Half-lap Day 40: Batchelor

It started raining, heavily, during the night so Caitlin, Tony and I were up getting the towels and swimmers in under cover, and getting things off the table that we didn’t want to be wet. It was tropical rain – hot in between the drops and even though the water was cold it wasn’t unpleasant getting wet.

I managed to doze off a little before waking up again in the morning. LiAM and I were up first and got up to play cards. Millie joined us after a while and the 3 of us played. For the second morning in a row I went to put water in my kettle for a cup of tea and a little frog came out of the tap with the water.

The kids had seen some other kids nearby – it turned out to be one of the families we’d played with at Mataranka, so the kids chatted and played throughout the morning. I spoke to a friend on the phone and sorted out our washing. We had planned to go back to the national park , then Millie said she wanted to swim in the pool at the caravan park, so we decided to do that first.

Tony took the kids to pool and I stayed at the tent doing some more blogging and catching up on a few more things. It was hot and humid but very peaceful. The kids loved the pool and swam for a few hours, and were reluctant to go anywhere else, so we decided to stay another day in Batchelor and just spend today hanging around taking it easy. I went and paid for our 4^th night and chatted to a guy who had been out to the national park today and got more information about the various walks and swimming holes we could go to.

We played some more card games and the kids watched some videos on the iPad, I read my book for a while and after a relaxing afternoon I took the kids back to the pool for another swim. We talked to a few couples who were swimming and then the kids’ friends from the morning came to the pool, they all swam together and I chatted to the dad about 90s music bands. The kids swam until the mossies got really bad, then we headed back to the tent to have hotdogs for tea. Millie and I went to have a shower and had a green tree frog up on the shower wall watching us. Caitlin joined us and the girls had a play with the frog – it jumped out of Caitlin’s hands and on to her face which surprised and delighted everybody. Back to the tent where we got ready for bed and read for a while.

Half-lap Day 34: Katherine

I was up first and went for a walk along the Katherine River. The path was up high and separated from the river by trees, I caught glimpses of the water from time to time and saw the sun come up behind the trees on the other side. I had hoped to walk to the Low Level Nature Reserve but didn’t know how far it was and turned back before I got there. Back at camp LiAM was awake and I walked him over to the toilets – some of the big dogs were off their leads and he didn’t want to walk over by himself.

We went and sat up in a communal area near the owner’s house, where there is a powerpoint I could plug my computer in. LiAM played on his iPad and I caught up a bit on blogging and email. We chatted to the owner’s grandson and his son, and found out a bit about Katherine and the surrounding areas, and about our car and other things. They told me of a mechanic (a relative) who might be able to have a look at our car.

After breakfast Caitlin and I went in to town to browse the op shops and get some clothes that we’re in need of in this hotter weather. Tony and I realised that most of the shirts we bought with us are dark colours and it would be good to have some lighter ones, or they have polyester in them which is just too hot and sticky. We went to 3 op shops and found a few things that were suitable (although the prices seemed high compared to the op shop prices I’m used to). We went to the Visitor Centre and talked to a lady at the counter who gave us lots of info about the area, then went to Target to try to find goggles for Caitlin – they didn’t have what she wanted, but I did get some slip on runners which are more comfortable than the ones I bought with me. We popped into Woolworths to get a chicken for lunch, and ran into Millie’s friend and her family, so had a good chat with them about everyone’s plans for while we are in Katherine.

We headed home and had some lunch, then spent a few hours sitting in the shade of our awning and playing games, chatting, patting the dog – the mummy dog has made our place her little home, she sleeps on our carpet and wanders around after us whenever we go anywhere. The kids went to see the puppies regularly, and Caitlin met a couple of other girls in the campground and showed them the puppies as well. It was a hot afternoon but sitting around in the shade wasn’t too bad, even though we were all sweating. Eventually we decided to head to the pool for a swim before it closed – when we got there we discovered that it closes earlier on weekends and we’d missed it by an hour. Everyone was very very disappointed, a swim would have been great. We played in the awesome playground across from the pool, and watched the local Rugby League game on the oval next to us. There were some cool birds there too, with blue heads and yellow wings. The security guy came in and asked us to close the gate when we left (we were the last people there and it was close to sunset) – we weren’t sure whether he meant to lock it or just close it – we locked it and hoped that was the right thing to do.

