Brisbane Trip Day 24: Armidale

This was definitely the coldest night we've had on the trip so far, and a bit of a shock after such warm nights in Brisbane. We used all the blankets and it wasn't too uncomfortable. I was up early and there was a fog covering the show grounds, with the sun shining through and silhouetting all the show buildings, it was very pretty.

I had a cup of tea and breakfast and the kids joined me as they woke up. Once I'd eaten I started work on my car window - being a Sunday I figured there'd be no one around to fix it, and also I didn't want to pay someone again, I was sure I could figure it out. It took me a while to get the door panel off, there were a couple of screws I didn't find until I looked up a diagram online. With the panel off I could see what the problem was - the window had jumped the rails and was jammed between the window column and the door frame. I tried to shift it out but it wasn't budging at all. I thought I just needed more strength, so asked the guy in the camper trailer next to us if he could help. He was a young guy, and a mechanic, and happy to help out. He'd also had a similar problem with his own window. My window though was well and truly jammed and he couldn't shift it with strength. He tried a few things and eventually found a screw that loosened the window enough to move it back and out of the jam, then put it into it's rail. He put everything back together for me and the window worked perfectly. I was very grateful.

By now it was nearly 11am so we quickly got ready and headed off to explore. We drove around Armidale and I showed the kids places that I remembered. Amelie was impressed with all the churches. I wanted to show them the 3 houses I'd lived in, on the first pass I couldn't find any of them - everything looked so different. We got petrol and drove up Elm Avenue to the uni, I was pleased to show them this beautiful road that I walked up so many times. There were a few yellow leaves here and there, but it was mainly showing it's summer glory. Driving back through town I found 2 of my houses and I think the driveway of the third.

We set off along the Waterfall Way to the east. I love this countryside - with the elevation so high the sky seems to go forever and the clouds sit differently to what we are used to. The land is pretty dry, with beautiful dead trees in all the paddocks, and lots of large rocks strewn everywhere. It's pretty tough land, very beautiful. We saw 3 eagles on our drive out to Wollomombi Falls.

At the falls we wandered around the picnic area a bit, got a glimpse of Chandler Falls, looked at the gorge, used the toilets then checked the maps and decided to do the walk that goes towards the tops of the falls. The walk was quite pretty, through wooded hills with a mix of living and dead trees and interesting undergrowth. The first lookout gave us a good view of the gorge - it was deep and immense looking - lots of places where we could see that rockfalls had happened, huge slabs of rock lining the walls where there hadn't been falls, and the river way way down below. The day was hot and at one point the kids were thinking about heading back. We could see a cool looking metal bridge up ahead though so kept walking towards that. The bridge crossed the river, above (and a few hundred metres back from) the top of the falls. It was gorgeous, the river trickling between lots of big rocks, and the river banks sloping up to grass and then trees and the blue sky above. We had a play around on the rocks and saw some rock skinks (one swam across the river to get away from us). We found a spot in the shade and sat and ate some lunch (tuna, avocado, ritz and saladas). After eating we explored a bit more above and below the bridge, then kept walking to the lookout at the top of the falls. It was pretty as well, we could see several arms of the falls coming from a rock pool at the top, and had a great view right along the gorge. We couldn't see the bottom of the falls though, they were way below us. After resting a little and admiring the view, we continued on to the lookout for Chandler Falls (two rivers meet at the bottom of the gorge, and they both have massive waterfalls dropping into the gorge just before the meeting place. Wollomombi Falls are the tallest in Australia, over 200m). These falls were also impressive. Not a lot of water in them at the moment, but we could see it falling in steps all the way to the bottom. The gorge here was similar although had different things to look at - a slightly less recent rockfall, different trees, more farmland at the top. We could also see the top of the ridge between the 2 rivers.

The walk back was pretty again although we were all quite tired. The views of the gorge from the lookouts, and even the river at the bridge, looked different because the sun had moved and the shadows were very different. Back at the car we had a big drink of water and a snack and felt a bit refreshed. We drove down to look at the camping ground (which I hadn't realised was there) - it looked pretty and was quite cheap, although the sites looked pretty hard and possibly were all gravel, so it might be tricky for us to set up there.

