6 months on the road!

Boxing Day marked 6 months of travelling for us. Six months of packing and unpacking, living in a tent and caravan, driving vast distances, navigating with far less calm than Karen (the GPS lady), sightseeing and wearing thongs in the shower!

We have travelled over 28 000 kms. I can't be bothered adding up the cost of all the petrol, but a quick glance at the (non-existent) bank balance tells me that it has been a lot of money. Accommodation costs also have added up alarmingly.  Despite our free camping earlier on, we have been in paid camp site territory for ages now. The cheapest camps have been fantastic $7.70 National Park sites. The dearest thus far was a horrible night spent in Karratha, WA for $89.

We have a few additions to our Road Kill Tally. Sadly, we have seen 3 wombats and 3 Tasmanian Devils. And many, many more kangaroos and wallabies. Quite a few possums too.

The kids are sick of not having any space. We all are. If they put something down, someone else takes it and it ends up elsewhere. The boys have been commandeering the Milo tins as fast as we can empty them so they can safely place their treasures inside. Even Ella has labelled a tin "Do Not Come In" so she has a small space of her own!

When things go wrong, as they do on a monotonously regular basis, Jackson gives me a wry smile and says "But all is well in Blogland!" We try not to bore you with the minutiae of all our problems  - unless they have a funny side! - but let me assure you that travelling is not all holiday fun and games. We are all a bit roadweary and the kids have started to talk about - and list! - the things that they are looking forward to about getting home. For Ella, it is definitely getting her hands on Bonnie and Clyde. Lachlan misses his bike. Jackson misses his mates and spreading his Lego designs over his room. Marcus is looking forward to much more sleep and much less car travel. Dave can't wait to play the piano again and I am looking forward to wearing something that isn't these 4 outfits! Fortunately, having Gran and Pap join us has given us all a bit of zip and renewed our enthusiasm!

Do the good bits outweigh the bad? Definitely.

Are we there yet?

NO!

Stay tuned ...

A Tassie Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning started early. Way too early. Marcus, in the sleeping bag next to me, was trying to surreptitiously import his Christmas goodies through the zipped tent door way before the sun rose. Even Biggles would have trouble unzipping a tent without the Germans knowing about it. Marcus didn't have a hope.

Santa, to the delight of the kids, brought LEGO!

At the slightly more decent hour of 6 a.m. the kids got to open their gifts and were all in heaven to have some Lego to take into the Blunderbuss to build. We didn't hear from them again until they got hungry at 10 o'clock!

After brunch, Dave and the boys went off to play cricket in the rain with the campground family, who always have a game at 11 o'clock in the camp gardens. They had a brilliant game and the rain didn't last the whole time. It seems that the weather changes every ten minutes or so here in Tassie. Four seasons in one hour!

Pap had to hold the oven button for
half an hour to ensure roast potatoes!

Gran and I performed a Christmas Miracle in the kitchen, producing a roast dinner out of the oven which hasn't been working since about Townsville! Pap offered to hold the gas button down to ensure he got to enjoy roast potatoes! Duct tape and many other options failed, but Pap's thumbs came through!

The kids were looking forward to playing euchre with Gran and Pap so we had a rousing session of cards, which reminded Mum of Christmases with her family many years ago.

The kids had to be forcibly removed from the Legobuss at bedtime!

Ella is pretty pleased with her
first solo build!

We head southwest into the West Coast Wilderness on Boxing Day.

Stay tuned ...

The Tassie Adventure begins

A baby bandicoot near our camp site

After our picnic breakfast on Tuesday morning, we carried on along the A2 to Penguin, where, not surprisingly, we hoped to see some penguins. The friendly fellow at the Visitor Information Centre advised us to head further west, so we carried on to Burnie and then Somerset, where we found a van park that looked good. As we were setting up, the owner came over to ask if the kids had seen a baby bandicoot, so we all trooped over to see it. It obligingly said G'day before scurrying away.

We had a quiet afternoon - everyone was tired - and the girls went out to replenish our supplies. We stopped at the information centre to find out about the penguin viewing and met a local felt artist who was working there. She made a fantastic felt hat while we watched and explained the process to us. The boys had a great time playing pool all afternoon. We left camp at dusk, just before 9 p.m., to go to the Penguin Centre. Volunteers told us about the Little Penguins and we saw 8 chicks in the nests, awaiting their parents and the arrival of their dinner. The viewing platform was utterly freezing - we waited for the arrival of the penguins for a while until we decided to head home before hypothermia set in! We were talking in the car about coming back - well rugged up - another evening, when Pap said "I've had about enough of penguins. If you've seen one, you've seen them all. They all dress the same." which gave the kids the giggles all the way home!

