All my life I wanted to go to the cliffs on the nullabour and sit right on the edge and crack open a beer on sunset with a mate. Well I got there but I didnt quite get to sit on the edge as fear held me back. I did get to come here with my best mate though, plus I got to watch the sunset. If you can this is another bucket list trip ticked off. Just after the cliffs there is a spot on the nullabour that looks like it could hold a hell of a wave. It was a walk down to the place, around three clicks. No one was there and with my family waiting at the bus I decided that I would prefer to keep my limbs outside of a sharks mouth. I will always wonder if anyone had ever surfed there. I doubt it very much to tell you the truth
One of my favourite places in our country. The Great Ocean Road holds so many surf spots, most known, some hidden. The wave potential of the area is gob smaking. If you ever have a chance to visit the place, dont just come for a week, put aside two months and explore, you will never be dissapionted. Another spot on the bucket list ticked.
More often than not we just found a place to pull up and stop. Sit there for a day or two, enjoy the surf and surrondings then simply move on. We left no trace of us ever being there. Most times we needed to go around the area with a plastic bag, gloves on our hands to pick up all the crap left lying around by the back packers, these most often are Europeans that come across and just trash our country. The back packers are creating so much mess that many councils are now closing down free camps in an attempt to stop them. It doesnt work. All is stops are families who wish to explore our great nation and camp by the beach in near solitude. I couldnt help but become racist towards them. It was hard to break that feeling when all you see around you is needles, trash, used tampons, toilet paper. Anyways…enough said about that.
We blew our gearbox on the south coast of NSW. The old Leyland Bust had a semi automatic gearbox run on rings. Gears one and three dissapeared. Luckily it was a short trip to Kiama where we were able to get the box fixed. It cost us close to four grand as we needed to source the parts needed from. Expensive but we saved money as a complete rebuild would have cost ten grand and we just did not have that sort of money. We would have been forced off the road if that was the case.
Hey mate, I will get to your questions I promise reverb and do my best to answer them. It may take a little bit as my mind is a little bit foggy and my comprehension skills are lacking due to cocktail of pain relief drugs im on. I will need to read your questions again and agion as on my first read I could not seem to frame a single question in there although I know there is. What I could gather from the post on my first pass is the emotion behind your writing. So I can respect that. I will probably need my wife to read them as well so I can build up a good base of understanding. Im thanking you in advance Reverb for your patience. I will not add any more photos till im satisfied Ive answered all your quieries.
hello man, I really have plenty of questions to ask if you may. Some are:
First I never heard about the problems that your sons have but if they do not get these, and you still on the bus, they did not go to the school? if so, how do manage all the problems related to the paperwork etc with the government?
if your kids didn't have health issues and you were all still living on the bus, then how are you able to keep them out of school? Isn't public schooling a government requirement?
In some places they decide to take off the kids or the custody…
How do you managed to pass to other countries or all was done in Aussie land?
In some places the government will take your kids away from you if you don't enroll them in school.
Did you have problems with passports and paperwork at the border or did your whole journey take place in australia?
–I m out of the surf, now about 4 years due to a damaged shoulder, so I am not demand the body too much so in this way I still can work (to eat and pay the bills)
Regarding what you say about freedom from the system…I do not know, I cannot live where I want due to most government treat you as foreigner so illegal…simply like that; you cannot be free that way.
freedom from the system does not seem possible where I live because the government will lock you up like a an illegal immigrant
…hello Huck; thank you for your patient and efforts here with us, the members.
I tried to simplify but put the sentences in an even more difficult read.
—regarding last question:
if I decide to live in another country; I cannot in most; if you decide to live in another country, happens the same. Only if you are married with some one of that country…I am referring to that.
