Author: Chris Riley

Spirit of Tasmania

| Chris Riley

Media reports have suggested there’s a back log for caravanners wanting to leave Tasmania of ‘up to one month’. Oh, how I wish this was true.

The reality is that we can’t get a confirmed booking until 20th July, more than three months away, and the earliest we can even get on a wait list is 28 June, more than two months away. The wait list is just that – a wait list, not a confirmed sailing date.

The booking office suggested people need to be organised and book their fares in good time. So, I would suggest that unless anyone has a crystal ball that can show them they absolutely will not have any urgent family business to attend to that may require a rapid departure by plane, don’t come to Tasmania with your caravan. To do so could mean you end up with a three month wait to get a booking to return to the mainland.

On the road again.

| Chris Riley

We arrived back into Tassie on Monday to pleasant weather and blue skies. My big sister, Wendy, picked us from the airport and has been a wonderful host to us for the past five nights. It’s been lovely to catch up, and it never ceases to amaze me how long you can live away from siblings, yet only an hour back in each other’s company and its like you’ve only been apart since yesterday. We’ve had a lovely five days catching up.

We’ve had new shockies fitted to the ute, and today have taken the caravan out of storage. We’re currently staying in Deloraine caravan park where we’ll stay for the next four nights.

It’s been a long time between sleeps in the caravan, not since last June. We had no problems with the hitch up, but it’s clear our communication for backing into sites is a little rusty. I’m sure it’ll come back in no time, but today’s attempt was reminiscent of the very early days. We parked up, then I left Paul to fit all the plumbing while I went to the local supermarket to restock the van.

While I was away Paul opened the fridge to find a colony of ants had taken up residence, so first he dealt with that. Then, he connected the water and a the pipe to our loo had become disconnected. So, after dealing with the ant colony, he had a minor flood to deal with. All good now, and really, considering the time the van has been in storage out in the open, it’s not to bad. Now all we have to do is remember where everything is.

Tomorrow is van wash day. I’ve completed a brief spider web removal from the outside. It was looking like perhaps it belonged to the Adams Family. Paul will wash the entire van tomorrow, and then we’ll polish it up over the next couple of days before we head down to Huon.

Early on Wednesday we’ll take the van in for the wheel bearings to be re-packed, then we’ll head down the middle to Huon, probably staying at Oatlands free camp site over night on the way.

Huon is a good distance between our friends in Middleton, and our friends in Magra, so we’ll catch up with both.

Whats after that, we don’t know. The buyer of Pauls dads house has had the necessary building inspections carried out and some problems have been identified. We believe he’s waiting for the detailed report, and some quotes. We don’t know yet if he’s going to proceed with the purchase or if he’ll look elsewhere. We’ve offered to reduce the sale price by the cost of the repair work. We have everything crossed, as if that falls through, we’ll have to go over there to get the house ready to go back on the market.

That’s our first hurdle to get over before we can resume our road trip. Next is the ferry, The Spirit Of Tasmania, to get us and our van across to the mainland. Currently the first confirmed booking date available is 24 July, and first available wait list date is 16th June. Crazy! They’ve taken off their twice daily sailings way to early leaving hundreds of caravanners stranded and facing at least a couple of months in Tasmania’s cold winter. It’s not going to do a lot to boost Tasmanias tourism once word gets out. It’s currently a hot topic in caravanners forums and in caravan magazines.

For now, though we can’t even contemplate booking our fare until we have a reasonable idea that we’re not going to need to go back to The UK. We just hope the availability on the ferry doesn’t become even harder. Winter will almost be over before we get to start our planned two year figure eight trip around the mainland.

Tonight we’re meeting a couple of friends we’ve made here in Deloraine for dinner at the local pub. Then, a long awaited sleep under our own roof. We’re so looking forward to that – windows slightly open on either side of the bed, a good cross breeze, fresh country air! I feel rejuvenated already just thinking about it.

We’re home

| Chris Riley

And where is that you may ask. As they say, home is we’re the heart is, and for us that’s anywhere in Australia. Currently, we’re in an hotel overlooking the Yarra in Melbourne.

View from our hotel room
View from our hotel room

We’re still somewhat jet lagged and our sleeping patterns are a bit out of whack, but we’re getting there. Another day or two should see us right. The Sun/rain ratio here seems to be almost the complete opposite of England’s north. Since we awoke to our first day here on Thursday we’ve had approximately 1 1/2 hours of very light showers, not even enough to dampen the ground. That’s about the equivalent of what we were receiving in sunshine in Manchester, approximately 1 1/2 hours every three to four days were you could actually feel some shine from the sun.

