NSW Trip Day 4: Griffith -> Dubbo

Millie and I were up early and went for a walk in the dark around the caravan park. Once everyone was up we got on with packing and cleaning up and were on the road again by 10. We bought some mandarins from a roadside stall, then went and saw the house where Tony and I lived when we were first married, then on to the hospital where Caitlin was born, and took some rainy photos in front of the current construction work going on there. We also checked out the main De Bortoli vineyard where Tone used to work.

On to West Wyalong where we had a very quick play in the park before it started raining heavily. We jumped back in the car and had some sandwiches before continuing on. We reached ‘The Dish’ – the CSIRO radio telescope dish - around 3pm and spent a bit over an hour in the visitors centre and in the grounds. I had never been there (possibly one of the few NEW places I’ll be seeing this trip) and it was impressively large (64m in diameter in fact). The visitors centre had some fun and interesting facts and activities about space and the telescope, and an information scavenger hunt and activity book for the kids. The rain stopped briefly enough for us to get some photos of us in front of the dish too.

Kids in front of The Dish

We drove to Dubbo through a massive lightning storm – very impressive to watch from the flat land we were driving through. The caravan park was a hit with the kids, with a big playground and a jumping pillow. We had Indian Takeaway for tea then I tried to remove the remains of a cats-eye bindi from my foot (I packed the car in bare feet this morning and was very careful on the tiny bit of grass I needed to walk over, but picked this up from a bit of gravel. Ironic that after saying to the kids, a few times, that its more dangerous to be barefoot in Griffith because the bindis are nasty, I was the one who got one! If you've never seen one, look at the pictures in this article)

I was happy with the car trip today – this was our longest driving day (except perhaps for the final 2 days of the trip, depending when we decide to leave Sydney) and it went well. New fancy headphones for each of the kids helped, so they could each play their own devices/listen to their own music if they wanted to, as well as listening to Harry Potter 7 on audio CD and playing games, talking about the scenery, and dividing the trip into 3 sections.

Tasmania Day 13: Cradle Mountain -> Devonport

Our big day yesterday took its toll on everyone. Caitlin had a very restless night's sleep and woke up with a fever. Millie had fallen asleep without eating dinner, woke up in the middle of the night and had some juice, and woke up in the morning and threw it all up. I was particularly worried because we had to drive out along a very windy road and I thought having 2 sick girls was going to make it much harder.

Millie picked up after a while though and ate a huge breakfast. Caitlin was extremely tired and I wasn't really surprised after her big climb yesterday. The kids watched TV while Tony and I packed and cleaned. As the kids were getting in the car to wait for us to finish, a pademelon came and hung around the car which was an exciting end to our time in this caravan park. A currawong also hopped in the open door and started to peck up crumbs - we shooed him off and closed the doors.

As we left we headed down the road towards Cradle Mountain for one last peek, then turned around and set off for Devonport. We had considered doing a few things on the way seeing as we had all day to get there, but with the girls feeling off colour we decided to get there as soon as possible and take it easy for the afternoon. The trip through the bends wasn't too bad - we were well equipped with lollies to suck on, water to drink, windows down when necessary, and Tony took it quite slowly. We stopped for a couple of quick photos of Mt Roland, then up to Devonport.

Our plan was to go back to the playground where we'd played on our first day - when we arrived however it was windy and freezing cold and no one felt like getting out of the car. We ate some lunch in the car overlooking the ocean, then went for some indoor activities - we found a play centre which had indoor rock climbing, a science centre, and a jungle gym play area (also laser tag but we skipped it). Caitlin started with the rock climbing, the women were very impressed with how quickly she picked it up, and she made it nearly to the top on a couple of walls. In the meantime I took Liam and Millie into the science centre, where we played with balls, air, pendulums, bugs, microscopes, a train set, an igloo made from foam blocks, and a few other activities which were all quite entertaining. Then the 5 of us went into the play area where Millie and Liam played happily for about 2 hours, while Caitlin sat exhausted with Tony and I - she had revived for the rock climbing then crashed once it was done. Liam made a friend and it was a lovely relaxing and fun way to spend our last afternoon.

Once they closed (after a couple of games of air hockey on the way out) we went and found a quick snack and got some cash, then off to line up for the boat. We sat in the queue for almost an hour before we were able to drive on to the boat, then up to our cabins and then to the eatery for dinner. The kids knew what to expect this time so picked the food that they wanted to eat and it worked much better than on the way over. The movie tonight wasn't of interest, so we watched The Block and House Rules on a couple of the various TVs around the boat, and Liam and Millie and I played Uno. Liam popped into the gift shop and the lady remembered him from the trip over and asked how his holiday had been. Caitlin crashed early, the kids and I went back to the cabin to read Anne of Green Gables and Liam and Millie played with their animals, when Tony returned I went to bed too and he stayed up (not long) with the others. The trip seemed less rough this time and everyone (even me) got to sleep quite easily.