Getting Ready

6th July

Starting to get real now. Only 5 weeks to go and still haven't booked a single Caravan park.

Plan at this stage is to go straight through to Broken Hill for a night and then make it up from there.....

Its going to be a long long time in the car no matter which way I look at it.... Still, it beats being at work.

Changed our mind already

13th July

Decided less than a week later that we are going through Balranald, Hay, West Wyalong, Parkes Goondiwindi, Rockhampton etc. Who knows after that.... Just as likely to change our mind anyway.

Regardless, it is a very very long time in the car with the 3 kids!

Almost....

4th August

Went through the final stages of getting ready over the weekend.
Only 5 working days to go!
One of the things that became very apparent over the last few days, is that we haven't really taken into account the weather. Our 1st couple of stops were intended to be "free camps" as we were only going to arrive very late and leave again at dawn. These are basically public parking areas on the side of the road with long drop dunnies and some running water for washing hands. They usually have a maximum of 48 hours stay, are free, and are perfect for stopping at on a long trip.
After taking this photo below this morning, and seeing the minimums over the weekend, i am seriously considering caravan parks with electricity for the heater. Brrrrrr

We are off - no turning back!

11th August 2014

This is it. The van is packed, the kids are busting to get moving (probably so they can stop in 30 minutes time to go to the loo !).

All final checks that everything is packed and the van is secure, and off we go. The car feels like it is struggling a bit on some of the hills between Mt Barker and Murray Bridge, but I quickly realised that overdrive wasn't designed for towing up hills.... and yes I did know that already, just had a brain fade.

After travelling for what seemed like hours, it was announced that I needed to stop for a loo break.... at Tailem Bend..... (stay calm Barry ). 

Next stop we got "all the way" to Lameroo (170 Km away). Decided it would be a good place to divert the kids attention away for a while from their ipads and into a bit of a history lesson. The town has done a great job of making a couple of bridges and other displays using artefacts from its foundation days such as railway pegs, old spanners, rabbit traps etc .

Off we started again, only to stop 35 minutes later for one of those cheesy tourist photos at the Victorian border (see pic below). Had to do it!

Next stop was at Ouyen. The sole reason for stopping here was to try the Vanilla Slice that was supposedly announced as the "Best Ever" by Jeff Kennet...... Meh... not convinced. Tasted like a vanilla slice to me. It was great however to be able to just open up the van and get stuff out for lunch instead of having it packed in the bottom of an esky floating in icy water.

We started trundling along and became a bit wary that because we had to divert around the Tooleybuc bridge for repairs via Nyah, it was going to be cold and just that bit too far to get to Balranald, so we stopped at a little town on the river banks called Wood Wood..... because we could could ! Was chatting to the owner of the van park a little later, only to find the bridge was only closed between 9am - 3:30 pm....... Grrrrr. Either way, this was a lovely quiet little spot - albeit old and undergoing lots of repairs - and we got to see a rather amazing houseboat pull up which gave us yet another great photo opportunity

So all in all, what was touted as a 452km , 5 hour and 20 minute journey ended up taking us over 7 & 1/2 hours..... 

Wood Wood to (not as far as we had planned!)

12th August 2014

Woke up this morning to a rather bitey -3 degrees.... yes that is a minus sign before the numeral!

We had to be at the Tooleybuc bridge by 8:30 to avoid having to detour an extra hour via Nyah, so it was all systems go this morning. My hands were literally freezing onto anything metal which made packing up 3 times harder than it needed to be - even the tap wouldnt turn on ( see picture below!).

surprisingly enough, it still took just over an hour to pack up, including the kids having breakfast, but we did manage to get across the bridge which is one of only two surviving Murray River bridges with Allan truss spans, or Allan-designed lift spans (the other being the Swan Hill-Murray River Road Bridge).  The Tooleybuc bridge also provides the only gateway between the states of Victoria and NSW. - Add that to your Trivial Pursuit book of knowledge.!

