THE FAMILY PAGE

2004

Friday 26th March

After our lazy Sunday on Monday 22nd I decided that we should have a look around Busselton.  It is famous for a 2km long jetty with an underwater observatory at the end - luckily there is a little train which goes along it as it was another very hot day (40 I think). It was amazing walking down the stairs of the observatory and seeing all the different kinds of fish at the different levels and amazing coral growth on the supports of the jetty too. Then we swam and learnt about the differences between stingers and normal jellyfish from a lovely local couple who were on the beach - unfortunately both Sarah and Hannah discovered what it was like to be stung too although not too badly. Michael and Marion went fishing off the jetty and had quite a laugh I think - they actually caught three fish which they put back into the water.  Josie made some friends and went swimming and jumping off the jetty and managed to severely damage the end of her big toe by kicking off and hitting some barnacles - so bad that I actually ended up taking her to the local hospital to have it cleaned up and checked over - our first minor casualty of the trip and hopefully the last although they were wonderfully helpful and kind.

On Tuesday we left Busselton and drove a short distance to Bunbury where there is a Dolphine education centre and interaction zone which means that there is a piece of the beach which is marked off where you can stand in the water and the dolphins sometimes come right in and swim past. We waited for an hour or so and then were lucky enough to see Jet.  She swam with a few feet of our legs - if I had stretched out my hand I could have touched her. It was just like she knew what was expected of her as she swam up and down past everyone like she was on parade and then headed back out to sea! - Wonderful!

Then we drove on into Freemantle - we had been advised to stay there instead of Perth so I booked a house for three nights - we had a big unpack of Charlie and spent most of Wednesday sorting out stuff and washing and doing some schoolwork. Then in the afternoon we headed off to the airport and picked up Neil - hurray!! and took him straight to the Freemantle Prison which had a candelight tour - the children thought it would be funny to take him straigt to jail and luckily he saw the funny side of it!  It is now a museum but is where the convicts from the UK where first bought. They tried their best to scare us as we walked around as it was getting dark and succeeded with someof us more than others!

On Thursday we caught the ferry to Rottnest Island - just over half an hour and spent a lovely day exploring it - its only 28km long - no cars allowed, just bicycles and a bus - lots of beautiful bays where we did some great snorkelling.

Today we leave Freemantle and head east to meet up with Frank and Mary at Kalgoorlie about 600km away.

Sunday 21st March

At the last entry I only made it up to the end of 10th March so I’ll pick up from there. On Thursday morning we headed over to meet Bob and Tina Smith who are friends of Michael and Verity Jackons - well, originally Michael’s parents’ friends - a lovely couple and so welcoming and hospitable. Tina is the wildlife officer for the area and told us a lot about conservation and education in the area which was fascinating. They have the most beautiful garden and lots of visitors - mainly birds but also a family of bandicoots - who we were lucky enough to see, even the baby one.  They come for grain every day and came really close to us all.  They have lots of birdbaths at all sorts of different levels which attract all sorts of different birds - beautiful little ones like wrens and bee-eaters and lots of parrots too.  We saw loads and then Bob and Tina took us out for a walk through the national park just behind their house and we saw lots of other birds on the river.  I have got an Australian bird book and am having great fun trying to identify what we see and then mark them off in the book.  The colours are so vibrant here and the birds on the whole much bigger.  I could sit and watch them for hours. After spending a lovely morning with Bob and Tina we headed for the beach - today Ocean Beach which is just as it sounds with some great waves for body boarding although after a while the wind made it a bit cold.

On Friday 12th Bob had invited us for a tour of his son’s winery - West Cape Howe Wines. He showed us all the different stages of the winemaking process which was fascinating and I got to taste a few too - the unwooden chardonnay was my favourite but I didn’t buy any as I have given up wine for Lent and Neil’s not with me to drink it at the moment either!  When we left Bob we headed towards the Alpaca Stud and Animal Farm - Hannah and Sarah have not stopped mentioning that this place exists since we first saw the leaflet in the information centre! so I relented.  I have been trying to keep them to Australian fauna but this was the whole fuzzy furry farmyard scene - guineapigs and rabbits that you could cuddle, goats that you could feed and stroke, little chicks in an incubator, even foxes in a cage - oh yes,  Highland calves, a donkey, Shetland and some other pony and yet more goats - there was also a bison called Tison and a camel called Carmel, not to mention an enormous pig which grunted everytime you scratched her belly. There were also a couple ofo kangaroos and koalas and of course loads of Alpacas who are very cute and furry too. The children had a ball stroking and petting and oohing and aahing!  Then a trip to the other beach at Denmark - William Bay and Greenpools which is a lovely calm beautiful beach behind some rocks making a lagoon of crystal clear water - we could have stayed there for hours, in fact I think we did before heading off to our next campsite about an hour or so away at Peaceful Bay.

Peaceful Bay was exactly that - a lovely campsite full of trees and a tiny little township of gravel roads and pretty weatherboard houses and then an enormously long sandy beach where we spent a good hour on Saturday morning for a very refreshing swim before driving an hour or so to the Valley of the Giants - trees not ogres - Karri trees growing over 60 metres tall with huge circumferences.  There is a treetop walk here too like in the Otway National Park except this is the one which starred on “I’m a celebrity, get me out of here” so we bounded along it wondering why John Fashnau made such a fuss. The tallest part of it is 42metre and it does swing but its not really scarey - the view is amazing though looking at the canopy and then down to the ground below.  I love the trees - their trunks are very red and its a marvellous colour when you see them all together.

We drove on a bit after the Tree top walk and stopped just short of Walpole at a place called Coalmine Beach which is nicer than it sounds - another lovely treed campsite with lots of resident ravens and magpies and a few white tailed black cockatoos too.  The beach wasn’t as pretty as we have got used too but still swim worthy by the hardy children.  Sunday morning saw us driving a bit further on again and going pst the Big Tree Grove with a tree of 85 metres!! amazing! and then we arrived in Pemberton which was a large logging town.  There is still a small loggin operation but nothing like it was.  We went on a tram up through the trees and learnt a lot about the history of the area and the trees and then visited the Gloucester tree which is one of three lookout trees used for spotting fires. It has rungs all the way around its trunk and is 62 metres tall - you are allowed to climb it - no real safety instructions and no-one (official) there watching. There was no way I could stop Michael and Josie but I put my foot down with the two younger ones.  Luckily there was a sign suggestiing that children shouldn’t really do it.  It looked so far up and the rungs were really far apart so Hannah and Sarah just cilmbed up about ten foot before I made them come down but the others with Marion made it all the way to the platform at the top.  I had my heart in my mouth and prayed a lot!  There were quite a few peoploe climbing up but not many children. Needless to say they were fine.  Afterwards we sat at the bottom of the tree in the glade and handfed these beautiful little western rosellas (parrots).

Earlier in the day Hannah had spotted a leaflet advertising a farm stay - every observant, our Hannah - so I said that I would phone up on the off chance - it was already 5pm and amazingly they had one chalet empty for the night so we had a night in a real bed with our own bathroom, kitchen and sitting room - we hardly knew what to do with all the space! The farm was a huge success too as there was an orphaned one year old kangaroo who was still being bottlefed and of course calves, lambs, horses, rabbits, and guineapigs to be fed. I had a bit of a scare in the mmorning though as Michael went off for an early morning walk, leaving before 6.30am and was still not back at 8.15.  I walked down to the edge of the national park and there were paths going in all directions so I didn’t have the first idea where he had gone. I was just about to start the panicking and asking people to help me search when up he walks as happy as larry as he had found his own way back to the Gloucester tree and had been feeding the birds again!

The Monday morning we spent exploring the most beautiful wood craft gallery and shop - amazing pieces made from the local Jarrah and Karri wood -its lucky we don’t live nearby as I would want a housefull of the funiture it is so beautiful. Instead we had to appease ourselves with a few small items.  Then we drove the last 130km or so to the West coast of Australia - so we made it all the way from east to west (with a few detours!!).  We stayed near the southern corner at Hamelin Bay which is another lovely quiet campsite with a great beach and lots of lovely trees for shade. We only stayed there for the night as we were all keen to get on to Margaret River, our next stop, which is the surfing capital of Western Australia - also a great area for wineries but that isn’t on our list at the moment.  On the way I managed to sneak in a visit to the jewel Cave which we happend to drive past which was a beautiful dry cave with lots of stalagmites, stalagtites and helictites. 

