Our road trip around Australia is less than 2 months away. Eeek!
This is the moment when I start to freak out.
Why I’m scared to go on our Aussie road trip
- We’ll run out of money
- I’ll go crazy being with Craig and the girls 24/7
- Kalyra and I will kill each other when it comes time for homeschooling
- I’ll get cabin fever
- It will rain for weeks at a time
- Savannah will break free from my vice-like grip and run towards the Northern Territory waterhole where crocs live (seriously wakes me up at night)
- Kalrya will be traumatized because we took her out of school
- Craig and I won’t ever be able to have sex again
- I’ll run out of things to say to Craig and the girls
- The girls will get upset leaving behind family
- We’ll lose internet connection
- We’ll run out of fuel and water driving across the Nullarbor (people have died there)
- We won’t get any time to do our blog work
- Our readers will get sick of seeing me in the same outfits in our photos
- Savannah will fall into the campfire
- I have no idea what equipment we’ll need or how to manage a camper trailer on the road
Many of our worries about travel are completely ridiculous.
The brain doesn’t know that, it just feels you freak out and goes into warrior mode to protect you. That protection usually comes in the form of you cannot do this, you’re going to fail, or worse, die.
Stay back in your comfort zone.
There’s a way to tame the wild beast: Be aware of your fears and then prepare for them just in case they happen.
The brain loves strategies, and solutions. If you nut out your plan before you leave, the brain will feel safe and stop harassing you with heart palpitations, sweaty palms and sleepless nights.
You’ll give in, remould yourself back on the couch, and watch the lives of others enjoying travel through the TV or computer screen instead.
My plan of action for each of the above travel fears.
1. We’ll run out of money
- We are not far from publishing our first eBook sharing our strategies for cheap and free travel + we have 2-3 more to work on.
- We really know how to reduce our expenses, which is one important part of having more money.
- I’m a highly skilled person who can easily find a way to create more money should the need arise.
- I know what my income goals for each month need to be and I can easily work towards that.
- Worst case scenario: It doesn’t work, we go home with tails between legs and start again. At least I’d have tried and would not spend my life wondering what if.
2. I’ll go crazy being with Craig and the girls 24/7
- Must schedule in own private time. Mine will involve early morning meditation, yoga on the beach, and monthly massages. Craig’s will most likely involve a newspaper and a toilet (the GREATEST mystery surrounding men.)
- We will look for opportunities to meet other people and socialize.
- Can always kick Craig out to sleep in a tent.
3. Kalyra and I will kill each other when it comes time to school work
- If she does not listen she’ll get detention.
- I’ll just quit as her teacher and she can learn the hard way.
- Maybe we need a few rules in place and I’ll let her help me create them.
- Distance education will help as I will be just the facilitator.
4. I’ll get cabin fever
- Long walks at sunrise a must.
- We’ll mix up accommodation styles to introduce more space in my life
5. It will rain for weeks at a time
- Do daily sun dances.
- Have a list of rainy day activities handy
- Learn to dance in the rain.
6. Savannah will break free from my vice-like grip and run towards the Northern Territory waterhole where crocs live
Hmm.
- Put Savannah in a straight jacket attached to my back at all times in the Northern Territory.
- Never go any closer than 50 metres to the river bank or watering holes.
- Maybe we should just skip the top end, I’m not feeling like I’ve got this one under control.
7. Kalrya will be traumatised because we took her out of school
- Umm. The odds are she’ll be more traumatised staying in school.
- Ensure lots of fun learning happens.
- Meet lots of other nomadic kids to play with.
- Recount horror teaching stories.
- Mother’s guilt says, I will traumatise her no matter what so we might as well have fun while I do it.
8. Craig and I won’t ever be able to have sex again
- Pretend I am horny young adult again and come up with creative plans.
- Rent apartments.
9. I’ll run out of things to say to Craig and the girls.
- Sometimes conversation is not needed.
- Read lots to find interesting discussion points.
- Go on private walkabouts so I return with new insights.
10. The girls will get upset leaving behind family
- Get them to meet with us on the trip.
- Use Skype often.
11. We’ll lose internet connection
- Run ducking and weaving through the fields shouting, “Chicken Little, the sky is falling down.”
