Torn between two lovers!

This is a blog from Tammy Slingerland, it will be all about a big trip around Australia and I hope that I can let you feel the same emotions we (my husband Fred) and I will feel during the journey in this vast sunburned country. 

First of all I owe you a bit of an explanation why this Weblog is called “Torn between two lovers”. These two lovers are the countries Australia and the Netherlands.

Here is a short history of my life.

I was born in Yallourn, in Victoria, Australia from emigrated parents. My parents went back to Holland when I was nearly five years old. On a big ship called “ The Flavia”  we sailed to Holland.

For a “strange” reason I always was homesick for Australia and when I was about 18 years I went for a holiday to “my country” and actually I was hoping that it would be disappointing so I could get rid of  that feeling, but unfortunately……..

I married and guess whereto our honeymoon was…….of course, Australia! My husband got hooked on it too and several holidays were spent in this big, red earthed country and we loved it!

When we retired and our parents weren’t there anymore, we took the big step and immigrated to Australia, in the mean time I have lived in the Netherlands for 44 years and also loved that little cosy country. Conditions were really good when we decided to go and we put our house for sale, packed our things in a container, had a farewell party for all family and friends and took a one-way flight to Melbourne, exciting about the things to come.

BUT, in the mean time the financial crisis had started and everything changed in a few months.  The dollar went up, the house-prices in Holland went down very quick and our house is still for sale, already 9 years now.

Our dream is becoming to collapse and so now we have decided to go travelling as long as we can and want. We take our caravan and start from Melbourne to go around Australia and see and enjoy as much as we can.

By the time we’re finished we see how the situation is and we then decide what to do. If we can stay that would be terrific, if we have to go back to Holland that’s alright too because as I told you; we love both countries and we are torn between these two lovers anyhow.

So let’s go on this journey together and have a ball! I will try to update our adventures on a weekly base with lots of stories, pictures and films.

Enjoy! We will certainly do so too!

See you in a few days!

(Please read the updates)

September 2017; Update;
In the mean time we have sold our house for much less money which means we don't have enough left to buy a house and to stay in Australia. So unfortunately we have to go back but we cannot say farewell to Australia yet! We decided to keep travelling for as long as we can.

September 2018; Update;
In the mean time we bought a house in The Netherlands and so its definite! We are house sitting at the moment in Queensland and we now have the opportunity to unpack and clean our little house on wheels and prepare it for selling. My God, its a roller-coaster of emotions. We are going back when we are finished here.