Spent a bit of time over the last week reading our adventures on the blog. I am really glad we recorded it all as it is great to go back and re-live the trips.

It is amazing all the little things you forget, and reading back through it was almost like I was experiencing the trip all over again. Of course the problem is I now really want to get back on the road!!!!

Long time to wait until the next trip, although with my shoulder operation out of the way hopefully we can get the vans out for a test run soon. Who knows, maybe even Mark will start blogging…. Hint hint!

Anyway, reason for this post was that I had a revelation while I was reading…. while we are spending all our time nutting out the finer details of a trip, I realized that the best part of the last big trip was the fact it was unplanned!

On the last trip, the only thing we really planned was the week we spent in Perth with the family. The rest of the trip we kinda just took it as it came. Was great waking up in the morning and looking at a map, then heading off towards a destination seeing what happens. If we make it… great… if we didn’t then great too!

So I broached this with our fellow planners, that the only “have to” on this big trip will be a couple of days in Glen Innes (Fi wants to introduce me to the rest of the family… or maybe it was the kids!) and some time spent on the Gold Coast so Mark can see his family and we can all do the Theme parks.

Beyond that, my thoughts are…. let’s just head North! Take it as it comes and go where we go.

I still wouldn’t mind heading through the Northern Territory, so if we leave it unplanned, maybe we can come back down the center?? Who knows what will happen. So planning from here on in should simply be a case of what sort of areas would we like to visit? What’s on the must do list, and what is a nice to do if we can?

Leave a comment if you can think of somewhere we should visit while up North. Even if it is a really great caravan park that would be good for the kids…

Also speaking with Judith she indicated that she would have loved to get back on the road if they hadn’t sold the van, so… hurry up and get another one Andrew!!

Going to be a great trip, and I say the more the merrier… got a van? Why not tag along? We don’t have to travel in convoy, but would be great to see some friends on the road 🙂

First post on the site, or should i say long time listener, first time caller……

A trip up to north queensland and possibly into NT and SA is exciting, especially now we have the new secondhand van.

For those who could give a $h1t, it is an 18ft 2003 Jayco Freedom twin axle pop top.  It comes with triple bunks at the rear, double bed at the front, 3 way fridge, air conditioning, hot water, roll out awning and walls, external shower and shower room.  The stove is new as well. Even came with one of those fancy external fold down tables (Craig helped with some mods tonight to get it closing flush after i put the Camec one key system through the van – well worth doing as now there is only one key instead of 5!

Some work was required as the brake lights were shorting (amazing what happens when pos and neg terminals touch in the housing)?  Turned out the roof had a leak but is now resealed” – thanks Mr Selleys! Batteries were dead but she now has a 100ah deep cycle, smart charger.

Van also has a separate table and lounge/chairs that the Minister for war and finance required ( kids can have breakfast inside not in the cold annex).  Oh and it also has a stereo and tv that plays dvds.  She has privacy curtains down the kids end.  Not as fancy as the Mortons van though.

Added bonus is the table becomes another bed but thought it had no cushion.  Found a secret hidey hole when making the kids beds and lo and behold, there is the mattress extension and more storage room!

Finally had it serviced by Dart’s Mobile Caravan Service (highly recommended) and they recokin the van is unlikely to have done more than 5000 km given the brakes and suspension.  They said the suspension etc looked like that of a 2 year old van.

Only downside is it has hail damage (cosmetic only) and a couple of dents etc.  doesn’t look much different than the old 1980 Millard poptop ( sold to a nice couple with 2 kids from NSW to continue many long years of service)

Till later……

So I thought it was about time for a new look for the blog. What do you think??

Should I keep it or return to the old look?

Leave a comment and let me know what you think 🙂

It has been a long time since we pointed the van west to head off and explore this HUGE country of ours, and well I think it might be time for another trip!

This time…. we are taking some company!!!!

Ok, so it is not quite time to head off, well in fact we are more than 12 months away, but you can never start panning to early.

Anyway, I’ll try to stop the meaningless waffle and get down to waffling about what is going on…

As I said, it has been a long time and we thought we should pack the family in the van and go for another 6 week trip before Zac gets into High School and it just gets all too hard. This time, given Mark and Kate have just upgraded their van to something with a little more space (2003 Jayco that they got at a steal due to hail damage!!), we thought we would invite them along for company.