I'd planned to keep heading east and see Ebor Falls, Dorrigo and maybe even Bellingen, but we'd spent quite a bit of time here and got started later than I'd thought we would, and we were all feeling tired. So instead we went back towards Armidale, then went out to Gara Gorge. The last several kilometres of the road were gravel, and parts of it were the most heavily corrugated I think I've driven on. I had to drive at about 10km/hr in one bit so that the car didn't feel like it was going to fall apart. It seemed to take a long time to get to the gorge, through some very pretty countryside - then suddenly we were on paved roads again as we entered the National Park. We stopped at the Blue Hole and got out to have a look. I remembered people swimming here, and while it was attractive to look at, it didn't look inviting to swim in. No one else was there and there were no obvious paths down to the water either. We found a path through the grass that led to a big rock so we stood there and watched the birds and the skinks and enjoyed the peaceful surrounds.

I'd seen people coming out along the road who had been swimming, and several cars came past from further into the park, so we went down there. There were a lot more cars at the next carpark. We walked down to the river and saw kids in the water, and people walking back up the path in wet clothes, so I popped back to the car and got the kids swimmers. The other kids had said there was a better spot to swim further down the river. Liam and Caitlin clambered over the rocks to explore, which was fun (although Liam scratched his shoulder quite badly on a tree). They came back up and the 4 of us walked down the path a way until we found another place to reach the river. The rocks rose up quite steeply either side of the water, and the valley was narrower and more full of trees than the valley we'd had lunch in. This was beautiful as well, in a darker way. The water was reflecting in shimmery patterns on the overhanging rocks, it was very cool. The kids sat on the edge of a rock with their feet in the water and the fish nibbled on their skin, and I found a beachy area where I could wade into the water. It was cold, though bearable. The kids joined me (we had to duck under a tree branch to get to the beach) and Caitlin made her way over a rock to sit on a submerged (slippery) rock. I'd walked in to about my waist and Liam came with me, then swam out to a rock in the middle of the river. Caitlin made her way out there as well, then when she came back in I went out. There were lots of big rocks under the water and while the water was clear it was in the shade and hard to see, so we didn't swim around a lot. It was lovely though, being in the water and looking up at the rocks and the trees (and the extra reflections that the ripples we were making created on the rocks). Amelie played in the water near where we came in, it sloped down quite quickly there so it was easy to get right in to the water.

We got out and talked to a couple who were making their way up the river going from rock to rock - just where we were there wasn't an easy way to get across or around so they walked through the water. I sat with my feet in the river for a while and enjoyed the fish nibbling on my dry skin. We got dressed and walked back to the car. Amelie read the history of the water flume that used to be here - there was hydro power here once. It was interesting too to look at the debris stuck in the trees and see how high the flood level is here when there's been a lot of rain.

The drive out was a lot easier - the sun was low in the sky and was highlighting the corrugations in the road so I could avoid them as much as possible. We called in at Coles when we were back in town to grab milk and eggs and a 6-pack of beer for the guy who fixed my window. We drove around a little more so the kids could see the attractive main street and the fountain in the mall.

Back to camp and we all went and had hot showers, then had egg and cabana sandwiches for dinner. We tidied up (and I did the dishes so they weren't slowing us down in the morning) and once again were all in bed between 9 and 9.30.

Brisbane Trip Day 5: Crowdy Bay National Park

I woke up in the morning and discovered that our car fridge wasn’t working (I’d turned it off overnight and it would not turn back on) and the key remote for my car wasn’t working either. My feelings of apprehension all came back so I went for a walk to the beach, this time through the track just near our campsite rather than down the road, and I felt better straight away – seeing the ocean always calms me down.

Back at camp I made a cup of tea and set up the annex in case we had more rain (it was still quite grey). The kids gradually made their way out of the tent and we had a lovely relaxed morning around the campsite. The national park ranger came passed and I let him know I hadn’t paid yet – he gave me a payment slip and said I could pay anytime that day over at Diamond Head Campground. I asked about walking over and he said it would take about half an hour on the inland track, and gave me directions.

