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Brisbane Airport, Australia

We made it to our first of many airport check ins with literally 5 minutes to spare. Let’s hope this isn’t the first of many last minute rushes. I’m unsure how two very organised people can be so disorganised at times. Last minute changes for what to pack and what to leave were still occurring as Janine and the boys dropped us off at the airport. The list of ‘to dos’ never seemed to end, but I’d say it wasn’t the best idea to create wedding song playlists the morning of our departure. However, we made it to the airport – just.
It’s been a crazy year leading up to this moment: wedding and travel preparations, building and selling houses and of course packing our lives into boxes. With the help of family and friends we did it! It was a surreal feeling leaving Brisbane airport today. It felt as if we were just going away for a few days, not 365. Although packed and ready to go, the excitement and reality of our year adventure hasn’t hit us yet. My aching back is starting to tell me it’s actually happening only when I put that ‘increasing-in-weight-now 17kg’ pack on my back. I can barely lift it off the ground and I haven’t mastered how to pack everything into it as yet. As well as clothes for a year away with different seasons across the world, we have ‘holiday’ clothes for a few weeks in Bali strapped in a bag on my chest, Dave has a surf board in hand and I have a wedding dress in mine…. I will never complain about a heavy handbag again. I’m glad I’m wearing my super practical, super ugly Keens – not the pretty heels in my Bali bag. If I can retain my pearls I’ll be a happy traveller- but it’s unlikely.

The first of 27 pre booked flights is from our home in Brisbane to Sydney. As we take off, it comes to mind, a year without cooking – or is it that I don’t need to START cooking for another year? Dave squashes this hopeful thought by recalling the fact the Intrepid trip notes state “shared cooking duties” for much of those 100 days. My stunned look says it all. Who knows what the Julia Trengove, or should I say Julia Morton, returning to Australia in a year will be like. She may not even use the microwave for boiling eggs or cooking steak. Dave’s hope is to return with a domesticated wife.

Although we were in Sydney only a few hours, we lost a years worth of travel documentation. Those few hours were spent in a tizz, however they showed up in our bags on the second plane to our wedding venue in Bali, Indonesia. I think our nerves just got the better of us and gave us something to worry about. We both were ecstatic for a free plane meal though. I foresee free food, of any kind, becoming a luxury not to be taken for granted.

“Lesson #1 – of many to come: we are learning fast that planning everything isn’t possible. Some things are just out of our control. I believe that’s been said to me before”.

Farewell Australia, catch you on the flip side.

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