Brisbane Trip Day 31: Blue Mountains -> Bathurst

It was a bit of a windy night, and the noise from the trains slowly heaving up the mountain could be loud - they didn't ever wake me up, but a couple of times I was already awake and heard them go past. The morning was beautiful and fresh, with the sun rising and lighting up the trees across the grass from us.

There wasn't a lot to do to pack up and it went pretty smoothly (although the wind made it slightly difficult at times and I also had trouble with the zip on the trailer cover). My friend from the night before came past at one point, she was walking to Springwood and it was cool to see her one more time.

We continued to drive through the Blue Mountains, and saw the new Hydro Majestic Hotel and it's majestic view. We stopped for petrol in Medlow Bath, and then approached Victoria Pass, which I had been anxious about for almost a week. The grade here is 14% in some parts, and I knew it was a tricky, steep road. My friend's husband had given me some tips the night before, so I put the car in 2nd gear and just took it very slow. The speed limit for trucks was 40, and I went slower than that - it was fine, I didn't feel the trailer pushing me at all at that speed. There were a few tight bends in between the 2 steep parts, and I managed them fine and got to the bottom feeling very relieved and a great sense of achievement!

I would have liked to stop in Hartley and have a look around but we already had enough stops planned for these last few days of driving. Tony rang us when we were near Lithgow so I pulled over and we all had a chat to him on his birthday. We kept going and turned off to find my friend's place - a friend from my BHP days. We parked the trailer in front of her shed, and then drove in to Bathurst to meet her at her daughter's school, which was having a Highland Gathering.

We found her watching the bagpipe display (her daughter was competing) and sat on the grass and watched that and the strong man competition. We were all hot and exhausted and I sent the kids to get themselves an ice block. Amelie accidentally got the wrong one so I sent her to get a 2nd one - it was hot and windy and it was much more bearable if we all felt happy. After their ice blocks the kids went for a walk to look at the games and rides. I stayed and talked with my friend for a while, it was so good to see her. She and her youngest son decided to go home for a while, so I went and found the kids and saw Caitlin and Liam competing by running attached to a bungee cord and trying to put blocks as far away from their starting point as they could. Caitlin's long arms and legs and speed made this a lot easier for her. Amelie got her face painted (a cat on one side of her face, it was really well done) and the others played some skill games (throwing or shooting balls at things). We had a bit more of a wander around and then discovered that the meat pies were half price as it was nearly the end of the day, so we had one each.

We headed back to my friend's place. I hadn't been to her house before, it was huge and spacious - she and her husband had designed and built it 15 years ago and I loved it. We had a bit of a look around, and went down to feed bread to the sheep and the very old (30 years) horse. Her boys were riding their motorbikes, and the 15 year old took Liam then Caitlin on a ride - they loved it. The kids played on the trampoline and the swing, and Caitlin helped feed the horse, then we went inside while my friend cooked dinner. We chatted and the kids played and we had a delicious lamb roast with her and her kids. We had ice cream and blueberries for dessert and then sat in the lounge for a cup of tea. It was relaxing and easy to be there and I'm so glad we detoured inland to see her.

The girls slept in the bunk beds in the youngest son's room (he slept in my friend's room) and Liam and I slept in single beds in the spare room. It was really dark once all the lights went out - no street lights this far out of town and they turned all the lights off before they went to bed.

Brisbane Trip Day 4: Newcastle -> Crowdy Bay National Park

The girls and I were up early enough to say goodbye to their cousins and uncle. I spent a bit of time organising things on the computer, then started packing up while the kids took advantage of having access to the internet and the Netflix. It was hot and steamy and I was sweating a LOT by the time I was halfway through packing. I’d taken a lot of stuff out of the trailer so that we could put the beach things close to the tailgate in case we wanted to grab snorkels or boogie boards at a beach while travelling – so it was a big job putting everything back in.