We decided not to stay in Margaret River itself which is on the river and not the beach but at Pevelley Beach which is 15 minutes west and on the ocean - we booked in for four nights into another great shadey campsite - this one was full of very noisey ravens who had a habit of shouting very loud at about 5am although I seem to be the only one of us who hears them and wakes up!  While there Michael and Josie managed to fit in three surfing lessons from at the surf school run by an ex WA champion!!! and they came away with their Grade One Surfing certificate - WOW!!! It was harder I think than Sydney although there were more waves the ocean is a lot more powerful here as I discovered when I went in for a swim and came out having not managed to swim a stroke but having battered and bruised by the waves - very exhilerating! I even went back in on another day!  We also managed two one hour horse rides - the second one at sunset which was beautiful - hundreds of kangaroos grazing too. I rode a lovely coloured horse called Buster who behaved perfectly apart from not wanting to wait back for his canter when the non canterers went on ahead; Sarah rode Bart and wanted to trot all the time; Hannah rode the most beautiful nearly black pony called Kuda and was allowed a canter back in the arena and Josie rode Blondie - appropriately named as Josie has definitely gone rather blonder too. Michael only came out once and rode a very obliging grey whose name I have forgotten.  Marion decided that horseriding wasn’t for her so we left her exploring Margaret River instead.

In the afternoon of the Thursday we went to another cave - this time Lake Cave which is quite a small cave but almost entirely filled with a lake and beautifully lit so you can see all the formations - the only wet cave we have been in.

On the Friday we went on a four hour canoe tour called the Bushtucker tour - we were all put in the same canoe (all six of us) and there were another three canoe loads of people. We had the funniest time trying to go in a straight line and failed desperately but laughed a lot - although it was pretty hard work too so we had to keep our tempers under control when the person being the rudder took us in wavey lines from one side of the river to the other! We learnt a lot about the history of Margaret River and went on the part of the river which is un-navigable in any other way. We stopped on the bank for a lunch consisting of all the local leaves and flowers and bugs which the early settlers would have used for their food as well as kangaroo and emu - we were all fairly advernturous and tried quite a variety of the food but I had taken the precaution of bringing a few apples, carrots and crackers along too - funnily enough quite a few of the other people on the tour ate the crackers too! There was also the opportunity to explore a cave which I declined as it meant crawling along on your tummy through a very small space and I wasn’t convinced that I would fit!  It was an exhausting day but great fun so we collapsed in the afternoon.

On Saturday we had a last wander around the town and discovered a place called River Beads where we spent a happy hour or two designing and creating bracelets and necklaces and ear-rings in Josie’s case. Michael was so bored that he had to go off and find a surfing magazine to read!!  and here we are at Busselton where we arrived on Saturday evening.  This is a campsite which was recommended to us as being very resort style - it has a lovely pool and we have spent all today just being lazy here, swimming and sunbathing -lovely!.

Tuesday 16th March

Two weeks gone by - I can hardly believe it. We’ve come quite a way around the coast now to Margaret River - where we are going to be for four days - I’ll be glad to be in the one place for a while as we have covered a lot of ground and seen a lot of different things over the last two weeks,

Going back to Wednesday 3rd - there was yet more schoolwork done and swimming and visiting a plumber to get the shower leak fixed - not that we use the shower in Charlie but it was dripping every time we turned on the water pump.  Then we went out to Frank and Mary’s again - they have been so kind to us - their daughter Kath was giving a riding lesson on a training method for horses introduced from America by a man called Pavelli - we were actually late and missed most of it but we were able to check emails using their phone lines and enjoy their company again, and Hannah got a ride one of their horses.  On Thursday we went to Twilight Beach again and body boarded and tried to snorkel but there was too much swell really. Then we met Kath at her aunt’s house where she gave us a demonstration of the Pavelli method using her own horse which was fascinating.  I won’t bore the non-horsey people with an explanation now - if you want to know about it, you’ll have to write and ask!

On Friday we finally left Esperance and drove along the coast to Hopetoun - part of the drive involved going on 90km of gravel with no signposts after the first one. Josie was sitting in the front with me and she encouraged me to keep going - we kept glimpsing the sea so assumed that we were going the right way which we were.   We saw three wedgetail eagles while we were travelling which was very special. They are amazing birds - enormous wingspan.  Hopetoun was a small place with a lovely campsite and very cold sea - the four all went swimming but I didn’t! It was very pretty with lots of trees but we only had one night there. From there we drove inland and spent the next night in the Stirling Ranges - we found another lovely campsite with lots of trees AND a swimming pool which made everyone happy.  We went for a bush walk but didn’t find any animals, although there were lots of birds when I sat out later on and watched the sun go down.

On Sunday I had planned to drive through the mountains of the Stirling Range but it was raining and it was a dirt road - I didn’t want to risk big red muddy puddles and slipping and sliding around so we stuck to the direct route and arrived into Albany which is the next large town on the coast round from Esperance - We checked into a campsite on their main beach - Middleton Beach and I spent all of the afternoon going backwards and forwards to the laundry and catching up with mountains of washing. It catches us with you wherever you are!  Later on when the rain stopped we went for a great walk along the coast path - its another big natural harbour with lots of little islands dotted around. 

On Monday 8th we went on a river cruise on a boat called the Kalgan Queen.   The boat went from part of the harbour and then followed a course up the river Kalgan. Although the harbour is huge there is quite a narrow channel for boats and everywhere else is very shallow.  We saw loads of water birds - cormorants, darters, pelicans - the pelicans are the funniest - they follow the boat ever hopeful for fish.  Once we got onto the river we were met at several different places by sea eagles and whistling kites and ospreys - Jonathan (our guide) threw bits of fish and the birds came and took them off the water - He goes out every day and some of the birds are definitely regulars. It is fantastic to see the birds so close to the boat.  On the way back we had a persistent pelican following us and they are quicker at getting the fish than the birds of prey so Jonathan had to throw the fish on rocks beside the riverbank. It was brilliant.  In the afternoon we did the grocery shopping and yet more schoolwork.

Tuesday 9th, we collected Marion Campbell from the airport - Neil’s sister, Margaret’s, daughter (22). She is travelling with us for 4 weeks. She had flown into Perth the day before and got a connection.  Everyone was really excited to see her.  It was wonderful hearing the children tell her some of things that we have been doing - I was amazed how many little details they have remembered about things that we have done. We went on a drive around the Tourist Drive which was a bit of an adventure really as some of the gravel roads don’t really tell you where they are going to end up.  We discovered an old quarantine station which is now used as a school camp with some beautiful beaches. Then we drove on a bit further to a placed called The Gap which is a huge gap (funnily enough) in the sheer cliffs - I don’t even know how far down to the sea it was but we all lay on our tummies to crawl near the edge to look - they don’t really believe in safety rails here!  There are just a few signs with danger warnings on them and a plaque commemorating someone’s death!  There is also an incredible formation called The Natural Bridge which looks exactly likes its name. The waves were huge and so powerful crashing in from the ocean - very impressive. We ended up at Whaleworld which is now a museum but used to be one of the biggest whaling stations in Western Australia. It is rather depressing hearing about how we used to butcher these beautiful animals but also kind of interesting.  They now have some films in the old oil storage towers on sharks and whales which were fascinating.  The children had great fun exploring one of the old whaling boats.

Wednesday 10th March - my Birthday!!!  It was strange celebrating my birthday without Neil with us - the first time since we met that we haven’t been together for my birthday.  The children had been great though and disappeared off with my debit card around the gift shop at Whaleworld and then around the supermarket to prepare  a surprise supper!  We spent the morning on a cruise around the beautiful harbour of Albany -loads of little islands and supposedly seals and dolphins - unfortunately for Marion we only saw one very lazy seal asleep on a rock but I loved just being on the water for the morning and hearing about the history of the area. In the afternoon we drove on a little way to Denmark which is the start of all the Karri and Jarrah forests - amazing huge trees - beautiful. We stayed at a place called the Karri Mia resort which has just opened a caravan site.  It sits on the top of a hill with the most incredible view looking out over the forests to the inlet and then the sea. I was sent off for a walk while the children prepared my birthday tea. When I cam back an hour later there were balloons all over Charlie and around the little ensuite bathroom area we had and Happy Birthday banners and the table all decorated with special table cloths and party hats and presents - it was really special. The children had prepared nachos which are a bit of a favourite of mine at the moment and bought a chocolate cake with candles and everything. A great day!

