Embarkation

"Bye bye, Lilian" I hear T say in the kitchen.
There's a pause of Lilian's gag, as Kath fills the awkwardness with "Oh, Lilian! We will miss you..."
There's sounds of hugging. I join in. January will mark a decade from when Lilian joined our family and she knows she will be missing seeing T grow over the next ten months. I run up the stairs to check something but my mind is more on how it could be the last time I see the upstairs of our cosy house for the longest time since we moved in 11 years ago. The rooms are dusty from boxing and the walls bare, though I feel guilty for leaving a mess of clothes, bags and boxes in the corner and in the cupboards that Lilian will undoubtedly straighten out.

Back downstairs with giddy excitement and apprehensive anticipation, we wheel three big bags into the back of Shane's car. The bags, holding the necessities for our life on the road for the year, were only finally zipped closed 4 hours ago (at 1:30 in the morning)! We're wise enough to know we'll need to shed some things along the way, but not wise enough to yet know what. Time has run out at the margins of comfort for packing, but I know this is one of many times adrenaline will trump worry on our journey. Shane asks if Lilian wants to come to the airport, but we shake our heads  as we wave from the car. Oh, the dogs! Only a pat on the head and here we are out the gate...

At the airport, we fit-in in every way, with standard luggage, airplane attire, and travel packs of savvy travel gadgets to capture and tweet our expedition, and deal with any travel scenario imaginable with child in-tow. But I wonder how it is that we fit-in so well when it feels that we are embarking on such an epic and unknown adventure, something that will most likely be defining and identity-building in our lives. "What you are doing is done by many families around the world - it's just big for you", says Rationality. "Fitting in is a good thing as it makes you less a target for fleecing and harm", reminds Fear. "You are awesome and you are good at this - just the next chapter in an awesome life of travel", says Ego. "You have no job, no solid plan for income, and have a family to take care of... and you don't speak Spanish. What are you doing?", adds Worry.

20 games of battleships, 10 games of reversi and 2 screenings of Inside Out later, we arrive to the routine Heathrow terminal 3 walk, customs and car rental, well-trodden by us many a summer or Christmas visit. Again, I wonder if this should feel vastly different. There are slight alarm bells when the car-hire force us to take out full insurance (which costs double the actual rental cost) due to being on an international licence that is less than a year in validity (all international licences are only valid for a year... I sniff a scam, and we will unlikely be hiring from InterRent again!). This extra cost goes against the daily budgeting, and in a swipe of the credit card we are 20% poorer for each day of our stay in the UK. I wonder how often something like this will happen to us on the road. I'm further reminded of how unready I am for South America when the crew behind the counter chatter away in Spanish - I am able to pick up the general gist and maybe 1 out of every 10 words, not at all confidence boosting.

But still the day goes on and familiarity overrides the sense that this adventure might be bigger than any we have taken before. Between battling the clutch and GPS of the Vauxhall crawling through the Friday evening traffic of the M25, I realise that perhaps adventure is still somewhat pending - it will take a while for me to settle myself into a new identity, that we are on the road as a family, that we don't have a "home" for the next 10 months, that we are throwing ourselves into the unknown. This "easing in" through visiting family and friends in the UK before "starting" our South American tour is a welcome one. It is a great way to decompress, reflect, plan and prepare. It's also gorgeous summer weather and great catching up with many important friends and family. Looking forward to this first week on the road and seeing where this leads us!