We decided we’d walk over and pay, maybe have a swim there if the surf was calmer, and walk back via the headland walk. We set off around 11.30 – it had been drizzling on and off but nothing heavy. The track started from the far end of our campground and wound through fairly dense bush. Not far into our walk we saw a dead snake – it gave us all a fright until we realised it was dead, then we were able to stop and have a good look at it – some birds had started to peck at it but it was mainly intact. I realised at this point that my camera battery was flat – I took a few photos using my phone but not as many as I normally would – I missed my camera a few times, although I also enjoyed walking without stopping to capture images. Amelie wasn’t keen on the walk so we were counting animal sightings to make it more interesting – we saw lots of birds, ants, a few butterflies – the dead snake was the most exciting. There were also several cool looking flowers – banksias, Christmas bells, and some white flowers and purple flowers – watching out for them made it more interesting as well.  We walked past (and had a look into) Kylie’s hut – an author called Kylie ?? used to live there and gave the area it’s name. It was very basic but I loved the idea of living there and wandering down to the beach whenever I fancied.

As we got close to Diamond Head we suddenly had a view of the ocean to the north, it was quite impressive. The last bit of the walk was down a track with low vegetation on each side, so we could see the view for most of the way. We arrived at the campground and paid our camping and National Park fees (it was $8 a day for NP fees, on top of camping fees. I was surprised, in most places I’ve only had to pay the NP fee once on entering, if we are staying more than one night).

By this stage it was raining so we went and used the flush toilets (kids were very excited) and sat under a shelter to have some lunch. I checked the radar and the rain looked like it wouldn’t last long, so we sat and played games for a while, trying to wait out the rain. After a while we decided to walk down to the beach and not worry about getting a little wet. We clambered over some more rocks and admired the view in one direction and the interesting rock formations to the south (including a gap in the rocks that looked like it might once have been a natural arch). The girls decided to try the water and it was warm – so they had a swim in the edge of the surf – it was shallow for a long way out to where the waves were breaking, so they just stayed knee deep and had a great time. Liam and I explored the rocks a bit more, watched the kangaroos, and sheltered under a tree when the rain felt heavier.

When the girls got out we figured we were all pretty wet anyway so we might as well start to walk back. As we got out into the open the rain became extremely heavy – we were quickly wet right through to the skin, and since we couldn’t get much wetter, we decided to keep going. Amelie just wrapped her towel around her and the other 2 kids had jackets. I was just in a t-shirt but didn’t feel too cold. The air temperature wasn’t too bad, the rain was a little chilly though. We trudged up the open track from the campground and then debated whether to try the headland track – Amelie would have preferred to go straight back the inland way, the others wanted to see the headlands. We went the longer way – the track led up and down between 3 headlands and there were some magnificent views of the oceans, headlands and off shore rocks. Amelie found it pretty hard going but she kept plodding along. The others walked ahead and seemed to really enjoy it. I tried to keep my hand on Amelie’s back or shoulder to keep her motivated and supported – she was cold and wet and miserable and I am so impressed that she walked the whole way.

Above Kylie’s beach we had a great view of the rocks we’d explored yesterday afternoon. Caitlin took the steep track down from there to the beach which was a much shorter way back to camp – the rest of us went back inland to Indian Head campground then back past Kylie’s hut and the snake. Caitlin was waiting for us when we arrived – and our annex roof was full of water as it had obviously poured here as well and I’d made no adjustments for rain. The kids went into the tent and changed into dry clothes and snuggled under blankets, while I sorted out the roof. I got all the water off and adjusted pole heights and added ropes etc until all the new water was running straight off the roof.

Once I was finally in dry clothes myself I made the hot chocolate I’d been promising the kids since we first got wet. I used milk, cream, coconut sugar and half a block of dark chocolate for a very rich, creamy hot chocolate that really warmed and filled us all up.  My feet were all white and wrinkly after being in wet shoes for so long – it took a while before all our skin started to feel normal again even though we warmed up pretty quickly. The kids played on their ipods and Caitlin chatted with friends on her phone and we had a very quiet time for the remainder of the day. I cooked some rice and we had that with kabana and cheese and everyone settled in to bed fairly quickly and easily.