Little Penguins peeping out of their nest

Table Cape Lighthouse

On Wednesday morning we decided to head out westwards on a day trip to explore the North-western corner of Tassie. We drove out to Table Cape and walked through to the lighthouse, admiring the tulip and poppy farms. The soil here is the most fertile in Tasmania and they grow 50% of the world's legal medicinal poppies. Boat Harbour Beach was nearby and we enjoyed a quick stop there, where the kids explored the rock pools and Lachie found a lovely blue tongue lizard.

The rest of the drive took us through fertile farmland, with huge dairy herds and lots of haymaking in progress until we started seeing temperate rainforest and arrived at Dismal Swamp in The Tarkine Forest in time for lunch.  Dismal Swamp is a natural blackwood forest sinkhole, believed to be the only one in the world. Formed over thousands of years by dissolving dolomite, the 40 metre deep sinkhole is a unique forest habitat supporting a range of plant and animal species. Also unique is the manner of entering the sinkhole ... you take a 110m slide down into the forest. Gran joined us in sliding but Pap decided he'd seen enough forest from the top and went to read his book.

Dave about to plunge down the slide

Jackson roaring down the slide at top speed!

One of the sculptures at Dismal Swamp

Ella said she had tears in her eyes as she slid down but didn't make a squeak. The boys let out whoops of excitement, Gran was pretty quiet and I screamed all the way down. Twice. The walk at the bottom of the sinkhole was a maze of pathways and hidden artworks from local artists and was very enjoyable.

We detoured in to the beautiful town of Stanley on the way home. The village was a picturesque fishing town anchored in the 1800s with beautiful timber homes and gardens lining the streets. Very little had changed in the Main Street since then. The jetty was full of colourful crayfishing boats and Ella was thrilled to find a boat named Ella. We trundled home and everyone was happy to head off to bed!

Two Ellas in purple

Dave and I took advantage of the Gran and Pap babysitting service on Thursday morning and went in to Burnie to do our Christmas shopping. Although we wrote to Santa before leaving home, advising him not to bring anything big for Christmas, I think the kids would be very disappointed with him if nothing was forthcoming! It was our first "time out" away from the kids in almost 6 months! Shopping complete, we realised we had a dilemma on the way home: Where the hell were we going to put the loot? We ended up asking for help from the park owners, who happily let us stash a couple of bags in their home! Reading, playing pool, music and beachcombing occupied everyone for the rest of the day.

Dove Lake and Cradle Mountain

A day trip to Cradle Mountain was planned for Friday morning. We almost didn't go as it was raining as we left Somerset, but as we drove through forest and plantation areas the rain cleared. It was fantastic weather when we reached the park. It snowed there last week, and the rangers said they'd put the brilliant weather on just for us! The walk around Dove Lake was as stunning as the photos in the brochures. I was absolutely thrilled to return to Cradle Mountain, twenty plus years after I completed the 80 km Overland track. I looked up at Cradle Mountain and wondered how on earth I got up there with a 23 kilo pack.

A snow gum provides pause in the walk

Pap had a rest with his book after lunch and we returned to walk two more short walks. The Pencil Pines forest and waterfall track was hauntingly beautiful and the Enchanted Walk had the kids in paroxysms of delight as they found several large wombat holes. Ella, as animated as we've ever seen her, came running up to Marcus: "Sparks! QUICK! Wombat poo!" Both of them cite the wombat as their favourite animal, so that explains their excitement over excreta! We hardly dared tell them that we saw two dead wombats on the side of the road, but it was slightly compensated by a very much alive echidna waddling across the grass at Cradle Mountain, and we saw another crossing the road on the way home.

Marcus - or perhaps Lachlan - took this photo

We are travelling in the Prado for day trips - the eight of us fit in as well as a school of sardines at a sharks' convention. This sometimes makes for a volatile trip home when the kids are tired, but it was a fairly quiet car load as we returned to Somerset after all that exercise.

On the beach opposite our van park,
with Table Cape in the distance.

