Brisbane Trip Day 30: Sydney -> Blue Mountains

This was the most urban place we'd stayed in for a while - I was woken up by people on their morning walk going past the front of the house and talking loudly. It wasn't early though, probably around 7.30. We had a relaxed morning, hanging out in the kitchen/family room, eating breakfast and chatting and playing games. The kids spent some time on iPads and all the boys and Amelie played Minecraft for a while (although Amelie's world wasn't working properly) and we played Love Letters again, with people swapping in and out of the game as other things were happening. Our friend's daughter had dancing so she went off to that, and the boys all went with her mum to pick her up, bringing back a big box of delicious donuts from Grumpy Donuts. I was in the shower when they got back out, and returned to the kitchen to a very yummy treat.

Our hosts were going out around 11.30, so we organised to leave at the same time. I got everything in the car and locked the front door and just as I drove off remembered that I'd left my water bottle in the bed - I figured it wasn't worth the hassle of organising to go back inside to get it, so we gifted it to our friends.

We drove around and over the Harbour Bridge which was quite exciting, then I chose the wrong lane as I exited the bridge but still easily found my way to my brother's house in Greenwich. We parked on Greenwich Rd, finding a lengthy parking space fairly easily, and walked around the block to my brother's. His son was a little unsure about all these people coming in to his house, although he eventually played with Caitlin for a little while. When he wanted his Maman and Caitlin offered to go with him to find her though, he wasn't interested, he wanted Papa to take him. He went down for a nap before lunch.

My brother cooked the most magnificent steaks and sausages on the bbq, as well as some awesome chips and his wife made a salad, and we sat on the balcony to eat lunch. They had a friend over as well and she was fun and interesting to talk to. I had a great time catching up with all their day to day news and the kids joined in at times, and looked at the view or retreated with their iPods for a while. Their cousin woke up after a while and still wasn't keen on playing or talking with the kids, but did give them all a high-5 when we were saying goodbye.

We left a bit before 4 and the drive up to the Blue Mountains was quite easy. We pulled into a free camp at Woodford and discovered that all the vehicle camping is on the road, only tents can go on the grassed area (there are large rocks around the edge of the grass). At first I wasn't sure where we'd be able to set up, and we were thinking of getting out our little tents, then I decided I could probably manage to get the tent up in the one bay that was available (everywhere else I felt like the tent would be in the way of through traffic).

The bay was definitely big enough and I had no trouble backing in. I wanted to set up quickly so we could go to my friend's house (I'd said I'd be there around 6 and it was 5.30 when I unhitched). I had a moment of worry when I unhitched and the trailer rolled backwards - I caught it and managed to unlock the toolbox with one hand and get around to the wheels to chock them before it rolled any further. We did a very quick (38 minutes, including the beds) setup in hot, late afternoon sun. I was covered in sweat and very red in the face. The set up was a bit tricky too because half of the bay was asphalt so we couldn't peg all the corners down, so I used ropes on a couple of the corners. The slope was a bit inconvenient too so the tent looks a bit wonky - but for a short overnight stop it was fine. The zip decided to play up just as we were about to leave - I zipped up the fly door instead and we went to my friends.

We were greeted at my friend's house by her 3 legged dog who wasn't sure about these strangers in her house - she settled down after a while and spent a lot of the night licking Amelie and Liam's legs. We sat out the back and had nibbles and drinks and then a BBQ with sausages and chicken skewers. Great food and fantastic conversation. Both my friend's adult daughters were home and I loved catching up with them (I've known them both since they were born). It was a very relaxing and funny night. The kids spent some time looking at the birds and talking to one of the girls about them, and Amelie watched Beauty and the Beast (the new one). I remember watching the original Disney version with my friend in this same house, about 25 years ago! They had recently renovated their kitchen and changed some other things in the house so I was happy to see all the changes and we reminisced about what the house originally looked like.

We didn't leave until after 11 - Amelie was already asleep and everyone was pretty tired. It had been a very enjoyable evening. We drove back to camp and pretty much went straight to bed, all three kids were asleep within minutes.