Tuesday 2nd March

So here we are still in Esperance - Neil left on Saturday morning on a small plane for a connection in Perth and then back to the UK - it was sad to see him go again - it has been such fun being together over the last few weeks and experiencing things together as a family.  We seem to do more spectacular things when he is with us!

Last Friday we moved from the apartment into the campsite and then went out to have morning coffee with Frank (from the 4WD tour) and his wife Mary to talk about the possibility of doing a trip with them to Ayers Rock via the inland desert tracks - we thought it wouldbe an amazing thing to do so we are all thinking about it and discussing possibilities. After we left their house we drove around the Great Ocean Drive which is a tourist loop of the beaches - 11 mile beach followed by 9 mile beach followed by numerous others - all with the most amazing blue blue water and white white sand - stunning.

In the afternoon we went out to the Telegraph Farm run by a guy called John who has discovered that the only way for him to make a go of farming is to do a bit of diversification.  He took us ona tour in an old school bus which was great fun.  The first stop was to feed the chooks which turned out to be ostriches who stick their heads through all the windows and grab grain from the bowls that were thrust into our hands - hysterically funny; then we went on to see beautiful reindeer who were much gentler and then buffalo who we didn’t hand feed and then camels who were again very funny - they took carrots from our hands with very rubbery lips and smelly breath! John also showed us the most beautiful collection of South African plants he has grown. He used to export them but now the restrictions are too onerous with expectations of using very high poisonous insecticides which he refuses to do. Esperance is on the same longtitude as South Africa so the plants grow really well - they are amazing.

Saturday morning saw the sad departure of Neil after which we were all a bit down so did a few chores and then had a quiet day at the campsite using the pool.

On Sunday morning we went to church at the local Anglican church which was fairly traditional but very friendly and had an amazing breakfast afterwards.  It was a beautiful day so we went on out to one of the beaches on the tourist drive - Twilight Bay - perfect gentle surf for us to body board and play in the water - it was hot but with a great breeze off the sea so we probably stayed there a little long for our English skin but it was gorgeous.  So then I had to spoil it with insisting it was time to do some catching up with schoolwork!

Monday was too hot - we were trying to do some school work and had to keep on interspersing it with dips in the pool to cool off - then in the middle of the day there was a huge wind and finally it began to rain and cool down - thank goodness.  At aboiut 4pm we went out to Frank and Mary’s again - their daughter Catherine was there too and we all had a barbecue. Frank took the children off on his quad bike and they saw loads of kangaroos in the sand dunes and had great fun going “really fast”.  We talked some more about the desert trip and it looks as though it might work.  It sounds fantastic - a real trip of a lifetime (as if this isn’t one anyway!).

Tuesday - another day at the campsite, much cooler still - to do chores and schoolworkk before going into town for more chores and then a visit to their little aquarium.  It is only small but beautifully done and with really friendly staff who specially fed one of the tanks for us and the octopus too - it was amazing watching him uncurl himself from under a rock and stretch out his tentacles for his piece of prawn. We called around to Frank and Mary’s again as Frank has offered to check over the truck for me to make sure it is roadworthy before I head off by myself on Thursday. They have been so kind and generous to us.

And here we are sitting in Charlie having had pizza for supper - Sarah and Hannah have just finished the washing up and Josie and Michael are on drying up duty while I sit and type - it really is amazing how Charlie has become our home - a little bit cramped at times but definitely Home!

Thursday 26th February

The time flies by and I can never believe that yet another week has gone past. back to Saturday 24th - we had a leisurely morning at the campsite at Eucla and then drove 270km to a dirt turnoff onto the road to the Eyre Bird Observatory. Then we had to drive only 18km down a very wide red dirt road but it took us a pretty long time as it had rained and every puddle made Charlie swerve from one side of the road to the other - its lucky that we didn’t meet any other vehicles!  We finally reached the car park ( well the clearing in the scrub) and there we parked and waited for Ken who was going to take us by 4 wheel drive down the remaining 15km or so to the Observatory. When Ken arrived we all squashed into his ute and had an interesting drive down what seemed like almost a sheer rock face - I think it took us about an hour and a half!  Ken and his wife Karina run the Bird Observatory - they go into the township (Cocklebiddy) once a week for supplies (which have to be ordered in from further away). Cocklebiddy only consists of a fuel station and a roadhouse (takeaway food and basic supplies) and a caravan park.  They are powered by solar panels and survive on an average annual rainfall of 300mm - we all learnt a lot about conservation of power and water and recycling shower water to flush the toilets. It is a beautiful secluded spot and we did see some wonderful birds. They have visitors probably 50% of the time but otherwise its just the two of them for about 50km and the occasional fisherman who camps on the beach for a while!  Neil and I reckon that we could spend a few years of retirement there!  They keep records of birds and do weather reports.  The house used to be the old telegraph station to keep the route open across the Nullabor and was supplied by ship. Another place named after John Eyre as he spent quite some time there having got to the end of his provisions and water and being in a desperate state but then finding fresh water by digging down into the dunes.

We spent Sunday morning walking and enjoying the peace and quiet before being driven back up to Charlie for about 4pm. We decided to drive further than Cocklebiddy and managed to get to Balladonia having driven down the straightest piece of road in the whole of Australia (and probably the world) - literally not a bend of any sort for 90 miles!!  Luckily Neil and I managed to get into a good conversation so he didn’t get too bored - we saw NOTHING - no other cars just two kangaroos and a couple of emus - because it was late in the evening and there is 246 km between Cocklebiddy and Balladonia with no other building literally you don’t tend to meet anyone coming the other way - they’re already at their destination.  Not many people drive at night - kangaroos are a seriously big hazard hopping out with no road sense at all and they can do some serious damage. Balladonia was the usual roadhouse that we are getting used to now - fuel, takeaway, cafe and caravan park - on dirt, no grass - but it also had a restaurant so we splashed out and had a proper meal. We haven’t been able to replace all the fruit and veg we lost at the border - no shops out here!

Left pretty early Monday morning and drove into Norseman (192 km) where we were going to stop for lunch but not much there so we had a drink and were planning to move on. Norseman is named after a horse who was tied up for the night and spent such a restless night that when his owner came out the next morning there was a pile of quartz dug up with gold running through it! It was a busy town for a while but not anymore. Anyway nextdoor to the cafe was a book shop so we went in to exchange some books and got talking to a lady there who happened to be the wildlife officer for the area.  She invited us back to her house as she is bottle feeding 7 kangaroos - they are all the babies who survive road accidents when the mother is killed. Did we have fun with all these bottles! and there was one very very small only weeks old all tucked up in an electric blanket.  It was a chaotic place but wonderful. There was also a baby wattlebird which Michael fed and which sat on his shoulder,  So having thought that we just having a drink stop we ended up spending a good hour or so in Norseman and we will all certainly remember it now as a special place!

We then thought we’d drive on and find somewhere for lunch down the road - having successfully crossed the Nullabor and being in Western Australia we thought that there would be cafes all over the place - WRONG! We drove 200km to get to Esperance on the coast with only townships consisting of railway stations for the grain silos and fuel stops and a bag of crisps!!  By the time we got into Esperance we were very glad and pleased to find a very nice cafe.  Esperance is a real seaside town - not in a touristy tacky way but in the true sense of huge long beaches and wonderful coloured sea.

Having spent longer crossing the Nullabor than we planned we decided that we would stay in Esperance for the rest of the week and not continue on to Perth. Neil has to fly back to the UK again on Saturday so we decided that it would be good to stop and enjoy being near the sea in civilisation.  We found a lovely apartment and thats when we are at the moment.  It was good to unpack everything from Charlie and have a sort out and do loads and loads of washing which was what we did on Tuesday and found a lovely tea room down near the harbour, Esperance had one of the deepest harbours in Australia and a lot of grain and iron ore and nickel are exported from here.

