It is starting to get real now! Today marks the milestone of being just 50 days away from the first stage of our trip, and we can’t believe how quickly it seems to be approaching.
Looking back over the last few weeks, the summer holidays with the girls have been fantastic. We have managed to cram a lot in, with highlights being a day out to Wild Shore, Shrek The Musical, and two camping trips with the Haighs (even if we had extreme weather warnings issued both times!).
All of this has been a welcome distraction, but now the girls have returned to school, which has put the size of the task in front of us into sharp relief! And, oh deary me, there is a lot to do.
Let’s start with the positives. Nearly all our animals have now found new homes. The piggies and our faithful Jack Russel Lilly are going to stay with old family friends who know them well. One of our ponies, Hesta, is being cared for by another old friend who is very experienced with horses, and we are hopeful that we have found the right homes for two of our other ponies, Jackpot and Rocky. This just leaves us with Flop, our funny, free-range rabbit, to find a home for. With over a month to go, I am confident we will.
The house clearout is well underway, and we have officially started boxing items up to go into storage. We have also done so many runs with a car full of unwanted items that we are now on first-name terms with every charity shop in a five-mile radius, and the staff at our nearest recycling centre are giving us funny looks.
The shed has also been blitzed, which, after years of being the family dumping ground, was in a shocking state!
The biggest news is that the house is on the market. It has been a lot of work getting it to this point, but this is another big box ticked.
So far, Georgia and Eva are doing really well. We have had several big family talks about the trip, and they both say they are “nervous and excited.” We are very conscious of the impact this will have on them. From saying goodbye to their ponies to leaving the only home they have ever known, it is sure to be a shock to them, but the adventures that lay ahead are just too good to miss.
They are close to their grandparents, and we know they will miss them all while we are away. We have also spent a lot of time over the summer with their friends and putting things into place so that they can keep in touch with them. We know all of this change won’t be easy for them to accept, and we are taking it one step at a time at the moment.
With all our focus on the leaving, we have not yet put much thought into the arriving. We have a very high-level plan for the trip, which has been designed to make the most of our “bonus” Southern Hemisphere summer, especially in Patagonia. As much as we need to shut down our lives here, we need to spend some of the next 50 days laying the foundations for our trip. So far, we have our first five nights of accommodation booked in Rio, and whilst we don’t want to overplan and tie ourselves in too much, we definitely need a bit more structure to it. One thing we have nearly completed is our travel jabs – our last set are tomorrow!
We also need to revisit our packing list and ensure we have everything that we need plus, having notified the school of our intentions to de-register the girls from the UK system, we now need to get everything in place to take on the daunting task of homeschooling and make sure that we are prepared.
So, that is our life as we head into the “end game” – I can’t help but think the 5th of November will be on us very quickly.
