Leaving (again and again….)

I love this photo of my nephew. Made more powerful because in the home I grew up in there is a replica photo of my brother begin thrown equally as high and enjoying it equally as much. You can almost feel the tummy flip and weightless feeling. Which is my tenuous link to what’s running through my head.

It feels like we have been leaving for almost 2 weeks now. We left Melbourne in floods of tears and elation, then spent several days with friends and our beloved dog in her new temporary Canberra home. Then we had several days in my family home in Sydney – which is almost too familiar. Its always a little strange staying back at the house you grew up in.

So much time has passed and so many experiences have occurred within those walls that they are almost too full of memories. So you actually forget what it felt like to walk the halls and jump out of the windows as a teenager. Then you will catch a memory laden smell or a unique afternoon light through the trees and you suddenly remember being 14 in that exact place – then its gone again.

My parents actually left us in the house and set off on their own adventure up in the Kimberleys (I wonder where I get my wanderlust from?). That made it easier I think. Them leaving us and not us driving down the street looking back through the window – weeping again.

After this we bunked down with my brother and his family at Port Stephens for a few days. Once again everything was a beautiful big old rambling mess of kids toys, slumber parties, rolling lunches, wine and beautiful love filled meals.

Now I sit inside our tent in Hat Head National Park listening to bats and kangaroos make the night come alive. We got in late, set up the tent in record time and then climbed the sand dunes to be greeted by this North Coast glory. Mel looked at me and said “Finally we are doing it!”

Zoe on the sand dunes at Hat Head NP

Looking South towards Crescent Head from Hat Head NP

NOW were doing it!!

Tully pondering our first night out camping

So I think we have finally really left. More than once Mel and I have been overcome by the moment and announced that “We are doing it kids!”. Almost like a reality check. A virtual pinch of the arm to test that we are really actually on the journey. But until this point we were doing it with that beautiful safety net of family and having a bed in a house where you can help yourself to the fridge without asking. Now thats all gone. Now it’s real.

Camping, the sound of the ocean, a fire, the hiss of a gas lantern….and I’ve been wearing the same socks and underpants for 3 days now. NOW we are rolling!