- Enjoy the disconnection.
- Have posts scheduled to be published for those moments we head back to life as it was in the eighties. No ruffle skirts needed.
12. We’ll run out of fuel and water driving across the Nullarbor
- Ensure we have gallon drums full of both before we leave.
- Have an EPIRB (a device where you can be tracked if lost).
- Tell people our schedule.
13. We won’t get any time to do our work
- We’ll have a strict work and play schedule that incorporates 2 hours a day where Kalyra does her school work and Savannah naps (chuckles. Cause that always works).
- We’ll make use of Kid’s Clubs when we can to have a few solid work blocks.
- We’ll just do what we do now—work late.
- Outsource (I bloody hope we can reach this level. No more doing stuff we hate).
- Just do the best we can.
14. Our readers will get sick of seeing me in the same outfits in our photos.
- WTF?
- Stop being so vain.
- Mix and match and accessories (Is that what they style maestros say?)
15. Savannah will fall into the campfire
- I’ll build a fort around the fire.
- Throw buckets of water over her every 5 minutes.
- Wrap her in a fire proof blanket.
- I’ll straight-jacket her to my back again.
- I’ll lock her in the van.
- Ah. That’s right. Craig sucks at building campfires.
16. I have no idea what equipment we’ll need or how to manage a camper trailer on the road
- Learn from those who have done it.
- Talk to the experts for advice.
- You’ll learn along the way and soon write an ebook about it!
Um yeah, those fears are completely ridiculous. I’ve got this under control. Maybe not the campfire thing. I’m still worried about that one.
Acknowledge your fears, laugh at them, create a plan to deal with them, but don’t ever let them stop you from doing what your heart calls you to do.
You’re so much more powerful than those imaginary monsters.
(For the good stuff read What I’m most looking forward to)
Australia highlights
What are some of your most ridiculous fears? What are your plans for overcoming them?
Oh Caz youll overcome any hurdles that jump out in front of you.. Australia is so diverse..desert to tropical rainforests, winerys, and heaps more. And the koalas dont forget them. Guess you saw the Tasmanian Devils.. You didnt mention the red back spiders tho…they concern me more than the crocs..Sorry for the short post we are having thunderstorms and power disrupted..cheers Liz
I hadn’t thought of the spiders!! I’ve been thinking of the snakes a bit, but they don’t freak me out much. Crap, now I’ve just pictured Savannah and Kalyra running in the bushes with one hiding there! LOL
It will be great to be on the road and let these fears slip away. Hope the thunderstorm settles down.
Great post Caz! I think too many times we’re deterred from a great adventure by our fear of stepping out of our comfort zone. But I’ve found that facing your fears (in anything in life) can be extremely liberating.
Good luck and have fun on your road trip.
I think when you face them you swallow them, or at least make them much smaller and more manageable.
I love your blog. I found it through Pinterest. I love it, because it helps me better understand my husband’s fears about travel. Some are legit (because I almost did die once…and when I say “almost”, I mean…I had a moment with Jesus kind of “almost”…surgery in a foreign country “almost”…and “I don’t speak your language, Doc,” “almost”), so he certainly has his reasons.
But he’s always been afraid of travel. I say that he travels as well as an ice cube. Reading all of the fears that creep up on someone who prefers comfort over adventure (which is not my style) helps me better understand him.
Thank you for sharing.
Thank you so much for letting us know! Your near death experience sounds pretty freaky, glad you are still with us. No wonder your husband has some fears. It’s so normal for us all to have them and some are weirder than others. As long as we know we are more powerful than them! I hope you can both travel more soon!
I also worry about going to Australia for 3 months next year, the most I scared off is the weather – floods etc and the other is spiders…
Wonderful! Because I can ease your fears here. You don’t have to worry about the weather so much. We’ve had a lot of bad flooding lately, but it’s not that often and you tend to get a lot of warning. Our weather moves in about a 7-10 year cycle where we have years of drought followed by the years of wet. I think we could be moving back into the drought cycle now.
And the spiders.. no one has died from a spider bite in years. There are really only 2 deadly ones and you rarely see them. In fact, I never have seen one. You will have a blast!