Initially the planning started as a trip up through the centre, as it is a place I have always wanted to go (never been to NT) and I wouldn’t mind seeing Uluru before it is simply not accessible. Then we thought we would head east across the desert to Queensland. The problem is, if you are going to head up through the centre then you should really make it to Darwin and explore places like Kakadu. Unfortunately given we only had 6 weeks, it is simply too big a chunk of the trip, so Darwin was discarded. Of course then I realised that if we are going to head up through the centre to simply then head east, then we will spend most of the first 2 weeks in the car driving for no “real” reason!!

In the end I have conceded and suggested that if we are not going to Darwin, then we should simply head up the East coast, and work our way back down.

So plan so far is to head North this time, all the way to Cairns (or maybe a little further) then slowly make our way back down, stopping on the Gold Coast and Coffs Harbour to visit the respective families.

Anyhow, while I am sure no one is actually reading this page anymore, thought I would just post and say “The planning phase has begun!”. That way when we are away and actually start posting everyday, you can look back and see what went into the planning.

There has already been laughter, arguements and tears, and I’m sure there will be a lot more over Fish’n Chips, Pizza or Thai… with maybe a few Bourbons. Either way I’ll try to bring you along for the ride as we plan out the next Big Caravanning Adventure!

PS – Timing for trip is still to be decided, but it will be in roughly August to September 2013.

PPS – The other members of this trip are welcome to post their thoughts up here along the way!!

PPPS – This trip will be over and above our normal Caravan trips, so I’ll try to keep posting them as well!

PPPPS – We really should take the Waldron’s new van out for a test run soon… *hint hint*

Until next time 🙂

Craig.

Well I almost forgot to blog this trip again, but when you are awake at 5am in a caravan that this rocking like a boat, what else do you do!!

Easter time again, and that means it is time for the annual Easter weekend of camping down at the Prom with the Waldron’s and Kate’s school friend Luize and her husband Andrew.

Last year, as I mentioned before, we didn’t make it as the place flooded and wasn’t fully functional by Easter, and this year, we almost didn’t make it again!! To get into the Prom each year, we have to apply for our camping sites in the January Ballot, which we did of course, and were lucky enough to get 3 great sites near the toilet block with a reasonable view of the playground. Then, we had a little run of bad luck.

First of all, Fi changed jobs which meant she had to work on the Thursday and Friday of the Easter weekend. Not a big issue, but it meant I had to come down with the kids and setup by myself. Again not a big issue as I have certainly setup the van by myself plenty of times before…. then, about 7 or 8 weeks before Easter, I came off my bike and dislocated my AC joint on my right shoulder requiring surgery to fix it and pretty much making my right arm useless!!

Luckily, by Easter Thursday, 4 weeks out of Surgery, I was getting pretty good with my left arm, and was confident enough to drive down here. Mark and Kate were fantastic (but don’t let them know I said so!), helping me set up and look after the kids until Fi came down on Saturday.

Now Thursday and Friday were superb days, with unseasonably warm weather. It was shorts and tank tops for the first couple of days, and the kids even got to swim in the river. The nights cooled off, but were pleasant sitting around the Kerosene heaters…. until Friday night that is!

The change hit just as we were putting the kids to bed, and started with a downpour that sent the adults running for my annex where we crammed in with a gas lantern. Then about 10pm, the wind started, and it got worse and worse and worse.

I made a call to pull down the annex and retract the awning before bed, and I was glad I did. We had a very wild night with a constant wind from the west at 50 knots (about 100 km/h) with gusts reaching 71 knots (130 kmph) between midnight and 1am (gotta love the stats you can get on an iPad).

The camp site rang all night with tap tap tap as people tried in vain to keep their tents standing and attached to the ground. A good number of people in tents (probably the smart ones) simply packed up and went home, because by morning there were a lot of damaged poles, and the bins were full of useless tents.

We weathered ok in the van, by my god did it rock! Felt like we were on a boat, and the big gusts slammed the canvas with a huge bang. That along with the sound of tarps and tents flapping meant I only got about an hour and a half sleep that night!! The kids of course slept right through the whole thing!!