Wednesday morning we went out on a large catamaran which did a cruise of the bay - there are 109 islands in the bay and they are all uninhabited - one of them has a visitors centre on it and we stopped there and had a coffee and went on a glass bottom tour - we saw some pretty fish but nothing huge or spectacular - and some coral but again nothing like the Barrier Reef (not that we’ve been there this time). Out in the bay we saw dolphins - these ones are Common Dolphins so different to the ones we saw at Baird Bay which were bottlenosed - and three kinds of seals - Australian Fur Seals, New Zealand Fur Seals and Australian Sea Lions - they really are wonderful creatures.  We also saw a Sea Eagle who swooped down and picked up a piece of fish that was thrown to him. The water is so clear and an incredibly beautiful colour and the beaches so clean. In the afternoon we relaxed and later on I took Michael, Hannah and Sarah down to the beach where there was slide into the sea and Michael jumped off the pier (several times!) - very high as the tide was right out.

Thursday (today) we went out with a lovely guy called Frank in his amazing army like 4WD called an ‘Oka’. He drove us out to Cape Le Grand beach and straight onto the sand dunes and this time we didn’t just stop and look them but he drove up and over - it was like a rollercoaster! - and then we stopped and went sandboarding - a new sport for all of us - basically a piece of board which you wax and sit on and off you go using your hands dragging out behind you as brakes and steering!  Great fun and the bigger you are the faster you go - poor Sarah was getting frustrated at not going very far or very fast!  Then he took us for a drive along an amazingly beautiful 21km beach - you are allowed to drive between the high and low tide marks in 4WDs and its great fun. We stopped for morning tea at yet another beautiful beach (Lucky Bay) and went for a swim in water that was so clear that it was indescribable and sand so fine and white that it sounds like running chalk down a blackboard!  I think we decided that this was the most beautiful beach we have seen (and we have seen a lot of amazing beaches!). On the way back Frank took us rock climbing - still in the vehicle! - which was slightly alarming but he is the sort of guy that you trust totally so we all just sat back and enjoyed ourselves.  It was a great tour.

In the afternoon - what was left of it - we relaxed  and I tried to update some of this.

Friday 20th February

Monday 16th we left Coffin Bay and headed back up the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula via Elliston - all this area is named after John Eyre who was the first person to walk across the Nullabor Plain.  Coffin Bay is named not after coffins but after the man who travelled with Matthew Flinders when he charted the coast of Australia - Sir Isaac Coffin who died while on the journey. We learnt a lot about Matthew Flinders yesterday too but I won’t give you the history lesson - it is quite a story though of his epic journey around the whole coastline, charting it so accurately that they still use his mathematical calculations, and then being imprisoned as a prisoner of war for 6 years in Mauritius on his way back to England purely because he didn’t want to have dinner with the French commander.

After Elliston we took a 12 km detour on dirt tracks along the very edge of the coastline - huge crashing surf and rugged rocks - its called the Great Ocean Drive and we were so glad that we did make the detour into the whole Peninsula - it is worth every minute of added time to the journey. We stayed down another dirt track - 40km off the highway this time at Baird Bay. We were going to stay in the campsite but there was no power and we found a holiday house empty which after a phone call we were told where to find the keys and the power switch and booked in for two nights.  Baird Bay has a population of about 50 so no facilities - just a phone box, no mobile coverage either but a long beach filled with pelicans eagerly awaiting the fishermen coming in who then clean their catch on the beach and throw the remains to the birds.

On Tuesday we did a bit of touristing and visited “Murphy’s Haystacks” - a series of strange rock formations in the middle of a field - smaller than Stonehenge and naturally formed - interesting shapes and interesting theories as to why they are there - named by an Irishman called, yes you guessed, Murphy who thought from the distance they looked like haystacks - we couldn’t see the likenesses!  Then we drove into the local town, Streaky Bay (a mere 50km away!) and had a wander around and something to eat before going back to the house for a lazy afternoon.  We played a great boardgame called ‘Discovering Australia’ which was fun as we could see lots of the places we had been to and are hoping to get to. The children also tried to take the very old and very heavy rowboat but the current and wind were rather strong so they gave up on that.

Wednesday was a beautiful sunny and calm day which was the answer to many prayers as we had planned to go on a boat trip around the bay and the day before had been told there was too much swell.  This was a boat trip with a difference and definitely a highlight of the whole trip (another one!). Within about ten minutes of setting off with a group of other people we saw a mother dolphin and calf swimming along behind us and then we moored and were taken in a smaller boat into a sheltered lagoon where we had the chance to get into the water with the sea lions who live there. The water was freezing but none of us cared - to begin with there was only one sea lion but after a while there were five or six pups (about 10 months old - the same size if not bigger than Sarah). They swam all around us and seemed to genuinely enjoy playing - they came right up to us and touched our hands and copied us if we swam around - trying to chase our feet. It was the most incredible experience. These sea lions are completely wild - not released from captivity or anything - they are used to people cooming out most days but are never fed - they don’t come in looking for food, they come up to the boat and the people because they want to play! We all swam with them - Hannah and Sarah got cold after a while and watched from the boat but the rest of us were completely captivated and ignored the blue fingers and toes. There was one sea lion who was Alan’s favourite (Alan our guide) and who let him scratch him on his tummy and under his chin!  Hopefully there will be some good video footage we can bore you allwith. Then as if that wasn’t enough we all went back to the big boat and out into the Bay into the deep water where we found the dolphins again AND Josie, Michael and I all got back into the water and swam around while the dolphins swam around and past us.  We were told very firmly to all stay together and not to approach the dolphins - it is very much a case of them swimming with us and not us with them - when they lose interest they swim off and we get back onto the boat. We weren’t in the water for long and it was a bit murky but was still an incredible experience just seeing them so close up and again knowing that they are wild.  We were all also warned to stay together as sharks often swim with dolphins ... thank goodness there weren’t any!  By the time we got back to the shore we all had the biggest grins on our faces - another incredible experience to add to the the memory bank.

After a late lunch - we were out from 9 - 2.30 - we did a quick pack up and drove a short distance to Ceduna which is at the top of the Eyre Peninsula and the start of the straight drive west towards Perth, where we had a night in a motel and checked up on the emails.

Thursday 19th we started off west and drove about 70km out of Ceduna to Penong where we turned off onto another dirt road and drove for about 25km to the coast to Cactus beach is one of the best surfing beaches on the southern coast. Unfortunately the day we were there the wind wasn’t in the right direction so the waves weren’t that enormous and there weren’t many people out there.  We stopped for a while and watched - it is a lovely spot but not worth too long a stop. On the way there we drove literally through a salt lake called lake McDonnell - the road is built up - the salt and some algae in the water make the water look almost pink on one side of the road and like snow on the other where there is no water only salt. Then we drove back onto the highway for another 100km to so before taking to the dirt yet again for 20 km to arrive at Fowlers Bay and into the campsite there. Fowlers bay has no electricity at all and is all run on solar power so we were still able to have a powered site - on sand, no grass out here.  The great thing about Fowlers Bay is that the sand dunes are lovely and big and come right down to the edge of the township - very small population again - a kiosk and a phone and a jetty - a popular fishing spot.  Michael and Neil had a go and were frustrated as they could see this big fish who came up to their line and removed the cockle which was their bait 7 times and was never hooked! Both morning and evening we all played in the sand dunes and had a great time - its hard work climbing up though.

Friday 20th (today) we left Fowlers bay, back onto the main road and kept going west, through Yalata and onto the “Treeless Plain” (Nullabor) or as the Aborigines call it the waterless plain - I was surprised that there is actually quite a bit of vegetation still, just low covering.  The road is very straight and keeps disappearing over the horizon.  We stopped at the Nullabor roadhouse for a coffee and snack - it consists of a fuel stop, a camping area and a cafe - then on again for another 200km before reaching the border. We stopped on the way at several stopping points where the road is only a few metres from the cliff edge - the Bulla Cliffs go 90 metres down into the ocean. At one of them as we looked down into the sea we saw an enormous pod of dolphins - as we looked they seemed to be multiplying and there must have been about 30! We feel so privileged to see all these things. I think today we covered about 400km and it really didn’t see very long - I guess we are all getting so used to long journeys now and there is far more to stop and look at than we thought there would be - the highway here is also used as an runway for emergency airflights but we didn’t see any. At the border into Western Australia we were stopped and had to give up all fruit and vegetables and even honey to ensure that no fruit bugs take diseases across the borders. Then we drove on just a few km and stopped at Eucla - another hour and a half backwards in time - and booked into the campsite - more sand and dirt but power and limited water - half way and luckily for us today has been one of their cooler days.  The funny thing about this campsite was the flock of geese who are residents. Every time someone new arrived they dashed out honking and demanding food. The children couldn’t get out the truck so Josie thought that she would be smart and lay a trail of cereal, the only problem was that the geese spotted the cereal packet and chased her so she dropped it - so guess who had to go and retrieve it!!

