We embarked upon our big adventure at 4pm on Saturday the 18th February., 2014. Sensibly, we had picked the day after Tom's birthday celebrations down the pub to leave. Hungover and tearful,it all felt a bit surreal. Eighteen months in the planning did not save us from the usual last minute stress that accompanies a big pack up. The new CB radio installed by our good mate Ed in the morning, heralded the first of our technical hitches. As we passed the gloriously stinky Manildra plant in Bomo, a fine spray of industrial effluent sullied our pristine windscreen. I switched on the windscreen wipers only to find that they did not move. The installation of the CB was the culprit, we decided, it must have caused a fuse to blow somewhere. Then, of course, rain began to fall.

We stopped at a servo in south Nowra and put our problem solving skills to the test as we tried to find the fuse boxes and the correct fuse- hoping all the while that it wasn't more serious. But, all was good and with the fuse replaced, windscreen wipers working once more, we left Nowra for the last time with a sense of escapism heading for our first camp, Potato Point, in the Eurobodalla National Park.