Half-lap Day 41: Litchfield National Park

I was woken up around 5am by an animal noise – I wandered out to find a possum standing frozen near our table, like he was pretending he wasn’t there. I couldn’t see what he’d been eating, but moved some stuff that might have been a problem, then went to the toilet after he ran up the tree. He came back while I was gone and we realised he’d found our bread tub which had a little hole in the bottom, he’d made the hole bigger and was eating the bread through the hole. We put the tub back in the car and went back to bed, I managed to get a bit more sleep, didn’t wake up until about 7.30. The kids were all up by then and got themselves some breakfast before Tony and I came out.

The kids played with their friends again – really lovely kids (from Tasmania) who are interesting to talk to. We pottered around and got ready and were off to the national park by around 9.30. This time we went to Wangi Falls, which I think are the most popular destination in the park. There is a kiosk here and we could have camped here as well. It was the Saturday of a long weekend so we expected the area to be more crowded than when we came out on Thursday, and there were a fair few cars in the carpark but finding a spot was easy. We wandered down to the area near the water and found a spot to put our towels and snorkels and then went closer to look at the view.

Wangi Falls was also two waterfalls spilling into a plunge pool – the falls were much much higher than Florence Falls and the pool was much much larger. It was beautiful. Tony, LiAM and Caitlin went straight in the water (there were stairs to get in here, rather than scrambling over the rocks like at Florence) and Millie and I walked a short way along a board walk to a viewing platform where we could see the falls easily without being in the way of people getting in the water.

Wangi Falls

We went back and joined the others in the water, and swam across a pebbly/rocky part of the pool to a sand bar in the middle. I couldn’t quite stand up all the way so Millie hung on to my back while I swam her over. Our Tasmanian friends were there too, and we could see the dad and one of the boys over at the base of one of the waterfalls, and Millie said she wanted to go into a little pool that was over there. I wasn’t sure what she meant so Tony and Catilin swam over to check it out. Tony came back and said it was a good place to go, and he swam back over with Millie on his back. LiAM and I went to shore to get our snorkels, then swam all the way over – it was over a fairly deep channel, and I held on to LiAM’s hand as we swam and we were both confident doing it that way (he wasn’t sure he could make it all the way on his own, and I wasn’t sure if I’d be OK with him on my back). Once we got to the base of the falls we climbed up the rocks a little way to join the others – it was a bit scary for me, climbing wet slippery rocks is not something I find easy, and I was also worried about the kids falling in the water. We made it up ok (it was an easy climb really) and there was a deep pool in the side of the cliff face, maybe a metre and a half in diameter, that we all slipped in to and lay back looking up at the waterfall. It was pretty special.

The pool we swam in is in the dark, round patch to the right of the falls, a little up from the base

We climbed out so that others could have a turn in the pool, and sat in the water at the base of the rocks for a while. LiAM, Caitlin and Tony wanted to swim to the other waterfall, so I took Millie back over to the sandbar. She sat on my back while I swam over, and I was a bit nervous about taking her, but with the snorkel it was pretty easy, I didn’t need to spend energy on keeping my head up, and she’s so light that the swimming was not a problem. Now that she can swim a bit, and tread water really well, it was easier too – if she did fall off she’d be able to keep herself afloat until I could grab her.

Back at the sandbar we hung out for a while, swimming around. Millie couldn’t quite stand up so I held her for a lot of the time. We chatted to a lady and watched the others over at the waterfall. After a while we swam back to shore – this time going through a little passage between plants to a different set of steps. It was a little scary as the water at the edge of the passage wasn’t so clear so I was thinking about crocodiles – freshwater crocs do live in these waters and I wasn’t keen to see one quite that close!