Sunday 15th February

Wednesday 11th we had a day at the campsite doing school work, the washing, swimming in the pool and buying groceries - all the necessaries of life which have to go on - well maybe not the swimming!  Thursday morning everyone woke up early with the excitement of Neil’s return.  He rang from Sydney having managed to get the early connection into Adelaide so we were all there at the gate to see him arrive just after 10am.  After a coffee stop we drove out of Adelaide just a couple of hours to the Clare Valley which is another wine area - very pretty. It was pretty hot so while Neil slept off some of his jetlag we all lazed around by the pool of the motel - Neil’s first night back needed to be celebrated with a bit of space! We had an evening meal out too in the town which was very nice.

Friday morning we went to visit Seven Hills Vineyard which is run by Jesuit priests and is one of the oldest wineries in the Clare Valley. It was small but beautifully presented with a lovely church in the middle of all the vines. We were allowed to have a look in some of the cellars but decided not to any winetasting as it was only 10.30am.  After leaving Seven Hills we drove to Port Pirie for lunch at theinformation centre .  The cafe is on an old train and is a training ground for would-be waiters and waitresses - excellent.  We drove straight through Port Augusta having been told that it is not a good place to spend much time and stopped at Whyalla which is on the Eyre Peninsula.  We had been going to drive across the top and stgraight onto the road across towards Perth but were recommended to see some of the Peninsula.

The caravan park at Whyalla was right on the beach which was great as it was a very hot day but on the beach there was a great sea breeze.  Michael, Hannah, Sarah and I decided to walk out to where the tide had gone out which was a long way - probably half an hour’s wander through rocks, sand and sandpools until we got to the sand bar - it looked like the sea was really deep off the edge of the sand so I forbade swimming in case there were sharks which we had been warned about.  We had fun playing on the sandbar and then Michael turned to me and said “Mummy the tide is coming in” - “is it?” I reply and turn around and literally see the water advancing at speed - whoops! Don’t panic I think and encourage the girls to walk fast in the direction ofo the very distant caravan park and yes the water was definitely now mid calf instead of mere puddles underfoot! The interesting fact also was that we had all left water shoes and a bucket and spade in a pile on a dry piece of sand which was no longer there!!!!  As we got closer we spotted a few floating objects which turned out to be a couple of the shoes - after much looking around and me saying “never mind about the shoes, lets just keep walking for the beach ...” we did actually find all the shoes apart from one of Michael’s and we got back to the beach safely - whew!!  Within a fairly short time afterwards - I should think only about half an hour the water was right up to the edge of the caravan park!  However in the morning the tide was way out again and there right in front of us was the missing shoe! but no bucket or spade - oh well, they are easy to replace.

From Whyalla we drove to the tip of the Eyre Peninsula - Port Lincoln where we stopped at the information centre and found out about some 4WD tours - we stopped for lunch and grocery shopping and then drove on into the Coffin Bay National Park where we planned to bushcamp ready for a 4WD tour the next morning. We found the campsite, no problems, but were rather disappointed at the beach being rather muddy - we have been spoilt. - and after we had got ourselves settled we were plagued by a swarm of European Honey Bees and then the battery on the motorhome part of Charlie gave up at which point we decided to drive back into Coffin Bay itself and stay in the caravan parkk on a powered site!  Before that the children had managed to entertain themselves very well with creating mud balls to throw at each other!! We discovered the next day that the bees were looking for water as there is so little around at the moment and what we should have done was to put a bowl a distance away from our campsite to attract them and then we would have been fine - and apparently the battery played up because it had been so hot - we live and learn.

8.30am Sunday morning we met up with Steve (who told us about the bees) and all piled into his Toyota 4WD. He took us for the most amazing drive through Coffin Bay National Park - after the bush campsite there is over 40km of 4WD tracks on sand and rocks. It is stunningly beautiful -a narrow strip of land with enormous sand dunes and long sandy beaches - we did a lot of bird spotting and sliding down sand dunes and swimming in the sea on deserted beaches. We saw lots of emus which Steve showed us how to attract to the car - using Michael as the bait - Michael had to walk out in front of the car waving his hat over his head - amazingly the emus all started coming towards him - about 12 of them! I was a little nervous but Steve assured us that he knew what to do if they got too close - they didn’t get closer than 20 metres I guess and then ran off.  We also saw brumbies - Hannah and Josie would only call them wild ponies because they didn’t look anything like the ones in ‘The Man from Snowy River’! and Steve told us that if we put out hay they would come running.  They are a special breed called Coffin Bay Ponies which were bred  at the beginning of the 20th century and then allowed to go wild when they were no longer needed. In a few weeks they are going to round up the last ones (about 20 mares with foals) and put them in a special reserve of their own so they can be looked after properly and so the national park can recover from the wrong kind of grazing. We also saw a wedge tailed eagle - with a wing span of nearly 3 metres - unbelievable.  The whole day was a fantastic experience ending up with a climb up the biggest sand dunes imagineable.  We also learnt a lot about the area and how the wrong grazing, ie cattle and horses destroyed the natural vegetation and now that the area has been declared a national park they are trying to bring it back - the Sheoak tree is vital to it all.  We didn’t get back to the campsite until 7pm exhausted but very happy! and with hearts and minds full of the glory of God’s creation together with theories of how it is all how it is - oh yes we also four nasty black tiger snakes over the duration of the day - luckily all of them going away from us.

Wednesday 11th February

We left the Snowies on Thursday 5th  about 11.15 and drove over and around the mountains - a beautiful but very slow drive as so many tight bends and narrow roads - a lot of the time we were only going at 30 kmph - it took us 3+ hours to cover 150km and I was glad when we reached Khancoban for a fuel stop (for us and Charlie) and was told that it was flat and straight for the next 150km.  We stopped at Ebden which is on the banks of Lake Hume - an enormous lake with lots of dead trees sticking out of it.  It was a very nice campsite with a lovely swimming pool which was much appreciated. Verity met us there after leaving work - in a car the drive only took her just over 3 hours in total!  We had a really nice evening sitting outside and chatting as it got dark and she slept in Charlie withh us.

On Friday we drove an hour or so to a pretty little town called Beechworth and had a lazy day wandering around and being very touristy - Ned Kelly (famous Australian Bushranger) was imprisoned there and it has quite a few old buildings including a famous bakery which we went to.  We stayed the night in Albury Wodonga - the largest inland Australian city with friends of Veritys - Ree and Tony Whiting. Albury is in New South Wales and Wodonga is over the river Murray in Victoria.  Ree and Tony were very hospitable and we had a lovely evening and lazy Saturday morning using their pool and watching their TV.  We left them at midday and managed to do a good drive on a nice flat road to Echuca Moama - another place with one town in NSW and the other in Victoria.  The River Murrary defines the border between the two states for over a 1000 km. It was a very straight road too and we were overtaken by enormous tomato lorries really trucking it at over 100 kmph - we don’t go faster than about 95 - not when I’m driving anyway!  The lorries were pulling three trucks and I think as we get further west they will get even bigger - its pretty good practise to move over and let them past! Saturday night in Moama wasn’t the best campsite we’ve been too - lots of people there for a weekend of waterskiing on the river and drinking so it was pretty noisey.

We started off on Sunday before 10am for the big drive to Mildura - about 400km which in Charlie takes about 5 1/2 hr.  It was very hot and at one point in the middle of the day very windy too - we saw a dust storm over to our left which luckily we seemed to drive around.  We also drove past a roadtrain accident - three trailers of goats and sheep overturned across the road; luckily no other vehicles involved, I guess the drive fell asleep or swerved to avoid a kangaroo or something. It wasn’t a pretty sight although we did see sheep for quite a distance afterwards standing in the shade of the trees - I was very tired when we arrived into Mildura even though we had had a couple of stops - we were told that it had been 43 degrees and it was still very hot even after it got dark. Luckily the campsite had a pool so we were all sitting dangling our feet in the pool at 9.30pm to try to keep cool.  Unfortunately the aircon doesn’t work in the truck. I was alright as I was so tired from the drive that I slept anyway but it stayed in the mid 30’s until the small hours when there was a cool breeze and the temperature dropped down intoo the 20’s - much nicer.