This crossing was about 7 minutes away from where we set off, so it felt a bit stupid stopping the car to get out already (mirrors were still iced up) and have a closer look, but it was something important for the kids to see at least.

Got to Goolgowi a few hours later and pulled up close the local park where we set ourselves up for lunch. despite still being only 13 degrees, the sun was out and was a great stop where the kids exerted a small fraction of their built up energy on the playground with what appeared to be the most expensive and strongest roof I have ever seen

I was in the mood for driving afterwards and set off at full steam ahead...... which turns out to be about 85km/h to save chewing through too much petrol.

We decided that West Wyalong was going to be our destination for today. It seems it is either going to be a slower than expected trip, or a 330km per tank of fuel trip. I like the first option better.

After setting up, we went to the local shops and had a look through the town, then just came back and chillaxed for a while - with a beer of course.

Travel time today (incl lunch stop) - 7 hours. Distance travelled - 450 km

(ice - therefore tap NBG!)

West Wyalong to Dubbo

13th August

After being told my many people that the Dubbo Zoo was well worth the visit, that became our destination today. However I had to try and get myself into the mode that I am constantly telling the kids.... "It is the Journey, not the Destination".

Because our total distance to travel today was just a little over 350Km, we were in no hurry and had a pleasantly slow, albeit freezing cold again, start to our morning. So after travelling for just over an hour, I pulled into a side street and announced we were going into the McFeeters Motor Museum. This is a MUST for any motoring enthusiast (which i am not by the way). The lovely couple that run it also own about 40 of the many cars on display, which are all in immaculate condition, and are all still driven today in many different car clubs and shows.

360 degree view of cars

We found a park just down the road next to a lake where we could dive the van onto the lawn and setup for lunch while the kids played on the climbing equipment - another fantastic sunny day.

An hour or so later, we trundled off again, ths time stopping at Parkes to visit "The Dish". Despite the kids having enough energy to run a power turbine in their legs, we made (well tried) to get them settled and to actually be interactively involved.... which they finally did. Tyler and Dylan set off with Tracy on a Scavenger Hunt, whilst I took Kayla into a series of 3 x 10 minute 3D videos of space and Mars - quite cool really.

The kids were seemingly interested in the fact that this Dish was actually used in a movie of the same name.... until I realised their excitement was more focussed on the remote possibility of getting to watch TV. I personally dont think it really mattered what they watched.... as long as it was TV!

After close to 2 hours looking around, we set off again. Whilst I was motoring along at super high speeds again and being overtaken by every triple semi trailer in Australia, Tracy researched all the van parks at Dubbo and tried filtering out all the negative comments from the facts and we chose our resting place for the next 2 nights. Tomorrow is going to be a big one with a trip planned ( well Tracy has planned it all anyway) to the Western Plains Zoo, which is a 6km open access zoo that requires a 2 day pass just to see everything. We have.... ( ok, Tracy has).... decided we will drive the car around to stop the kids tiring too quickly and hopefully spending a little more time at each exhibit, rather than burning hours walking. This suits my fitness aspirations at the moment too.

Dubbo to nowhere

14th - 15th August 2014

Today we travelled the huge distance of 18km. 3km each way to the Western plains Zoo and two laps through the zoo itself. This place is huge. run by the Taronga Zoo group, you have the choice of walking through, hiring a bike, hiring an electric golf cart or driving your own car through. We chose the latter so that we could make choices as we went along and not have to apply for a new credit card to pay for this day.
As it turned out, we walked straight into an information session on the Black Rhino, which was then followed with 5 minutes breaks between talks on Meerkats, Giraffes, Hippos, Elephants, Tigers and the Apes. Was fascinating to actually learn about the habits of animals, instead of just trying pick out the similarities between them and our children (that's a joke for those unknowing of my sense of humour).

Reality says though, that it is still a zoo and I am sure pictures look the same as the last time everyone was at a zoo, but I am going to rattle on regardless.

The Rhinos are fascinating - the biggest laugh was had at my expense when we found out they could run nearly as fast as me towing the caravan up the highway! will be keeping an eye out for that on the next leg!