On the way home we stopped at Subway – we had a voucher to buy one footlong sub and get one free, so we bought the 2 footlongs and a 6 inch and everyone got a 6 inch sub. As usual it took us ages to decide what we wanted, we did eventually manage to order then stopped at Woolworths to get some cheap soft drink to have with dinner, then back to our tent to eat. The night was still warm but not hot anymore and we had a relaxing evening eating and playing and talking to the dog. As we were getting ready to go to bed I walked everyone over to the toilet – one of the big male dogs was out and playing with Bundy (the female that was hanging out at our tent). He was pretty scary and we asked Tony to walk with us as well – the dog kept appearing in front of us as we walked over (we walked the long way around, on the road and he could run between vans) and he really freaked us out. We figured that my head torch was freaking him out and that’s why he was barking at us – once I turned it off he settled down, but the kids were pretty spooked by then and I didn’t feel brave enough to walk past him on my own, we were all very glad Tony was with us, he comfortably went over and patted the dog and held his collar until we were past. The dog’s owner came and got him and took him home, so walking back was much more relaxing.

We hopped into bed and read for a little while and all fell asleep fairly quickly.

Half-lap Day 8: Hahndorf

LiAM and I woke early on my birthday and went outside to a beautiful although cloudy morning. I just had enough time to practice some karate before the rain started. Sitting in the annex having a cup of tea the rain was starting to swirl in, so I put the outside wall on and then it was super cosy. I did need to keep going outside though to reposition pegs and so on as the wind gusted through occasionally.

I spent the morning reading my book and doing logic puzzles, a lovely relaxing birthday morning. It was cold though, and as more rain fell the poles of the annex started dripping - we just moved everything around so that the drops didn't make anything important wet. The kids brought out birthday presents at some point - a beautiful beaded necklace from Caitlin, (bought at the zoo the other day), a thermos water bottle from Millie, dark chocolate rocky road from LiAM, and some fudge and peppermint chocolate from Tony. I figured I could put tea in my new bottle and sit with my chocolate and puzzle book for the rest of the day and I wouldn't have to move - my clothes were wet and I wasn't cold as long as I stayed right where I was...

Necklace and water bottle - birthday presents from the girls

The kids hair needed a lice treatment (I thought we'd gotten rid of them before we left, but obviously I missed a few) so we did that and then they went and had showers. Tony and I hung around in the annex, going out to re-peg things as needed as the wind got stronger. I had hoped to go in to the shops in Hahndorf to have a browse, but didn't feel like venturing out into this weather. We also figured that we couldn't both leave the annex, one of us had to stay to keep it safe.

Tony took the car up to an auto electrician to get the dual battery fitted. They gave him a loan car while they worked on ours, but we didn't want to drive it anywhere in this strong wind. Tony had bought me some tiny screwdrivers so I opened the computer up - at first I couldn't figure out what to do, then I watched some YouTube videos and worked it out - I just had to disconnect and then reconnect the battery, and then it worked fine. Seems crazy, but it really did work! Exciting to have the computer functioning again.

The kids braved the rain and wind and went up to the games room. I went into the tent and realised the back poles had dropped down and water was running in along the poles. We bailed out quite a bit of water and managed to keep most of our stuff dry, then added some spare rubber between the poles and tent to try to stop the dripping. Meanwhile we were in and out of the annex sorting out tie downs and poles and it was becoming apparent that the annex was not going to be able to withstand the wind, which was working it's way up to 65km/hr, with gusts of up to 100km/hr. Meanwhile Liam had been hit in the face by a flying stick on his way back from the games room. He was in pain and scared and so went to bed. A tree had fallen down on to a caravan on the hill below us. A stronger gust of wind knocked several of the annex poles over - I fixed it once and then when it happened again we figured it was just not safe in the annex anymore. We quickly packed everything up and put it in the trailer or the tent, and then pulled the annex down. Tony, Caitlin and I were saturated and freezing, but it felt much safer without the annex. Our neighbour came over and helped us really peg the trailer down, then we gathered up all our electrical devices and cords (I figured everything else could survive getting wet) and went back up to the games room where it was warm and dry. It was great to get my boots and socks off - I'd been sitting with wet feet all day. Tony went to get our car back (he said it was crazy on the roads, and trees down everywhere) and bought pizza on his way back for an easy, warm dinner.

