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 62: Ord River -> Fitzroy Crossing

Caitlin had an extremely restless night and was up a couple of times, then LiAM woke up feeling really cold so I got up and redistributed blankets and closed the windows. It was cool to see the milky way on the other side of the sky as it had been when we went to bed, it really showed how much the earth rotates throughout the night.

Millie was up early and snuggled up outside in a blanket. It was 17 degrees which feels so cold to us! I was chilly but ok in my summer pyjamas. We had breakfast and started to get ready to move on. Millie and I went for a walk to the toilets and then down to the river, meeting some dogs on the way (one of them licked her all over her face). Caitlin had a bit of a sleep in, and woke feeling not a lot better than when she’d gone to bed. She had a banana for breakfast then curled up in a chair until I packed the chairs, then she curled up in her seat in the car. We saw several more cows wandering around the campsite, including some younger ones.

We were all packed and ready to leave by just after 9.30. Heading along the highway we had more varied terrain throughout the day. More rocky hills, escarpments on either side (at the same time or separately), and at times, wide, flat plains with no hills at all. Some areas had no grass, just sparse trees, others had lots of greenish grass and only the occasional tree. We saw new trees too, some tall, thin, feathery ones, and shorter trees with lots of branches – it looked like there’d been fire through here not too long ago, as a lot of those trees had no leaves, or if they did, the leaves were fluffy looking, and all over the branches, like new post-fire growth. The termite mounds were different here too, more like large boulders than tall structures.

We stopped in Halls Creek for petrol (getting straight to the petrol pump, once we’d navigated past the very long line for the diesel pump). I was glad we hadn’t attempted to stay in town, it didn’t look like a place I wanted to linger, although the visitors centre and a couple of the buildings around there looked quite lovely.

We stopped for lunch at Ngumbie Cliffs rest area, which was recommended to us by our neighbours last night. This rest area was perched on the top of some rocky cliffs, with views in every direction – back the way we came across the top of this escarpment, or across the plains at the bottom of the cliffs. They weren’t very high, but quite pretty, and there was valley just below the rest area with ghost gums and lots of greenery, we could see where the water would flow in the wet before it spread out across the plain.

We ate some lunch and had a bit of a play, and were there for about an hour and a half. We could have stayed the night – lots of people were already setting up – but there was no shade at all (unless we camped right up against the day use picnic tables) and there were still a few hours of daylight left, so we moved on. I would have liked to free camp again, but Caitlin was very keen to stay somewhere with a shower. Millie also wanted a shower, and a pool too if possible. We reached Fitzroy Crossing just after 3.30, so figured we might as well stay in a caravan park here (the next free camp, with toilets (and no shower) was another 80km or so down the road and that would be taking us too close to sunset). Two of the 3 parks in town had terrible reviews, and didn’t have pools, so we decided to stay at the fancier caravan park. It cost more than I wanted to pay for a one night stop in a small town ($49 – although we also get a 5% discount at the local IGA) but it was worth it to make sure Caitlin was comfortable and for me to be less worried about being robbed. (The other 2 parks had lots of reports of burglaries, and they were both over $40 a night anyway).

We checked in and set up in the large unpowered camping area, in the shade, and hopefully with shade in the morning as well. (The map we got here helpfully showed where sunrise and sunset would be). We wandered over to the pool – Tony took the kids first and I met them there a bit later, and found Caitlin sitting on a step in the deep end, shivering uncontrollably. I helped her get out and we wrapped her in towels, then I had a quick swim to cool down and played with Millie for a few minutes, then took the girls back over to have a nice warm shower. LiAM got out as well, and managed to get his clothes and have his shower before I’d finished organizing towels and clothes for the 3 of us girls. The showers were fantastic, and helped Caitlin warm up a little.

Tony was watching the Collingwood v Carlton game on his phone (Collingwood won, hooray!), and I started to get dinner ready. We had leftovers, and instant mashed potato, and bacon (and Millie had cereal as well). Caitlin had barely eaten all day, or much the day before either, and I made her a plate of food and suggested she try to eat what she could – suddenly she realised she was starving and ate quite a bit of her dinner. She’d stopped shivering by now and started to feel quite a bit better. Her thumb is still hurting but the swelling and bruising is continuing to go down.

LiAM didn’t feel well after dinner and had another shower to help himself feel better. He came back and went straight to bed. The girls hurried in to bed as well, after patting and talking to some nearby dogs, and we were able to read a few chapters of Inheritance while everyone was still awake, then we all crashed.

Sydney Trip -> Day 11 and 12 - going home

Wednesday morning we got up and I started to organise all our stuff for the trip home. We'd kept it pretty organised so I was able to gather it all together, then take everything out of the car and repack it fairly leisurely over the course of the morning. The girls made cupcakes, then all the kids played a 'Capture the Flag' type game outside for ages. We were ready to go by midday, by which time it was pouring rain with strong winds, so we decided to wait until the storm had passed (luckily there was no rain when I had all our stuff on the ground next to the car!)

After the storm we sadly said goodbye to our friends and the kittens. After 8 days in a small house, the 7 kids were still keen to be together for longer, and L and I felt the same way, so great to find a family we gel so well with.

We left a bit after 1pm and headed south. The rain came and went, and when we stopped for lunch in Sutton Forest it was windy and freezing cold. We hung out at McDonalds for an hour or so, then made it to Yass where I needed to get petrol - there was sleet being blown sideways in under the roof of the petrol station and I got saturated, I have never been so cold putting petrol in the car! I got the big kids an orange juice, and Millie a soft serve cone and myself a chai latte and we continued on in the rain. Everyone was feeling a bit sick by now - we'd all had sore throats and sniffly noses for a few days, and we kind of crashed once our holiday was over.

At Gundagai everyone had had enough of driving, so we checked into a cabin at the caravan park near the freeway. It was a much more deluxe cabin than the one we'd had on the way up, with 3 bunks, and everyone was very excited. We headed down to Woolworths to get food for dinner - and when I went to pay I realised I'd left my wallet in the cabin, so zipped back to get it and paid - the kids coped quite well with having to do the extra trip, and I had a moment where I thought I would get upset - then figured it didn't really matter, and I was fine.

The TV worked in this cabin so we watched TV while I cooked dinner, then headed to bed fairly easily and I read Eldest to everyone until I was too tired. I started the night with a bed to myself which was pretty exciting!

Millie came in part way through the night, and neither of us slept well. We were all up fairly early and none of us felt very well. We ate breakfast and packed up and the kids had a play in the playground, and we were on our way again by just after 9.30.

Listening to 'Toby Alone' on audio CD helped everyone pass the time easily, especially with our colds getting worse. Caitlin in particular had a high fever and felt quite miserable. We stopped at Glenrowan for petrol and got some fries and ice-cream from McDonalds. Millie chatted to some army ladies when we were at the toilet, and discovered that girls can join the army, which she liked the idea of.

On the way through Yea we stopped in at Mum and Dad's and spent a lovely few hours hanging out there - showing Grandad LiAM's coins, playing lego and animals, sharing stories about our holiday and what Grandma and Grandad had been up to, looking at changes to their furniture, eating some food. We left around 5pm and were finally home just before 6 - Tony was very happy to see us and everyone was very pleased to be back in our own house and looking forward to our own beds.