It’s great to be home. Today we’re off to the MCG to watch our West Coast Eagles play against Hawthorn, a repeat of last years grand final, just hope the results are reversed for this match.

Tomorrow we leave for Tasmania. Life’s good.

Time flies

| Chris Riley

It’s six years today since Pauls mum passed away. Whilst it doesn’t seem that long ago since she died, it seems like a long, long time since I as working at the tax office. I was still working there when we came over for mums funeral.

I’m sure these past six years must be about the busiest years of my life so far. The floor was being laid in our Duncraig house extension whilst we were over here. When we went home we finished off the decorating. Shortly afterwards I took a redundancy from the tax office, then shortly afterwards sold that house and bought another closer to Alice’s.

We then bought the land at Busselton, and I found a little part time job.

Then another change of house, plus our caravan. Finally we bit the bullet and Paul retired too so as we could start our travels around Australia. We sold the unit and off we went.

Over the course of the following year we did a rather fast circuit around Australia, sold the land and bought and renovated an investment house in Tassie, plus two trips to the UK. We’re almost on our way home from our second trip, and I must say it’ll be great to get back to our caravan and our travels.

All going well, this blog should return to its original purpose, that of recording, ‘the life of Riley on wheels’. Here’s hoping we can relax into a slower pace and a less eventful life for a good while at least. Relaxing beach walks and swims, happy hours at the day’s end with fellow Grey Nomads, leisurely meandering around that big, big country of ours seeing new places and meeting new people, and also hopefully meeting up with old friends also travelling around. What a pleasure.

A week to go

| Chris Riley

A week today and we should be on our way to Hong Kong. We’ve done about as much as we can do now, I hope it’s enough.

Dad’s still getting used to things. It’ll take him a while to get used to using the communal laundry etc.

We’ve touched base with the solicitor today, and we’re going to do all the liaising in regards to the house sale, right up to the final signing of the contract. The solicitor will make a house call to get that finalised for the final sign off.

A social worker here suggested dad could have dealt with a move on his own with just the help of a removalist. Seeing what’s been involved, the mind boggles. We’ve done almost everything, and still dad seems to be walking around in a bit of a daze. To deal with it all alone would have been devastating. Although we know we’re leaving him in a better place, we’re still a little worried about leaving him at all. . But I suspect no matter how long we stay here, it’s not until we leave that he’ll find his feet in his new home. Speaking of finding his feet, I’m pleased to see he’s finally using his walking stick. That’ll make a big difference to his stability, and consequently his independence.

We’re going to try and give his kitchen a quick paint freshen up on the weekend. We have been trying to match the paint colour for a couple of spots that needed touching up. We’ve not been able to find a match though, so will give a quick one coat re-paint in the closest match we can get.

Pauls got the flu, so the last few things are really doing him in a bit. I hope he doesn’t pass it onto his dad, or me, and I hope he’s over the worst of it before we fly next Tuesday.

Australia, our home.

| Chris Riley

Tomorrow week we’ll be on the plane for Australia, all going well.

I haven’t dared think about it in case something went wrong, but all is looking good. In fact, we almost have everything done, and this week have time to spare.

Blue skies, wide roads, sunshine and relatively litter free footpaths. Australia we’ve missed you so much. Did I mention blue skies…..

We’re spending our first five nights in Melbourne where we’ll go to the Eagles/Hawthorn footie match. At footie matches in Australia the fans from both teams intermingle. I remember taken a friend to an Eagles match in Perth one day. He had just returned from a couple of years in Europe and was blown away by the friendly intermingling of fans both at the game and outside the grounds. But that’s Australia, we love our sport, but more than anything we love a laugh. Footy matches are usually places were rivalry is in a spirit of good fun.

Australia, a country of tolerance. A place where, ‘she’ll be right mate’. Australia – our home.

The home stretch

| Chris Riley

Dad moved into his new flat on Tuesday. It all happened so fast, and initially he seemed a little shell shocked. He seems be settling in now though, and says he’s sleeping better than ever.

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The house sale looks like it’ll go ahead, and our little Yaris has been sold. We’re now in a hire car until we leave, which all going well will be in only nine more days. It’s been like a whirlwind here, but we’re almost at the end now. It’s amazing what we humans are capable of when we set our minds to it. We feel like we’ve been running on adrenaline for so long now, with this house, and not so long ago, our house in Tassie. I hope we don’t collapse in a heap as soon as we get to relax again.