Eventually I had it all sorted and we drove up to see Tony’s Dad (near Raymond Terrace) for lunch. The kids played with the dog and the girls and I had a swim, we made our sandwiches and hung out for a while.

The next part of the drive was familiar to me as I used to come this way on my way to Uni at Armidale. After the Buckets Way it was less familiar although I have driven up this way several times. We saw nets that had been strung up high across the road between trees on either side, for animals to safely cross the highway - we'd never seen that before. Both sides of the highway were fenced so that animals couldn't run onto the road. At one place we saw a sign warning of wild horses and a bit further on we saw 3 or 4 grazing near the fence, it was pretty cool. It was a fairly easy drive up to Crowdy Bay National Park – I went in the northern entrance, near Laurieton, so that there was less unsealed road to drive on. The 6km in to Diamond Head Camping Ground was fairly corrugated at times, although not a problem to drive over, just very slow and uncomfortable. We arrived at the campground around 5, but the office had closed at 4.30, so we decided to head on to Kylie’s campground and come back in the morning to pay. The campground at Diamond Head looked like a caravan park, with gutters on the roads and designated sites; I wanted to go somewhere with more bush camping.

As I was checking out the office Liam saw a goanna walking through the campground – we watched it for a while (I saw it doing a poo) and laughed at the way the kangaroos seemed quite wary of it. We also got a glimpse of the ocean – the surf looked rough.

We drove over to Kylie’s Campground – more corrugations but not as many as on the main road in. The campground looked inviting and peaceful, and there weren’t many people there. We drove in to an area with no other campers, and debated about the best place to set up – there was a very inviting area under several trees, so I put the trailer in there. We decided to go and check out the beach before we did any more setting up – I was feeling quite tired and felt like a beach visit would rejuvenate me.

The beach here was gorgeous – a colourful headland at the northern end, then several rock formations in and along the edge of the water with the waves breaking over and around them. The surf was rough here too, it didn’t look safe at all for swimming. Some of the rocks were out of the waves at this point, so we clambered over them and looked for shapes in the rocks, watched the waves, and found a colony of crabs.

Back at the trailer we realised that there were huge numbers of mosquitoes under the trees, so I moved out into a cleared area. We set the tent up fairly quickly and easily. Amelie wasn’t happy, she didn’t like the bush camping area or the drop toilets or the beach and she really wanted to go somewhere else. After she’d had some food she cheered up and happily helped with the rest of the set up. Caitlin and Liam went for a bike ride and Liam came back finding it hard to breathe. It was extremely humid and I think that contributed to his asthma attack. He was quite worried by it, as he’s rarely had one off attacks – usually when he’s found it that hard to breathe nothing has helped until we have gone to the hospital. This time however he was able to alleviate it with ventolin and he gradually calmed down.

We had sandwiches for tea and headed to bed. I was feeling a bit apprehensive about whether this really was a good place to stay for a couple of nights, but figured I was tired and I often felt that way after a day of travel. We headed in to bed to read for a while, and just before I fell asleep it started pouring – we’d opened all the windows to cool the tent down a little so luckily I was still awake and could jump out and close them all.

Half-lap Day 69: Broome

I was still feeling a bit sore and low when I woke up, and I spent some time playing on the iPad which was lovely and soothing. I was reluctant to use the computer because the keyboard is still playing up and I didn’t feel like I would manage the frustration well. After everyone was up and had had some breakfast we went for a swim. Tony took the kids over first and I joined them later, they were playing Marco Polo with 3 boys from another family. I played with them for a while then we all went and did our separate things in the pool. It’s such a beautiful pool to swim in, surrounded by big palm trees and sculpted rocks with water running over them, it’s easy to spend a lot of time there. We’re really close to the pool in our new spot now too so it’s even easier to pop back and forwards for a swim.

