Caravan Living During COVID
How has COVID affected us and how have we spent our time in a caravan living during COVID?
Let’s go back a few months to when this all started to come about. We wer happily living on the road, travelling freely and we were busy exploring South Australia when COVID-19 hit. At first we really didn’t think too much of the ‘soon to come crisis’ and just continued on with our daily lives. Dan was still working away in Western Australia and the kids and I were still exploring our surroundings as we always do.
It got to early March and what we thought ‘might just blow over’ ….didn’t! Dan flew home (to us in the van) and I cancelled all flights that we had previously booked as we were planning to travel overseas. At this stage we didn’t really know what was going to happen but we did make the prediction that the borders will close and surely enough they did just a few weeks later.
I guess this was when we started to look into options for where we were going to base ourselves. Travel restrictions were being introduced and we needed to make a decision fast. We knew straight away we weren’t going back to our home state. We have a house in Perth and the rent was nearly finished so we could have gone to live there if we wanted to but we had given up that life when we left Perth last year.
Our decision to continue travelling and not go to our home state was an easy one. We had already made the decision when we left WA that our life was now on the road and we felt moving back home would have been going backwards. We have our home on wheels with us (aka our caravan) and it really didn’t matter where we were living as long as we were in our caravan and all together. Although we didn’t predict to be hanging out in rural Victoria in the winter months but hey here we are….and guess what? We are loving it!
So where did we end up?…..Dan’s family lives in Victoria on a large block and we have our caravan parked at the back of their land. We are very grateful. The kids have a large grass area to play on, we have been given a fire-pit for daily fires and a shed where the kids hang out during rainy days. It really couldn’t get much better.
The best part is that we are catching up with family that we have not seen for years. It has been GREAT! We have truly enjoyed our time here and we will be sad when we leave.
How COVID Has Helped Us
I certainly believe in every bad situation there is always a silver lining. COVID-19 is definitely not something I would ever wish upon anyone let alone the world but I do have to admit that this has helped us in more ways than I can count.
Firstly it forced Dan home. This year we chose to do a full year of knuckling down and working. Which had Dan working ‘Fly in and Fly Out’ to the mine sites in Western Australia. This was great for our back pocket but hard on the family dynamics. We did this so we could save enough cash to then travel internationally the following year. But that dream came at an expense. The kids were missing their Dad and I had trouble keeping up with everything, I too work a 35 hour week teaching online at night time. Before the borders shut we decided to cancel all Dan’s work and keep him home. BEST DECISION EVER!!! We certainly are lucky enough to have my income to keep us afloat during this time.
Having everyone home has showed us what we have been missing, even if we have been living from the backyard. We have become tighter than ever as a family and I personally could not imagine life without the kids and Dan everyday.
Which then brought up the next topic…..will we ever send our kids back to school. I would like to say a HARD NO. Over the past year our family has grown to become so close that I couldn’t imagine not being with them everyday. But we always give our kids the choice in everything and when the time comes they will be equipped to make that decision themselves.
Life In The Caravan During COVID-19
Our days have been pretty chilled. Every morning we sleep in till around 8.30am and then get cracking on some routine schoolwork. The kids are learning to read and write so doing this everyday makes them remember it a whole lot better. Everyday we have been going for a bike ride, it has been beneficial for everybody to get out of the house and our afternoons are always filled with family chit chat around the fire. The kids are always playing outside and have many imaginary games that they create. It really is a beautiful thing to watch.
We have accumulated more and more stuff while being anchored in one spot. Which is completely different to what we are used too. We usually live a pretty minimalist lifestyle and have the very basics of what we need.
When we arrived our Victorian family rallied around and gave us winter clothing for the kids. We totally underestimated how cold it was here in Victoria and here we were all walking around in singlets and shorts. With no one owning any tracky-dacks or warm clothing. Rookie mistake…….
The community here in Strathsfieldsaye gave the kids plenty of toys. We really were given such a lovely welcome. But we certainly were not used to having so much stuff. We took what we needed and have passed the rest on to the second hand shops.
But as the days pass our feet are becoming itchy and we are looking forward to exploring the rest of Australia. When the time is right we will come back to reminisce on the wonderful memories we had here and the awesome family we have.
