{"id":217,"date":"2022-07-28T21:59:09","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T20:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/07\/28\/a-nine-year-journey\/"},"modified":"2022-08-09T07:22:05","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T07:22:05","slug":"a-nine-year-journey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/3tenths.co.uk\/index.php\/2022\/07\/28\/a-nine-year-journey\/","title":{"rendered":"A Nine Year Journey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Little Bird Told Me<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

We were quite happy trundling around in our little campervan<\/a>. Holidays and weekends, we would take a journey to the hills, the beach or where ever took our fancy. But then in September of 2013 I noticed a tweet mentioning an event called the Adventure Overland Show<\/a>. How exciting! Images of ancient Land Rovers traversing the wild plains of Africa and dilapidated busses following the hippy trail to India came to mind. Stratford upon Avon was closer though and had considerably fewer tigers. With nothing urgent needing our attention we packed our ancient and dilapidated Westfalia, headed to Stratford and changed the direction of our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lions and Tigers and Land Rovers, Oh My!<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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The Famous Lizzybus. She’s been on the news.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Wide eyed we attended travel talks filled with adventure. We wandered around the show vehicles and through the campsite. As expected, Land Rovers prevailed, along with Land Cruisers and massive overland trucks. Capable and strong vehicles. It seemed the big wide world was not the place for a rusty little camper van. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Then we met Simon, who had shipped a van similar to our own down to Australia and then across to New Zealand. We spent a good while chatting with Simon in his van. We drank tea, listened to his stories and realised that yes, our rusty little camper van was perfectly capable of taking on a great deal of the big wide world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea was born.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The less famous Betty Bus<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Send In The Accountants<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Turning the idea into reality was not going to be possible unless we could fund it. We started a very different journey, to get us to a financial position that would allow us to travel for a while without worrying too much about time or money. The spreadsheet of numbers was created to help us reach this particular journey’s end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Toyota 78 Series Troop Carrier<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Years passed, and we returned to Stratford for the overland show many times, seeing it change, seeing the way people travelled change. Our van changed too. The Westfalia had to go, it was eating far too many engines for my liking. While the heart lusted after a Toyota Troopy, the head and the spreadsheet of numbers said to set the sights a little lower if we were going to make this plan work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Toyota HiAce arrived on the driveway, but that’s another story altogether.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Then one day, without much fanfare or fuss, the spreadsheet of numbers said yes. It took a little longer before I felt ready to take the leap. Rosana had been ready a while, but I wasn’t. The state of the world wasn’t helping, but in my heart I was still in love with the Shire. Wait, that really is another story<\/a>. Also, possibly plagiarism. Eventually I accepted I wasn’t having the fun I used to have at work. I needed a change and it was time to take the leap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All Change<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Nine years after that tweet we’ll start the next stage of our lives. As we work out our notice periods and move towards an early retirement of sorts, emotions range from excitement, doubt, nervousness, anxiety, panic and back to excitement. I guess that is normal for any big changes in life. With no real plan and many ideas, it is time to follow our dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Postscript: Simon continues to travel; you can follow his journey at Travellers Tales<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Little Bird Told Me We were quite happy trundling around in our little campervan. Holidays and weekends, we would<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[10,11,13,31,20,21,32],"class_list":["post-217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-van-travel","tag-camper","tag-campervan","tag-hiace","tag-overland","tag-toyota","tag-travel","tag-vanlife"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t