Half-lap Day 102: Esperance ->The Nullarbor

LiAM woke up feeling extremely cold around 4.30am and came up to our bed. Millie was already there too so it was a little crowded. I waited until everyone else had settled back down to sleep then extricated myself and got up into the cold morning at around 5.30. I put on as many clothes as I could find and went and sat in the car to use the computer. Once the camp kitchen was open at 6.30 I moved over there to have a cup of tea and charge the computer and my camera battery.

Everyone was a bit reluctant to get up because it was so cold. As the sun got higher though the day started to warm a little and I gradually shed my layers as I started to pack everything up. We had breakfast while we packed and kept an eye on what was happening in the Olympics, particularly the swimming. We all stopped to watch the semi-final of the womens 100m freestyle on Tony’s phone, which an Australian won (Cate Campbell).

We were ready to go before 10, and headed slightly out of town to the Esperance Bird and Animal Park (we pulled over to the side of the road to watch the mens 100m Freestyle Final, also won by an Australian, very exciting to see another gold medal). Tony dropped us off at the Bird and Animal Park, unhitched the trailer, and went back into town to get groceries, petrol etc.

As we had driven up the driveway to the park we’d seen Scottish Highland Cows on one side, and horses and ponies on the other, so everyone was excited even before we got through the door. In the café area there were tanks with turtles, lizards, fish and frogs, and once I’d paid and the kids had finished looking at those we moved outside. The first several cages were of birds – lots of Australian birds and also more exotic species, the coolest of which was probably a golden pheasant – I’ve never seen a bird with such varied colouring, and he had a gloriously long tail. We moved past more cages of birds and up a hill, then through a shipping container that is a bridge across the path below (very clever) and then down past more birds and almost back to the start. The path from there went around under the shipping container past more cages of birds – this time the highlight was a Major Mitchell Cockatoo who appeared to be digging himself an escape tunnel – he had made quite a hole in under the wall and was working hard at it. We were amused though that if he got through he’d end up in a tiny little ‘air lock’ cage in the entrance of the cage next door.

Around the corner we came to the mammals, which we were allowed to feed (the kids had each been given a bag of food). The lady at the café had said we’d know who we could feed because they’d ask for it, and she was certainly right! We walked around the corner and suddenly 2 goat’s head were thrust through the fence, trying to get to our food. We fed and patted the goats, then some kangaroos, several pens of sheep, some more goats, 3 emus (who got incredible range with their long necks as they poked them through the fence – I was standing back so they didn’t peck me, and a sheep from the pen across the path stuck its head through the fence and started nibbling on my shoes).  At the end of that path were 2 miniature horses who we stopped and patted for a while, then back past the other side of the sheep to a pen with 3 alpacas in it. We tried to fee the smallest of the 3, but he was very shy, and the other 2 kept getting the food first no matter how we tried to distract them and give some to the little guy.

We moved on to some ducks and chickens, then there was a pen where we could go in with lambs and kids, the kids enjoyed that until the kid nibbled Millie’s ear when she was leaning over to pat a lamb (who was lying on the ground with a coat on and didn’t look very well – he got up and tottered around for a while and looked very unsteady). From there we went into the rabbit pen and the kids could have stayed all day. There were big rabbits and baby rabbits, plenty for everyone to cuddle. Eventually we also discovered some guinea pigs. There was a 5^th birthday party happening at the park and a lot of the kids were in the rabbit pen when we arrived, they moved on to have their party food and our kids got to pat and hold rabbits as much as they liked. Eventually they came out of the pen and we saw a wedge-tailed eagle called Willow – she had a broken shoulder and can’t be released into the wild. She was magnificent looking, so impressive to see – we felt quite sad though because she was up on the highest perch in the cage and kept trying to fly out of the top corner, she didn’t look very happy at all.

We did a quick circuit back around past all the mammals and the emus so that LiAM could use up the rest of his food and we could pat everyone again. We ended up back in with the rabbits and stayed there until Tony said he was back and hitched up and ready to go. We washed our hands and went to the toilet and chatted to the lady in the café then headed back to the car and on our way around midday.