Mildura is one of the big wine producing areas of Australia - its a pretty big town right next to the Murray - lots of paddlesteamers for tourists. We did some food shopping and other bits and pieces, went down to the river and saw Lock 11 - there are 11 locks on the river to help control the water levels which can change dramtically if there is rain in the surrounding catchment area. The river is pretty low at the moment and most places where we stopped to look there is still an amazingly wide river but then an even wider area of floodplain with dry stumps of trees and scrubby bush.  We also went to Woodsies Gem Shop while we were there where there is a great display of gems of all sorts - and lots of polished stone - I don’t know what even the smallest percentage of them were but they were very pretty and it was a fun place to stop at.

We left Mildura at about 4.30pm and did a couple of hours driving just over the border into South Australia still following the river and stopped at Pagina - a few minutes short of the campsite I was looking for but we had an adequate stop for the night and most importantly a tiny pool to cool off in and a pub over the road to eat in as I decided I was on strike for the evening - Chicken schnitzel and chips for $5.50 (about £2.50) was a pretty good deal.

Tuesday - the final leg into Adelaide today - just under 300km to go.  I was very glad that we knocked some kms off the drive yesterday afternoon.  It was a lovely drive although again very hot and windy - quite a lot of the time I could only drive at about 70kmph because of the wind pushing Charlie all over the place, particularly when a big truck comes the opposite way. Its amazing though still following the Murray and driving in and out of the wine regions and orchards - the land can be very dry and scrubby and then you reach a vineyard and lots of water systems in place and acres of green everywhere and we even saw emus beside the road in a dry part.  I guess the grapes grow so well as they can draw on the Murray for their water. We didn’t stop at any of the vineyards - hopefully once Neil is with us we will get the chance.

We arrived into Adelaide mid afternoon after a stop at the town where Lock 1 is - a pretty little place with loads of pelicans and cormorants fishing just near the lock.- and booked into the campsite we stayed in last time on the west beach near to the airport. Now we just have to enjoy the pool and the beach and wait for Neil to arrive in on Thursday morning. 

Campsites in Australia are basically good places with lots of green and trees and nearly always a pool and usually cost between $20-30 a night - clean showers apart from the one at Paringa where I had to wash a scorpion down the plughole and told the children to skip their showers!  Food is half the cost it is in England and fuel is probably a third - so our cost of living is much cheaper and its amazing how you get used to only having a small space and a few clothes - lots of books though which are more expensive but reading is very important when there is only TV at motels and friends houses!  Some people do travel with a TV in their caravans and motorhomes but not us!  I’m really enjoying not only the exploring and the being with the children but the freedom from the routine of life - I feel very relaxed and taking each day at a time as we don’t often know where we will be at the end of each day - God has been great and has always provided all we need.

Thursday 5th February

On Tuesday we left Goulburn and drove to the Snowy Mountains (not much snow at this time of year) stopping to do some chores in Cooma on the way.  We stayed with our friends Verity and Michael Jackson again and it was great to catch up with all their holiday news - they spent Christmas in Argentina and Antartica - a bit different to here..  We leave here today to start our slow drive over to Adelaide (to meet Neil next week) - this time spending time to admire the scenery and not to drive the straightest and most boring way. While we have been here we have done all the routine stuff like the washing, cleaning out the truck, lots of schoolwork, the shopping and of course checking up on the two calves, Paris and Louis who we helped feed back in October.  They are much bigger now and out grazing in the paddock - we have a feeling of pride that we helped persuade Louis to drink his milk when he was orphaned and now there he is, healthy and happy!  Verity, Josie and I went on a girls night out to see Love Actually - what a funny movie and all those airport  scenes made us look forward to Neil’s return!

Monday 2nd February

Here we are sitting in a campsite in Goulburn which is a couple of hours southwest of Sydney.  So the latest update -

Sunday 25th - we went back to the Hillsongs church and thoroughly enjoyed the service all about having enough faith to move mountains - it certainly has seemed like moving mountains waiting for Neil to get back out here! Then we had a great afternoon and evening with the Black family in their pool - all the children get on really well.

Monday the 26th was Australia Day - we had a lazy morning and did a bit of packing up ready for the off tomorrow - then we drove down to Mosman to have lunch with Don and Janet Marples and there three boys - Harry, Jack and Rory and the Glenny family who we met up with a couple of weeks ago - again it was a lovely afternoon and all the children got on really well.  We left Charlie in Mosman at about 5pm and caught a ferry in from there to the city centre - its such a lovely way to travel and certainly easier than trying to park Charlie in the city. Then we got a second ferry around to Darling Harbour where there were thousands of people watching a spectacular parade of ships - really impressive and has it got dark and all the lights lit up it looked beautiful - amazingly amongst all those people we bumped into the Black family which were hoping might happen but neither of us had each others mobile phone numbers so it was rather miraculous.  While the boats were sailing by there was a concert given by the Gondwana Voices - a part of the Australian Youth Choir - all children aged 11 - 14 - one of whom was the youngest Black, Joe. It was beautiful and it finished with the most amazing display of fireworks. It was a wonderful evening - it does help when its warm of course - actually they were lucky as the previous three evenings there had been huge thunder and lightning storms.

So Tuesday we packed up and sadly left the Northern Beaches of Sydney - it had been a great three weeks. We crossed over the bridge north of Sydney and entered the Central Coast and ended up at Umina back at a caravan park too - I was amazed how we managed to fit all the stuff back into Charlie but we did.  We had a pretty lazy  days there - a lot of swimming in the pool and playing on the beach and making friends with other people there.  On Saturday we explored another nearby beach called Avoca but didn’t stay long as there were little jellyfish in the water called Sea Lice and they bite a bit like a mosquito!  So we went to Avoca lake and played there on a combination of paddleboats, kayaks and surfskis which was good fun. 

On Sunday we went to the Australian Reptile Park - its not very big but has some fantastic talk shows - one on snakes and lizards, one on spiders, one on crazy critters and the highlight handfeeding Eric the crocodile who was 5metres long and very scarey.  I think the two men who got in his enclosure and enticed him out of his pool were completely mad. While in the wild we were told that he had attacked two people and done serious damage! The snake talk was excellent - and not just about Australian snakes - they had a rattlesnake there too. There was also a baby alligator and a lace monitor which is a lizard about 1.5m long - both being handled like babies!  In the spider talk we were shown how to catch a funnelweb and reminded not to put our hands underneath a piece of paper or cardboard if the funnelweb was sitting on top as they can bite through and still poison you! We were also shown what to do if bitten and how long you have to get to hospital - basically with a snake about 12 hours but with a spider only an hour and a half! I hope we don’t find any in the camper - unlikely luckily. In the crazy critter talk there was a tame magpie called Norton who was very funny behaving more like a dog than a magpie, rolling on his back to have his tummy tickled and following the speaker around and even chasing off two baby cassowaries which were at least ten times as big as him. He was a real character. So it was a great day out.

Then today - we left Umina and stopped off on our way away from Sydney at Glenworth Valley at a beautiful trail ride centre - they have over 200 horses and a valley worth of acres of bushland. They were so careful about which horse they paired us all up with and then we went off with a couple of guides and were allowed to leave the main group to go a bit faster.  Josie and Hannah led most of the way and had a great time, basically setting the pace as they felt. Michael had a harder time with a rather grumpy horse who didn’t want anyone to go past him but nor did he want to do very much without a lot of hard work from Michael.  Sarah rode an enormous horse calle Guinness who we were told was the gentlest horse there and he was fantastic with Sarah.  She rode without a lead rein and was trotting all over the place. I rode one of the smallest horses who was perfect and did exactly what I told here.  We had a really good couple of hours and are hoping that when we are next in Sydney we might get a chance for a repeat visit.

So here we are this evening sitting in Charlie and it is now dark outside and the children have finished the washing up - thats the deal, I cook and they washup! You don’t get dusk here - one minute its light and the next its dark - its easy to get caught out.  It was a lovely drive today through lots of green gum trees and spectacular steep gorges over rivers and a pretty straight road so we covered more miles than I thought we might. Tomorrow we head back into the Snowy Mountains to our friends the Jacksons and their farm for a couple of nights.

Saturday 24th January

We at last have a bit of a plan. We leave Mona Vale next Tuesday (27th) and move a little way up the north coast to a place called Umina and then we are going to work our way inland visiting some friends and ending up in Adelaide where we will meet up with Neil when he flies back from the UK - well at least thats the plan for now!

