On 15 April 2002, the Cornish-Jordens mob uprooted itself from Sydney to drive around Australia. The drivers were Chris Jordens and Susan Cornish, and the passengers were Ruby Cornish (age 10 years) and Clare Cornish (age 8 years).

Susan and I took extended leave from our jobs, and Ruby and Clare enrolled in Sydney Distance Education Primary School. Our friend, Susan Feez, kindly looked after our home in Marrickville while we were away. Our transport was a conventional suburban car, and our accommodation was mostly a camper trailer. In six months we covered over 25,000 km.

I kept a hand-written recount of the journey in two large notebooks. It consists of 57 entries of varying length, and amounts to about 60,000 words. Susan documented the journey with an SLR camera that used old-fashioned colour film. The recount has been transcribed and a few entries have been censored to protect the guilty. In 2016 I scanned the photographs and uploaded the text and images to our travel blog.

This recount is dedicated to the passengers, Ruby Cornish and Clare Cornish, who have now grown up; and to Susan Cornish, who masterminded this excellent adventure.

Chris Jordens, Undercliffe 2016