Loved your list and solutions. I wondered why driving on the left side of the road wasn’t listed and then I remembered–you already do that! We spent a month a couple of years ago touring Australia (our 5th trip) and got to see Ayers Rock wet. Floods interrupted some of our trip out there but we survived against all odds. If you’d like to see our experiences (remember we drive on the right side of the road in the US) check out my travel blog index at my site and click on Australia. Have fun!!
I was just writing about the fear of driving on the other side of the road yesterday in our upcoming ebook. We lived in the States so understand that fear. I’m okay now, but when I first came back to Australia I would sit stationary in the car for ages trying to remember which country drove on which side of the road. That was pretty terrifying.
Your thoughts about Savannah and the croc-infested waterhole brought back memories. When my daughter was 6 months old we went to the Atherton tablelands & stayed in an old Queenslander. I was petrified she would be eaten by a python. It kept me awake at night. You guys seems pretty sensible. You will have an amazing time. Amanda
I am sure that is going to keep me awake when we are camping especially up north. Kids just bring a whole new dimension of fear to you.
Ahh, the comments about the spiders brings back memories! I’m American and when I moved to Australia to work, I had my first encounter with those huge spiders. It was crawling in my bedroom and I was so scared I thought about sleeping in the living room…and then I decided: “No! I will not be intimidated out of my own bedroom!” I bravely got a shoe box lid, stood on my bed, and smacked the thing. It fell dead onto the top of my blinds. I was too scared to clean it up and I think it’s still there…
Second encounter, it was in the living room and I smacked it, missed a little, and ended up taking one of it’s legs off but it still scurried away. I smacked it again and it died and fell behind the couch, but I couldn’t move a huge couch on my own. Later, we had to move our couches because we were getting new ones, and we found it.
When I tell these stories to my American friends, they say they’re too scared to visit Australia now. I tell them the spiders are actually harmless. If any Americans are reading this – Visit Australia! It’s fun! Don’t let the spiders stop you!
Ha. They would have to be the huntsman spiders. They scare the bejeesus out of me. We had one in our living room the other morning and I had to brave up in front of Kalyra and get it when really I wanted to run screaming down the stairs. They’re awful!!
In the first house Craig and I lived in we had them all the time. Yuck! But they are harmless. And it all makes a story to tell in the end
So many worries passing through your head, and it is completely natural. Again, doing something you are not used to or slightly out of your comfort zone brings all sorts of concerns and fears to the forefront, but in the end it will still be amazing.
It’s funny, when I chose New Zealand as my first country I would ever travel to in 2011, I had been decided on Australia or New Zealand. Right before I made my choice, up popped the television show “Worlds Deadliest Animals” and like 9/10 were in Australia. So I said “Hell no!” and chose New Zealand instead. New Zealand was amazing, but I let my irrational fear hold me back and everyone I spoke to said they never encounter such ghastly creatures.
Wow thanks for sharing. It’s amazing to hear how our fears get in the way of our dreams. To be honest, I am a little nervous to go to Canada because of the grizzlies. Pretty crazy huh?
We do like to wear the deadliest animals in the world, but I swear I have never seen one in the wild. It;s all pretty safe.
My strategy is to tell all my fears to my husband. The quote “a problem shared is a problem halved” is quite true in my case. Just putting the thought out there stops me worrying about it at night. Also B.H. is quite good at solution finding (even if he wouldn’t actually put the plan into action) – he probably just does it to calm me. After all it is in his own interest. 🙂 But I agree that talking about fears and having a back up plan, if only conceptual is the way to go. I think the girls will love all the extra attention and Kalrya will probably do her schoolwork because she will have the Distance Education teacher to report to (I think that is how it works!) Every time we go on a trip I go through this but as soon as we are on the road it all just melts away.:)
Oh I so agree with that. I was just writing about that today in our eguide. I think when you share your worries, the solutions easily arrive. There’s no reason to carry our burdens ourselves, I think more people are willing to help than we realize.
