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.

Ballarat Trip -> Day 2

Everyone slept quite well and stayed in their sleeping bags all night. I woke up and went to the kitchen for a cup of tea and realised that I hadn't bought my tea bags with me. I read my book for a while, and everyone else was up by about 8am. We had breakfast and the kids scooted around the park, played in the playground, jumped on the jumping pillow, watched some tv, while I got ready for our day. The park had a 4 seat pedal car for hire, so we had a go on that before we went out. Caitlin and LiAM were able to pedal when the ground was flat, it was much harder when going uphill though, so I walked behind them and pushed when necessary, and I did have a bit of a turn at pedalling as well. It was raining while we were pedalling and everyone we saw made a negative comment about the rain, but it didn't bother us.

Around 11am we walked over to Sovereign Hill. It had stopped raining by now though was still overcast. We bought our tickets (valid for 2 consecutive days) and got the last 4 tickets to the next night's Sound and Light show. Luckily. It would have been incredibly disappointing to miss out on the show entirely. We wandered around to the main street, looking into mining shafts on the way, then checked out the Blacksmiths, the horses in the stables, and the lolly shop - deciding to buy our lollies on our way out rather than carrying them around all day. For now, we bought horse head lolly pops and chocolate frogs with crushed raspberry drops in them (one each). We explored the hotel, then while Caitlin and LiAM went to see the horses pulling the carriage, Millie and I popped in to the Mechanics Institute where she found a display of precious gems and stones which was fascinating. We joined the others and met and patted the horses, then wandered down to the Red Hill Mine, where we did a self-guided tour - the lights and voices are automated and led us through the mine, with holograms in places showing men digging for gold. It was well done and showed a pretty vivid picture of what it was like in the mines. Once above ground again we headed for the gold diggings. We sat on a log and ate our lunch, in between panning for gold in the creek. I'd done it before and had a vague recollection of how to do it but wasn't having much luck. The kids chatted to a European couple next to us who had found a bit. A guy came over after a while and helped me with my method (although he wasn't too critical for my liking) and after that I found several small pieces of gold. Very exciting. Once I'd figured out how to do it, LiAM lined up pans for me to work through and I usually found a couple of pieces in each pan. Another guy came over and asked if he could check the pans I'd finished, and he found a couple more pieces which he let me have.

Caitlin at the stables

Millie panning for gold

LiAM with a gold ingot worth $149,000

We wandered back up the hill, stopped in at the confectionary factory and sampled the raspberry drops and discovered that they sold really big jars of them, then went up to the gold mine and paid for  a guided tour. A quick toilet dash and then down into the mine with a group and a guide. We went underground through pitch darkness on an inclined tram - a bit scary and also quite exciting. This tour talked more about how they went about finding gold and how the mine was structured, and the differences between company and independent mining. The guide asked lots of questions which the kids usually answered, although many of his questions were more aimed at tricking the audience, which I didn't like. There was a seam of real gold that had been placed in the mine, that was quite cool to see. We went on a small train through tunnels to get to the exit tram - a little like riding in mine carts which had a nice minecraft flavour! Back up on the tram, then we climbed the tower above the mine shaft - but it was quite high and the wind was strong and everyone freaked out a little so we went back down. There was a line of mine carts at the base so the kids played in them for a while - Millie in particular had been excited all day at seeing mine carts and realising that they really do exist, they are not just a minecraft creation.

Mine carts!

From there we went and saw a demonstration of real gold being melted down and poured to make an ingot. It was quite interesting and exciting to see the process, then everyone got to hold it. The ingot weighed 3kg and was worth about $149,000 - it felt SO heavy because it was small and dense. The guy who poured it was chatting to us and discovered we lived on a vineyard and that the kids' dad makes wine, so he declared himself Caitlin's best friend and wanted her to come back with wine... We went into the shop and looked at lots of items made of gold, and bought a personalised gold coin for the kids' friend who loves rocks and minerals and gold and was having a birthday this week (we got his name and birthday engraved on it, and a wooden stand to keep it in).