Tony came back to the tent to watch the Collingwood game on his phone, and after a while the rest of us got out and got changed. The races were on in Broome today, so we decided to go and drive past the racecourse to see if we could see the horses (there are signs on the roads all the way around the track, cautioning drivers to watch out for horses, so we thought we might see some being walked around before their race or something). All the kids came with me, and we drove past the race course and saw a couple of horses in their stalls, nothing too exciting.

The race course is right near Gantheaume Point, and it was high tide, so I suggested we hop out and have a look at what the point looks like with the water up high, after only being there for a very low tide beforehand. It was a completely different place – the very blue, silky looking water came right up to the cliff, and that red rock/blue water contrast was really stark. It was hard to imagine that we had climbed down the cliff just here, the water looked so permanent and like it was meant to be there. We wandered around the rocks behind the cliff, then down to a flat area near where we climbed down last time. The waves were breaking just below this area, and sometimes splashing up near our feet. We kept well back from the edge and stayed and watched the waves for a good while, LiAM and I in particular were fascinated. There were guys jumping off the cliff top into the water – this scared us a bit as we remembered what it looked like under there, the rocks were pretty jumbly and we didn’t think it was incredibly deep – everyone jumped safely and happily though so we left them to it. There were people setting up there for a wedding – a beautiful place to get married!

This is where we climbed down to the rocks a few days ago at low tide.

Once we left we drove slowly past the race course again and saw 10 horses being walked around by their wranglers, getting ready to race. One horse in particular (#9) was not happy, trotting when he was supposed to be walking, tossing his head, trying to go backwards. We pulled over to the side of the road and watched as they got all the horses ready, and #9 didn’t settle down, even once the jockey was on and they’d moved out to the track – he went through the gate to the track sideways and unhappy. It was cool watching all the horses moving around and see how differently they were reacting to race day.

We went back to the tent where Tony was very happy because Collingwood had won. We spent the rest of the afternoon between the pool and the tent, going swimming then coming back and playing, reading, relaxing. LiAM decided he wanted to learn how to ride a bike, so Caitlin took him and Millie’s bike out to a flat, clear area and helped him for a while – half an hour later LiAM rode back over to the tent. He loved it and spent the rest of the afternoon riding around the caravan park as much as he could. Caitlin has been putting Millie on the back of her bike – sitting her on a cushion (or using our stepping stool) on the cargo rack at the back, and they both love riding together. With LiAM on Millie’s bike the three of them were able to ride together which they all enjoyed.

We had a few snacks through the afternoon, then Caitlin put her tent up, and around 5.30 we headed into town to go to the movies. Tony dropped me off at Sun Cinemas to join the line for tickets (I was worried about the length of the line, the realised they hadn’t opened the doors yet, and it ended up being fine) while he and the kids went and bought some hot chips. I got the tickets then met the others back at the car when they returned and we ate our chips, then grabbed our pillows and headed back to the cinema. This is a garden cinema, with the screen outdoors surrounded by trees on either side, and the roof only covers about 2/3 of the seating. The chairs are all deck chairs (hence the pillows, for comfort). We found 5 seats together and debated whether to sit there or on the grass – we all preferred the seats except for Millie, who was worried she wouldn’t be able to see – she sat on her pillow on Tony’s lap and then she was happy.

We saw Finding Dory (sequel to Finding Nemo) and it was fantastic. I loved everything about it. There was a very cool short film beforehand too, called Piper, which had incredible animation and a very cool little storyline, with no words. We had bats and birds fly across in front of the screen a few times, and it felt wonderful to be sitting outside (we were under the roof but it felt outdoorsy, just like sitting under an awning) and watching this great movie. At the end of the film the audience applauded, I think the venue made it all seem so much more real and like we were part of the experience.