We have spent Christmas Eve getting last minute supplies in town, rock-hopping on the beach (while Dave did some surreptitious wrapping!), dodging showers, reading and playing pool. I beat Lachie, Lachie beat Gran, and Dave, Pap and the boys had so many games we've lost track of the tallies! We also managed to enjoy some Tasmanian wine and cheese this evening. It's a dirty job, but someone has to do it.

As I write, the sky is cloudy and the light is fading, but the clouds are still catching the last rays of the sun and glowing an orangey-pink colour. There are carrots out for the reindeer (but Ella is worried about the resident rabbits gaining the upper hand) and there is a mince pie out for Santa. Jackson is reading in the Blunderbuss, which is his night-time domain; Ella and Marcus are giggling in the tent and Lachie is in the caravan with Gran and Pap. We expect Santa to arrive any time soon so we should really all be in bed!

Wishing you a wonderful, safe and joyous Christmas.
May the gods of overindulgence smile fondly upon you all.

Stay tuned ...

Sea Leg: The Spirit of Tasmania

Queueing to board The Spirit of Tasmania

Following the ever-helpful and never flustered Karen's GPS directions we found Station Pier at Port Melbourne. Despite Dave driving through red lights and making wild, last minute lane changes in peak hour traffic, Pap and his car-load found it too!

We queued up and were loaded onto the ferry by efficient stevedores. Excitement had hit fever pitch in the kids - they were really looking forward to the sea leg of our journey. Pap was happily looking forward to dinner and Mum, Dave and I were dreading sea-sickness! We had two adjoining cabins right at the front of the ship with small views out of the portholes, where we settled in. The ferry left right on the dot at 7:30 p.m. as we were enjoying dinner in the Captain's Cabin. Mum and Dad retired to the cabin while we took the kids to the theatrette to see Kung-fu Panda II ... they enjoyed it and I enjoyed a snooze on the comfy seat! There are so many amazing kids' movies - Kung-fu Panda is not one of them, in my opinion.

Jackson was way too excited to sleep and had smuggled the GPS in to our cabin, where he spent ages observing our position at sea. He was so pleased with himself that he photographed many stages of our trip - proving to me how little sleep he had! Marcus and Lachie were similarly excited, but contained in the other cabin. Ella passed out from sheer exhaustion, cuddling her soft toys which she had arranged in her bunk. Although the swell increased overnight when we hit Bass Strait around 11 p.m., to everyone's surprise, no-one was sea-sick. We watched the sun rise and Devonport come into sight early next morning. The ferry docked and we disembarked, met the friendly quarantine dog and reclaimed our gas bottle before heading off to eat our first breakfast on Tasmanian soil.

A chilly breakfast on the river at Ulverstone

Stay tuned ...

Melbourne

I came across Pap early on Saturday morning, muttering to himself as he looked through all his compartments in his backpack "I wish I'd listened to save me unzipping all these zips ... I heard the blue bag part!"

First tram ride

One of the things the kids were looking forward to was "city" transport - trams, buses etc. So we took the 112 tram in to the city, where we did a little shopping and had lunch before walking to the Treasury and Fitzroy gardens. Cook's Cottage is located in the Fitzroy gardens. It was shipped over to Melbourne in 1934 in 253 crates, complete with a cutting of the ivy which had grown on the building, and rebuilt in the gardens for Melbourne's centenary celebrations.

The cottage where James Cook spent part of his childhood

The remarkably preserved Fairy Tree

Ella loved the Fairy Tree, carved by Ola Cohn in the 1930s as a gift to the children of Melbourne and everyone enjoyed the mini Tudor Village. The day was heating up and it was 30 degrees as we walked to the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Unfortunately it was closed early due to the Big Bash on that night, and so was the free bus stop, although we didn't know that and spent 30 minutes waiting at the bus stop. We ended up walking many blocks back to the city, where we caught the free tourist bus and enjoyed an air-conditioned tour of the city highlights while sitting down! We caught the tram back to Coburg, where we all had a swim to cool down.

We were invited to brunch at Georgie and Fiona's on Sunday morning, and we managed to find them with the assistance of the GPS. We had a good chin-wag and catch-up while the kids had a lovely time playing with the two little boys and their fantastic Lego collection. We thought we would have to leave them there! After we eventually prised the children away from the Lego - and Ella away from their cat, Whiskey - we went back to camp to organise and pack for the ferry crossing to Tasmania the next afternoon. Thanks again for the lovely day, Georgie & Fiona.

