Grey Nomads: Brown Trails

Today marks the ultimate trifecta for us: Jo’s birthday, Peter’s birthday, and our 10th wedding anniversary. Around here, we officially call it our “Annibirthsarary”.

We originally had a few casual birthday plans lined up, but after Harley came down with a cold, everything went completely out the window. Cue Jo scrambling onto TripAdvisor on a rainy Sunday afternoon to find a milestone miracle. What she found seemed like a total long shot—a highly rated, fancy degustation experience on a historic train called The Q Train, running out of Drysdale across the beautiful Bellarine Peninsula.

Naturally, it was completely booked out. But Peter sent a beautifully polite, slightly desperate email explaining that it was our combined double-birthday-one-decade-anniversary. Lo and behold, they emailed back saying, “You’re in!” Because we snagged the reservation at the absolute last second, they placed us in a first-class private group carriage that happened to be open. Talk about a massive birthday upgrade!

The Legend of Buckley’s Chance

Since we are currently camped down at the “Shacks” Hipcamp near Indented Head, we’ve been diving deep into the local history. Walking along the coastal paths over the last few days brought us face-to-face with the incredible legend of William Buckley.

If you’ve ever heard the classic Aussie phrase “You’ve got Buckley’s chance” (meaning you have absolutely no hope), the real story is a bit of a mind-bender.

William Buckley was a 6’7″ British soldier turned convict who escaped into the Australian bush right around this peninsula back in the early 1800s. Starving and weak, he found a ceremonial spear stuck in a burial mound. When the local Aboriginal women found this giant man carrying their recently deceased chief’s spear, they genuinely believed chief had returned.

He lived with the tribe for 30 years, completely mastering their language and forgetting most of his English. Decades later, he walked out of the bush dressed in kangaroo and possum skins to save three white men who had landed at Indented Head from an ambush. He was promptly pardoned and became a government translator.

So, while “Buckley’s chance” usually implies zero hope, the man actually survived on a series of absolute, jaw-dropping miracles. Securing that last-minute train carriage today felt exactly like our own little Buckley’s miracle. Peter, being his usual charming self, even chimed in to say he’s felt like he won a Buckley’s miracle every single day of the ten years he’s been married to Jo. (We’ll let him keep that scorecard for today.)

A First-Class Feast on Rails

Our unique three-hour journey took us across the peninsula and along the coast, completely insulated from the miserable, howling gale outside.

Our brilliant waiter, Caleb, looked after us like royalty through a spectacular five-course degustation meal:

• A delicious starting breadboard.
• An incredible Italian tomato soup called Al Giotta.
• Perfect arancini balls packed with local corn and cheese.
• A clever, deep-fried battered sausage replacement.
• A gorgeous poached wine pear that was vibrant red on the outside and crisp white on the inside.

Peter happily enjoyed the wine pairings, while Jo took advantage of the fancy non-alcoholic drink pairings and vegetarian replacement options. Yes, we were those tourists who shamelessly took photos of every single dish before eating it and we have zero regrets.

Looking Back and Wrapping Up

When we look over the history of Annibirthsararys, we realize we’ve set a spectacularly high bar for celebrating this day over the years. We decided to map out our entire ten-year timeline to see just how far this adventure has taken us:

• 2012: Africa – Where the adventure truly began just after we first met (years before we actually tied the knot!)
• 2016: Our Wedding Day – The official launch of Team Cotterill!
• 2017: Cambodia – Flying by helicopter over the breathtaking ancient ruins in the Siem Reap area.
• 2018: Pethers – Embracing the luxury rainforest getaway life
• 2019: Norfolk Island – The year Peter retired from work!
• 2020: Quarantine Station at Manly – with spectacular Sydney Harbour views.
• 2021: Sydney – Watching Hamilton, staying in a fancy high-rise, and sharing the magic with Julie and Glen.
• 2022: Fraser Island – Navigating the wild sand dunes and checking off another epic island off the bucket list.
• 2023: Pethers (Part 2) – Because a world-class rainforest retreat absolutely deserves a sequel.
• 2024: Cabarita – Testing out a caravan to understand its limits up on the hill by the water tower near Terranora, wrapped up with a lovely family dinner.
• 2025: Springbrook – Sneaking away to a fancy mountain retreat before tracking back down to Mum’s place for a birthday dinner.

Celebrating our tenth year inside our own rolling home feels entirely fitting for our next big chapter. Reviewing the original build specifications reminds us of how much dreaming went into this rig.

We are now safely back inside our Kokoda Defender, blissfully hiding from the literal storm blowing outside. True to caravan life, we celebrated the end of our fancy afternoon by troubleshooting the Victron battery management system screen—which we successfully “fixed” by the highly scientific method of pulling a fuse out and shoving it back in.

The diesel heater is humming, the van is warm, and we are about to light the candles on the lovely cake Jo’s mum baked for Peter.

Thanks to everyone for the beautiful messages today. Here’s to the next ten years of navigating the open roads, tricky electronics, and beautiful brown signs together!