All my kids are on the Autism Spectrum, they have what was called in the old days Aspergiers. Although with my oldest boy we are beginning to suspect he also has a personality disorder. Due to them being on the ASD spectrum we are able to homeschool them in Australia. We registered them with the Queensland Education department as homeschool students. Both Tracy and I had to come up with a yearly Programme for each child and send this off for approval to the Department of Education. Our travels provided History and Geography lessons with each town we went through. Shopping for food provided maths and life skills lessons. Replacing the oil for the bus (25 litres of the stuff) provided life skills for my oldest boy as he had to do all the work as I watched on. On top of this we also followed a curriculum provided by approved Schools for there basic maths, english and Australian History lessons. It was hard work to pin down our kids for half hour lessons a day but the advantage that we had over normal schools was that our school terms lasted 356 days of the year, there were no weekends or holidays for our kids as our life was a permanent holiday on the road for those four years. There was no problem for us with paperwork for we fulfilled what was expected of our family for the goverment of Australia.
We no longer life in the bus, it is parked in the backyard of our rented house that we now live in. Once my health issues are sorted we will begin to prepare the bus to be sold.
I hope this answers one of your questions Reverb. Will think about the others and get back to you soon
Hey Reverb, we live in Australia and we have not left the country at anytime. All our travels were done in this country, its big enough for us without having to look overseas. Ive always thought why travel overseas when we have the best surf in the world right on our doorsteps. With my four years travel this has only solidified that thought. I scored simple and pleasant beach breaks to powerful point breaks with truly awe inspiring reefs. Some of the places in Western Australia scared the absolute crap out of me. If anyone has surfed double overhead at Jakes in WA you will know what I mean.
“if your kids didn’t have health issues and you were all still living on the bus, then how are you able to keep them out of school? Isn’t public schooling a government requirements?”
Reverb, i will answer this question bluntly as possible, Yorky sorta gets me as im blunt as a tac when it comes to some things.
Our kids dont have HEALTH issues at all. What they do have is that they are on the ASD spectrum so therefore I dont ever consider what life would be like if my kids were so called “normal” according to society.
I have always lived my life as it comes and I dont ever think with my kids what life would be like if they did not have ASD for that would be a total waste of my time and effort.
Sorry if this sounds blunt Reverb, im not trying to offend you nor am I offended by your question, in fact I consider it an honour to be asked stuff like this. Most dont ever ask these sort of questions as they may be scared of me being offended??? I can assure you im not… I just consider telling it like it is and not holding back from what i consider to be truth.
“In some places the government will take your kids away from you if you don’t enroll them in school.”
Really??? There is a large unschool movement in Australia and for one year this is where our kids learnt more than any other year. The unschool movement is a good thing as far as im concerned. Many will disagree with me and this is okay, for how boring would life seem if we all thought the same. We pulled our kids out of school one or two years before we left to travel oz in a bus. During this time Noah learnt to read from us reading books to him and then he read them back to us. I think those formative years outside of school provided them with a thirst for learning that has continued strongly throughout their lives. Now that Noah is in year seven at high school we are seeing everything that we had done with him come though strongly. He clings to what he has learnt with each lesson really strong and when he gets home he is an excited ball of energy as he explains each lesson he has learnt.
My daughter rose (who is our oldest at 15) feel in love with writing. Her grasp on the english language compared to mine is incredible for a child her age. Tracy and I encourage her with her writing from an early age and she has now completed two books with each around 140 000 words. She has now started distant education within Queensland and is tackling the HSC over three years instead of two. I believe there would have been no way she could have done what she has done if she was in school. We watched her imagination and creative writing skills flourish outside of the school envioroment.
‘Regarding what you say about freedom from the system…I do not know, I cannot live where I want due to most government treat you as foreigner so illegal…simply like that; you cannot be free that way.’
I cant live where I want due to the cost of living as well Reverb. Though I can live better where I am than a hell of a lot better than most of the worlds population. I can also find freedom in the way I am living now. I am on a careers pension in Australia for my oldest boy and I will be on this till he is sixteen. So once my operation is done and i have recovered I intend to volounter at his high school in the tuck shop. I am also at home when he arrives after school and im ready to either take him down to the indoor skate park or simply throw a baseball with him in the backyard. Without this support Noah would tear apart the family with his anxiety issues. We do not earn much at all and most of our money is gone at the end of two weeks. I cant see how I will be able to offord to shape though I will put a little bit aside each pay so that I can offord one day to get some blanks.
