Dave's Australian Odyssey
Chapter 2: The Start of the Journey

Copyright© 2010 by Pappyok

Romantic Sex Story: Chapter 2: The Start of the Journey - A four book series: '1. The Surfing Hitchhiker', Dave picks up a hitchhiking young surfer couple in his RV. '2. But Now I Am A Sailor', Dave meets new young ladies. '3. I Am Going To Be A Dad', Dave attends the wedding of the lesbian couple. '4. Now We Are Married', ends the odyssey with a wedding ceremony reuniting everyone.

Caution: This Romantic Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa   Fa/Fa   Mult   Consensual   Romantic   Lesbian   BiSexual   Heterosexual   Fiction   Spanking   Rough   Group Sex   First   Oral Sex   Anal Sex   Sex Toys   Exhibitionism   Voyeurism   Size  

Monday Week 1

It was just after 2:30 pm when Dave finally drove down the driveway of his Canberra house for the last time and headed south towards Cooma. He felt mixed emotions, knowing that this was the first day of his long planned round Australia odyssey and that he was leaving what had been his home with Chloe for the past 30 years.

Just before he walked out of his home, he paused at the mirror that remained in the front entry hall, looking at his reflection. Considering what he had been through in the past two years, he was pleased with what he saw – a fit, healthy man in his mid fifties, who could easily pass for being in his late 40s. He was 181 centimetres tall and weighing about 89 kilos, fairly broad shoulders and a full head of fair hair, kept reasonably short.

Chloe had often told him how handsome he was and, without being too vain, he thought his face didn't look too bad. A closer examination of his eyes was the only thing that revealed the recent sadness he had been through.

Now he was in his new mobile home for the next year or so, a large, six berth RV.

For the past four months, since he bought the RV, Dave had done a number of short trips, mainly weekends, to familiarize himself with driving and manoeuvring it as well as setting up camp and packing up.

Being a widower and by himself, he knew he didn't need such a large RV, but because it was to be his home for so long, he wanted as many creature comforts as possible and plenty of space. In fact, there was only a double bunk above the driver's cabin and the main double bed at the rear of the vehicle. The rest of the RV was taken up with a lounge area equipped with a home theatre, including DVD and stereo system, a well equipped kitchen, as Dave not only loved to eat but also cook, plus an ensuite with shower, toilet and wash basin.

There was also an aluminium annex that, at the press of a button, extended out along the entire length of the passenger side of the vehicle. The annex had drop down sides. This meant that he could have another very large room when required, mainly intended for when he was staying anywhere for longer periods, such as having a base camp from which he could explore the region.

At the back of the RV there was a ladder that he could climb up to get on the roof, which had been strengthened to become a sun deck. There was even a flat storage container mounted on the roof to hold a few folding chairs, a small folding table and an umbrella. The mounting point for the umbrella had been firmly attached to the roof. This meant, when the weather was right, he could quickly be ready to enjoy lazing in the sun, taking in the view from this elevated position.

Behind the RV, he was towing a flatbed trailer with a small four wheel drive vehicle, or 4WD as everyone seemed to refer to them. This would be both a vehicle to drive around town when his RV was set up for longer stays and also provide him with the ability to explore off road and get to good fishing spots.

There was a mountain bike mounted on the rear of the RV, which he would use for fitness, exploring or even short trips to the shop when he didn't want bother off loading his 4WD.

It had been thirteen months since Chloe, his wife for almost 35 years, had died. This was just before he had his 54th birthday. After many months of grieving, Dave decided that he had to get on with his life.

They both ended up being middle ranking public servants, albeit Dave had a slightly more senior position than Chloe, but both had commensurately good salaries. This was why Dave and Chloe had always planned to both retire at 55 and live on their government superannuation, having paid off their house and saved money since the children had married and left home. That was when they would be able to explore Australia. He saw no reason to change this plan that he and Chloe had dreamed of for years, but clearly it was going to be lonely doing it by himself.

Six months ago he started the process of selling the family home. He brought the lovely gardens back up to the standard that Chloe always liked to maintain, did a few minor repairs and painted the fascia boards, which were overdue for a coat of paint. With the house all spruced up, clean and tidy, it sold fairly quickly, but he was able to negotiate to stay on for the extra two months after settlement until he could retire and start his round Australia trip.

With part of the proceeds from the house sale, he bought a two bedroom townhouse that he rented as an investment and with the balance paid off the RV. So he was debt free with just over $100,000 per annum in indexed pensions coming from superannuation (both his and Chloe's) plus the income from the townhouse and he still had almost $200,000 in his superannuation account from Chloe and his accumulated contributions. He knew at least he didn't have any financial worries.

Their son and daughter had both married, the son moving to Sydney, while his daughter had married an American she had met in Canberra and now lived in the west coast of the USA. Thus he was not leaving any family behind in Canberra, though there were a few good friends he would miss.

But over the past six months or so, although his friends continued to include him in their social activities, it was not the same as when Chloe was alive because all their friends were married couples and he felt of bit lost by himself. Time to make a new life and see all those things Australia had to offer.

Dave and Chloe had planned their itinerary years ago – first Canberra to Cann River, because they wanted to start their coastal journey basically on the Victoria/NSW border. Their itinerary then went right up the east coast to Cooktown. Next it was to be west to Karumba at the mouth of the Gulf of Carpentaria, south to Cloncurry then west to Tennant Creek in Northern Territory. Dave and Chloe then planned to go to the red centre, Alice Springs, see Uluru, as Ayres Rock was now known, and Kings Canyon, before returning to Tennant Creek and continuing north to Darwin. After exploring Kakadu, they planned to continue right around the west coast down to Albany then across the Nullabor, right around the south coast of Australia including the Eyre Peninsula to Melbourne. Then the plan included catching the ferry across to Tasmania and circumnavigating that island, before going back to Melbourne and finally back to Canberra via Cann River.