Apparently the African elephant kept here is the only one in captivity (I think he said in the world, but cant remember - maybe in Australia..)
The kids chose to climb all over the statues as their energy levels rose at the same ratio as their attention spans diminished.

We checked out the giraffes and hippo show next

By this time the kids were as hungry as the Hippo, so we made a deal with them that if they did a quick dance for the camera, we would feed them - This is the result! (Dylan is the one on the left)

Of course, I ate way too much for lunch again....

Goondiwindi (nearly) - It's Friday already

16th August

I can't believe we have reached our 1st Friday already. We have stopped at a rest area about 20km short of Goondiwindi QLD. Left Dubbo this morning at just after 8:30, and with a short lunch break at Narrabri and a shop stop at Moree, we motored on through. I got all excited for a while today, because we actually were going faster than a speeding Rhino for a while there (a useless fact picked up at Dubbo Zoo yesterday that they can run at least 55Kmph!). The roads changed from really bad to really good many times, but was much more pleasant with a few National Parks and Forests to look at instead of watching the road.

It was probably only 10 minutes after we set off that I took a really deep breath and offered to Tracy a drive while I sat in the passenger seat pretending to sleep and pretending not to be watching, and even more so, not offering any driving tips unless asked. I swear at one stage it felt like it was 30 degrees in the car, then I realised it was just the nervous sweat taking hold.... However, credit where credit is due, Tracy did a fabulous job (was there any doubt?) and even passed another vehicle, which is actually a first for the whole trip (ok, it was a farm ute towing some machinery, but that's not the point here!). Anyway, the next toilet stop saw not only the bladder relief, but also the offer for me to drive again.. One of the happiest moments of my life ! ( excluding marriage and kids of course!)

We had set a goal to get to a rest stop about 40km north of  Goondiwindi, but we headed into some light rain showers and dusk falling pretty quick, so we stopped 35km before Goondi. It is just a rest stop with a long drop loo and truck parking, but it goes back about 60m off the road, so we pulled up right in the back corner and found remains of an old campfire, so the kids set off to start their own, which turned out to be the best thing we could have done. Sitting outside now at 7:30 PM in shorts, 21 degrees, had a few beers, now on the port..... This is what camping / caravan-ing is all about. ---- except maybe the blogging on an iPad.

Travelled 465 km today in about 8 and a bit hours - man that sounds slow.... But it was fun, even with all the stops, and that is why we are doing this.

Condomine, Miles and Yuleba

17th August

Woke up this morning with a very clear understanding of why they are called Truck Parking bays.. next time we will be choosing one that is a:) not on a major highway if possible, and b:) only big enough for one truck. I had always assumed that a truckie only stopped at these places when busting for the amenities, not to park with the engine idling for 30 minutes at a time, and certainly not continuously through the night. So yes, it was a very interrupted sleep, but - it was free, it was warm and it was safe.

It started drizzling late at night and cleared up enough for us to pack up in the dry, before starting again a couple of hours later. we must have had a tail wind, because we actually motored on at a good speed today. After circling the roundabout 3 times to try and get the mandatory "Welcome to Queensland" tourist photo in Goondiwindi, we sped off before stopping at Condamine for a rest and 5 minutes on the local playground. We found a flood marker as per the picture below that is pretty scary - the kids are stand at the top of the river bank by the playground, and as can be seen in the photo, the flood levels in 2011 were another few metres above their heads!. this place looks like it would have been completely under water. Not long after we arrived at Miles for lunch and a bit of a history lesson at the Historical Village. This was a fascinating place where the kids were given a "Treasure Hunt" list with questions about each building, that made us actually read the info at each place. Found a couple of the old phones that i used to have and are probably worth hundreds now that I dont have them any more!. The rain started coming down a fair bit heavier while we were there, and began to put doubts in our plan to stay at Judds Lagoon in Yuleba.... this is a true bush camp in the National Park that we were thinking was going to be very muddy, wet and boggy...... and i only had a vague idea of how to even find the place..... however we did it, and got here just before 4pm and set up in what was a relatively dry area amongst the trees and about 15 other campers...... then the drizzle started again..... and kept drizzling..... then got heavier... We managed to get everythng setup and found some firewood for tomorrow, before settling inside the van for the night. Once again, my Masterchef Tracy whipped up a storm in the kitchen, and served up some Tandoori spiced chicken portions with a luscious green garden salad, along with some rolled beef cuts ( ok... sausages) for the kids. Yummmo.

