When I first came to Australia is was made very clear to me that you are either a Holden or Ford fan. Pick your team. I have been a Holden supporter (Even though I’ve always owned a Toyota of some sort) because my first Aussie boyfriend was a mad Holden supporter owning a sweet HR and my second boyfriend later to become my husband, was also a Holden supporter owning a Torana.

Due to the butterfly effect, I have gone to the dark side and just sold my Toyota RAV4 and purchased a Ford Falcon XR6. So what has prompted this switch of allegiance? Well, it started with our recent decision to abandon our plans to purchase a live-aboard boat.

The passing of my father, my mother’s illness and current world events has given us a different perspective and revisiting our goals we realised the boat idea was not as practical as we first thought.

Ticking the boxes – Travelling around Australian waters and visiting coastal towns was the main reason behind buying a boat as well has having a mobile home we could live in on a permanent basis later down the track.

A number of friends have recently purchased caravans and this got us thinking. Out came the pen and paper and the fors and against written down under each column. Here are some of the items covered that have tipped the scales;

Affordability-

1. The cost of a boat large enough to live aboard is about 3 times that of a caravan.
2. The overall cost of maintaining a boat is about 4 times more expensive than a caravan and tow vehicle. MM is a motor mechanic so most of the work can be carried out by him. He is not a marine mechanic and many of those bastards are a rort.
3. Mooring fees are around 10G per year for a permanent berth. Twice as expensive as caravan park fees.
4. When the caravan is not being use we can store it at home or family members properties. The boat would need to be kept at a marina.

Accessibility-

1. Any of the coastal towns accessible by boat are accessible by caravan however we would obviously be restricted to the coastline, missing out on seeing the rest of this great land.
2. Weather is a major influence when motor sailing and the weather will determined when and where we go in a boat.
3. The weather would not play such an important and life-preserving factor on a road trip and neither would the tide.
4. Reading a road map is much easier than navigational charts.

And so the decision was made and true to form MM acted on it straight away visiting every caravan sales yard from the Sunshine Coast to the Gold Coast. Reading caravan and camping forums and intensely investigating the manufacturing processes of each brand of caravan. Oils ain’t oils and caravans ain’t caravans we have discovered.

We have narrowed down our search by crossing off any brand that does not have the layout best suited to our needs. We have also crossed off any brand that has timber framing. We are looking at an off-road caravan as we plan to do a great deal of “free camping”.

Although we have not settled on the caravan of our choice we already know the size and expected weight of the one we will purchase which brings us to the tow vehicle.

More research done by MM and he drove down the driveway last week in a brand new Mazda BT50. And here is where we come full circle. He needed to sell his Ford Falcon XR6. I have been talking about selling my manual RAV4 because I have a screw holding my knee together and I struggle driving in Brisbane traffic especially if I’m caught in a traffic jam and I’m on and off the clutch for a long period of time.

No flies on us. I posted a picture of my car on my personal Facebook page and was planning to post an ad on carsales.com the next day but within 20 minutes of my Facebook post a friend put her hand up and will collect the RAV4 in a few days and I will pay MM for the Ford.