Millie and I walked back around to the viewing platform and spent ages looking at all the fish in the water, and across to the falls. The others joined us, and Millie said she wanted to walk up to the rainforest platform. We got our shoes and cameras etc and set off – it was SO cool (temperature wise) in the rainforest, it was hard to believe it was such a hot day. We saw lots and lots of black flying foxes, and the noise they were making was quite loud. It was cool to walk up through the levels of the rainforest and finish at a platform near the top of the trees. Our Tasmanian friends caught up with us at the platform, and some of them were continuing on the loop walk which went over the top of the falls – Millie said she wanted to go too! Caitlin really wanted to as well and LiAM doesn’t want to miss out on what others are seeing, so we all kept going. It was hot when we popped out into the sun, but a lot of the walk was in shade. There was no view of the falls from the walk, it did cross over the creek up the top and that was cool to see, really pretty and then fun to imagine the water spilling over those massive falls in a few more metres. The view across the national park from the top was pretty cool too, although a bit hazy because of all the burning off they are doing.

View from top of Wangi Falls

LiAM and Caitlin had gone ahead with their friends and I tried to catch up with them while Tony came at Millie’s pace – I ended up doing the whole walk by myself which was quite peaceful. It wasn’t a hard walk despite the height of the falls, and we were all glad that we’d decided to do it. Our friends left when we got back, and we all went in for one more swim to cool off before we left. A French guy sitting near us asked if he could use one of our masks for 5 minutes, and he took it out to help him take underwater photos for a while. We waited for him to come back in then we got out of the water and headed back to the car.

I wanted to eat our lunch at Buley Rockhole but everyone was hungry now so we made some sandwiches at the car, and then drove to the Rockhole. The carpark there was quite full but there were spots available. Buley Rockhole is a series of waterfalls and rockholes along the creek that flows over Florence Falls about 1km downstream. It was very cool to think of the water we were swimming in heading over the falls in a short time.

We came in at the Upper Rockholes (and saw our friends on the way out as we were going in). Caitlin had wanted to jump in to the water, and was thrilled to see people jumping in to the first rockhole we came to. She and LiAM went straight over to jump in, and Millie and I sat in the shallows near the top of a little waterfall while Millie finished another sandwich. Once she was done she went into the deeper part with Tony, then climbed out with Caitlin and had a go at jumping in. It took her a little while then she jumped and swam to Tony, and she ended up jumping several times and was quite confident swimming around in the pool, even swimming over to the little waterfall running in to the pool. LiAM and I lay in the downstream waterfall for a while, then started exploring the pool below it and then the next pool. It was deeper at the bottom of some cascades (not deep enough to jump, but deep enough to swim, and the water was very clear). I lay in the cascades (it was like being in a spa) and LiAM swam against the current to get to me, then let himself drift back across the pool, then did it again and again until the others joined us.

We all played there for a while, then walked, slithered and swam further downstream. We climbed over some rocks and got to a pool where a group of Tongan guys and girls had been jumping in – we figured if they could jump in and not hit the bottom then we should be fine. Caitlin jumped in straight away, and I wanted to jump but it was pretty high – maybe 1.5m? and it was pretty scary. I let Tony go in front of me, then Caitlin again, then some other girls and some of the Tongan guys. I helped Millie climb down to where she could play in the water just downstream of the deep pool. I stood on the edge and kept trying to jump then deciding to wait a bit longer. One of the Tongan guys noticed me and said ‘you can do it!’ Eventually, after letting lots of people go first, I stepped down to a slightly lower ledge and jumped from there. It was fun although a little scary. When I surfaced the Tongan guys all clapped for me.

Sitting on the edge of one of the deep pools

Caitlin jumped many times then we moved further downstream, again climbing down some of the waterfalls and getting out and walking around others. Right at the bottom were two deepish pools. The very bottom one had a large rock where people were climbing and jumping – this one seemed a bit more risky as the water wasn’t quite as deep and there were rocks (which could be seen) not far from the jumping area. Caitlin, LiAM and Tony jumped for a while, being careful to land in the right place. I found it a hard pool to swim in, the current was strong so trying to hold Millie meant I had to tread water pretty hard and I kicked underwater rocks, hard, twice. She and I moved up to the next pool which was a bit easier and the bottom was smoother. We swam over and sat on rocks with the waterfall washing over our backs and heads, it was very cool. The others came and jumped in to the pool where we were a few times, having ‘biggest splash’ competitions.