As we were getting our stuff organised and watching the credits at the end, Tony said ‘isn’t that Millie’s friend?’ – and 2 rows in front of us were the family we met at Kings Canyon, who we’ve seen several times since, but not since Katherine! It was so exciting to see them again and catch up on their news and tell them what we’d been up to. We chatted for a while in our seats then realised there was another movie on soon so we probably should go outside. The girls were shy with each other at first, and both feeling tired and wanting to go home. As the rest of us chatted though they started playing, and played a complicated game about being sisters and not realising, and had a great time. We stood out the front of the movie theatre and chatted for nearly 2 hours. LiAM got a bit bored so he and Tony went for a walk and bought a carton of chocolate milk, they came back and we talked a bit more and then finally all headed for home.

It was late when we got back to camp but everyone was in a really good mood, although Millie crashed pretty quickly. We read a quick chapter of Inheritance (it was the first night in 3 or 4 where everyone was still awake so everyone was keen to hear more of the story) then happily went to sleep.

Half-lap Day 63 - Fitzroy Crossing

All back in our own beds we slept a lot better, although Caitlin still didn’t feel great in the morning. She was improved on the day before though, and her thumb was feeling slightly better too. Our plan had been to stay the one night and then keep moving towards Broome, possibly checking out Geikie Gorge on the way – but the kids really liked this caravan park, and they were all quite tired (travel days wear us all out more than very active exploring days) so we decided to stay a second night. Another factor was that the Fitzroy Rodeo was on this weekend ‘the most exciting weekend in Fitzroy’ and some of us were quite keen to check it out.

We’d managed to put the tent in the perfect spot so that our table and chairs were in morning shade until after 11. We had a very relaxing and fun morning at the tent, we had breakfast then the kids played with the boy from the tent near us – they played cricket and with some circus equipment he had. Tony and I chatted a bit to his Mum. After they left for to go and explore, Tony, Caitlin, LiAM and I played Euchre, which the kids loved and I didn’t find stressful for the first time ever I think. Millie had just bought a new game on the iPad so she played that or played with her stuffed toys around us.

Once the sun was on us we were ready for a swim. I took the kids over and Tony started organising things for us to go out. The water was cool but refreshing – when Caitlin got in she started shivering again and needed to sit in the sun for a while. She was able to ease back in and swim for a short while, then headed off for a shower. LiAM and Millie and I played tag for a while then got out ourselves. Back at the tent we finished getting ready and set off for Geikie Gorge.

We’d read that this was the most accessible gorge of the Kimberleys. The road out was unsealed for part of the way but easy to drive on. Along to our left we started to see amazing dark grey rocks, like they were in vertical layers but seemingly one piece. They were different to anything we’d seen so far. We had a picnic lunch in the information gazebo at the gorge, and the kids chatted to the ranger about crocodiles and other animals. He gave them a book on identifying Western Australian birds, which helped us identify the nest we’d seen at Big Horse Creek (a bower bird) and some other birds we’d seen around. There was lots of information in the gazebo – a big board listing all the types of fish in the area (interesting to see how some of them differ a bit from their Northern Territory versions), boards showing the history and geography of the area, and markers showing the flood levels of the Fitzroy river in various years. On 2 occasions the flood water had been 2m above the roof of the gazebo! (It was nearly 3m high itself).

We briefly considered doing the boat tour then decided to save our money. We set off on our walk along the gorge. There were more of the dark grey rocks next to us, and we discovered that they used to be part of a coral reef, when this area was a sea. So they were limestone and weathered differently from other rocks. Many of the formations we saw reminded me of things I’d seen in caves, which makes sense because they are usually limestone as well. The other striking feature about this gorge is that the bottom half of the rocks, and of the red cliff on the other side of the river, is white, because the sand carried along in the water during the wet grinds away at the limestone and makes it white.

The white shows the level that the water usually gets too during the wet.