Up to the candle making shop from there, where we purchased plain white candles and the kids were able to dip them into dye and colour them. It was an amazingly simple but effective process, using 3 vats of dye, to create a candle with 5 different bands of colour on it. LiAM played with the colours a bit more than that, the lady warned him that he'd get brown, but he was happy to add a 6th brown band and was pleased with his result. We went to the bowling alley next and all had a go at old fashioned 9 pin bowling - it was fun although the ball was a bit heavy for Millie to bowl very far. We wandered back down the main street and stopped to buy our massive jar of raspberry drops (and a couple more chocolate frogs). From there we meandered down the rest of the street and then headed back to the caravan park.

Candle Dipping

The kids played with the kids in the caravan next to us, on the jumping pillow and in front of our tent and caravan. One of the boys had just turned 5, and he and Millie played with all their soft toys together. I had a hot chocolate and read my book, then went to get dinner ready. The group we'd met the night before were having a party in the camp kitchen - at least 25 people - and they were too loud for LiAM and Millie so I heated up our leftovers and cooked some noodles and we ate back at our tent. It was getting a bit chilly so the kids ate wrapped up in blankets. We had a shower after tea, Caitlin went to the ladies and the rest of us used the family bathroom. We watched TV until the TV room closed then went back to the tent and read Eldest for a while.

NSW Trip Day 5 - Dubbo

The kids were very excited that the pool at this caravan park was open (the one in Griffith had been closed for the winter) so after a jump on the jumping pillow they went for a swim. The water had been heated to 20 degrees so it wasn’t freezing and they enjoyed it.

Once dry and dressed we headed out to Western Plains Zoo. The first thing we saw, in the free area where you buy tickets, were ring-tailed lemurs on an island – an excellent start to the day especially for LiAM. From there we drove our car around the zoo, getting out to walk to a few exhibits at a time then driving to the next section. I have always loved this zoo with its large open range type exhibits, and sharing it with the kids was very exciting. (The areas are large for each animal, and set up so that you can’t really see the fences or moats between you and the animals, so it feels almost like you are there with them). We saw black rhino, meerkats (including a baby), wombats (Tony’s favourite), African wild dogs, giraffes, simiangs (they were very entertaining, the baby only moved by somersaulting or spinning, and kept climbing up the rope then jumping on his mum), hippos, bongos, lions, elephants, white rhino, cheetahs, zebras (Millie’s favourite, including a baby having a feed from his mum), tigers, blackbuck (Caitlin’s favourite – a large herd, with a couple of beautiful dark males who stood out against the lighter females), buffalo, bison, onagers, przewalski horses, otters, greater one-horned rhino, dingos, emus, koalas, wallabies, ostriches, various antelope and deer, Galapagos turtles (including a baby, who was surprisingly small, the size of a small puppy maybe), spider monkeys and black and white ruffed lemurs. The highlight for me was definitely the cheetahs – there was a mum with dark stripes down her back and large, dark spots on her sides, and three cubs – they raced around and chased each other and wrestled together and jumped in and out of the tree, it was very exciting and amusing to watch. We made it around the zoo in time for the kids to have a play in the playground and watch the lemurs a bit more, then came back to the cabin, exhausted. LiAM said it was the best zoo day he’s had. The map had a list of 30 featured animals and LiAM was ticking them off as we saw those animals, he was thrilled that we got to them all.

mother and cheetah cubs

mother and baby meerkat

Blackbuck

Once back here the boys swept up the leaves around the cabin so we could stop trekking them all over our floor, and the girls went for another swim which Caitlin found was a perfect antidote to being so tired. I had a bath in the tiny bath in the amenities block which I did find relaxing – I haven’t gotten all of the bindi from my foot yet so I was walking tenderly and my whole body was aching by the end of the day. A relaxing evening in the cabin and then a relatively early night for most of us.