My first week of writing on the road turned out to be pretty disastrous.
Coming from the UK, I was completely and utterly naive in my judgement of the size of Australia. You look at a map and think somewhere looks close and it then turns out to be a very bumpy 5-hour drive away…
This manifested itself beautifully in my total loss of any phone or internet signal for the first 3 days of my trip. As someone with a slight aversion to social media, this would usually be a welcome change, but as someone with projects on the go, it was a major problem.
Thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t have anything completely urgent due in those 3 days, I managed to get enough signal to message any clients who were expecting communication and explain my situation. Luckily for me, all my clients are fabulously understanding.
Lessons learned:
- When travelling, keep deadlines loose. Just in case.
- The roads get bumpier as you move further inland…meaning you will not be able to work!
- Research which places have coverage before setting off.
- Such places are limited outside the cities – Australia is HUGE.
This blissful 3 days with no signal was fantastic. I visited Carnarvon Gorge and stayed in a bush camp full of kangaroos, wallabies and porcupines. I even got to see some platypi – my new favourite animal.
It did, however, mean that I had to spend the next 2 days working solidly, but as I love my job that was a small price to pay.
That leads me to my bonus lesson learned:
- Factor in days specifically for working!
Despite my teething problems, working whilst road-tripping has been delightful.
I have seen a lot, experienced a lot and most certainly learned a lot. In fact, I have learnt so much that I might just write a blog about it…