The river flows along the base of that cliff. We were walking on the other side of the river, where there was a large sandy area between the cliffs on our side and the current water level

The first part of the walk was quite difficult as it was all on sand. Millie was tired and I piggy-backed her for a while. Caitlin wasn’t looking well and we considered turning back, but she wanted to keep going so we took it easy. I went ahead with the big kids and Tony and Millie came at a slower pace. There were lots of cool trees to look at and we got occasional glimpses of the river. LiAM was checking out the rocks and plants and got a large number of burrs on his clothes. They were sticking in to him quite painfully. I started to pull them out and had several pierce my skin quite deeply – these were the nastiest prickles I’ve come across, even worse than the ones we used to get in Griffith. These were smaller and softer, but like small porcupines, there was almost no way to grab them without getting spiked, and there was one very long needle like thorn on each one. Eventually we were both free of burrs, by which time Tony and Millie had caught up. We reached the end of the track and had a beautiful view of the river, it was lush and green at this point (although it’s possible that most of the green stuff was weed…).

We had a quick look around at different views of the water and the cliffs, then headed back. LiAM was so keen to check everything out that he got burrs a few more times, not so badly though. Caitlin was getting tired so we were a bit slower on the way back. It was cool to see the rocks and cliffs from a different angle and notice different formations. We also saw a very old boab tree, with lots of leaves still on it, some yellow and some green.

Back at the start of the walk we saw a kangaroo, bigger than any we’ve seen for a while, foraging in the long grass. The kids had an icy pole each from the ranger station, then we set off back into town, having to slow for cows a few times as they wandered across the road in front of us.

We went straight for the rodeo, worried that we’d left it too late and would miss everything. The lady at the gate said that they were nearly finished, just doing the bull riding finals, so we could go in and watch and didn’t need to pay. We wandered over towards the arena and could see kids running around in it so figured we’d missed everything. We went closer so that Caitlin could see the horses in the pens nearby, and heard the announcer still talking – the rodeo itself was still taking place in the next arena, this one was more like a warming up/warming down area, so we excitedly went over there.

The riders for the finals were drawing the names of the horses and bulls that they would ride. We found seats in the stands and soon one of the marshalls came over riding along the fence so that kids could pat his horse. Caitlin was straight over there, and the others followed. He had a tassel off one of the bull riders outfits and asked if anyone wanted it – Caitlin was very thrilled to have a souvenir of the rodeo!

We were there in time to see the saddle bronc finals and the bull riding finals -  2 of the most exciting events. One of the horses in the bronc finals was very hard to catch after he’d thrown his ride and almost ran into the fence right in front of us – very exciting. There were some good rides and some near misses, and the hard-to-catch horse had fallen and rolled over his rider – no serious injuries though (he stood up and ran out of the ring). One guy got stuck on his bull and injured his arm, which was a bit scary to watch. There was a great atmosphere and it was so great to be there for part of something that is so important in this part of Australia. Caitlin looked out for her trail-ride guides as they do rodeo, she thinks she might have spotted one of them from a distance.

Our neighbours from the campground were there so we chatted to them and walked back to our cars together. We looked at the pens of bulls and steers and horses, and had to give way to a 3 trailer road train full of cattle as it left. The kids and I wandered around a bit more to see some of the horses being settled down for the night, including a Shetland. We got very muddy feet getting back to the car.

Back to the campground, where Caitlin and I went to the laundry to wash everyone’s shoes, LiAM and Millie went to our neighbours to play with the boy, and Tony cooked dinner. The man on our other side gave us some cup-a-noodles and soup that he didn’t want anymore. The kids came back and we ate together, then sat outside for ages, LiAM and Millie on my lap while we watched Music.ly videos on Caitlin’s phone, and Tony browsed accommodation options for when we get to Broome. After a while we headed in to bed, feeling very happy that we’d stayed the second day, and read a couple of chapters of Inheritance.

Half-lap Day 9: Hahndorf -> Clare

It was nice and warm and dry all night in the cabin – we could hear the wind and rain and were pleased to be inside. When we woke up the sun was shining, everything was wet and there were branches and trees down everywhere, but the wind had died right down.