This week past Josie and Michael have done yet another four days of surf school and have both had a really good week, managing to stand up and surf into the beach. The problems now are just establishing which waves are worth chasing and then chasing them fast enough to get a good ride! Hannah and Sarah have had a couple more riding lessons and have both had a good time playing some more on the beach too.  We’ve met up with some more friends - Wendy and two of her boys, Alex and Ben, and the Halliday family - Michael (Josie’s godfather), Barbara and their two sons, Rory and Oliver - and went to see Circus Oz which is a circus with no animals - lots of juggling, acrobatics, trapezes and clowns - brilliant.

We also all found time this week to have long overdue haircuts - the first one since being away apart from an attempt I had at Cape Bridgewater so we now all look much smarter - except for the fact that we spend so much time either at the beach or in the pool that our hair is nearly always wet and needing a comb!

Its been a good week and I think that I could get rather accustomed to this life of school runs to the beach and the national park in the sunshine - although we have had two evenings of rain this week.  A couple of weeks ago there was a bushfire in the national park just close to where we are staying which was pretty scarey - not close enough to be a threat to us or our safety but we could still see the sky filled with smoke for a couple of days - its incredible how quickly damage can be done and they think the fire was started on purpose - people are strange aren’t they?  There were thousands of acres of national park burnt. It has been so hot over the last few weeks and after all the really bad fires last year the city is on water restrictions right now - not that it really effects us again but its interesting seeing what effects people’s lives in different places.

Monday 19th January

We left off on New Years Eve - New Years Day we all had a lovely lie-in and then went to meet our great friends from England - Louise and Mike Summers and Becky and Hannah.  They spent their Christmas holidays in Australia visiting friends so we had made a date to have a good catchup of all the news - it was a lovely day so we did a lot of talking, eating and swimming in a nearby pool which was blissful.

Friday 2nd Jan we got a watertaxi which was a great excitement from Darling Harbour which is quite near to where we were staying over to the friends we spent New Years Eve with - the Annans.  It was the first time for all of us that we had been on a water taxi and it was great fun and definitely quicker than driving around the harbour.  We only spent an hour or so there as we had tickets in the afternoon to see ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ which was fantastic. They used puppets a lot to represent the animals of Narnia and they were amazingly effective - I found it all very moving and great fun.  Our friends from New Zealand, the Crowleys went too and then we all had a meal in the Darling Harbour foodcourt which is a great place as everyone can have what they want. Then we had a quiet family evening.

Saturday 3rd Jan - we had to move out of our very nice luxurious city accommodation and pack our lives back into Charlie, always an interesting exercise and a surprise that it all fits in after it has been distributed all over two rooms.

We then zigzagged our way through the city trying to find our way to the airport - luckily we had loads of time as we went all over the place! Then the sad part of having to put Neil on a plane back to the UK again so that he would be at Thorpes for the return to work on the 5th. We were all rather tearful this time - its hard to be a part particularly as we weren’t sure exactly when he would be back.

From the airport we found our way to a campsite in Sans Souci which is south Sydney. It was okay but the beaches are more littered and very crowded. I don’t think we would bother to revisit this one.

Sunday 4th Jan - we managed to get off in good time as I wanted to drive to Baulkham Hills which is west of Sydney where the Hillsong Church has its main building. I drove all over the place but couldn’t find it which was disappointing so we kept going after a lunch stop and drove to the Northern beaches (north Sydney) and to Mona Vale where we had stayed before New Year and had managed to make a long term holiday booking for while Neil’s away. Its a really nice place - a conference centre which takes in summer bookings - again we had left it too late to get a booking in any of the campsites (of which there are only two anyway close to the city).  This place has a pool too and is only five minutes walk from the nearest beach which is great.

We have now been here for the last two weeks and our days have been following a similar pattern - Monday to Thursday Josie and Michael have been at Surf School at Warriewood Beach which is another ten minutes (if that) from here in the truck. The first week 8-10am and the second 9-11am so we have had some earlier mornings.  Hannah and Sarah play in the sand or bodyboard if the sea is kind enough. All of the Northern beaches are surf beaches and vary a lot depending on the weather and the height of the tide and the sandbars - we are beginning to learn quite a bit about different water conditions now. The great thing about it being summer holidays here is that there are lifeguards on most of the beaches and areas marked out with flags to show you the safest places to swim so we have become real beachies now. After surf school we usually have a much needed drink and snack in the very nice coffeshops near the beach and then back to accommodation for a swim in the pool. Then its time for some schoolwork as I decided that we really needed to do a bit of catchup after a long break over Christmas.  The children are certainly getting through the workbooks now that we have just about worked out where they are compared to the Australians. Then time to work down to the shops and a takeaway or bring something back to eat in the courtyard next to the pool - tough life eh!

The first week we kept ourselves to ourselves and just enjoyed being family even though incomplete.  I also got the truck serviced which was good. Neil had found out where the main Isuzu truck dealership was and they were excellent.  We also went to see “Brother Bear” which I think we all enjoyed more than we thought we would - in true Disney style there was something which appealed to all of us - maybe least so for Josie but she was very good and found enjoyment in it anyway.

The second week I rang up a few of our Sydney friends and have made a few dates to meet up - We’ve seen my great friend Judy (a couple of times) and her husband Les and grown up daughter and son in law (once).  Judy and I did a rehabilitation course together - she finished and is now working in the field, I had Josie and went back to England and then had Michael ... but we’ve stayed good friends even over all the miles and years since. And a few others.

The other thing that I have managed to organise for Hannah and Sarah has been some riding lessons and even a morning day camp which they really enjoyed - something for them to do.  It is one of the things that I love about Sydney and its surrounds - We are still officially in the city (about 20km or 50 minutes from the Opera House), 5 minutes from the beach and 20 minutes from the National Park which is beautiful and where they rode. One of the days we went for a walk into the part of the park close to where Neil and I used to live and where I used to walk Madison - a real trip down memory lane for me and the children enjoyed seeing where Madison had been (not so worried about where we had lived!). While there we saw a couple of big lizards (like two foot long - see photos).

We also went to see “Cheaper by the Dozen” which again we all enjoyed and went into the city on Friday where we went around the Aquarium and tried to go up the Centrepoint Tower (tallest building) - the only problem was that it was raining and the top of the tower was in a white-out so no view!!

On Saturday 17th I thought I would take the children to a different beach, a bit further north again - in fact the most northerly of the Sydney beaches - Palm Beach and where ‘Home and Away’ is filmed - oh what excitement!! actually not much as its not a show we watch. The great thing about it was that there was a sandcastle competition going on and not just any competition - there was a display of chess pieces human-sized!! and sharks, cars, boats, pyramids, everything - amazing.  We spent hours on the beach as the surf was just perfect too - nice and shallow and gentle near the shore and then some really big waves further out so everyone was happy.  The funny thing that happened was that Michael was sunning himself on his towel listening to his music with his head towards the beach when a really big wave came in and completely drenched him!! (and all our stuff unfortunately) but they (including Michael) dried out okay!

Both the Sundays we managed to find the Hillsong church - it is amazing - like a huge conference centre. I don’t know how many hundreds por maybe even a thousand people go - great children’s clubs too and we all really enjoyed the services and learnt loads - the first message was on The Power of Progress (progress is different to chage) and the second was on How to Live Abundantly - to the full. Good stuff.

And I think that just about leaves me to where we are now - the beginning of our third week here and our last week - more surf school, a bit more riding, some long overdue haircuts and seeing some more friends AND yet more schoolwork...  At this point in time Neil is still not sure where he will get back but we are taking each week as it comes and for the time being I will stay out here with the children and see how things progress.

Wednesday 14th January

I think I got to the 26th - from the visitors centre we drove to the Remarkable Rocks which really are exactly as they say - you drive through bush which gradually gets smaller and smaller as you get near to the coast and then there is the huge pile of rocks in extraordinary shapes - I think there is some geographical theory explaining their presence but I preferred to walk around them going “wow”! (see photos) and then after that we drove to Admirals Arch (another weird rock) where there is a huge colony of Australian fur seals (different to the ones at Seal Bay) although still spending a lot of time sleeping on the rocks (see photos) but at least these ones did also slide off the rocks into the water and play around - unfortunately they were too far away for the still camera but we spent ages watching them literally playing in the surf (wait for the movie show ...) Then out of the park and to the caravan site.  Just as we parked up we looked up into the tree and there were two koalas. There was a lovely walk through gum trees in the caravan park which was full o koalas - fantastic! and the wallabies came to clear up around the table after supper.

