Travels of Shepp

Our road trip came to a swift end when we decided to come to Sydney early. Australia had near enough eradicated Covid, and things were almost completely back to normal. Then, when we were in Newcastle, one stop away from Sydney, we got the news that there had been an outbreak in the Northern beaches. It's only around 30 cases, which is nothing for the UK or elsewhere, but this is a big deal for Australia. It meant they put just the Northern beaches into a mini lockdown. From here the cases crept up and up, and it was a really nerve-wracking time as we had no idea what was in store for us over the next few days and weeks. My anxiety went absolutely through the roof. We made the snap decision when in Newcastle to come straight to Sydney early, as then at least we could see our friends before the city locked down. It was scary knowing we could be making a huge mistake, as if Sydney locked down we would be stuck there with no money and no job. I hadn't planned o...

Mine and Keiran's road trip has now come to an end (update on that to come in a separate post). It's been so fun but it has to be said that there have been some hard and emotional times. Constantly figuring out where to go, where to stay, what to do etc can be stressful and a bit scary. Often we wouldn't plan ahead enough and we'd be somewhere at 9 o'clock at night with nowhere to stay and no food. This means we would often have to resort to stealth camping which wasn't always ideal and once resulted in a $220 fine. What would an Aussie road trip be without a fine, ey?... Plus, the bad weather really messed with our plans more than I had anticipated. It was a shame when all we wanted to do was lie on the beach but it was raining, but obviously there are always things to do inside to keep you busy. The main reason the rain was annoying was the fact we were living in the van so essentially camping. Waking up in the morning to everything being we...

Something about farm work is so unbelievably not me, that I feel I've come back to myself. I'm the most myself when I'm travelling, and I like this version of myself the best. Of course this isn't the first road trip I've done, but it's the first time I've stayed in my own van properly for a longer period of time than just the weekend. I'm loving van life but it's certainly something to get used to. Since we are going to the beach most days, you can imagine how much sand gets in the van. It's everywhere . We also get a lot of bugs in the van. At night, it's so hot that we sleep with the doors open, so the bugs follow the light an just come right in. Meaning we are covered in bug bites. But that's all part of it! Van life is essentially camping and all this just makes it even more exciting and part of the adventure. I couldn't be happier than when driving in my van singing at the top of my lungs. I h...