Reverb, Im truly not sure how to answer this one for you, for everyones circumsstances are different. Once my boy is sixteen I will need to go back to work, that is only four years away. Truth be told I will never work full time again, as this takes me away from my family, so I will work long enough to be able to feed my family and buy them clothes when needed. Once i have earnt this much then I will stop and go home with my family. I am going to aim to be a school bus driver, work in the morning and the afternoon school runs, nothing more than that.
Though I have learnt in my life what traps me and how I can live free within myself. I have no desire to chase money, I have no desire to have a nice car, beautiful furniture, manicured lawns and designer clothes hanging in my wardrope. In fact I have only the clothes I wear on my back plus a few boardies and t shirts, one pair of jeans. I have to admit I splashed out and bought a new pair of thongs the other day.
I suppose you could call me a minimlist. I just dont have any thing more than what i need to survive.
I hope this sort of answers your question mate. Living in a small enviorment (a bus) has tought us that we dont need much to live and to live happily.
Freedom can be found in many ways, though money will never truly free you, it will just enslave you more.
Cheers Reverb, if I have not answered all your questions or have miss understood your questions fire away and I will try to answer them better the next time.
My daughter was homeschooled under the supervision of a charter school for the last 3 or 4 years of her schooling. She received a stipend for books every semester, and they had to be within certain categories. You never saw any public school kid get so excited about new books each semester as she would be when we went shopping at the local Barnes &Noble bookstore.
She had periodic testing to satisfy the academic requirements, and group activities through her charter school. She always aced her academic tests and later, her SATs. She is an avid reader, and a hard worker because she learned work on the jobsites of my construction business, and helping my wife run the used book business we had.
She has never ever had a problem finding employment, and I have never regretted homeschooling her, it was some of the best times of her childhood.
Thanks Yorky, that means a lot mate, it really does. Hopefully one day I will get to come down and visit ya, in the meantime if you ever want one of those wrist gaurds let me know bloke. Did i ever tell ya that i managed to quit the smokes, havent touched one in four years.
…hi Di99er, in reality I wrote: problems not health issues; due to I do not see that as an illness too…
Regarding schooling or do not, I am with you that can work for some % of conscious and dedicated people (included parents)
But there are many (most) places in this world that for the times we live on is better to have a “base” or most of these peoples would finish near slavery. Yes, the governments schools standardize and put all the info in general (of course the info taught is wrote by the “winners”) but I tell you that were I live people do not even know how to write by hand properly, less to understand what a politician can says.
Hope you can understand me and again all the best to you mate.
Dont wish to be prying into your private life Reverb, so I am asking this question but will accept it if you dont wish to answer it. In fact I would more than understand as I am also a very private person.
“Were do you life Reverb???” I believe this might clear up any pre conceived ideas I may have. Plus also the answer will probably give me a greater understanding of your questions and statements you have made already. If this is the case I might be able to answer your questions much easier.
I also understand what you mean about the need for a “base”. While Tracy and I can not ever afford to buy a place (base) of our own that does not mean we almost wish we could. We have looked into moving into a ‘community style of living’ that fits our ideology and the only thing that has stopped us is that we have a pet dog and cat. Both animals provide great comfort to our children and help with their anxiety issues at night. The problem is with ‘community style living’ (hippie style community) animals are a big no no. We do not wish to give up our animals as they are part of our family and provide more help and security for our children that community style living would.
Peace to you Reverb and if you have any other questions please do not hesitate to ask.
Scott Dickson
Di99er
…hey Di99er, seems that what I try to say is not what you interpret…
I will try with the PM tomorrow; now is a bit late here and I just finished with an inlay in a fish and wants to eat something, listen music and rest a bit.
I finally picked up my weapon of choice for the waves I was hoping to get over here. I think Geraldton is a place that is widely forgotten by the travelling surfer due to the more famous waves up the coast. There is a few waves out on the reef that are absolutely bloody frightening. Its a good 1.5 ks paddle out to a reef that throws as wide as it is high. In a good swell only think about checking out the reefs around the old lighthouse. Dont wish to name the waves name but trust me, well worth a visit if a good six foot of swell is pushing in. We stayed here for three months in the off season for waves and only caught it once, patience is rewarded.