Kalyra is really excited to have her own teacher through the internet and then me as back up. She’s a pretty good student. For now… 🙂
Do you remember when you first started travelling Caz? I’m willing to wager that you did so without fears or doubts and that is when you have the best experiences, the ones you look back on and think ‘wow’. We did some pretty reckless things when we had our year travelling about 12 years go, those are the moments that have provided us the memories and anecdotes that we still feed off today. Travel like you’re never going to travel again : )
You are so right Matt. I don’t remember any fears just excitement. I didn’t even think about what ifs. I love how you say the craziness brings you the best memories. I’m holding onto that one! It can only get crazier with kids right?
Not sure you mentioned the scorpions either? We came across a few when camping in South Australia…
We are 9 months into our 11month “lap” around Australia. We left Sydney last year and have travelled clockwise, following the coast. Currently in Darwin, so we will soon travel across and down the east coast before getting home.
Wow, it’s been amazing. You will be fine. It certainly sounds like your family are the travel experts. Our family of four (children 2 and 4 years) had no previous camping experience, but you pick it all up pretty quickly. Just be prepared with all the off road gear if you intend to free camp in remote places (generators, compressors, Jerry cans for petrol for generator, diesel if thats what your car takes and water). There are lots more things I could mention that are important and helpful but I won’t blab forever on your comment section!
Seriously, I’d not worry so much about the spiders and crocodiles and what nots, statistically the most dangerous part of your whole journey is probably the car driving!
Travel safe and live the dream!
Regards, Elisha
Oh no the scorpions. Didn’t think about that too much!! Yet another one to add to Australia’s list. We will be following the same path as you! Can’t wait.
Thanks so much for the tips re off road gear. Will be stocking with all of that. I’m clueless at the moment so this has been a GREAT help. Enjoy the rest of your trip
Caz, you are hilarious! I can completely understand the rational and not-so-rational fears. I am a person often filled with lots of fears. But I LOVE how much humor you used in writing out the ways to tackle these fears, definitely kept me laughing the whole way through. If you do straight-jacket Savannah to your back, we need photos. Then we *really* won’t care what outfit you’re wearing in the photo!
Ha Ha! Classic Ali. I think I am going to go and look for a straight jacket that will look good in photos. LOL. You gotta laugh or you cry Ali!! That’s my motto anyway to get me through it all 🙂
Hi Caz, loved your post, totally relate – we did the 5 month stint to Europe took my 2 kids out of school for almost 2 terms… yes my eldest and I fought over doing some form of school work all the way through – what your kids miss out in ‘schooling’ they will gain in real every day cultural skills that will be amazing. They will remember the adventures for a long time to come and then you will realise it was all worth it…crocs, spiders and all. The worries we have are so normal, I just assume all mums have that dialogue their heads..don’t we? In hindsight wished I had spent more time in each moment and appreciated it just that little more…. You have an amazing journey ahead of you and am looking forward to following that on your blog…If you visit Melbourne say hello…
Lol! This was too hilarious. Haha. Thanks for sharing your fears for your upcoming trip. I can’t believe how stressful it must be to travel with kids! I have three smaller sister (the youngest just turned 6) and they totally stress me out all the time. I always worry they’ll fall down from their trampoline or fall while running. Jesus.
I can’t wait for your roadtrip! It will be SO much fun to follow. 😀 And we hope to do and Aussie roadtrip for one year too! Best of luck. You’ll have the greatest time!
Oh my gosh Caz!! You are the funniest person I know! (clearly I dont know many people, none the less you are hilarious!).
People often message me or talk to me on twitter about how they are too scared to travel to Australia because we have big storms or scary animals, this post if great because it will help dispel people’s securities of Australia and also show people that everything tends to think the same things just before travelling!
Caz – I reckon you’ve got it all covered, especially when you laugh in the face of fears – go feed those fears to a croc in the NT and you’ll be fine.
It’s a relief to hear it’s not just me! We will be bringing our kids (6 and 4) on a bit of a trip round Australia starting December and I have been having a hard time waking up at night fearing crocs and gigantic deadly spiders… figured it’s just because I have never been there before and am trying to deny my British squeamishness! But I know that fear and stress sharpen your senses and help you prepare so am embracing even the sleepless nights that are getting my head around what we are about to do! Look forward to reading more and stealing ideas 🙂