Brisbane Trip Day 33: Wodonga -> Melbourne

I woke a bit after 7 and went down the street to get milk and a few other supplies, and to fill up our gas bottle before we go bush. When I got back Amelie was just waking up. The others were up soon afterwards and we had breakfast and started to get organised. Pack up went fairly quickly and well, until I tried to get the pegs out of the hard ground - some were tricky, and some were so stuck that I didn't know if I'd be able to do it at all. Eventually I managed to wriggle them free and could finish putting the tent away. We paid for our site when the caretaker came around, and I was pleasantly surprised that it was only $10, not $20, because we hadn't used any power. Racehorses were training on the track and on the grass near us, so the kids went and watched them for a while.

We set off a bit before 11 and listened to Percy Jackson again. The trip down the Hume Freeway was easy and fairly quick at first. I stopped for petrol and to check the air in my tyres, then we continued on. As the Freeway came down past Broadford and got closer to Melbourne, the wind was blowing sideways across the road and the driving became a bit more difficult and a bit slower.

We made it to my sister's place a bit after 2.30, and there was room in front of her house and driveway and a bit of next door's driveway for me to pull up with the trailer. We had to wait for a few minutes while the construction workers had a forklift on the road, then we were able to pull in. Amelie's best friend and her family met us at my sister's, and she went to the Museum with them. The rest of us spent the afternoon inside at my sister's, playing with the baby and the 4yo and catching up on each other's news. Liam is a big hit with his cousin so he was very busy playing cars and doing puzzles. Caitlin was more than happy to play with the baby.

Amelie came back in the evening, very happy to have spent time with her friend. We had pasta for dinner and then the little kids went to bed, my kids watched some videos and played on their iPads. I chatted more with my sister - I was so incredibly tired, any plans I'd had of getting things more organised for camp just didn't happen. We had a fairly early night, Caitlin slept on the couch, Amelie and I in the bed in the spare room and Liam on our foam mattress on the spare room floor.

Half-lap Day 71: Broome

I was awake at 5 again and soon got up to spend some time on the computer, which now seems to be working fine. As people woke up the kids from both families started playing together, chatting and riding bikes, and Millie and her friend played in our tent with their animals again. Once everyone was up and about we went over to their caravan and Tony cooked pancakes for everyone. They had honey with them, which we haven’t had since we left home, so that was an added bonus.

My friend and I spent an hour or so looking at maps and I showed her lots of the places we’d been and stayed. She went in to town and Tony and I started planning the next little part of our trip, and the kids played Minecraft.

The others came back and we all had lunch at our own sites, then all went to the museum in town – 2^nd visit for us. The kids asked for the quiz sheet that they didn’t get to do last time, then said they’d do all of the quizzes again because their friends were starting from the beginning. My kids remembered some of the answers and where most of the items were. I helped them in between looking at bits of the museum I didn’t get to last time. Everyone enjoyed it and we were all able to look more thoroughly at things. We all went out to the sailmaking shed and practiced the knots, and spent some time watching the DVD about the history of Broome. I had a good look at the shell collection with both Millie and LiAM, and was fascinated with the old aerial shots of Broome, which really showed how the town developed. There was a lot of information on the old tramway too, which I didn’t see last time.

We were there for a couple of hours or more, then headed towards Cable Beach, stopping at the supermarket on the way to get something for tea. We arrived just as the lifeguards took the red and yellow flags down – there were still heaps of people in the water and it felt quite safe. Our friends had bought a 10 pack of choc-coated ice creams, they and our kids ate theirs straightaway, Tony and I had a quick swim first (I just couldn’t wait to get in the water) and then ate our very melty ice creams before heading back to the water with everyone else.

The water had that soft silky feeling again, and was not really cold. There was a cool wind blowing, which meant that once we were wet it was definitely warmer in the water than out. The tide was a couple of hours past full, and the waves were big, bigger than anything we’ve swum in so far. Millie came out with me, and was holding my hand at first and then swimming around on her own – the first time she’s done that in the ocean. She was happy to bob up over the gentler waves by herself, and I stayed close enough to pick her up and jump her over the bigger waves. One of the biggest swells approached and I thought we’d need to go under it – I misjudged it though and it would have  been better to jump it, we got knocked over and Millie slipped mainly out of my hands. I managed to keep hold of her shirt and we tumbled over a bit but were fine, and she wasn’t too upset, just rather surprised (and annoyed with me for getting it wrong). She wanted me to hold her for a while after that, then tried again on her own and was happy in the waves again. Tony carried her for a while too and they were able to go out a bit deeper. All the kids had a great time, and us 4 parents were in the water too. The sun was getting lower and we were getting an orange glow across the water – I don’t think I’ve swum at a west-facing  beach at that time of day before, it felt as good as swimming in the early morning, not something that I thought could be matched.