Tony had bought cheese and bacon rolls, and doughnuts, so we were able to eat lunch in the car as we drove north towards Norseman. The countryside here was largely treed, good sized gum trees that reminded us a bit of home. There were more of the low lying areas that fill with water at times, as well as some sizable lake type areas with lots of water in them. We did see one billabong that was pink, exciting to actually see a pink lake after missing all the others  (there were some up along the west coast that we didn’t go to see).  We stopped at a rest stop once to get LiAM a drink of milk, then kept going to Norseman where we filled up with petrol. Norseman looked like an old town, all the houses were made of fibro and it seemed pretty sleepy. We listened to Harry Potter on and off, playing alphabet or word association games in between.

From Norseman we headed out on the Eyre Highway to the east – really heading towards home now and excited to be about to cross the Nullarbor. The highway was initially between trees again, not quite as tall here but still fairly thick. The gum trees were thinner than we had been seeing, and their trunks were a shiny coppery colour. Their leaves were a very glossy green, it was like the whole trees were a bit sparkly. We stopped at a rest stop to fill up our water bottles from our bigger containers in the back – it was hot in the car (22 degrees outside which is the warmest day in the last week or so, and the sun was shining and making us all quite warm) and we’d drunk all our water in our little water bottles. We wandered areound the rest area a bit, it felt pretty remote and dry. There were still trees but they were getting shorter. We drove a bit further and stopped athte Belladonia Roadhouse for more petrol (we didn’t need much but wanted to hit the Nullarbor with a full tank, especially as the price is likely to get more expensive as we go across). The sun was low in the sky but we were keen to get to a rest stop with toilets – there are 24 hour rest areas quite frequently on this highway, but few of them have toilets.

As we drove further east the landscape changed a bit and there was mainly low, silvery bush, very few trees at all. We passed the 90 mile sign – the start of the longest straight stretch of road in Australia – 90 miles, or 146 km. We’d seen plenty of long straight stretches of road on our drive so far today, and when we measured them on the odometer they were only 5-10km long, so this stretch is going to be beyond our imagination. We drove a short way then pulled into Woorla Homestead Rest Area and found a place to put the tent – at first it looked like every cleared area was a road, then we found a spot between several clumps of bushes and trees, and we settled ourselves in there.

The sun had nearly set but we had plenty of time to get the tent up in the light. Tony started cooking tea and I organised the beds and the chargers for our devices. Caitlin rode her bike around and explored the site. LiAM really wanted a fire so he and I went exploring for firewood, it was easy to find small sticks but bigger ones were more difficult. It was quite enjoyable walking together in the dark, with a half-moon and lots of stars. We found a little bit of wood, and discovered that the rest area went WAY back, it was huge, so many spots for people to camp.

We came back and got the fire going and had our dinner (lamb and mashed potato). Caitlin was exhausted and went straight to bed to keep reading the new Harry Potter book. LiAM and Millie roasted the last few marshmallows, then we heated the water for the hot water bottles on the fire. Tony found some more wood across the road and got the fire nice and hot. He also cooked up the rest of our potatoes so that we won’t have to throw them out if we get to the border today.

It was cold but not as much as the last few nights, it wasn’t too uncomfortable in the tent. I read Inheritance while Tony did the dishes (so he could hear the story as well) then we all snuggled in to go to sleep.

Half-lap Day 86: Cape Range National Park

The wind picked up a bit overnight and kept us awake at various stages. The tent held it’s own though, it flapped around a lot but nothing budged. Once again I woke up after sunrise, and headed down to the beach with my cup of tea. I walked along the rocky beach and got to the point where the Mandu Creek comes out to the ocean – it’s dry now, and has left a wide bed of sand and rocks and driftwood. From there I had a good view of the osprey nest further along the rocky shore – one osprey was sitting on top of the nest, and a couple of seagulls started dive bombing the next. Another adult osprey suddenly stood up from within the nest, and the 2 of them screeched at the seagulls until the gulls gave up.