Both always wanted to be able to say they had truly circumnavigated Australia. Now, unfortunately, he was to do it by himself.

While he and Chloe had done most of the initial planning of the route together, Dave had spent many hours over the past months surfing the internet to find out about the things to see and places to go. He discovered things like the Undara Lava Tubes a couple of hundred kilometres west of Innisfail in north Queensland, which had only opened to the public in 1990. At 160 kilometres long, it was the longest known single lava flow on the planet. Dave was fascinated that the tube formed by the flow was over 100 kilometres long and now sustained unique wildlife and ecology. There were one and two day tours from the camping ground there, which took in the history, flora and fauna that really appealed to him. He had also discovered the word 'Undara' was an aboriginal word meaning 'a long way' and, from the information he had gathered, it seemed a very appropriate name.

Another highlight that Dave was looking forward to was doing a 4WD tour of the Bungle Bungle Ranges and seeing the renowned beehive domes and Cathedral Gorge. His research showed that these ranges are located some 200 kilometres south of Kununurra. He was also keen to do the boat trip down the mighty Ord River and another on the vast waters of Lake Argyle.

Of course, seeing Kakadu and its world famous river cruises, doing a flight over the area and stepping into Arnhem Land (which one of the river cruise operators offered) would also be highlights as well as cruising on Katherine Gorge. Access to Arnhem Land was strictly controlled and not many people were able to say they had been there. These were some of the supposedly spectacular things that nature provides as only things can be at the top end of Australia,

Driving on the largest sand island in the world, Fraser Island, had always been another one of Dave's ambitions. He had seen travel programs showing people in four wheel drive vehicles with the most of the air let out of the tyres driving along the beaches, dogging people fishing and aircraft landing and taking off on the beach. He thought it looked like it would be a lot of fun.

Naturally, no trip around Australia would be complete without seeing the Great Barrier Reef and the rainforest near the Daintree. Although he had no experience, he hoped to learn how to snorkel and see the beautiful coral and colourful fish around the barrier reef.

He was also looking forward to the different seafood he would be able to taste. Freshly caught too, which was difficult to get in Canberra. Dhu fish in Geraldton, red emperor, coral trout and Moreton Bay bugs in Queensland, barramundi in Darwin and tuna and oysters from the Eyre Peninsula were only some of the delicacies that he was hoping to be able to have.

Dave was also looking forward to many opportunities to catch fish himself, especially flathead, bream and whiting, which were his favourites to catch and eat. But he also hoped to join a deep sea fishing cruise or two, especially in the Gulf of Carpentaria and near Darwin.

He had downloaded all this info onto his laptop, so wherever he was, he could quickly lookup the activities which interested him in that area as well as the preferred sites to park his RV. Because he had his accommodation with him, his RV, he wasn't going to worry about booking places to stay, figuring that, even in school holidays when caravan parks and the like might be booked out in some places, being self contained, he could 'rough' it for a few days if necessary.

Dave had made sure that the RV was well stocked with all the things he would need to cook himself gourmet meals. The pantry was well stocked with herbs, spices, sauces, etc so he wouldn't have to shop for some days. He also had a good range of his favourite Scotch whiskies as well as several dozen of his best wines.

His one regret was not being able to take his whole wine cellar with him. He had stored ten dozen of his younger, top quality Australian wines that he had been collecting for some years with one of his friends in Canberra, John, who had large cellar. John was a good friend, one that he trusted not to drink his wine while he was away. This would enable him to still have good wine on his return in a year or so.

He had also packed several cartons with a mix of his good reds, packaging them so they could be shipped if he decided he needed a carton sent to him while he was away. He figured that there might be one or two places such as Darwin which he might be using as a base camp long enough for a carton to be shipped to the post office for collection, as he would never be able to buy aged red wines of this quality during his travels. John had agreed to ship them if Dave contacted him by email. He would let Dave know how much the freight cost. Dave would then deposit the money into John's bank account. He had the bank details written down and kept with a number of important papers such as his passport and a bit of spare cash in a small safe installed in a hidden spot in the RV.

Over the past year he had drunk or given away most of the rest of his cellar. For the next year or so, Dave realised he would not be able to enjoy aged red wine every night as had become his custom. He would just have to drink mainly younger wines that he could buy at the local bottle shops, with an occasional good aged red from his limited supply.

He had sold, given to the Salvation Army or thrown out most of the things that he and Chloe had accumulated over the years. Those things that he wanted to keep and that would not fit in the RV, such as a number of original paintings and other art work that both had liked, most of the family photo albums, some valuable antiques with personal memories, a filing cabinet full of records, a few bits of special furniture and a couple of boxes of assorted things he just couldn't bring himself to get rid of, were now in a self-storage unit.

One thing Dave had done over the past year was to scan into his laptop many of the important photos that he and Chloe had taken pre the digital age so that he was able to take his memories with him on his travels. He had also been careful to leave in storage a copy of his hard drive as well as his PC. His laptop would suffice for his computing needs for the next year or so.

As he drove down the Monaro Highway towards Cooma, Dave reflected on his life to date and the things that had brought him to what he was now doing.

Chapter 3 »

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