Once Millie had had enough she and Tony got out to go and get dinner from the car. I got out soon after to take some photos of the sunset, and also got some cool silhouette shots of the kids in the water. Everyone got out soon after and played on the beach and/or went to get changed, and we watched the sun go down, with lots of clouds around which made it even more spectacular. We all sat on the beach and had a picnic dinner, along with many other groups of people. There were fire twirlers on the beach, and as it got dark someone set off some fireworks up near the rocks – all pretty cool to see. The kids played in the sand and ran around a lot, and we sat and chatted and relaxed and had a lovely evening. Eventually we gathered up all our stuff and headed back to the cars.

We dropped the men off at the pub on the way home, so they could have some kid-free time. We took all the kids back home then between us organised washing and showers and so on, and the kids played or showered or got ready for bed. My friend went to get the guys once they were ready to come home, and we all headed to bed soon afterwards, after another very fun and quite full day.

Half-lap Day 43: Darwin

A wind came up in the night and I was feeling quite disoriented, couldn’t figure out which way the tent was facing, and I slept quite badly. The weather was much cooler in the morning though, very pleasant. Tony had a sleep in and felt much better when he woke up, although his knee is still quite sore. We had breakfast and pottered around the tent, Tony put the awning up, I had another go at everyone’s hair, we haven’t quite managed to get rid of all the head lice yet. We chatted a little to our hosts then had some sandwiches for lunch.

In the afternoon we drove in to the Darwin Museum. The kids spent a lot of time looking at the natural history part – displays of shells, birds, reptiles, desert animals, Darwin Harbour creatures, fish, dinosaurs, mangrove dwellers – all based on animals that live (or have lived) in the Northern Territory. We moved on then to the Cyclone Tracy exhibit – I loved it when I was here 20 years ago and it was pretty much the same, although equally as moving. Having experienced the strong winds we did in Hahndorf last month, the kids could really appreciate how much stronger the cyclone’s winds must have been to cause the damage that they did.

From there we went up to see Sweetheart the crocodile – a mounted skin and skeleton from a 5.13m crocodile that drowned when it was being moved many years ago. I’d been trying to explain to Millie how long saltwater crocs can get – and seeing the actual size of a big one boggled all our minds. It is hard to comprehend that a living creature could get so big. It was also cool to see a skull replica of the ancient crocodile ancestor which was at least twice as big as the real crocodile.

Caitlin and I wanted to look at the indigenous art section, so Tony took the others to the Discovery Room for kids. The art was fascinating, especially looking at the very different styles from different parts of the continent. In the Discovery room the kids were playing with blocks, the did some drawings and looked at the animals displayed around the rooms. Tony went out to watch a bit of the Collingwood game on his phone, and Caitlin and LiAM and I had fun with a poster where the names of colours were written in a different colour and you had to say the colour of the ink rather than read the word – it was really difficult. Caitlin went to browse the gift shop and LiAM and I played with some cogs and wooden bars on a little tool bench – we were trying to move a bar from one spot to another using the cogs – we refined our design probably 7 or 8 times and eventually got it to work, it was a lot of fun.

We all went to the gift shop then and there were things that everyone wanted but they weren’t specifically Darwin related things, more cool museum toys that we can probably get in the shop at Melbourne Museum so everyone decided to leave them. I still haven’t found any aboriginal art that I like that I can afford, so thought I might buy something from here with art printed on it, after a while I found some lens cleaning cloths that I really liked with a beautiful print, and the proceeds go back to the artist’s community, so I got that.

We had a look at the fish pond, seeing a pig-nosed turtle and lots of archer fish (my new favourite fish) and rainbow fish, then wandered down to the harbour shore. It was pretty exciting – when we left Port Augusta 30 days ago we said we wouldn’t see ocean again until we reached the other side of the country, and here we are! It was so vast and so blue, and the afternoon sun was shining brightly on it – very pretty.

We wandered around on the shore for a while, found some tiny little brown crabs that were so camouflaged we really could only see them if they moved, a shell with a crab in it, a tiny spider, lots of skimming stones for Tony (the water was really smooth), and lots of cool rocks and shells. The kids didn’t have hats on and the sun was pretty strong (less humidity today but still hot) so everyone got tired really quickly. We had stressed to the kids that we don’t swim in the harbour because of crocodiles (and stingers) but there were people tubing and in the water – not something I’d want to be doing.

Happy to be back on the coast

LiAM with crabs and shells

Back to the car and we went for a drive around East Point reserve, seeing mangroves and the sun on the cliffs back near where we were, and the big gun turrets from WWII. Everyone seemed fairly uninterested in exploring further, so I drove us in to the city to have a look around there. It was cool to see places I recognised from last time I was here. We were trying to decide whether to just head home or to have something to eat before we went, and ended up going out to Nightcliff and getting hot chips and watching the sun set over the water. There were so many people at Nightcliff, but we drove a bit past the jetty and found somewhere to park and a spot on the beach that wasn’t too crowded. We sat on some rocks that made a ledge over the beach – LiAM jumped down onto the sand a few times – and ate and watched the sun set and the water change colour continually, it was incredibly beautiful.