A lovely day for camping

The rain and wind were not abating and everyone was cold and worn out, so I went to see if we could transfer to a cabin. There was one available and at first they said it would be $179 (!!!!) but after applying our Big 4 discount and taking off the cost of the site we'd already paid for, we got it for $113. Everyone was very relieved. We settled the kids in then went back to the tent to get clothes and basic supplies, then had a warm evening in front of the tv, everyone got to have a shower and put dry clothes on, and drink a hot chocolate, and then we read for a while and went to bed.

Not how I'd planned to spend my birthday but a memorable day and it was fun amongst the craziness.

Half-lap Day 7: Hahndorf

Sunday was mothers day. We were up earlyish and hung around the tent, reading, catching up on email and so on. The kids gave me their presents - dark chocolate honeycomb from Millie, and a block of 88% dark chocolate from LiAM - it's the darkest I've eaten and it is delightfully bitter, really satisfying and I love it. Caitlin had already given me her present before we left - scented shower bombs, so I'm looking forward to using those when we get back.

Tony cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast - the bacon was amazing, thick and tasty, a perfect mothers day breakfast. The rest of the morning we spent pottering around the caravan park - playing air hockey and fusball, chess, and playing games at the tent. I was downloading some audio books to our computer when suddenly it turned itself off and I couldn't get it back on - this has happened before and I did get it fixed, but wasn't happy at the idea of trying to fit that in to our time in the Adelaide Hills.

Tony started to work on installing the dual battery in to the car, so the kids and I decided to go exploring. I discovered we could catch a bus from Hahndorf to Mt Lofty - we needed to leave almost immediately though unless we wanted to go much later in the day and I felt like the weather would be worse by then. It was already drizzling quite a bit. Tony drove us in to Hahndorf so that we could buy bus tickets - the mothers day traffic heading in to the town was slow and heavy. He dropped us off about half way as walking was going to be about as quick as driving from that point, and it was easier for him to get back from there. We went to the newsagent to buy tickets and she said she didn't sell them, I'd have to go to Mt Barker. After a bit of discussion I found out that I could buy them on the bus (I didn't find that info on the website) so it was fine - although it did mean that we could have just caught the bus from out the front of the caravan park, without all the rushing around.

Anyway, we finally got on the bus and I really enjoyed the trip through parts of the Adelaide Hills I hadn't seen before (Bridgewater, Aldgate, Stirling). Really really pretty. We changed buses and went up to the summit of Mt Lofty. The rain was falling hard here, and the mountain was covered in cloud. It was icy cold as well - and still fun to go and stand at the lookout and see nothing but cloud below us. We could look at the pictures of what the view normally was, and enjoyed the experience of really being in the elements. We went for a quick 10 minute walk around the base of the lookout - I love walking through the bush in the cloud, it really means I focus my attention on the foliage around me, and it was beautiful. It's obviously recovering from bushfire which always fascinates me too. The kids popped in to the gift shop for Millie to buy my birthday present.

We had the choice of catching the bus back after 30 minutes or waiting 3 1/2 hours, so we chose the quick trip option. We sat at the bus stop eating ritz and tuna in the rain and then jumped back on the bus. Changing buses at the base of the mountain we found the driest place to stand was outside the bus shelter, up against the wall - the rain was swirling around inside the shelter. Back on the next bus (with the same driver as the first time) and through the pretty suburbs again and to our caravan park.

We hung out at the tent reading and playing games through the afternoon. I was a little frustrated that my computer wasn't working, as I'd planned to do more work while I had wifi and power handy. I researched how to fix the problem and found a possible solution, but I needed a tiny screwdriver which I didn't have - I figured I'd sort it out on Monday.

Tony cooked a chicken curry for mothers day tea, it was delicious, and lovely to sit cosy under our annex eating a warm meal while it rained outside. We headed to bed pretty early, everyone was tired and happy to go in and read Brisingr.