Guess Who? (Prize to the first correct
emailed answer)

It rained all night which left us with wet gear and a messy packup before we left our van and went back into the city on Monday morning. We decided to try the MCG again and got there quickly as we knew the drill - tram, tourist bus and voila! The MCG. We booked a tour and were soon wandering around the arena, touching the hallowed ryegrass! Our volunteer tour guide, Jan, was a long-time member of the MCC. Her husband has been a member for over 50 years, so her knowledge of the place was probably unparalleled! It was a thoroughly enjoyable morning looking through behind-the-scenes of the MCG. We were fascinated by the practice pitches underneath the stands - the cricketers could choose low to high light conditions and wet to dry pitches to get ready for upcoming conditions, whether they be at the Gabba or Bellerive.

After lunch, we spent time in the National Sporting Museum which is also at the MCG. We explored the Olympic, Horseracing, Cricket, Tennis, Motorsports etc. exhibits. The newest exhibit was Cadel Evan's winning Tour de France Bike. The kids - and the big kids - loved the interactive section, where we had hotly contested archery, netball, soccer and handball competitions. The cricket "Run-out" was also lots of fun. The kids couldn't resist joining a game of AFL as we were leaving.

We took the bus and the tram like seasoned professionals back to the camp to complete last-minute jobs and hitch up the caravan ready for our departure. Tassie, here we come!

Stay tuned ...





The Great Ocean Road

Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village

Warrnambool has quite a bit to offer on the sightseeing front, but we didn't have much time, so after a quick packup on Thursday morning we chose to visit the Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, an interactive reproduction of 1850s coastal life. It was brilliant and we spent an interesting few hours there. The kids were fascinated with the old-fashioned printing process - a volunteer showed us how the typeface was set backwards and then printed a sheet on the press to show us the whole process. They also enjoyed feeding the ducks!

Hungry ducks

We managed to convoy out of Warrnambool without being rear-ended by the Prado and turned off to start the Great Ocean Road journey; also to start looking for a garage to fix our indicators and lights! The western end of the Great Ocean Road has the familiar scenery of the Bay of Islands, Martyr Bar, London Bridge and the Twelve Apostles (although collapses have reduced their Apostolic number). Frequent stops allowed us to enjoy the rocky scenery, although Pap, driving behind us, did not particularly enjoy trying to work out what we were doing with no lights to give him fore-warning! We re-instituted the old fashioned system of hand signals and managed to avoid any contact between the Prado and the caravan. Dad said it was a bugger as although he was driving our Prado, if we had an accident he would hit his own caravan.

Bay of Islands sea sculptures

We stopped at a garage in Port Campbell to try to get the situation remedied. The garage owner kindly fitted us in straight away - he was involved in a lengthy discussion with a local, and was possibly glad of an opportunity to escape! - and got on with checking all the wires and connections. He was slightly impeded by the boys all crowding around to watch but was good humoured about it! After half an hour he thought all was well, so we drove off. We had only got a hundred metres or so before Marcus's wild waving in the Prado behind us alerted us to the fact that nothing was working. Back we went. The mechanic again extricated himself from a conversation to assist us. After another bout of fiddling, spraying and jiggling, he gave us the verdict that it would work sometimes, it would stop working sometimes and that we really needed to buy a new connector, of which he had none. Right. Off we went again, and to everyone's surprise, the brake lights and indicators started working. This was very fortunate, as the Twelve Apostles viewing area could only be reached by an astoundingly busy car park. We parked without a rear-ending incident and walked over to enjoy the scenery. There were so many people there with the same idea that it wasn't particularly enjoyable and we decided to head off!

The Twelve Apostles

We drove the last leg into Apollo Bay through more green forest than you would have thought possible on the Great Ocean Drive along a windy road and it seemed to take forever to get out. Luckily no-one was car sick so we had the full team on deck to set up at the caravan park in Apollo Bay and all could enjoy the fresh fish and chips for dinner, which we rated in the Top 3 of the trip!

Cape Patton Lookout

Leaving the others to complete the packup the next morning, Mum, Lachie and I went back into town to get a few supplies. It is very handy having another vehicle! The convoy then headed north along the peninsular with commanding views over Bass Strait. Cape Patton lookout was our first stop, where we learned that the Great Ocean Road was built as a living memorial to the Victorians who served in the Great World War. It was built with picks and shovels and provided employment for many returned soldiers. We enjoyed the scenery along the coast and appreciated their efforts fully!