Back at the tent I started to get everyone’s breakfast ready, and to get things organised to pack up. We didn’t get started particularly early (because of our restless night, no one woke up early or easily) but the pack up went pretty smoothly. We chatted a bit to our neighbours and the kids watched the corellas who had descended on the campground. These ones were whiter and cleaner looking than the ones we’d seen in Tom Price. It was tempting to feed them to have them come closer, but we resisted. The kids also found it hard not to collect the amazing shells and rocks around us, but with this being a Sanctuary Zone we weren’t allowed to take anything from the area.

We’d been a bit worried that the jockey wheel might be stuck in the dirt now that the wind had dried out the ground a little, but when we went to turn the trailer around it moved quite easily. We were ready to go by just after 11, and drove the short distance down through the National Park to the North Kurrajong campground. Technically we aren’t supposed to set up until 12, and it was only 11.15 – but our campsite was empty so we backed in there and Caitlin and I went for a wander to check out the beach and see if we could find the campground hosts (the bigger campgrounds have hosts – volunteers who camp here for a week or a month or more, and liaise with the campers, help keep the campground neat and tidy and running well, and are full of information about the local area. North Mandu only had 5 campsites and had no host, this is a bigger area (about 10 sites) and does have a host, right next to our site). We found a couple painting the tables overlooking the beach, and asked if they were the hosts. They were national parks volunteers, but not our hosts. They said it would be fine to set up as long as our site was empty. We chatted to them for a while about places to see from here down to Perth, and things to do within the Park here.

The beach here was very different from North Mandu. We had walked up to the top of the sand dunes, which were much higher here, and gave us a great view across the beach, the lagoon, the reef and the ocean. It was even easier to spot whales from here because of the height. The water was a deep blue, and we could see patches of rock and coral in the clear shallower water within the reef. The sand was white and inviting, it looked like a great place to swim.

This site was much bigger than our last one (12m by 7m) so it was easy to simply back the trailer in to the right spot and set it up from there. The wind was still coming mainly from the east so we set up with the tent on the eastern side, and finally got it right, our annex and living area was protected from the wind! Once the tent was up and the kids had had a bit of an explore we had some lunch, and in the meantime our camp hosts had arrived back at their site and came over to introduce themselves (and make sure we were in the right campground and site).

Today’s plan was to snorkel the Oyster Stacks – a few large piles of rocks in the water, which are covered in oyster shells – which can only be done at high tides, because the coral is so close to the surface that it would be damaged if people snorkeled in shallow water (and people would be more likely to get hurt on the coral too). The window for snorkeling today was 12.30 until 4. By the time we got organised and drove up there, it was 2pm, which gave us a good couple of hours.

There were a lot of people along the shore and lots snorkeling in the water. It was a trickier spot to get into the water than Turquoise Bay – you could climb down rocks into clear, shallow water with a sandy bottom, but getting down the rocks was a little tricky. Further to the south the rocks were low enough that we could just walk in, but the swell made this not quite as easy as it looked, and the current was stronger in this area. We chose to go in at the low rocks. Walking across the rocks to get to the water, there were lots of little rockpools, and many of them had crabs in them. At first we were quite excited, then realised that they all seemed to be dead – they must have been stranded in the rock pools when the tide went out and perhaps the water became too hot?

Tony went in first, then once we were ready I took LiAM, Caitlin and Millie in. We’d heard that here you could see fish as soon as you entered the water and that was true, the coral and pretty fish were right near the shoreline. We swam around in the area between the last 2 oyster stacks and saw so many fish, and lots of coral, it was really beautiful. There were lots of parrot fish, and rainbow fish, angel fish, blue damsels, ocean trout, and so many others. Millie swam really well again and was quite confident directing me to where she wanted to go. Having looked at the fish book last night we all recognised more fish too, and also saw some we didn’t remember seeing yesterday. I found it a bit of work to get back to shore again, the current was strongish and I had to kick pretty hard to swim across it while holding Millie’s hand. I had put waterproof band aids on the blisters on my toes – when I came out and took my flippers off, the bandaids came off as well! I didn’t realise until I was out of the water, so they are in the ocean somewhere – I hope that they don’t hurt any of the fish or other creatures.