The rain stopped shortly after around 7:30 and venturing outside I found out why nobody else had set up here..... seems to be the meeting spot for all the low points of the ground which resulted in us having our own little lagoon forming under the matting outsid the van.... oh well, that is now tomorrows problem

Travelled 350km today in 8 hours.... but with some long stops and more learning for the kids - thats what it is all about.

Staying here till probably Monday when we will definitely need a shower..

(That is Dylans attempt at smiling by the way)... The 2011 mark is at about 15.5 metres - The creek currently has less  than a metre in it.

Judds Lagoon

18th - 19th August

Waking up yesterday morning to absolutely perfect weather, albeit a little cold. Dylan had been hanging out to go fishing ever since we left home, so I granted the little fella his wish and set up a couple of lures and headed down to the lagoon. The water looked perfect, but it seemed the fish were either still asleep or on a special diet that didn't involve our lures, much to Dylan's dismay. Tyler wandered down a short time later and had a turn, but even his magic touch couldn't stir up the natives.
We got the WeberQ out for the first time on the trip last night, so I naturally fired it up to see how many fried eggs in bread we could shovel down in one breakfast sitting (bacon was still frozen, so my arteries had a little reprieve there..).... yep... ate too much!
A little later on I took Tyler and Dylan exploring through the bush land like the true campers we are, and spotted a good dozen wallabies as well as numerous other wildlife. The weather was amazing - sun shining, about 20 degrees....gee I am missing work... not!
It started to become overcast and windy late in the afternoon, so I gave up on the idea of another fishing attempt and even told the boys that we weren't having a fire and told the neighbouring van they could take the wood we collected earlier for their fire.
After having a few brews whilst kicking the footy with kids ( yep, that's true fatherly behaviour!), I decided that a fire would actually be a good idea, so I lit it up. I reckon I could feel the neighbouring van owners getting ready to throw their camp billy at me, because it was at that time I realised they hadn't bothered collecting any wood because I had offered ours to them.... oh well. (smirk)
Anyway.... It wasn't long before some port started flowing and not long afterwards that I called it a night. I reckon we were both crashed out before 9pm. Was a big day of doing nothing.
The park is constantly chattering with Kookaburras and other birds..... not enough to keep us awake tho.
Heading off to Emerald tomorrow to get a well deserved shower.

(Left Judds Lagoon at 7:50am, thanks to some smart packing the night before, and drove solidly until we stopped for lunch at Rolleston. Found a local playground that had about 10 caravans parked nearby with all the Grey Nomads sitting on the benches having lunch! - almost felt right at home, except for the fact that we actually had kids that wanted to expel some energy). Couldn't believe it when we got to Emerald and the caravan park we wanted to stay at only had 2 powered sites left! Nothing special on in town, this is just what it is like at this time of the year up here. We immediately rang our next 2 stops - Mackay and Airlie Beach to book in the next week...... Can't get into the first 2 park choices at Mackay !! What the???. Finally found a park that could fit us in....It had better be good or we are going to protest by not going - That'll teach them!

Mackay - The Journey has ended and the Destination has started

20th - 22nd August 2014

We did it. Arrived at Mackay finally. the car and the van have done beautifully and not missed a beat all the way thankfully.

We took our time this morning knowing that we were booked in already, so it didn't matter how late we got there. Even still, we managed to be in the car and on our way by 9:20. We decided to call into the local Woolies to grab a few essentials, and 45 minutes later we had managed to empty the credit card with the weeks food shopping - apparently that is classed as essentials. For some reason the bottle of Jom Beam I picked up isn't. (Pretty essential to me as far as I am concerned!).