The cockatoos landed on Lachlan's and Jackson's arms
and drew blood!

Gran photographing the ceremonial toe dipping

We made a quick stop in Lorne to check out the jetty and ended up hand feeding the resident white cockatoos. After another lovely coastal drive, it was Torquay for lunch where we dipped our toes into Bass Strait. We were not tempted to dip anything further, nor indeed to double dip, as it was windy and cold. Victorians, however, are made of sterner stuff than us and were frolicking in the water; perhaps they were moving about so much to keep warm.

We gratefully installed Gran and Pap's GPS in the Blunderbuss and after a minor mishap in Geelong, followed Karen's directions in to Melbourne, with the Prado in hot pursuit. It was lucky that the brake lights and indicators were working on the bridges and Tollway! After some wending through narrow city streets, following (and narrowly missing) trams we managed to find the Melbourne Big 4 and checked in. Coffee and alcohol were necessary. City traffic and caravan convoys are not conducive to couple's composures. Oblivious to stress levels in the adults, the kids had a swim in the pool and quickly found the games room. Ella even managed to score a ride on the Big 4 golf buggy, so was very happy.

Stay tuned ...

The race to Warrnambool

After our late night at The Hoot, no-one was overly keen to get up and on the road, but we managed to drag the kids out of bed and hit the road by a not unreasonable hour!

Overly ambitious time-wise, we took a turn to go to the National Motor Museum, only to find it was many kilometres out of our way once we'd got started. We enjoyed the towns and villages on the smaller byways, but after buying some cherries and apples from a roadside stall we decided we'd better make tracks back towards the M1.

Jackson has now designed a Lego steam train

Hahndorf was just as attractive as it was last week as we drove through the main street again and back onto the M1 at Mt Barker. Pap was texting us as he and Gran travelled down towards our meeting point at Warrnambool. At one stage, they were embarking on a paddlesteamer on the Murray River at Echuca as we crossed the same river at Murray Bridge at the bottom of the state! We had lunch at Tailem Bend, where Jackson took a zillion photos of the restored steam train to help him build a Lego model.

The khaki-coloured waters of the Coorong are an important pelican breeding site, but it wasn't a particularly attractive drive along the estuary there. The marginal country improved as we neared Millicent where herds of fat cattle delighted Ella and we saw the largest windfarm in the Southern Hemisphere as we passed through. We arrived at the Mt Gambier vanpark with plenty of light left to set up on the large, grassy site - it was very relaxing after the last site where we felt like sardines. Lachie and Ella rescued a bird which flew into a window - and Lachie spent the next few hours worrying about it. He cuddled it until it warmed up a bit then lay on the ground near the caravan as it sheltered under there. Fortunately it flew away before bedtime which was far less upsetting than the scenario we were expecting!

The Pump Station at Blue Crater Lake

After packing up, we drove up to Blue Crater Lake, which is a relatively recent crater lake formed by a volcanic explosion only 6000 or so years ago. The waters are grey until November, when they turn a brilliant cobalt blue during the summer, which is the colour we got to see. A walking track and viewing platform (which we thought resembled a chess piece) were constructed there in 1919 and we were amused to note that the Chairman of the project was named Rook and the architect Knight!

FIRE! The oversized chess piece

We were due to meet Gran and Pap in Warrnambool so we got moving and were soon at the border, crossing into Victoria for the first time. The kids were excited to add another state to our tally but far more excited at the prospect of seeing Gran and Pap! Pap's texts added spice to the journey as it became a race to Warrnambool! We stopped briefly in Portland, Victoria's first permanent settlement for a chilly morning tea then drove along past drystone walls, historic stone buildings and lovely farmland before another short stop at Port Fairy. A 15th century Portugese caravel was moored at the jetty there, which held us up a little!

Notorious built by amateur boat builder Graeme Wylie

Whilst inspecting the Notorious, Pap texted their taking of the chequered flag in Warrnambool, so we drove the last 10 minutes before we spotted them in the Prado, waiting to join the convoy. They said later that they thought the Blunderbuss was going to helicopter up off the road as there was so much waving going on inside! They followed us to a van park (with difficulty, as they discovered we had no brake or indicator lights) where there was much exclaiming about how big we were. They noticed that the kids had grown too!! We confessed our caravan damage sins and we had a very relaxed evening catching up.

The Great Ocean Road journey is about to begin!

Stay tuned ...