The bus is up and running! A dream realised! I have been living in it since the day I purchased it, and it’s been a steep learning curve. From butane gas hot water systems, to solar panels and “regulators and inverters”, to the correct tire pressures I have had to totally immerse myself in all aspects of motor-home mechanical movements. I’m still no expert but I know a darned sight more than I did in the beginning, which was precious little.
My I-pod is hooked into the sound system, my mobile phone can be re-charged as I barrel down the highway. My MacBook Prop can be plugged in to a 240 volt inverter which allows me to re-charge it from the solar-powered battery system. My “sat nav” (satellite navigation device) is direct wired into the electrical supply and a somewhat bland and disembodied female voice will direct me to anywhere I wish to go on the Australian continent. Simply enter the required address and destination and “the voice” instructs upon the best route to be taken. I have even got a reversing camera with a miniature television screen mounted on the dash board so that whilst the Sat Nav is showing me the way forward, I can see what’s behind me! Very useful when reversing into tight parking spaces in suburban shopping malls. I have terrestrial television, which I never watch, and it doubles as a DVD player. I’ve barely used it as outside my windows there’s the constantly changing and unfolding panorama of my very own television show - the world “doing its own thing” as I glide past without a care. Well, with a few cares, but none so profound as to cause me undue alarm. I have a gas fired oven, with a grill, and whenever I feel like it I can stop the bus, pull over, and brew up a cup of tea and enjoy the scenery. The only thing I don’t have is air-conditioning which I can’t stand.
So the adventure has begun. This is being written in Noosa in southern Queensland, sitting beside the Noosa River where it is dawn and flocks of madly-colored Lorakeets are flying in demented screaming circles above my head rejoicing in the gift of another day. Lorakeets are small multi-colored parrots, and must have been designed by a drunken artist for they are a riotous palette of blues and reds and greens that flash with psychedelic brilliance as they rejoice in their thousands in a chaotic riot of a trillion rapidly moving prisms. To watch a huge flock of Lorakeets is one of nature’s truly special gifts - more than enough to make one feel truly glad to be alive.
And, of course, I have E Mail, and Facebook, and Twitter, and all those social networking “things” so I can stay in touch with what my friends are up to. It can be somewhat exhausting but it’s an interesting insight into the human condition to see what other people find interesting. I read, I ponder, and I wonder (sometimes) whether the people I am reading have lives ! Or, at least, lives that are not terminally dull!
So the journey has begun, and as we ALL know the journey is the destination! I shall be writing this blog from the great southern land and it will appear (come hell or high water) every week from here on in. What am I doing in Noosa? Well whilst we’re alive we have to be somewhere and this is where I have found myself! (Just kidding!) I’m here as a participant in an arts festival known as The Noosa Long Weekend. My next blog will describe some of the amazing people I have met, tell some tales from the “front line of life” and keep people informed of the on-going adventure.
The sun has risen, the birds have fled, the mist has lifted from the river and I can see the people who live on the houseboats getting ready for another day. Someone is rowing in a small dingy to the shore, perhaps he’s going to his office or to the local petrol station to buy a newspaper? Maybe he’s off to do a spot of fishing. I’m off to buy a loaf of bread and then I shall cook myself breakfast. Behind me there’s a five million dollar mansion over-looking the river. I saw the maid drive up in her car at six thirty when it was barely light. I slept outside the gates in my bus. I’d rather have the bus than the mansion any day.
Onwards and upwards! The world is a beautiful hotel!