A couple of hours later we started getting peckish so we pulled into a dis-used road works site in the middle of the Peakes Range National Park and had lunch. Was literally in the middle of nowhere, but beautifully serene and the perfect stop for lunch....... Until I went investigating our immediate surrounds and discovered the source of the pungent tangy smell of rotting flesh on the other side of the gravel park. Decided not to tell the kids until after they had finished eating that we were sharing our stop with a third of a cow that was fertilizing the roadside verge to avoid the excitement that only a 5, 7 & 9 year old could have over such a discovery. 

We packed up and set off a little later and I suddenly realised we were no longer encountering other grey nomads - I mean young caravanners - on the roads. We did however encounter some massive mine sites and living quarters. It shattered my vision of miners in FNQ where I was thinking they would be surrounded by luscious tropical lands.... This was as dry as the last 2,500km we had travelled and looked absolutely no different to what I now imagine every other mine in the country looked like (However some of the villages were pretty amazing with hotel like accommodation, their own sporting ovals and complex in the middle of the desert)

Eventually we saw the mountains up ahead and slowly but surely started the climb up and the steep descent on the other side..... And immediately the surrounding landscape changed into what we had expected.. Palm trees and sugar cane as far as the eye could see. The kids even got so excited at one stage, that they looked up from their iPads and glanced out the window... Will be checking later to make sure they didn't strain any muscles in their necks.

I had expected Mackay to be a bit more "Resorty", but it appears that is only by the beaches. The rest is just like any other town. The sky is brilliantly blue and the temperature is a balmy 24 degrees at 4:30pm ( still 18 degrees at 6:30). Set up the van, opened a brew, cooked a few pizzas on the WeberQ, had another brew, sat down for a while, had another brew..... Only 12 weeks to go.... Yawn.

Travelled 390km today with a number of stops

Mackay

21st August

Well Mackay has certainly put on a fine display of weather for us. Apparently it poured down all last week and the locals are hanging out for me... thankfully the weather gods have waited for us to move on.... which is tomorrow (sob). This park is fantastic - green green green grass, great amenities ( yes that is important when travelling!), and a pool for the kids, and best of all, day time temperature hovering anywhere between 22 and 26 degrees...
After a relaxing first night, we went out exploring on day 2. Packed the swimming gear, got a picnic lunch together and headed off to the towns renowned "Blue Lagoon", which is a $12 million dollar, council run, free pool and entertainment precinct on the Pioneer River frontage. Finally found our way through the one way streets to the car park, hauled our gear to the front gate, only to find it is closed till September 1st for maintenance.....Grrrr. (that explains all the empty carpark spaces and the work vans out the front - Doh).
So we spent the next hour eating lunch while the kids increased their strength on the playground, going through their Ninja Warrior training regime, much to the dismay of other mums whose kids tried valiantly to copy with very little success and very nearly a 000 call. We decided we may as well use the pool facilities at the Caravan Park, so headed back, and let the rugrats - I mean kids - loose in the pool. And so the peace and serenity of the Park was shattered with the sounds of our 3 kids letting everyone in the next square mile know how each other wasn't playing fair and that they all should "stop" whatever it was that was annoying the other.... while i researched the local news on Facebook with a drink in hand - just like any good father figure should be doing.
Tea consisted of a true mans BBQ last night...meat, bread and sauce. and lots of it. (I was offered something called salad at one stage, but politely declined as I don't like to mix my food).

This morning we had planned to go on a local Sugar Mill tour, but found due to local OH&S rules, you had to be 1.2m tall to go through the factory. That would have meant Kayla would need to stay outside, so we looked for an alternative and found a tour through a miniature Sugar Mill in a town 40km away called Sarina. Was an amazingly interesting tour, with facts that wont be written here, but definitely will be stored away for those future knowledge quiz nights.

We came back, had lunch then I took the boys fishing off the rocks, whilst Tracy took Kayla shopping. I hear that it is very lucky Kayla doesn't have her own credit card as she appears to have a natural gift of wanting to buy all things nice and girly, regardless of the need....We are both going to need a second job to support that one methinks.

Fishing was fun, but pointless. Funny how kids want to pull the line in to check the bait every 25 seconds, except if using a lure when they want to leave it out in the water. Within an hour, we had lost 4 lures and 3 traces on the thousands of rocks lurking just out of site. I decided this wasnt the place to teach them the joys of fishing, so we scooted back to the van..... for a BBQ tea. (This time it was Yiros meat, so technically not really a BBQ - yum).
Tomorrow we pack up and head off to Airlie Beach for 3 night at what is probably going to be the most expensive 3 nights of the trip in the Big 4 Adventure Park. That is going to be something worth blogging about.

Airlie Beach

23rd August

Wow. Wow. Wow. Airlie Beach is just another one of those Far North QLD places that is simply amazing and where I start in my rambling thoughts of "I could live here...". Then I remember that we are here at the best time of the year weather-wise and I am on holiday with the only movement being to get another brew out of the fridge or to make room for another brew. The caravan park here is huge and a kids paradise and as such we have had a very quiet day with all 3 spending every available minute either on the jumping pillow or in the pool with its two water slides. Which gave Tracy ample time to read her book and myself even more time to gloat with photos on Facebook and have a quiet drink or three. As I said... Paradise.

The weather forecast has been saying 22 degrees every day, but my little thermometer was showing 36 in the sun at one stage, with it sitting on 30 right now at 5pm (shade temperature hovering around 26 - just perfect). We would love to be able to stay here for a week or more, but the cost of this place for 7 nights could just about buy us a block of land back home!

We went down to Airlie Beach front this morning and had a stroll through the local street markets, with the kids playing in the sand for a while. Again, it was just beautiful at 9:30am and well warm enough to have a swim -not that we did though- then had a quick look at the marina on the way back (where I started choosing which boat I would like that wouldn't cost more than our house - very limited choice I must say). Snapped back to reality shortly after and headed back to the park. I stopped off for a replacement headlight for the car, so Tracy ducked into the local Woolies for a loaf of bread. 45 minutes later, Dylan and I set off on a rescue mission and found her checking out with another load of "essentials", a nearly maxed out credit card and still no bourbon in sight! Hmphh

As many of my loyal Facebook "friends" saw, the rest of the afternoon was spent lazing by the pool. I am pretty sure the kids were there somewhere too..... This trip we have really appreciated the hundreds and hundreds of dollars spent on swimming lessons over the last 5-7 years in having all 3 kids fully self sufficient in a swimming pool meant that we didn't need to have one of us in the water constantly, or arguing about the reason flotation devices are required to be worn is so that they can have the experience more than once.

My local master chef has got stuck into another creation tonight - meatballs with home made tomato sauce and pasta, all created (except the pasta) in the trusty Thermomix.

Time for another drink......

 

Goodbye Airlie Beach

24th August 2014

Well, it is time to move on again. Found out today that whilst we have been bragging about the perfect weather up here, last week it bucketed down so much that the ground we are sitting on was under water for two days! And now I thank my work colleague Martyn for being away at the same time which resulted in us delaying this trip for a week later than I had originally planned.

There are way too many photos taken up here to bore anyone reading this, so I have shown only a few below. The kids are now totally exhausted after spending the last 3 days swimming, flying down water slides and playing "Red Rover" on the jumping pillows. Whilst I might complain about the cost of this place, it is the perfect babysitter and adult tranquilizer I have seen for a looooong time.
We found another public "lagoon" this morning on the beach front - another multi million dollar chlorinated free public swimming pool run by the council with full time life guards. After a quick swim and look around, we went back for more jumping pillows and water slides. I am exhausted just watching them.
After whipping up some home made pizzas for tea, i got back into pack up mode and started getting organised for the next leg of our trip tomorrow to a place called Finch Hatton where we will stay for a couple of nights and head into Broken River where it is reputed to be almost guaranteed of seeing platypus in the wild at this time of the year.