Mark’s annex didn’t fare that well with the wind knocking the poles over at about 2 am, but luckily there was no damage and he was able to set it back up again in the morning. Luize and Andrew were also lucky with only one bent pole.

As we crawled out of bed bleary eyed in the morning, it was amazing how a packed park can suddenly become so empty. Alot of people either abandoned their camping plans, or simply had no choice! Mark, Kate and I along with all 6 kids all crammed into my caravan for breakfast, and told Fi not to leave home because we were seriously thinking about quitting ourselves. In the end, we told each other suck it up, and rang Fi to get down here.

The wind died off about lunchtime, and Fi arrived shortly after, but we still spent most of the day hiding in the van. Who would have thought that you could fit 10 people in a caravan!! The kids were great, drawing and playing games all day, but by about mid-afternoon, everyone was getting stir crazy, so we kicked them out to the playground. The night was actually quite peaceful after the night before, and we sat under our awning with the heaters going thankful to have little to no wind.

Sunday, the kids awoke to a chocolate breakfast, eating so many that they didn’t even finish the pancakes I cooked (normally they are inhaled in seconds). Mark cooked us a scrumptious breakfast of bacon, eggs, sausages and hash browns, and then as the kids ran around the playground, making new friends, we settled down and did exactly what you should do when camping….. nothing!

All in all a pretty good day… but that night the weather wasn’t playing nice, and by 10pm we realised why half of the campers that were left after Friday night, packed up early and went home.

So, the last night was spent rocking and rolling again,with strong wind and rain most of the night. Not as bad Friday night, but with 50 knot gusts, enough to really knock the van around again. At least we managed to sleep most of the night, although I have been up since just before 5am as the cold is getting to my shoulder and I just couldn’t get comfortable.

As much as I hate packing up, and this time more than usual given I only have one arm, it will be good to get home with some solid walls, and gas ducted heating!!

The next adventure is in beautiful (and warm) Thailand in about 4 weeks, but seeing as it is not a caravan adventure, I wont blog about it here. Until next time…… brrrrr!

Oh My GOD has it been a long time since I have written on here. Where did the last year go???

Well the good news is, there wasn’t that many Caravan trips that I missed since Wye River last year, but I’ll fill you in quickly on what you have missed.

So…

Not long after the Wye River trip (around early Feb) we had the annual Morton and Leyh holiday away. Last year was Mornington, and we spent the day on the beach building… yes you guessed it…. Sand castles.

Don’t remember much from that trip except that it was a pretty awesome sandcastle and took most of the day to build. I’ll add a few pictures below.

Anyway, after that trip, we had another short trip to Lake Eildon for the Labour Day long weekend with the Waldron’s. Again don’t remember too much from that trip (must do this closer to the actual trips!!) except I had to leap into the lake to save Jess as she was disappearing under the murky water… of course I was fully clothed and had to explain to my boss the following week why my mobile phone no longer worked!! Small price to pay for saving Jess though!

Beyond that we didn’t do a lot of other trips in the van last year, The Prom was cancelled as the park flooded and was not in full working order by Easter (fingers crossed for this year!), and well the rest of the year just seemed to be too busy to get away.

Well so far 2012 is gearing up to fix that 🙂

Of course I had my annual boys trip up at the Murray from New Year’s day, but not much to report on that trip except, a tree branch fell on a tent almost killing a young dad and his two babies right in front of our eyes, I got seriously sick for two days, the temperature got to about 43 degrees (AC in the van worked a treat!!) Edward got bogged and needed his Patrol pulled out by Mark’s Pathfinder, so I got bogged in the same spot and got Ed to pull my pathfinder out with his Patrol, and there was a bush fire about 1.5kms down the track from us on the last night!!

But given that was a boys trip in the van and not a family trip, I won’t talk about that here!!

The first “family” trip for the year was to Inverloch over the Australia day weekend for the annual family trip with Fi’s family. A great weekend over four days with magnificent weather. We spent every day at the beach on Aries Inlet, building sand castles and having a ball. Temperatures were over 30 every day, and the inlet is so safe for the kids.

