gym, normally after a morning surf and before the wind picked up. An old mobile phone loaded with data meant we had Internet wherever we went (although further North you can forget about it). Cooking was fine too; a little gas stove proved its worth and some guys even ran slow cookers off their leisure battery. If you are feeling a bit over the van, splashing out on a higher end campsite will normally provide a nice area to chill out in and a decent kitchen with an oven etc. It wasn’t long before the little van felt like home and the whole of the West Coast became our oyster.