Looking down along the rock holes

Eventually we made our way back up the path to our stuff, then Tony and Caitlin went back to the middle pool for a few more jumps. Tony hurt his knee pushing off for his very last jump. I wanted to do one more jump so jumped in to the pool right at the top where Caitlin and Millie had first started. It wasn’t as high as the middle pool so I found it much easier. Caitlin did a few more, and we watched some German guys doing fancy jumps for a while, then we headed back to the car.

The top pool (with me in the water after jumping in)

On the way back we stopped to look at the magnetic termite mounds – they are all built in a north-south direction so that there is always one side in the shade. I hadn’t seen mounds like this before, and there were huge fields of them – so incredible. There were lots of the cathedral mounds as well, we’ve seen them all over the place but they are getting big up this far north. Millie was fascinated by the termite mounds and took a video of them and the information display with her ipod.

Millie and termite mounds

I drove home because Tony’s knee was too sore. The kids wanted a swim in the caravan park pool so we had a quick dip as it was nearly 7pm, which is when the pool closes. The kids had showers and I cooked some rice noodles which we had with mayonnaise and tuna, then we got ready for bed and read for a while before crashing.

Half-lap Day 35: Katherine

Our plan was to get up and going as quickly as we could to head out to Katherine Gorge before it got too hot. We were on our way by 9am, which is about how long it takes us to get up and have breakfast, play with the puppies, play some games and tidy up a bit. (Pumbaa, the biggest of the puppies, expanded his range enough to come over to our tent, so there was lots of puppy cuddles and amusement as he played under our table). The drive out to the gorge was interesting, seeing some of the outlying houses of Katherine and then the farms along the road. There was an old steam engine in one paddock (not a train, a road engine I think). We also saw a few horses.

We wandered in to the Visitor Centre which was lovely and cool – the morning was pretty warm already. Looking at the maps and chatting to the girl at the desk we decided on a walk to a lookout which would let us see the first gorge – about an hour return, which everyone felt ok about. As Tony was coming in a guy handed him a voucher for a bacon and egg roll which he didn’t need – so Tony and the kids ordered that while I went back to the car to get shoes and hats and sunscreen and food for our walk. It took the usual very long time for Millie to get her sunscreen on – she’s very thorough – then we headed off.

Before we got to the place where the boat tours leave we discovered trees full of red-nosed flying foxes. They were hanging in the trees and making a lot of noise. Very cool to see. The walk was quite pleasant after the boat ramp, through trees and with a rock wall on our right. There were stairs and rocks going up and down, and we stopped to rest a few times. After a while the path started to climb – lots of metal stairs, and about halfway up Millie stopped and wasn’t keen to go any further. I went on with Caitlin and LiAM, Tony and Millie followed after a while. The climb wasn’t too strenuous and we soon arrived at a small outcrop where we could see the river (with no fences) then it wasn’t far from there up to the lookout.

Even Millie was impressed with the view, she liked the sparkling sun reflecting off the river. It was great to see the high cliff faces with the river flowing slowly through between them, a beautiful green colour like all the rivers up here. We looked for crocodiles but didn’t see any. We stayed at the lookout for quite a while, enjoying all aspects of the view, and marveling that because it wasn’t quite on the edge of the cliff, I felt no fear at all, even though the consequences of falling from here would be just as bad as those other places where I was freaking out.

On the way back down the kids thought they saw a crocodile on the far bank, but it was hard to tell from that distance. We walked back a slightly different way, closer to the edge of the river, which was a little nerve-wracking, thinking about crocs. Swimming and canoeing in the river are closed at the moment as there have been recent crocodile sightings. We made it back without incident and watched the flying foxes for a while, then back to the Visitor Centre where we explored the display on the local area. It showed how the gorge had been formed and lots about the local people and culture. Exploring the gift shop afterwards, Millie found a sparkly plush crocodile which she really wanted – she decided to get it as an early birthday present and was thrilled.