We headed down to the beach every morning at low tide where you could walk almost 1km across the river to the deep water on the other side. The kids all had a ball looking for sea shells in the sand.

When we arrived at the beach, it was almost 100m to the water, and we setup about 50m away, then had to move back up the beach about 2pm each day as the water rose. I built sand castles of course, but this time I tried my hand at sculpting people… see what you think cause I think I should go back to doing volcanos!!

The park was fantastic and there were so many kids there over the holiday weekend. Was absolutely packed! The kids all had a great time between the playground, jumping pillow and riding bikes. Was a little better on the Sunday when the park emptied out, although given the change of weather on the last night, maybe we should have left as well.

We awoke to pack up day and torrential rain! Of course I had put the walls on the annex, so we had a very wet pack down that day. The kids were all sent to the TV room to stay dry while Mark and I packed our sopping wet canvas. At least by the time we got home it was 32 degrees and everything dried again in about 30 minutes.

That was about a week ago, and well we have just got back from our latest trip, the annual family holiday with the Leyh’s again. This year we decided not to go back to Mornington as the caravan park is pretty average and they keep stuffing up Mum and Dad’s booking, so for a change we went to the Big4 at Badgers Creek in Healesville. Was a good relaxing weekend spent just sitting around the park in the shade by the creek. Yesterday, Zac, Dad and I took a quick trip to the Buxton trout farm as Zac decided he wanted Rainbow trout for dinner. Took 30 mins to get there (through the Black Spur), 30 seconds to catch a fish, and 30 mins back! I cooked it up in the Cobb with some fresh Lime, cracked Pepper and Krazy Salt and Zac proceeded to consume the entire fish in front of everyone!

Lucky for us we had plenty of BBQ stuff and had an absolute feast for dinner with so much left over we even took a doggy bag for Ruby!

A good relaxing (but short 2 night) stay.

Well not sure when the next trip will be yet, maybe the Labour Day weekend, or hopefully the Prom at Easter. Either way I’ll try not to be so slack and write on here about our Caravanning adventures.

Until next time…

Have fun 🙂

Ok, so it seems that some people do read this site, and due to popular demand (from our most loyal fan) I guess I had better fill you in on the rest of our holiday at Wye River.

I apologise for being a bit slack, and only doing an update on the Wednesday, but I had to return to Melbourne for work on the Thursday, and was simply too tired on the Friday and Saturday…. but… better late than never!!

So, following on from my last post on Wednesday…

Now the forecast for the region was pretty much rain every day, but as it turned out, the weather was pretty nice to us and apart from a down pour on the first night, we had good mid-twenties and sun for the rest of the trip. Wasn’t super hot unless you sat in the sun, but was certainly good enough to get to the beach, and that is how we spent the most part of Wednesday.

About lunchtime we headed down to the local store at the front of the caravan park after Mark and I remembered that this caravan park sold the best chips ever. So we changed into our beach gear, bought a bunch of hot chips each and headed to the beach. The chips of course didn’t disappoint, and if ever you get down that way I highly recommend you get yourself a box!

Now anyone who has been to the beach with me before knows that I like to spend my time building the odd sand castle. This time however as we were heading off, I made the grand statement that I can’t be bothered building a sandcastle today, and would simply relax on the beach. Famous last words as it turned out because Wye River had the perfect sand for castle building. Mark on the other hand likes to manage the moat around the castle, and where there is a river involved, he just has to dam the river to get the water flowing in around the moat.

So, it was while we were sitting there eating the best chips ever that we got looking at what a fantastic estuary we had available. Good sand and a river to dam. Every mid 30 year old’s dream. After scoping the possibilities, it was decided, and Mark enlisted the kids to build a dam, while I headed back to the caravan for the shovels.

About 4 hours later… well you can see the results…

Reluctantly about 4pm, I was dragged away from my creation as the kids were stating to lose it and the caravan park had Australia Day games for the kids back in the caravan park. I couldn’t resist sitting back on the bank of the river for 5 minutes though watching as people became brave enough to come over and check it out. Made me smile, and I was pleased that no one destroyed it for at least the 5 minutes I was watching. I vowed to return in about an hour to see if it survived, but got side tracked, and when I returned about 3 hours later, the tide had completely removed all trace of the castle 🙁 Oh well that is the joy of building in the sand.