Once the mossies came out we headed home, driving back a different way and seeing a bit more of Darwin. Back at the tent we had a quick chat to our hosts then got ready for bed and read a few chapters.

Half-Lap Day 15: Coober Pedy

LiAM and I were up before the sun and saw the gorgeous red clouds above the white rock piles. LiAM had a shower while I sat and watched the changing sky, then we climbed to the top of the hill above the TV room to get a larger view. It was cool to see the sun hitting the hillsides and the doors to the dugouts. The rocks on the hill were quite sharp and almost too much even for LiAM’s very tough feet.

our tent nestled among the scrap heaps

We spent much of the morning in the underground room, I had lots of blogging, email, photos, audio books and money stuff to catch up on so was happy to sit and use the power and wifi provided. LiAM and Millie watched Minecraft videos and Caitlin played with her Music.ly app. It was warming up outside so Tony put the roof of the annex on – at first we thought we might just attach it to the fence around our camping bay, then decided it would be safer to put the poles up. We did it quite quickly and easily, and then put the front wall on to provide shade to the tent. It was warm in the annex and lovely and cool in the tent. There were a lot of flies and Tony was grateful for the fly nets we’d bought at Spuds Roadhouse the day before, it gave him some relief.

This caravan park offers a mine tour, and the first night of camping is free if you do the mine tour. When we figured out the price though it still seemed to be more than we wanted to pay for a tour for the 5 of us, so we skipped the local tour and went in to town to Umoona Mine and Museum. On the way we stopped to fill up our gas bottle for the stove – the guy weighed it and said that it’s still half full, so it’s good to know we can get 3 or 4 weeks out of a bottle.

We arrived at the mine just before 2, in time for the 2pm tour. It started with a little movie about the history of opal in general and in Coober Pedy in particular. The movie explained how they used to get opal out by hand and how the machines help now – it explains the function of the machines we see everywhere here, they vacuum the rocks and dust out of the mine and dump it outside. Much easier than carting it out in a bullock skin bag like they used to. The tour then went into an old dugout, very basic and dug by hand, then into a more modern dugout, well furnished, dug by machine. It felt like a very pleasant place to live, although it did smell slightly musty. The tour guide was very funny and friendly and we really enjoyed her stories. We then went down into the mine below the dugouts and saw where they’d dug tunnels, where they’d found opal, and tried to imagine being down in the mine for hours and hours at a time. The guide said not to feel sorry for the guys who dug this mine – they are now millionaires! There were orange lines on the walls of the mine - apparently these are where the worms made their way through the rocks in ancient times.

An old opal mine

One of the machines they use to suck the dirt and rock out of the mines

Back in the shop we browsed the opals and LiAM bought a small stud, and Caitlin bought a beautiful ring. We chatted to the women behind the counter about the different types of opal and jewellery and overall we learned a lot. On the way out we took our time through the museum (also underground), especially the bit about the dinosaurs – this part of Australia used to be an inland sea and there were ichthyosaurs here – one of my favourite dinosaurs. Also a lot of other marine dinosaurs, and several fossils have been found here. The museum also had lots of information on how the area was settled and some of the history of this part of the world.

Once outside, Tony took Millie and LiAM to the playground, and Caitlin and I wandered up and down the street looking at the shops. We explored another underground opal, arts and crafts shop, and saw beautiful paintings and bowls and opals, and Caitlin met a very friendly cat. We got Caitlin some swimming shorts which she desperately needed at the local sports store, and spent quite a bit of time browsing the underground bookstore – full of books and maps and stationery and it had a wonderful feel to it. The lady at the counter gave us some activity books for the kids to use in the car and we chatted to her about her life in the outback since she left Sydney in her early twenties.

We went to the IGA to pick up some groceries and spent ages browsing in there too, it was also a hardware and camping store and was very well set out. Tony picked us up from the IGA and on the way out of town we stopped to get some photos of the warning signs and the large machine mounted on the Coober Pedy sign. Our car is now coated in a light red dust - Millie's feet were as well after walking around without shoes.

Back at the caravan park the kids went back to the underground room and Tony and I relaxed a little before starting dinner. I did my puzzle book and we chatted while he cooked in the kitchen. We also talked to some of the other campers, trying to figure out the best place to stop between here and Uluru – it seems everyone here has either just come from Uluru or is heading there next. We also saw a few people who camped near us at Pimba a couple of nights ago. Sunset was gorgeous again, very red and constantly changing.

After dinner the kids watched some more videos and Millie had a shower, I got a few things packed up so that the morning will be easier. Millie hung out on our chair for a while under the stars, really enjoying the pleasant night air. Once we were all ready we jumped in to bed and read Brisingr.