Tony, Caitlin and LiAM snorkeled over to the other oyster stacks. They said that the current was much weaker over that way (we’d heard that too) and that the fish around the stacks were incredible. They also saw an octopus. Once they got out I went for a snorkel by myself and went to explore the stacks. The number of fish here was so much more than those just swimming around in the coral. There were caves and gaps in the rocks, which were all full of fish swimming in and out. Under the northernmost stack there was an overhang, and under that ledge were 30 or 40 large fish, just hanging out. It was very cool. On the way back I saw a large group of crocodile longtoms.

When I got back to shore LiAM wanted to come in with me and swim on his own. He and I went back to the stacks, saw the large fish again, and he showed me the octopus. While we watched it came up off the bottom and swam towards some coral, so cool to see all it’s legs pushed out behind us. It nestled up against the coral and we looked around at some fish, when we looked back we couldn’t see the octopus. When we looked really closely we found it’s eye, and then could see it’s outline against the coral – if we hadn’t known it was there, the camoflauge would have hidden it entirely. It was amazing how quickly it changed colour and blended in to its environment.

Caitlin joined us as we headed back to shore (much easier swimming across the current when I had two hands available) and we went back out to the stacks. We didn’t see the octopus this time but saw lots more amazing fish. It’s cool having the 3 of us swimming together as we all see different things and point them out to each other, so we each see more than when we go alone. Swimming back to shore I saw what looked like a sucker in a hole on the bottom, and swam back around to look, Caitlin following me – there was an octopus curled up in this little hole in the rocks, we couldn’t see much of him but it was pretty cool. Right near the edge I saw an eye in a hole and was able so show LiAM this time as well – another octopus in a hole, amazing how we could swim right over so many things and not know they were there, unless you happen to look the right way.

Millie and Tony came in for one last snorkel before the water got too shallow. Swimming around with LiAM and Millie, we saw the octopus closest to the shore had come out of his hole, and was sitting on the ocean floor. LiAM and I got a good look, Millie was having a bit of trouble with the swell so close to shore and wasn’t sure what we were looking at, so didn’t see the octopus. We had another quick look around and then reluctantly got out. Every time I am in the water snorkeling there is no other place I want to be, I could stay in there for hours and never get sick of looking at the fish going about their business, and the incredible looking coral.

We dried off and drove back to our campsite. The sun was low in the sky now and made the ranges an amazing colour. Back at camp I wanted to try snorkeling off our beach, Caitlin was going to come with me then started chatting to a guy with a guitar, also from Victoria, so I went in by myself. There were a couple of fishermen on the floor (this part of the park is not a sanctuary, so fishing is allowed) and I didn’t go far out, so I felt safe enough snorkeling by myself. The water was cloudy near the shore, and fairly shallow as the tide was on it’s way out. I could see some submerged rocks just out from the point at the southern end of our beach, so I went to check them out. There were fish around, not lots but several angel fish and blue damsels and other little fish. It was hard to swim close enough to the rocks without getting in to very shallow water, so I just had a quick look around and then headed back to shore, feeling quite exhileratied and happy that I’d checked it out. Tony came down to the beach to have a look, and we had a bit of a chat then he went back to camp and I explored the rocks on foot, out of the water. There was another little beach just past the rocks to the south, and at the point where the rocks met the sand there were lots of completely moss covered rocks, low in the water and now being exposed by the low tide. I wandered around for a while and took lots of photos, very enjoyable.