Once back at the caravan park, we headed down to the park where the caravan park staff had put on some fun games for the kids. A three legged Race, Egg and Spoon Race and a good ol fashioned tug of war. The kids all participated, and Charlotte and Tara did a fantastic job of winning the small children’s race. Emma and Jess had no idea, and while we all sat on the hill in fits of laughter, they came a horrible last. Of course that didn’t stop Emma and Jess, they simply fronted up at the final and stood their ground until they were able to race again!! With a little coaching from the sidelines, they did a lot better the second time around. The poor guy running the races had no idea what to do, so in the end he simply gave Emma, Jess, Tara and Charlotte all lollies to share. Was hilarious!!

The egg and spoon race was pretty uneventful, but once again we all had a great laugh as the kids really had no idea what they were doing. Then it was on to the tug of war. This time the adults got to join in, and we had a kids vs adults tug of war. There were about 10 adults vs about 35 kids. Now being good parents, we decided to be fair and let the kids win the first heat… didn’t have to try hard, we put up a good fight, but truth be known, we had no chance!! Round two we enlisted a few more parents, and were able to (barely) win. Last and final round, the parents all agreed that we would pull the kids close to the line, before letting them win….HA! we had no chance!!!

Was all good fun, and a great way to finish a great Australia day. We headed back to camp to for a BBQ (what else do you have on Oz day??) and a few drinks before sending some very tired kids to bed. What a great day.

Now, as I mentioned before, I had to return to work on the Thursday. The Queensland floods in early January had put me well behind, and I had a couple of meetings to attend. So, about 6:20am I hit the road just as the sun was appearing on the ocean, and had a 3 hour drive (love peak hour on the Westgate!!) back to Melbourne, arriving at work at 9:20am. Did a full days work, finishing up around 6pm and with no desire to head back into peak hour, headed home for dinner. After dinner I lay down on the bed just to rest my eyes for a minute, and woke up a few hours later… left home at about 8:40pm, which actually worked in my favour as peak hour was well and truly over, and I didn’t have to drive into the setting sun for too long before it got dark. Now that’s when the fun began…. I don’t overly recommend driving the Great Ocean Road in the dark. Hard to see anything but what is right in front of you, and while I don’t generally get car sick, the twists and turns and concentrating so hard on staying on the road even made me feel woozy after awhile! I made it in the end arriving back in camp just after 11pm that night. Not a great way to spend a day of my holidays, but I am glad I did it.

The others had a bit more fun, the dad’s all took the kids to the beach in Lorne, while the Mum’s headed to the day spa for massages and facials!! Jeez… some have it hard!! Don’t know much of how else they spent their day, so maybe someone can get Fi to Blog and fill in the gaps….

Friday was a pretty lazy day really. Our last full day was spent hanging around the camp. There was talk of returning to the beach, but that never eventuated, and there was a lot of conversation around where we should go next year. In the end, the girls (older ones not the younger ones) decided to go for a walk around the caravan park and scope out the best spots. They were very specific about the fact that they needed time with no kids, so as soon as they left, I handed Zac and Harrison hand held CB’s, and sent them on a spy mission. Follow the girls and don’t get caught. Report back on what they are up to, but if they see you or you are captured, we will deny all knowledge… very cloak and dagger!! They had fun, and managed to follow the girls for quite a distance before they were captured (and I’m sure they were tortured!!) at the front office while the girls were enquiring about next year.

Now returning from the front office was done in style… or rather peddle powered Go-Karts that the kids had been begging to get hold of. Unfortunately what started as a bit of fun, ended in what could have been a total disaster. Charlotte and Tara teamed up in one of the Go-Karts, and to cut a long story short, ended up driving off a reasonably high bank, landing on the rocks in the river below. Poor Anthony was in the Go-Kart behind and watched it all unfold in slow motion before his eyes. After seeing the drop, I could understand just how shaken up he was, and the girls were lucky to escape with just a few cuts and bruises. They were both very lucky. Kids being kids though, it didn’t stop them for long, a bit of ice and pampering and they both managed to make a good speedy recovery.