We drove back in to town, stopping briefly at Knotts Crossing – a place on the river with a small weir, and easy access from the carpark. It was beautiful, although the sign saying a crocodile had been sighted here only 4 days ago made everyone a little nervous when we were close to the water – we didn’t linger.

Once in town we went straight to the pool. Caitlin bought some new goggles and we played in the shady end of the pool for ages. Tony watched some of the Collingwood game on his phone then joined us. He played with the basketball and hoops for a while too. I went and got the cold chicken and bread and stuff from the car and we had some lunch, then went back in the pool. LiAM had had enough before the girls, so he and I played Dots until the pool was about to close. I had quick dip to cool off again, then we went back home.

The kids spent most of the afternoon playing with the girls they had met the day before, and going to see the puppies. The owner of the puppies let them out for a play, and also let his kittens out of the house, so there were lots of happy kids playing with baby animals for a while. Tony went for a bike ride on the track that goes either side of the river here, and saw the low level rapids and the hot springs. I read my book and did some puzzles and had a lovely quiet afternoon.

Tony cooked sausages on the BBQ for dinner and then the kids played with their friends for a little longer - they went gecko hunting and were excited to catch one, until it dropped it's tail and ran off and they all felt really bad. After a while everyone headed off home to get ready for bed (which seemed to take us ages).

Sydney Trip-> Day 1

Having packed the car the night before, we were out of the house by 9.20am which is impressive for us. We stopped off at Ringwood Library to return some DVDs and borrow a pile of audio books to listen to in the car. We made it to the city in plenty of time and after some minor hassles sorting out payment for parking, we were at Caitlin’s audition just before 11.

The audition (for a short film being made by a 2^nd year Uni student) went well and all 3 kids seemed to make an impression. On our way out of the building the alarm went off and the building was evacuated. When we reached the street there were 2 fire engines and lots of firemen so it appeared that it was not a drill. Caitlin overheard someone saying that a hot water pipe had burst. We waited outside for a little while to see if anything exciting happened, and started chatting to the girl who was auditioning after Caitlin. Another lady came over and said she’d overhead me say that we were homeschooling, and that she had homeschooled hers and loved it. The mother of the other auditioner said that she was also thinking about homeschooling, so we chatted about that for a while and exchanged details.

The kids were keen by now to get going on our trip, so we left the excitement of the emergency and started to head north. We stopped in Thomastown for Hungry Jacks (for the girls) and Red Rooster (for LiAM and I) – they were conveniently located next to each other, and sat in the car near a bike track to eat.

Then finally onto the Hume Freeway where we really felt like we were on our way to Sydney. I was quite tired and the kids were happy to have a break from the car, so we stopped after about an hour at Grass Tree rest area. There was a walking trail which we walked around, and saw lots of grass trees that looked more or less like Grug – which was pretty cool. Lots of wattle trees as well, so they collected some wattle blossoms and compared all the grass trees to Grug, and everyone felt refreshed when we got back to the car. After another hour we stopped for a toilet break at Mokoan rest area, and did another short walk – this time just along between some trees and a field, so not as interesting but a good break. The girls needed another toilet break a while later, so we stopped again, and talked to some girls whose car had broken down. It looked pretty serious, nothing simple that I could help with, so we wished them luck and moved on to Wodonga.

We reached Wodonga around 4.30 and everyone was happy to stop for the night. We got a budget cabin at the Big 4 and the kids went exploring (jumping on the jumping pillow and patting the dogs in the dog off-lead area) while I had a cup of tea. It was cold outside (had been all day, a very icy wind blowing) so everyone came back fairly quickly and we played cards for a while, then went out to find a supermarket to get supplies for tea.

I’d promised the kids hotdogs for tea, so I cooked those and fried myself some onion and kabana, and we ate them and then Magnums for dessert. The kids played a superhero/supervillian game for a while, then everyone got into bed and I read Eldest for a while. Caitlin was missing Tony who normally rubs her back before she goes to sleep – Millie moved her sleeping bag into Caitlin’s bed and rubbed her back for her which was very sweet.