Bob Colebeck and Bron Marie met in 1999 in Paringa, in the Riverland of South Australia. Our shared passion for travel, music, literature and exploring life soon meant that we were planning to make new adventures a normal part of our lives.
In 2006, Bob had a chance meeting with a tourist at Lock 5 on the River Murray where he worked. They had been living in England on a narrowboat and recently returned to Australia. Bob pounced on the idea, shared it with Bron and together we started exploring the possibilities for our future.
Fast forward to 2013 and after seven years of internet research, talking to people and reading journals the time has come to embark on living the vision.The hard decision to sell our possessions, store a few personal effects, resign our jobs and leave our home was made and the task began.This, as it turns out, was probably the easy bit!!
We also had to renew Bob’s UK passport and get a visa allowing Bron to settle with him in the UK for the duration of this adventure. And then there was saving the money to buy the boat and making sure we had been diligent with our superannuation savings to fund our living expenses!
But the hardest of all was saying goodbye to our family and friends – our 6 children, their partners and 3 grandchildren – one only 3 weeks old when we left!! Thank goodness for technology and how small the world has become enabling us all to stay in touch.
We don’t yet know how the adventure will pan out – who ever does know the future?? But we are sure it will be exciting, challenging and it is certain to be one filled with memories…..
On December 17th, 2013, we finalised the purchase of “Celtic Maid” – our dream became our reality!!!!
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Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. — Mark Twain
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing — absolutely nothing — half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.” — Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows