Brisbane Trip Day 34: Melbourne -> Bimbi Park

We all slept pretty well and were up in the morning to play with the kids and chat to my sister before getting ready to move on. I thought about unhitching and going to Aldi, then decided we'd just shop on the way. We left around 10.30 and headed through Melbourne, aiming for Colac. I noticed petrol was quite cheap but the service stations I saw were small and were going to be tricky to navigate with the trailer, so I decided to get top up after getting out of Melbourne.

We listened to Percy Jackson again and had a good run through Melbourne and out past Geelong. On the road to Colac we encountered roadworks and it became a very long trip along what is usually an easy, straight road. Eventually we arrived in Colac and stocked up on the groceries we would need for homeschool camp. While I was in the carpark I received a few phone calls and messages about Luna - she had been wandering overnight and had ended up with our neighbour, and another friend was looking for her to take her back to her place for a couple of days. I sorted that out as best I could, then went to get petrol, which was not cheap at all.

Heading out of Colac I was feeling a bit flustered as it was much later than I had hoped at this stage, and I followed a sign to The Great Ocean Road rather than following my GPS. I had planned to drive through Lavers Hill as this was the least windy road. We had been driving for a while, along a road that was pretty good, when I realised I had cut back across to the Skeynes Creek Road, which is the one I most wanted to avoid because of several hairpin bends and a steep descent to the ocean. By this stage it was too late to go back the other way so I decided to keep going and just take it easy. The wind was also quite strong and there were lots of small branches on the roads, which made driving a little more taxing.

The descent took a while (I took it slow) but it was manageable, and the tight turns were ok. I felt pretty good once I'd got to the bottom. There were great ocean views from time to time as we came down, and then we drove alongside the ocean for a while as we approached and left Apollo Bay. I was pretty tired by now and found the last little bit of the drive up to Cape Otway quite difficult. I drove fairly slow which was occasionally stressful when there were people behind me. As we drove down the Cape Otway road we came to more roadworks. While we were stopped, the lady with the Stop sign came along and pointed out some koalas to everybody, so most people got out of their cars to have a look. Back in the car we finally made it to Bimbi Park around 4pm.

I went to check in, and helped a friend negotiate the correct rate for her site (it defaulted to the base rate being for 2 adults, then added both children on to that price, rather than including the first child in the base rate). Caitlin wandered straight down to find her friends, and as I drove past the camp kitchen, Liam and Amelie jumped out to see friends as well. I drove down the back and found where I was camping with another friend, and he helped me get set up. Other friends were around as well and it was great to finally be there and get ready to relax for several days.

Once set up we wandered back to the kitchen for a quick meeting about the camp (mainly just asking us to be respectful of a visiting school group when they were praying), and saw a few more friends, then back to camp to finish getting organised - cook some dinner, have a cup of tea, chat with people as they wandered by. The kids were back and forth, playing with their friends and coming back to check in or eat every now and then. It was still very very windy which made things slightly less peaceful. I decided not to put my annex up until the wind died down, I did not want to spend all night worrying about it flying away. I chatted to my campsite friend until Amelie was ready for bed and then we went inside the tent, I read for a little while and then we tried to sleep and not get blown away.

Brisbane Trip Day 30: Sydney -> Blue Mountains

This was the most urban place we'd stayed in for a while - I was woken up by people on their morning walk going past the front of the house and talking loudly. It wasn't early though, probably around 7.30. We had a relaxed morning, hanging out in the kitchen/family room, eating breakfast and chatting and playing games. The kids spent some time on iPads and all the boys and Amelie played Minecraft for a while (although Amelie's world wasn't working properly) and we played Love Letters again, with people swapping in and out of the game as other things were happening. Our friend's daughter had dancing so she went off to that, and the boys all went with her mum to pick her up, bringing back a big box of delicious donuts from Grumpy Donuts. I was in the shower when they got back out, and returned to the kitchen to a very yummy treat.

Our hosts were going out around 11.30, so we organised to leave at the same time. I got everything in the car and locked the front door and just as I drove off remembered that I'd left my water bottle in the bed - I figured it wasn't worth the hassle of organising to go back inside to get it, so we gifted it to our friends.

We drove around and over the Harbour Bridge which was quite exciting, then I chose the wrong lane as I exited the bridge but still easily found my way to my brother's house in Greenwich. We parked on Greenwich Rd, finding a lengthy parking space fairly easily, and walked around the block to my brother's. His son was a little unsure about all these people coming in to his house, although he eventually played with Caitlin for a little while. When he wanted his Maman and Caitlin offered to go with him to find her though, he wasn't interested, he wanted Papa to take him. He went down for a nap before lunch.

My brother cooked the most magnificent steaks and sausages on the bbq, as well as some awesome chips and his wife made a salad, and we sat on the balcony to eat lunch. They had a friend over as well and she was fun and interesting to talk to. I had a great time catching up with all their day to day news and the kids joined in at times, and looked at the view or retreated with their iPods for a while. Their cousin woke up after a while and still wasn't keen on playing or talking with the kids, but did give them all a high-5 when we were saying goodbye.

We left a bit before 4 and the drive up to the Blue Mountains was quite easy. We pulled into a free camp at Woodford and discovered that all the vehicle camping is on the road, only tents can go on the grassed area (there are large rocks around the edge of the grass). At first I wasn't sure where we'd be able to set up, and we were thinking of getting out our little tents, then I decided I could probably manage to get the tent up in the one bay that was available (everywhere else I felt like the tent would be in the way of through traffic).

The bay was definitely big enough and I had no trouble backing in. I wanted to set up quickly so we could go to my friend's house (I'd said I'd be there around 6 and it was 5.30 when I unhitched). I had a moment of worry when I unhitched and the trailer rolled backwards - I caught it and managed to unlock the toolbox with one hand and get around to the wheels to chock them before it rolled any further. We did a very quick (38 minutes, including the beds) setup in hot, late afternoon sun. I was covered in sweat and very red in the face. The set up was a bit tricky too because half of the bay was asphalt so we couldn't peg all the corners down, so I used ropes on a couple of the corners. The slope was a bit inconvenient too so the tent looks a bit wonky - but for a short overnight stop it was fine. The zip decided to play up just as we were about to leave - I zipped up the fly door instead and we went to my friends.

We were greeted at my friend's house by her 3 legged dog who wasn't sure about these strangers in her house - she settled down after a while and spent a lot of the night licking Amelie and Liam's legs. We sat out the back and had nibbles and drinks and then a BBQ with sausages and chicken skewers. Great food and fantastic conversation. Both my friend's adult daughters were home and I loved catching up with them (I've known them both since they were born). It was a very relaxing and funny night. The kids spent some time looking at the birds and talking to one of the girls about them, and Amelie watched Beauty and the Beast (the new one). I remember watching the original Disney version with my friend in this same house, about 25 years ago! They had recently renovated their kitchen and changed some other things in the house so I was happy to see all the changes and we reminisced about what the house originally looked like.

We didn't leave until after 11 - Amelie was already asleep and everyone was pretty tired. It had been a very enjoyable evening. We drove back to camp and pretty much went straight to bed, all three kids were asleep within minutes.

Brisbane Trip Day 9: Coffs Harbour -> Byron Bay

It rained for most of the night so everything was pretty soggy in the morning. The leak near Liam's bed didn't get too bad which was a relief. There were a few hours where it looked like it was going to clear up, the sky was a bit lighter and there was some time without any rain falling. I booked our accommodation at Sea World and then started packing, trying to get as much done as possible before the rain started again. The last hour at least we were packing up in steady rain, and all ended up soaked through to the skin. We packed in a different order to try to keep things as dry as possible and it worked much better than usual. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to tow the trailer out because the ground was very wet and sandy, but it was fine. We drove down to the carpark and headed to the shower block to change into dry clothes and retrieve our washing from the dryer.

Once we were dry we headed down for one more look at the beach - the sun was trying to come through and the water was shiny and beautiful, a nice ending to our time in Coffs.

I found it a bit difficult driving with the rain coming and going, so it was a slow drive north. I hadn't driven beyond Coffs Harbour before so it was all new. A lot of the Pacific Highway is dual carriageway now and they are working on lots more of it. We saw a pretty spectacular bridge in the process of being built - it is going to be high enough to replace the current bridge which lifts up to let boats through. There were cranes and diggers on pontoons in the middle of the river, it was pretty cool. As we drove we listened to 'The Colour of Magic' by Terry Pratchett - it took the kids a while to get into it, now everyone is enjoying it and I'm pleased to be sharing this series and world with them. I stopped once for a cup of tea and once to retie some straps on the trailer and the short breaks helped me stay alert.

We arrived in Bryon Bay around 4pm and I was astounded at the number of people around - lots and lots of pedestrians and the traffic was heavy. I dropped the kids off at the information centre and drove back out of the main street to the free parking for long vehicles which was a block from the main street. Lots of people parked here and walked back through across the old railway track. The kids played in the park and we used the toilets and I rang around the caravan parks in town to see how much it would cost us to stay - the costs varied between $50/n and $95/n. I'd been trying to get in contact with the local football club who let people camp at the football ground - I couldn't find out how much they charged for kids. We decided to drive out there and check it out and if too expensive we'd come back to the cheapest caravan park. The grounds looked green and inviting and they said it would be $30/night, and there were toilets and hot showers and only a 5 minute drive back into town - so we decided to stay here.

It had started raining again while we were in town (we sat under a big tree while I made my phone calls and it kept off some of the rain) and it had settled in by the time we arrived at the football ground. Liam and Amelie decided to stay in the car and play on their iPods, and Caitlin braved the weather with me to set up. It was windy by now as well which added a whole extra challenge. We got the tent up - we'd left the annex roof attached and the tarp over the tent, which made putting the tent up much harder, but setting the annex and covering the roof much easier. It still took us a while to get everything tied down and in an optimal position for avoiding leaks - and we were soaked right through again. The inside of the tent was pretty damp, there was water in several corners. We set the beds up closer to the centre than usual, and put blankets and mats on the floor so that we didn't spread the water around, and it felt pretty cozy. Luckily the weather was warm despite the rain, so it wasn't completely uncomfortable.

We boiled the kettle and had cup-a-soup and noodles for dinner. There were lots of backpackers staying there as well and we chatted to a few of them (and lent one group a saucepan) and headed to bed as soon as we could.

Brisbane Trip Day 1: Home -> Yerrinbool

I was up at 5 and the kids around 5.30, to finish putting the last things in the car and try to get an early start. I was already hitched up which made things easier and quicker. Tony got home from night shift around 6am, which was fantastic as we all got to say a proper good bye, and we were on our way by 6.40. Everyone was very excited to finally be on our road trip that we’d been talking about and altering the plan for months.

Just past Tony’s work (so about 8 minutes into the trip) we were stopped at a road closure – there’d been a bad (fatal) accident further along the Melba Hwy so we had to detour. We went the back way to Healesville (we didn’t want to drive back past our house!) and then up Chum Creek Rd – which is windy and tricky to drive at the best of times, so I was quite nervous attempting it in the trailer. I drove slowly and carefully and it was fine. We got to the top of the slide an hour after we left home – usually it would take us 15 minutes. Everyone was in a good mood and it had felt like an adventure – I was a bit worried that adding an extra hour driving to my already huge driving load for the day would mean we couldn’t get as far as we wanted to – but I figured I’d just stop whenever we needed to and I’d see how we went.

Caitlin controlled the music play list and all the kids had a nap in the first couple of hours. It was a fairly easy drive up to the Hume Fwy. At some point I realised I hadn’t brought along our Camps Australia Wide book, which I was looking forward to using to map out our trip and help find cheap campsites – I’ll just need to use my regular map book and wiki camps, it will be fine (though not as fun or easy).

I was getting tired as we got to the Hume so we stopped at Mokoan rest stop and had some breakfast (yoghurt, granola and hot cross buns). We explored the area (there’s a (very) little walking trail) and looked at the maps and I did a bit of yoga. I made myself a cup of tea and after about an hour and a quarter we hit the road again.

We started listening to ‘Alcatraz and the Evil Librarians’ and discovered that it is hilarious and very entertaining, so that made the time pass much more quickly. We drove through to Gundagai and stopped at the Dog on the Tuckerbox. The kids got a frozen coke when I got petrol, and I got a cornetto from the gift store at the Dog – I always forget that the toilets down there are not public toilets, you need to be using the store to use them. We had a picnic lunch on the lawn near the Dog, and the kids were keen to get back into the car and keep driving (thank you audio books) but I was too tired so I had a lie down for 10 minutes or so – it was beautiful lying under gum trees and listening to galahs. It was really hot thought, hot and dry.

Eventually I felt awake enough to drive. I enjoy driving the Hume past Yass, lots of memories of all the times we drove it from Griffith, and when I used to go to Canberra a lot. After about 90 minutes I stopped again at a rest stop and made another cup of tea. From there it was an easy drive to Yerrinbool and we arrived almost exactly 12 hours after we’d left home.

It was 8 ½ hours of driving altogether (with the detour) – I don’t think I’ve ever driven that far in a day when I was the only driver. So I was feeling pretty exhausted and also very proud that I had managed it.

The friends we are going to see in Brisbane used to live in a great place in Yerrinbool (near Mittagong) with lots of room in the backyard for camping. Friends of theirs now live there and said we could camp for the night on our way through. The kids played on the trampoline and helped set up, surrounded by chickens and a couple of ducks. We did a very basic set up – I didn’t unhitch and I didn’t set up the bunk beds, Caitlin slept with me. When our hosts arrived home the kids helped them put all the chickens away and they gave us 6 eggs – so I cooked carbonara for dinner. It was great to eat something substantial after snacking all day. Our hosts helped the kids set up a campfire and we sat there for a while before heading to bed – everyone was exhausted.

Half-lap Day 18: Uluru

I was up at 5.30 and some of the other campers were already leaving. The rest of the family got up at 6 and quickly ate some breakfast, I made tea and coffee for Tony and I and we were in the car by just after 6.30. The sky was beginning to lighten as we started to drive. Approaching Uluru, it was a black silhouette against the slightly orange background of the eastern sky – very very impressive. We bought our National Parks pass on the way (and were given an information sheet in German – could be handy if we want to learn some German on our trip) and kept driving around to the sunrise viewing area at Talinguru Nyakunytjuta (I might need to check the spelling of that!), watching the changing light on Uluru as we went.

There were already a lot of people there but the sun was still below the horizon. Uluru was quite visible now, still a dark brown mass rising out of the ground. We walked up to the main viewing platform but there were too many people there for me and the kids so we moved back down to one of the lower areas. It was exciting to watch the sunlight slowly hit different bits of the rock, and gradually light up the face of it. We could also see Kata Tjuta from here and they were lit with sunlight earlier than Uluru, quite impressive from a distance. While the sun was rising some of us noticed a kestrel fly into a nearby tree. Another, smaller bird (who may have had a nest in the tree) starting scolding the kestrel loudly. As we watched she moved closer and closer to the big bird, sounding warning calls the whole time, and eventually she started dive bombing the kestrel. It held it’s ground for a while (it seemed to just be ignoring the smaller bird) but eventually had enough and flew away, being chased for some time by the smaller bird, who kept diving at it the whole way – into another tree and down near the ground and eventually across the plains until the small bird was happy it was far enough away from her tree.

LiAM is happy that we gave him his birthday present early - he was very keen to get a photo of Uluru (or in this case, a photo of me taking a photo of Uluru...)

The kids and I wandered along the paths and watched the changing light from several different view points. The one we ended up at seemed to have the best view, on ground level, straight across to the rock. Many of the other vantage points had trees in our line of sight – which didn’t detract from how amazing the sunrise was. We eventually wandered back up to where Tony was, and found him chatting to a guy who used to supply presses to De Bortoli. Nearly everyone we’ve spoken to has lived near somewhere we used to live, or near some of our family, or works somewhere we’ve had something to do with… There’s always a connection.

Back at the carpark we were happy to find flush toilets – my worst ever toilet experience was a Uluru in 1997, so it was a relief to see that the toilets have been upgraded quite a bit since then! Once we’d used the facilities we drove all the way around Uluru – so amazing to see it from so many different angles. I’d forgotten how wriggly the outline is, I tend to think of it as just being a big oval. We stopped near the place where people can climb it (the climb was closed and we had no intention of climbing anyway) so the kids could get close to it. Then we popped around to the cultural centre as LiAM wanted to get a souvenir.

Caitlin and I spent quite a bit of time in the art gallery, watching two indigenous women painting – one woman was working on a dot painting that I loved more than anything else I’d seen in the gallery. I would have loved to buy it – someone else had already said they wanted, and it was a little out of my price range anyway. I could have stayed there all day watching them work. LiAM bought a little Uluru snow globe, and Millie bought a note book with a dot painting on the front, and Caitlin a scrunchie with a dot pattern on it. Tony bought an Uluru tea towel – we figure tea towels are handy and practical souvenirs! LiAM was eyeing off the cakes at the café – they were $6 a piece so I said we could buy a whole cake to share from the IGA later and it would probably be cheaper. He was happy to wait.

Back to the campground where I waited in line to find out the details of our new site. It was a good sized site (I’d been worried, some of the sites here are really narrow, and we wouldn’t be able to put our awing up), right near a toilet block, and with shade. We had a bit more to eat back at our tent, then started to do a weird sort of pack up – we put things away where we could, and shoved a heap of stuff in the car – it still took a while and it was a little frustrating to have to pack up so much to move such a short distance – but we needed to put the tent all the way down to move it. We didn’t put the cover on though, just piled everything on top of the folded tent and tied it down for the short drive. Tony and Caitlin had already ridden their bikes over and Caitlin helped Millie ride hers.

Setting up was also a bit of a pain since we normally have a break in between putting the tent down and back up again and we weren’t really in the mood. I hadn’t really eaten enough and I think the busyness of the last couple of weeks was catching up with me and I was rather grumpy. Everyone seemed tired so we decided to simply spend the rest of the day at the campground rather than going out for more sight seeing – sometimes we need to rest! We got everything set up and had some lunch, and I eventually got our washing hung out to dry. LiAM and I went to the IGA to get milk and cake and a few other supplies, which picked up everyone’s mood a little. After lunch Tony took the kids to have a swim and I stayed at the tent, catching up on some banking and email and so on, and enjoying the down time.

The kids came back and had showers and we had pizza rolls for tea (tomato paste, ham, kabana, cheese and pineapple wrapped up in flat bread and cooked in the fry pan). Not quite pizza but the closest we could get with the equipment we had! Everyone was exhausted, LiAM went to bed and listened to music before the rest of us wandered in and we read Brisingr for a very short time before people started falling asleep.