Dinner that night was spent at the Wye River Pub, which has one of the best views over the ocean I have ever seen. Had a good meal and a few beverages before a final walk on the beach.

The other excitment of the day was one that I think we can all relate to from our youth… Anthony and the kids discovered a haunted house on the hill behind the caravan park. Actually it was just an abandoned holiday house, but you know how kids imaginations can run away. Also didn’t help that some kid in the play ground told them that it was haunted and that a small girl had been murded and buried there!! Poor Matty really got himself worked up over that tall tale. Of course there was nothing else to do but be a good responsible parent and offer to take the brave kids back up the hill in the dark to investigate… hehe… can’t help myself really!!

Stated off with quite a number of very brave children heading up the hill right on dusk, but unfortunately the fun police… err I mean…. the Mum’s sent the girls to bed right as we were about to leave. That left Myself, Mark, Anthony, Zac, Harrison and Charlotte as the brave explorer’s. Unfortunately I think Charlotte’s nerves (and no possy of brave young girls) got the better of her and she pulled out just before we left. Anthony then chose to stay behind with Charlotte.

So, Mark, Zac, Harrison and Myself all headed off to see if there was any truth to the legend of the murderer. Was about half way up the hill when we lost another. Harrison, brave as he was decided that he had gone far enough and took off in a cloud of dust back down the hill to camp. The rest continued on and found….. well nothing really. It was just a house!! Zac was very brave, making it all the way to the top of the hill, although he was very keen to get back down again, and I think he nearly lost it when I climbed over the barbed wire fence into the garden for a better look. While he didn’t bolt back down the hill, there was definitely a bit of a spring in his step!! Hehe… I shouldn’t laugh, as I can remember what it was like to be that age… but then again… it was funny!!

Was a little bit sad on Saturday as we woke and packed the vans for the trip home. It really seemed (to me anyway) that the trip just went by far too fast. All in all was a great few days away.

Well that’s it, sorry it was so late, but hopefully the account was worth the wait. Gotta keep our loyal fans (Judith) happy!! The good news is there is only a few weeks until the next trip to Mornington with my family… will try to remember to blog better this time!!

Seems like a lifetime since I last blogged here, our WA adventure is now just a distant memory.

Now there has been one Caravan trip since then, but as it was a boys trip to the Murray over new years, and I was the only one in the caravan, I guess that doesn’t count as a family trip. Also what happens at the Murray stays at the Murray… or at least that is the excuse I am going to use for not blogging!!!

Anyhow, here we are at Wye River again. Long time readers would know that this is the site of our very first trip in the new caravan with the Waldrons back in about July last year. Now being the middle of winter, it was cold wet and miserable, but we still had a ball and thought this would be a great location in summer for our annual Australia Day weekend trip away with Fi’s family.

So here we are… middle of summer at Wye River and…. it is cold, wet and miserable!!!! What the? Where is that global warming now????

Oh well, we will still have a ball I’m sure.

So we are here with Mike and Maz, Mark and Kate, Kim and Anthony and of course the kids, Zac (9), Harrison (8), Matthew (6), Charlotte (6), Tara (4), Jess (4), Emma (4), Hayley (4), and Clare (17 months)…. what a tribe!! It’s lucky we have 3 caravans and cabin, or it would be a tight fit hehe!!!

Weather wasn’t too bad when we got here yesterday which was good for setting up camp, only had a few sprinkles and the rain held off until later. The kids all disappeared into the caravan park, spread between the jumping pillow, the playground, bikes and under the supervision of Fi and Kate, stripping down to their undies and playing in the freezing cold river!!! Makes me cold just to think about it!!

The rain returned with a vengeance in the evening, but we managed to cook a great BBQ, even if it was in the rain. Communal area is under our annex which has been extended by using the long wall, a couple of poles, pegs, guy ropes and good old ingenuity. Works well except in a heavy rain… I don’t recommend sitting under the seams of the window!!

Anyway right now I am being laughed at for writing my blog and being told it is time to have a massive cook up of bacon, scrambled eggs and sausages… mmm actually that sounds good!!!!!