Back at our tent we discussed our day with the camp hosts, and they invited us up to the tables overlooking the beach for happy hour – most of the campers head up there each evening to watch the sunset. We grabbed some drinks and went up to join the others. Our hosts were there, as well as the guy that Caitlin had been talking to, and his partner. There was another family there, with 4 kids – friends of the people we’d been next to at North Mandu, and that family had told each of us about each other, and we’d seen them briefly at the oyster stacks that afternoon. We started chatting, they are from Newcastle so it was cool to discuss a place we both knew well. It turns out that they are also homeschoolers – only the 2^nd full time homeschooling family we’ve met on our trip! We talked for ages, and all our kids played on the beach together (theirs are aged between 6 and 10. LiAM and the 10yo boy got on well, and Millie and the 6yo girl did as well. Caitlin and the other boys joined in whatever games were going on). All the other campers enjoyed watching so many kids play together on the beach, obviously having a lot of fun.

The sunset was magnificent, one of the best we’ve seen. As the sun approached the horizon we saw dolphins swimming through the lagoon. Caitlin raced down to the beach to show Millie, who looked up just in time to see one leap out of the water – we could tell she’d seen it because of the very excited dance she did on the edge of the water. We watched them swim past for ages, leaping out of the water and obviously playing together. Once they had moved on and the sun was down, the clouds kept getting more and more orange and spectacular, it was a wonderful sight and quite nice to share it with everyone else who was there.

Once it was dark we headed back down to the tent and Tony cooked some dinner – a tuna and rice dish, wrapped in rice paper rolls. We looked at the fish book some more and I finished setting up the beds. We were all feeling pretty relaxed and tired and happy. LiAM dropped some food on the ground and then saw a little shape run past his chair. A little while later another shape ran across our carpet. We turned more lights on and after a while saw a little furry mouse-like animal scamper out from under a chair, then ran back in when it saw us looking at it. Over the next half an hour or so we had about 4 of these guys scampering and hopping around our camp – they were so cute, with big round ears, plump little bodies and incredibly long tails. Sometimes they ran on all fours and sometimes they hopped. One of them found a big crust of bread behind a chair and hopped out with it – Caitlin could only see the bread and said it was hilarious to see this crust hopping across the ground. I scared the little guy by chasing him and he dropped the crust (I didn’t want him eating it) and soon after that they all disappeared. I wasn’t sure what they were called, but we were positive they were little native marsupials.

It was a clear night and as more people turned off their lights in their vans we could see more and more stars – probably the most we’ve seen anywhere. We could clearly see the milky way all the way down to the horizon, that rarely happens. We’d noticed here that the ocean seems so much bigger, with low headlands the view to north and south of the ocean is massive, and it was the same with the sky – with the dunes and the ranges being so low, there is nothing to block the horizon and it felt like we were in a huge dome, with the ceiling covered in stars. We saw lots of shooting stars too – I only saw a couple, but Tony and Caitlin saw 8 or 9. It was a beautiful night. Tony sat in a chair behind our tent, away from all the lights, and watched the sky for ages.

Eventually we headed in to bed and read for a while then dropped off to sleep.

Half-lap Day 45: Darwin

With all the windows open the tent gets light as soon as the sky does, so we tend to be waking up fairly early. We got up and had breakfast and although we had talked about having a rest day, we decided to head out to Fogg Dam to see if we could see much wildlife. By the time we got ready it was a bit after 9, we were relaxed and ready to go for a bit of an explore.

We’d been told that it’s sometimes possible to see saltwater crocodiles on the banks of the Adelaide River where the Arnhem Highway crosses the river (near where the jumping crocodile cruises happen). So we drove past Fogg Dam and went across the river to see if we could see anything – the water was really high and there really weren’t any banks to be seen, and no crocodiles – cool to see the river though and know that it was a place where big crocs hang out.

We came back across the river and went to Windows on the Wetland – an impressive looking building on the hill above the river, looking across wetlands and floodplains. It had a fantastic interactive and informative display area downstairs, which the kids spent ages exploring. There were live fish and turtles, a place where they could pop their heads through a hole and get a mudskipper’s view of the mangroves, lots of information on termites and snakes and birds and crocodiles, and a quiz where they had to figure out the mystery animal. LiAM and Caitlin both figured out it was a crocodile and got a sticker and bookmark as a prize. Upstairs there were binoculars to view the wetlands, and the ranger came up and gave a fascinating talk about the animals of the wetlands – how they have adapted their behavior to better cope with humans or cane toads, how they work together to mean that the ecosystem flourishes, what kind of numbers of animals are present in the wetlands area. I learnt heaps and was really glad we were there for it. There was a video playing continuously about the wetlands and Millie was keen to see the whole thing, she watched some parts of it several times and loved it all.  We ended up spending about an hour and a half there, and everyone really enjoyed it.

