Welcome to 'The Aum Blog'!

Whether you are a friend of ours, or have heard about our 'Great Australian Adventure' on the grapevine...we are sure you will be entertained, mesmerised, energised, and inspired by our year long road trip.

We have been preparing for this for over 12 months already. From initial planning stage (that is talking about it :) to purchasing THE AUM MOBILE, to slowly fitting in everything we need (kitchen, bed, electrical stuff, etc)...it's been a rewarding, fulfilling, frustrating, and happy journey so far.

Countless hours have been spent (and little hours slept) driving to suppliers, getting THE AUM MOBILE measured, quoted and fitted out, and eBaying all night long for bargain parts.

We're starting to get excited (and a little nervous) now as we are only 10 weeks out from our set off date. Get ready to share the experience of a lifetime with us, you'll see what we see, feel what we feel, and maybe with your great imagination...even smell what we smell along the way.

Let us paint a (not to brief) picture for you:

In The Beginning.....

('Happy' in one of his favourite positions)

There was us two; Dom & Leonie (+ Happy) who had a dream! That dream was to step outside our comfort zone...and live. We thought 'why wait until we are old and the kids are all grown up and moved out and then travel around Australia in a caravan at a snails pace at 60 years of age'? Instead we agreed, 'let's get it out of our way now before the little ones come along, let's tick this off our list (a bucket one you could say)'.

We are also doing this adventure to capture amazing yoga photography in iconic Australian locations (Leonie is a gun yogi and photographer), and we hope to make a picture book of 'Aussie Yogi's & Yogini's' to help raise money for the awareness, education and treatment of Mental Health and Schizophrenia in Australia. 

See Leonie's website here www.captureyourpractice.com.au for stunning photos and info on this amazing project and to also book your own yoga photoshoot.

Initially we were dead set convinced on the great 60's Aussie dream of driving around Oz in a Kombi. We had our heart set on it, until Tess (Dom's sister) and her man Rob, drove around SA, NT and QLD in his 4WD for 40 days. They're Facebook posts, photos, and recounts of their stories, made us rethink our vehicle choice.

A spluttering, bouncing Kombi would be a fun choice, but unless we had a 4WD...there was no way we were going to be able to go off road and see some of the most amazing sites Australia had to offer.

IN STEPPED THE JAPANESE TO SAVE US! We came across a crazy looking Mitsubishi people mover called a 'Delica'. Think a cross between a people mover on top of a Mitsubishi Pajero 4WD. Crazy stuff that only they could have come up with! THIS IS THE AUM MOBILE!

The more we considered the Delica, the more we started seeing them on the roads. Was it a sign? After countless You Tube clips of maniac Russians in Delicas on man-made 4WD obstacle courses, to 4WD do-it-yourself fitout clips, we agreed that the Delica was the one!

After a few disappointing trips out to see Delica's for sale in Sydney, we stumbled across a promising prospect in QLD (trust us). Within 2 days we had agreed on a price (Wednesday morning), flew up to the Goldie (Thursday morning). We got picked up at the airport and driven to the house where THE AUM MOBILE was awaiting. We chatted, drank tea, paid cash, and drove off in the sunset back to Sydney (Thursday afternoon). Incidentally we arrived home in Bondi (Friday morning) 5:30am, and Leonie had to teach a 6:30am yoga class. She did it easily with her eyes.....um...opened!

(Leonie looking proud next to THE AUM MOBILE. On the way back home from buying it in QLD)

Originally we were going to leave on the Great Australian Adventure in November (you can see that has come and gone :), but decided that we'd stay a little bit longer to save some more money to help fund our trip. We've been working, working, and working so bloody hard the last few months (did I mention that we've been working so bloody hard?) so that we can pay for all the alterations we've needed to make to our mobile home. We've added a kitchen, bedroom, fridge, roof racks, roof cage, sophisticated battery management system (so we don't end up like one of those sorry German tourists who you always hear about that died because their battery stopped going in the middle of the outback or something), BBQ (yeaahhhhh!), new all terrain tyres, shower bladders (they are really cool...you get up to 8 minutes of shower per bag but no washing hair time though - Leonie not impressed), snorkel, foxwing awning, and a portable toilet! Phew!!!

So now our new set off date is Jan 1st 2013. We thought it would be a good idea to book ourselves in for a Blue Mountains Vipassana (Silent Meditation) Retreat seen we've been WORKING SO BLOODY HARD the last few months (ok I'll let it go now). We are looking at this being a bit of a wind down for our brains (and a challenge mind you - especially for Dom who can talk underwater...and through a blog).

Unfortunately our little son; Happy, The Happsta, Happilicous, Happititus (the list goes on) can not come along with us. He's the most independent 'dog stuck in a kitty cats body' that one could ever know, so it would be cruel to take him along and have to lock him up in THE AUM MOBILE to keep him away from wildlife (or vice versa). It's heartbreaking for us to leave him because we love him so much, but at least he'll be in good, safe, loving hands with Dom's sister (Yol). We'll be Skyping him from wherever we are...he's really tech savvy on the computer you know. 

So now that we've painted a detailed picture for you, please continue to follow us on our Great Australian Adventure! 

As this was our first blog to get you all up to date with events until now, you can understand it being so long. We promise (we'll try anyway) to keep our blog posts a bit shorter during our trip.

Sit back and enjoy the ride.....