It’s going to feel a lot better going home leaving dad in the flat rather than rambling around in his big old house. He won’t be so isolated, and he’s closer to shops and medical facilities. It’s all strange for him, but I think he’s already feeling it’s a life change for the better.

And another good week

| Chris Riley

A busy week, but a good week.

Carpet has been laid in dad’s flat. Shelves and bathroom cabinet have been fitted, and we’ve started moving dads things in. New cooker has been fitted, and new fridge has arrived and is in place. Removalist is now booked for Tuesday to do the final move.

We’re well on the way with the declutter of the house. The laundry, which is an unusual feature of houses here was holding more than 40 years of accumulated stuff. We’ve managed to whittle it all down by at least a half including taking apart cabinets which have now been tipped. The room looks twice as big. We’ve sorted through heaps of stuff in the house. I’ve lost count of how many tip and charity shop runs we’ve had.

Yesterday had the potential to go completely pear shaped. Dad had a visit from the district nurse scheduled. They won’t give a time, anytime between 9am and 5pm. Dad and Paul had an appointment at the solicitors, the oven was being delivered, and I was hoping to get some grocery shopping done for a dinner party we’re having tomorrow night. A potential buyer was coming at three to have a look at our little car. There was so much potential for everything to go wrong.

The nurse arrived early, and the oven arrived just prior to the solicitors appointment. Paul dropped me at the supermarket whilst he and dad went to the solicitors. The woman took the car for a test drive and is buying it. She’s due to pick it up later this week.

We couldn’t have timed everything better if we’d tried. We topped the day off by going to the local carvery for dinner. The last couple of times we’ve been there it’s been a bit ropey. The food was still very mediocre, but the waitress was so very,very good at her job that she made everything just that bit more tasteful. She obviously enjoys her job, and made the night an absolute pleasure.

Today the potential buyer for dads house came back with his brother for second look. I spent the morning moving things around to try and show off the houses potential. Poor dad, he’s never sold a house before so house presentation is all foreign to him. I think he was getting a little worried that if he stayed still long enough he’d either get taken to the tip or charity shop, or else he’d get washed from top to bottom with either bleach or Disenfectant.

The buyer is still keen and has an appointment with his bank on Tuesday, so by Wednesday we should know for sure. Once his finance is approved then it’ll be up to the solicitors to draw up the contract of sale. We’re hoping the exchange of contracts will have taken place before we leave on the 29th, but that’s unlikely. Solicitors here aren’t known for their speed when it comes to real estate contracts. But you never know, maybe we’ll get a pleasant surprise. Fingers crossed.

I was sure with so much going well a lotto win was on the cards. That though was just pushing it a bit to far and wasn’t to be. Never mind, I’m happy with what our good luck has delivered so far anyway. If everything continues to fall into place, we couldn’t ask for more.

A good week, including a snowman

| Chris Riley

Last time I wrote we were very unsure whether or not the decision to return to Australia was the right thing to be doing. It is, it most definitely is.

Good things have happened since my last post, really good things. An apartment became available for dad. Amazing, we’d stopped applying, so this was completely out of the blue. We had applied for this particular apartment at least a month ago. They always notify you within 48 hours if you’re successful – no luck. But the person who had been successful suddenly changed her mind. As part of our soul searching before we made our hard decision to return we had door knocked all of the providers of the supported accommodation complexes, and must have left an imprint at this one. Left us all a bit shell shocked.

Next, knowing we have to get his house sold, we made an appointment for a real estate agent to value the house this coming Tuesday. With only a few days to prepare we’ve gone into head down, bum up mode, full steam ahead, at the big tidy of house and garden. Whilst mulching the front garden I took time out to notify the next door neighbour that dad would be moving and we were preparing the house for sale. She notified a friend that she thought might be interested. He’s looked, and I think he’s going to buy it. It’ll be a win/win for us all if he does. He’ll get the house for a good price, and we’ll get a quick sale. I hope I’m not counting my chickens too soon… Should think we’ll know for sure by the end of the week.

It’s such a relief to know we’ll be going home leaving dad still living independently but with the support he needs. I think he’ll do well in a new environment. A fresh start to give him renewed zest for living.

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That’s not all though. The weather turned, finally the rain stopped and the snow started, a really good fall. I built my first snowman.

And since the snow stopped, the sun has been Shining. A good week.