After breakfast I walked back over to our tent, which was still standing and had a few pools of water at the base of the poles inside. The mattress was also a bit wet. I opened up all the windows and started pulling everything out to dry a bit in the sun before we packed it all up. There were still grey clouds milling around and I was concerned that it would rain on all our drying things, but it held off. Once I had the tent empty I went back over and helped get everything out of the cabin, we returned the key and then started packing up our stuff.  Talking to the staff at reception they said that the Adelaide Hills was the area worst hit by the weather the day before.

The kids played in the games room and Caitlin wandered back and forth between helping, playing with the others, and balancing on the rocks around the campsite. Having the windows open had dried out most of the inside of the tent – we packed it up last (which is the opposite to what we normally do) and it was a relief that it was mainly dry inside at least.

We were ready to leave around midday. Tony dropped the kids and I off in Hahndorf so we could browse the shops like we’d wanted to do the day before. We checked out an op shop and then the fudge shop, all the kids bought some fudge or lollies with their holiday money. We also enjoyed looking at the old buildings and the autumn trees and vines. When Tony joined us Caitlin and I wandered a bit further and also explored an alpaca shop – I bought some alpaca wool insoles for my boots. Once everyone had finished choosing their lollies we headed back to the car for sandwiches. While we had been shopping Tony had taken the trailer back to the auto electrician to fix the plug that joins on to the car – now our blinkers and brake lights work without having to spend 10 minutes jiggling the connection.

We headed in towards Adelaide and then turned north. We listened to the end of Almost Super and were pleased when I looked it up and discovered that the author is writing an Almost Super 2. We used the Fuel app we’d downloaded to find the cheapest fuel on the way out of the city – the price wasn’t as good as the app said, but it was still better than what we’d been seeing on the main highway, and we were able to update it ourselves.

Heading towards Gawler the traffic was quite heavy then suddenly it cleared and our surroundings became less built up. I immediately felt excited and relaxed – it’s like the first week was just a tester holiday, and it was all places we’d been before (or near enough), and now the NEW part of the trip begins. Exploring unknown places and doing things we’ve never done. Also being out of the city always helps me relax.

We drove as far as Clare. The countryside on the way there was different again to anything we’d seen – not many trees, lots of rolling hills cleared for crops. Lots of sheep too. Even driving through areas of gum trees the ground below them was fairly clear, not a lot of undergrowth. Coming in to the Clare Valley was cool, being surrounded by vineyards and reading all the names of the wineries – Tony knew a lot of them, and has met some of the people who work there or run them.

We settled for the night at the Clare Valley Racecourse, just a bit out of town. It’s only $20 for the night, and we can use the jockeys’ toilets and showers in the race secretary’s building, or there’s (not so nice – full of tumbleweeds!) a public toilet block near where we camped. We arrived a bit before 5 so actually set up the tent while it was still daylight, a first for this trip! The kids ran around on the grass and went up the hill to see a horse in a paddock. Caitlin was excited to see the stalls where the racehorses would be stabled on race day. Tony used the large expanse of grass to practice hitting some golf balls.

Once it got dark we had dinner – left over chicken curry in rice paper rolls, very yummy. The kids played inside the tent for a while and we tidied up a bit, then went to bed around 8pm to read Brisingr. After we stopped reading we heard a noise outside, Tony said he thought he’d seen a cat. He and Caitlin went to check – a ginger cat had knocked the lid off our bread tub and was eating our butter! They put things away a bit more securely – then shortly afterwards I could hear purring outside. Caitlin and LiAM went to check, and said ‘yes, the cat is out here – oh wait, there’s 2..no, 3 – oh there’s kittens….’ So it was a mum and 4 kittens, who were purring because they’d found our garbage bag and were licking the sour cream lid we’d thrown out… So we tidied up even more securely (I don’t know how they got to the garbage, I thought we’d put it away) and things were quiet from that point.