Happy Australia Day everyone 🙂

I’ve been every where man,
yea I’ve been everywhere…
Travelled about this land man,
yea I’ve been everywhere,
I’ve been to…

Vermont South, Port Wakefield, Ceduna, Eucla, Norseman, Munster, Fremantle, Armadale, Cervantes, Pinnacles, Kalbarri, Denham, Monkey Mia, Shark Bay, Coral Bay, Carnarvon, Geraldton, Northam, Norseman, Fraser Range, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Nullabour, Ceduna, Port Augusta, Mildura, Swan Hill, Strathmerton…. home!

That’s right… we are home!

I took a family vote yesterday morning, asking the family around breakfast what they wanted to do. The kids all voted for home as they were missing thier friends, where as Fi and I voted to just keep going and never return to the hussel bussel of life…. in the end we were out voted.

Didn’t head straight home though, as I said to Fi we are only a few hours from where I camp at the Murray at New Years, so lets go have a look at that, and if it is ok, maybe we will camp for the last night out. Wasn’t to be though, as when we arrived, we found the campsite well and truely under water. Looks like we might need to find a new spot to camp this year!!

With that out of the way, and no other option, I pointed the car towards home and arrived about 6:30pm last night. The kids were all very excited to be home, and ran up and down the house crying “I can’t belive how big it is!!” You would have thought they had never lived here before!!

Anyway, back to real life today, the kids are at school and kinder and I guess I will have to clean the car and caravan which should take me all day!! We have had a fantastic trip, one that I think we will all remember for a very long time.

That’s it for the blog unless I find some new photos, or think of something else to add. Hope you have enjoyed reading about our adventure everyday, I have certainly enjoyed writing it each morning, and it will be a great record in years to come.

Don’t worry though, we will make sure we continue to post about our caravan experiences in the future…. real life gets boring after awhile and we will need to get back on the road before too long!!

Left a hot Mildura yesterday and headed off to a just as hot sunny Swan Hill. Our trek lead us first across the border into NSW before turning south once more, so officially we have been to 4 states of Australia on this trip!

Now if anyone was wondering what the locusts are like up this way, wonder no more… they were everywhere!! We drove through swams of them, and they made a huge splat across the windscreen and left the van looking very dirty. Going to have my work cut out for me cleaning that off when we get home!

Arrived at Swan Hill just after midday and left the van in the Big 4 before heading down to the Pioneer Settlement. This place had certainly grown since I was here last!!

Walked on in and what do find but the family all locked on the jail cell. I was tempted to leave them there for the afternoon and go exploring in peace…

… but even I am not that mean, so we broke them out and continued on our way.

We took a cruise up the Murray on a paddle boat with a very dry and boring captain explaining the history of paddle boats and life around the Murray. Tara asked Mum if we could just get a boat for Christmas so we didn’t have to keep going on all these other boats… and I didn’t even prompt her!!




the most exiting part of this cruise was the cows on the side of the bank, and Jess took great joy in counting all 6 of them.

After the cruise, was were lucky enough to have a ride in a horse drawn carriage. The horses name was “Harry” and all the kids loved him. As we travelled around the town, we passed another horse called Gemma who was Harry’s friend. The girls decided they liked Gemma while Zac liked Harry…. what a surprise…

We were also lucky enough to have a ride in a vintage car, although the kids all said they liked Harry better. Was a good way to see all of the town very quickly, which was good as it was almost closing time.

Only one thing left to do…. get to the Lolly shop.

Of course as we headed off, Jess needed a toilet stop, which was ok as they were just past the shop. Problem was, the lady there was about to close! Jess ran past saying to the lady “Don’t you close, don’t you close!!” Lucky for us the lady thought she was very cute and kept the store open just a few minutes extra…phew!

Had Pizza on the way back from the settlement at the kids request, then had a great swim in the parks pool. Another fun, but very hot day. Seems hotter here than it was on the Western Coast, and we are certainly missing those sea breezes at night…. gotta get the AC in the van fixed!!

Not sure where we will end up today. I am tempted to take the family over to Strathmerton to show Fi where we camp at New Years, and have a look at the condition of the river post floods, but we will see how we go. Not sure if I can remember the roads in or not….