Wetlands

I got a bit excited at the idea of going further towards Kakadu and going on a billabong cruise to see crocs in the wild, but it was quite expensive for the 5 of us and we decided to leave it. We had sandwiches overlooking the wetlands (and some buffalo) and then drove over the river and back one more time - the water level was much lower now but still no crocs to be seen. We

headed back to Fogg Dam – it was quite a bit later in the day than we’d planned to get there (early morning would have been best) but we’d had such a good morning that it didn’t really matter. There was no walking allowed across the dam wall because of recent saltwater crocodile sightings. At first we didn’t realise that we were driving across the dam wall because there was so little water in the dam. There were some wet areas with lilies in them which were quite pretty. We drove to the other side and got out and went up a viewing platform – there wasn’t much water here but there were still a few birds around, including a black-shouldered kite which was swooping around. On the way back out we saw a Jabiru, I’ve not seen many of them in the wild (and none yet on this trip) so I was quite excited.

Fogg Dam

Black-shouldered Kite

From here we went a bit further south to a mango farm called Crazy Acres. It’s a family run farm that sells amazing food. LiAM had a mango and banana smoothie, Tony had mango cheesecake, Caitlin and Millie had ice cream (scoops of mango, passionfruit and vanilla that each came out in their own little bowl) and I had coconut chia pudding with mango on top. All of them were delicious and we all shared everyone’s dessert – a lovely afternoon tea. It was interesting too to read about the history of the farm and how they have built the business up from scratch.

I was keen to visit Berry Springs (just down the road) on our way home. Some of the others were a bit tired and reluctant, we decided to pop in for a quick swim and see how everyone liked it. On the way down to the water Caitlin bought a noodle, we got changed and headed for the main pool. It was very large and quite deep. LiAM and Caitlin and I got in and swam for a bit, the kids weren’t keen to go too far from the edge. Millie wanted a snorkel and we had trouble finding one that would fit her and be comfortable enough – she did try LiAM’s but then LiAM and I decided to swim up the creek to the top of the springs and he needed his mask and snorkel for that, so we tried to adjust one of the others for Millie but nothing worked. Eventually she decided to just use her goggles. Everyone was extra tired and cranky and still rather hot by this stage.

Tony and the girls walked back up to the top of the springs and LiAM and I swam. We saw so many cool fish on the way – archer fish, 2 types of rainbow fish, and some beautiful large flattish black fish with spots (I did learn their name and have forgotten it again…). We reached the others and Caitlin came back down the creek a little way to see the black fish. It was easier to swim here, Millie could stand up and the water was much clearer. We could move around easily and with our masks and goggles we could watch the fish. There was a small waterfall which we sat under and could go in behind, there was a little cave with enough room to pop our heads up. It was loud in there and so cool, looking back out and seeing nothing but a wall of water. Everyone went in a couple of times, the girls didn’t like it much though.

We swam back down the creek, Millie on my back and popping her head under the water when I saw cool fish, it worked quite well. We saw a group of 5 little fish like the big black ones, Caitlin saw a bright yellow fish, and LiAM saw a freshwater longtom – a long, thin fish with a sword like mouth. We all felt much happier now and enjoyed exploring the creek and the rocks and playing near the waterfall. The water was quite warm until we moved up past the area where the waterfall came in from the side, then it was really cold.

Berry Springs

Once we’d had enough we got out and the kids got changed. We headed back to our tent – the first time we’ve been back before dark in a while. Tony cooked pasta and tuna for dinner and the kids had a swim in our hosts’ pool. Millie and I went to Woolworths after tea to get supplies and a cake for LiAM’s birthday. Millie swam briefly once we got back then we all headed for bed and listened to Brisingr.