Adventure beckons to those who listen, and we have decided to embark on a yearlong journey that will take us across the expansive, breathtaking landscapes of our great country, Australia. We are the Fisher family, a tight-knit tribe of five: Tim, the ever-optimistic and joke-cracking dad; Katrina, the creative and adventurous mum; and our three sparkling daughters, Delilah, Florence, and Ophelia. Let’s not forget our four-legged companions, Charlie, our ever-faithful, if not a little cheeky border-collie, and our two playful felines, Bronte and Jasmine.
This isn’t just a our travelogue; it’s a leap into a life where the open road becomes home and every sunrise brings with it a new lesson. It’s where learning goes beyond books, embracing the wild, wonderful world as its classroom.
Introducing Our Trusty 1979 Viscount – “Peaches”
Our home for the coming year is nothing short of a historical emblem — a classic 1979 Viscount that we’ve lovingly restored and modified. She’s a vintage charmer with a spirit as enduring as her retro flooring. Peaches isn’t just a caravan, she is a capsule of nostalgia, of a simpler time when travel was more about the journey than the destination.
Over the past few years, since acquiring Peaches from another home-schooling family, we’ve poured love and labour into making her ready for our modern-day escapade. We’ve retrofitted her with solar panels, updated her kitchen area, and revamped her interior colour, all without compromising her retro soul.
It would also be remiss of me to not mention our faithful steed, towing Peaches, our mighty Pajero, also named by our daughters as “Salt”.
Why We’re Doing This
Why, you ask, would we trade our wonderful semi-farm/semi-self-sufficient lifestyle for one on the move? The answer is layered like the stunning strata of the Bungle Bungle Range (see what we did there?). Really, it’s about connection — with each other, with nature, and with the pulse of diverse cultures that thrive across Australia. It’s about education beyond walls, where horizons are boundless, and learning is a hands-on experience. We know life is short and fragile and don’t like wasting a minute.
Since making the big move from the Gold Coast to Tassie, we have learnt so much. From growing our own fruit and vegetables to having our own bees and honey, our experiences over the past 7 years have been life-changing. We now know the joys of having a flock of chooks, some sheep, and alpacas.
We believe that this year-long adventure will have the power to transform — to imbue our girls with resilience, adaptability, and an understanding of the world that no textbook could offer. Our aim is to collect memories, not things; to teach our girls to value experiences over possessions.
Expectations, Dreams, and Apprehensions
With great dreams come towering expectations and, naturally, a fair share of apprehensions. We dream of nights under starlit skies, of laughter around campfires, of waves lapping against our doorstep. We envision our daughters marveling at Uluru, snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, and learning of the ancient wisdom held in the land by Aboriginal cultures.
But with this excitement comes the trepidation of the unknown. How will our children adapt to homeschooling on the road? Will our pets settle into a nomadic lifestyle? How will we, as a couple, handle the unscripted challenges thrown our way? Can we afford it? These are questions that only the road can answer.
We will touch on funding our trip here briefly and we will go into how we are budgeting for our trip in a later post. We are lucky enough to have been able to take half-pay for this year (2023) and save the other half for next year’s trip (2024). This will leave a steady stream of income coming in each week. On top of this, we are both teachers and can work on the road completing relief teaching as we travel. Finally, we have started to build on some forms of passive income which also adds to money coming in to allow us to travel.
Our Family’s Motivations
Our motivations for this journey are as numerous as the stars in the Outback sky. This is a dream long in the making, a vision we’ve cultivated as a family over countless dinner conversations and late-night planning sessions.
First and foremost, we are motivated by the desire for growth. We want to grow as individuals and as a unit, to step outside the comfort of our daily routines and embrace the unknown. We yearn to expose our daughters to the diverse ecosystems, the myriad of cultures, and the rich history that stitches the fabric of Australia together.
Education plays a pivotal role in our decision. We believe that there is an incomparable value in learning through experience. We want history to come alive as we walk through ancient lands, science to unfold as we study the Great Barrier Reef, and geography to be learned by traversing the vast terrains.
Community engagement is another core motivation. We hope to meet people from all walks of life, to learn from locals, and to give back whenever possible. Volunteering, participating in community events, and supporting local businesses will be as much a part of our journey as sightseeing.
The Journey Ahead
As we embark on our grand adventure, our expectations are as diverse as the landscapes we aim to traverse. We expect to find beauty — not just in the natural wonders of Australia but in the everyday interactions, in the challenges and in the simple joys of life on the road. Many people have asked us “Have you got a plan on where you are going?”, to which our response is, “kind of”. We have a general idea on the direction of travel, clockwise starting in Victoria as we disembark the Spirit of Tasmania, but as far as that, we are just going to play it by ear. Of course we will book certain locations in early, having heard to get into spots you need to book, but really, we just want to see where we end up most days, weeks and months.
We anticipate learning in its purest form. We expect our journey to be a canvas for life lessons about resilience, teamwork, and the importance of sustainability. We hope to witness firsthand the efforts to preserve Australia’s precious ecosystems and to instill in our children a deep respect for the environment.
We also expect to encounter the unexpected, if that is a thing? We’re preparing ourselves to navigate through the unforeseen challenges that travel inevitably presents. Flat tires, rainy days, and the occasional bout of homesickness will be par for the course. Yet, we trust these moments will only make our narrative richer and our bond stronger. We also hope we don’t get a month down the road and decide this isn’t for us, as we have heard from some people. We really have no idea what we are going to see, feel, experience, however we do know it will be done together. Some nights as we sit down when the girls are asleep, we ask “Are we crazy for doing this?”. The answer is simple, we would be crazy not to do it.
Advice
As we outline our route and pack our bags, we know that the wisdom of seasoned travellers and the curiosity of our readers will be invaluable. This is where you come in.
We invite you to be our co-navigators. Tell us about the road less travelled, the community project that could use a few extra hands, the local farm stay you had a ball at, or the local bakery that serves the best vegie pies. Share with us your anecdotes, the do’s and don’ts of caravan travel, and the lessons you’ve learned on the road.
If you do have any advice or questions of us, you can comment on our posts, send us direct messages, and even track our journey on a map where we’ll pin all the recommended spots.
We will also most likely be hosting monthly live Q&A sessions on our social media platforms to discuss your ideas, answer questions, and share our experiences in real-time.
Here is hoping we can create a community around our adventure, a circle of friends and well-wishers who, though we may never meet in person, will travel every km with us through the power of story and shared dreams. We also hope to inspire others to get out there and live life to its fullest to leave no stone unturned.
That's It
As we count down the weeks to our departure, our home is abuzz with anticipation. Final prep work is being done to the caravan and car. Google Maps and Wikicamps are getting a really working over, YouTube videos on the big lap are playing each day, and our spirit sits poised for adventure. This blog will be our digital diary, a repository of our experiences, lessons, and countless stories that we’ll gather along the way.
Stay with us as we traverse this ancient land, learning and laughing as we go. We welcome you to be a part of our caravan chronicles – here and on our YouTube channel – ThreeSistersInAVan — to inspire and be inspired. This is more than a trip; it’s a transformation, a dream we’re daring to live out loud.
And so, the journey begins…