Saturday 27th we went back to have another look at the seals and then drove to the ferry and left kanagaroo Island at about 4pm.  We drove back to Victor Habour and found a good campsite there before going around to have supper with Trish and her family (Trish is Betty Lewis’ daughter and stayed with my granny in London around 1970). They were all so welcoming and we had a lovely evening including a walk down to the beach where Hannah and Sarah swam in their clothes!

Sunday 28th we got up early and started the long drive to Sydney (1400km ahead of us). We managed to do a lot the first day - about 8 hours of driving swopping over every couple of hours or so and we covered nearly 700km. It was very hot and no air conditioning in the truck.  We found a few cafes to stop on the way (not many though as we went the more direct way which is straight across not around the coast, and there is less reason to stop (see photos). We finally stopped in Hay which is by a river.  We found a nice campsite with a pool which was much appreciated by us all. Swam, ate and slept.

Monday 29th - more leisurely start before going to a Shearing Centre just outside Hay to watch a shearing demonstration - some interesting statistics on speed records - with hand clippers.  The demo we saw was using electric clippers though and we all felt rather sorry for the sheep who ended up with quite a few cuts. I guess they do but I had certainly never seen them up close immediately after being shorn. Then we headed off on the next part of the journey and got to within 200km of Sydney where we motelled it so we could do the email check.

Tuesday 30th we made it into Sydney and spent the day partly at the airport changing our NZ flights and then travelling up the North Shores to Sydney looking not only for accommodation for the night but also for when Neil has flown back to the UK (the 3rd). He had decided that he really ought to be there to get them off to a good New Year start.   I had good memories of Manly but we discovered that it was very crowded and the streets are quite narrow for Charlie so we went a bit further north and found a really nice place in Mona Vale - all the campsites are full as its peak season right now.

Wednesday 31st - New Years Eve - We had booked ourselves three nights of luxury over new year so we drove down into the city to the Radisson Hotel - It was quite funny turning up there with Charlie - they normally valet park all vehicles but decided that Neil could park Charlie! We had a pretty relaxed afternoon once we had mucked out Charlie and then set off to see our friends the Annans.  They were great friends of ours when we lived in Sydney although they now live in England. Kim is English and Ray is Australian and they have 4 children so we don’t feel so unusual! (Katrina (14), Max (12), Tess (11) and Olivia (7) - apologies guys if I haven’t got it quite right.  Luckily for all of us - all 8 get on really well. They had quite a few people over and we had a great evening. Our children were pleased to see lots of other children and not to have to ‘do’ family anymore.  There were two lots of fireworks - one at 9pm for the younger children when we raced around the streets until we had a great view of the Harbour Bridge and then the most spectacular display at Midnight which we could watch from the comfort of the balcony of the house that Kim and Ray where staying in - Sensational!

[I’m taking a breather now - I’ll publish this much and then the rest at the weekend]

Saturday 10th January 2004

I can’t believe how long it is since we updated our pages - many apologies if you have been trying to check out progress over the last few weeks.  I can hardly put my mind back to pre-Christmas, but I’ll try

Saturday 20th December we left Leonards Mill at Second Valley where my granny spent part of her childhood and headed a short way along the coast to Victor Harbour.  We had hoped to get an earlier crossing to Kangaroo Island where we were to spend Christmas but weren’t able to - and we had a real treat waiting for us at Victor Harbour instead!  We found a really nice motel and were able to do the last Christmas email sending and checking and were then told that at 6pm there was going to be Christmas carnival parade right past the door followed by ‘carols by the sea’ - wonderful!  so we spent the day wandering around Victor H which is a lovely seaside town with a horsedrawn tram across a narrow bridge over to a national parks island called Granite Island which we walked around. The parade was great fun - it seemed so strange to be standing in the brilliant sunshine (yes it did stop raining) and watching all these floats go past of Santa and a nativity and even fake snow!  Carols by the sea as it got dark was lovely - soo nice to sit outside and listen to music and not feel cold!

We had to get up early on Sunday and drive to the end of the Fleurieu Peninsula to Cape Jervis to catch the ferry over to Kangaroo Island.  It only takes 45 minutes to cross.  It was a bit rough and we were all very impressed with Neil’s skill at reversing Charlie onto the ferry!  Once on Kangaroo Island we drove to Penneshaw and had a look around which included a nice breakfast before going to American River where we unpacked into a three bedroom house - what luxury! For the first time on the trip we decided that Michael should get his own room for a while and the three girls should share the other room. We spent all afternoon wrapping up the presents in shifts and putting tinsel and fairy lights around the house.  Then we felt ready for Christmas. The house was not very close to a beach which I was sad about but had a garden full of lovely flowers and a great view of the sea from the balcony. It was good to know that we were going to be in one place for a while too and that we had more adventurous cooking facilities than the rings of the van!  As many of you know of Neil’s love of cooking, you can appreciate how he felt.

On Monday we had a lazy morning and the decided to explore the island a bit - we drove to Seal Bay.  We took what we thought was a short cut - well, it was in miles but it was along the bumpiest bit of dirtroad that it took us ages. It was a bit windy but when we got there we saw loads of seals on the beach. They were Australian sealions and when they come in from a fishing trip they then spend a week or so asleep on the beach before going out again so there wasn’t much action!  We were able to walk along the beach and get pretty close but they didn’t even open their eyes apart from a few of the younger ones who were waiting for the mums to come back to feed them.  Although it was amazing to see them I think we were all a bit disappointed at the lack of action!  From there we went back to the house and had a lazy evening - just like the sealions really! - (on the way back I narrowly avoided running over two enormous goannas - too quick for photos though) - apart from having to do a pile of washing which had been piling up.  There’s something rather nice though about going out to hang out the washing to find some wallabies eating the flowers in the garden!

Tuesday we managed to get going a bit earlier and drove nearly half the way down the island to a place Kelly Hill where there were some caves - more stalgmites and tites - this cave was different to the last two we have seen as it is a dry cave, no more drips coming through the roof so the rock formations are not changing at all. Michael, Josie and Neil were then very brave and went adventure caving - hardhats, lights and crawling through tunnels for TWO hours - I think the children were more at ease with it than the adult! Back home for tea and then out again just as it was getting dark for a nocturnal tour.  We saw hundreds of wallabies and Kangaroo Island kangaroos which are different to the ones on the mainland - more squat and grey.  We stopped to gaze at the stars - it was a beautifully clear night and we could see so much.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and pointed out lots of them.  There is so little light or any other kind of pollution here that you feel you could almost touch the stars.  Then we arrived at the penguin colony and we saw lots of the Little Penguins that we had seen at Philip Island but this was less organised and you could walk down a special pathway inbetween their burrows. They are gorgeous. On the way back home we saw a couple of possums by the road too.

Wednesday - Christmas Eve - the weather has gradually got warmer and warmer and today was wonderful so we thought it was definitely time to explore one of the local beaches.  We went to Panoramic Beach. It was two beaches with some rocks in between - in fact there were lots of rocks on the beach too - really fascinating rock pools and places where there are holes through the rocks so the water kind of comes up from underneath the rocks and creates mini water spouts.  The sea wasn’t really for swimming - a strong surf and funny currents but great for paddling and playing in and the beach was perfect for a picnic which Neil had of course had the forethought to prepare.  A beautiful day with hardly anyone to share the beach with us and the bluest of blue skies.

Christmas Day - no-one woke us up until about 7am which is a first and a surprise has the sun had been up for a while and the sky was blue again with a brilliant sun shining. Santa had found us which was clever of him so the stockings were piled all over our bed and then we had a great breakfast on the balcony before exchanging our family gifts - thank you to everyone who managed to track us down and send wonderful cards and gifts. It didn’t feel like a day for a big cooked lunch so we had a wonderful lunch of puddings! - all those yummy bits that there is never enough room for - Neil really did us proud with his presentation as you can see from the photos.  After lunch the general opinion was that we should go back to the beach so we did and had another glorious afternoon with no-one at all on our bit of beach. Back home for a more traditional piece of turkey with a few of the trimmings but nothing like the amount that we eat at home. And then of course, being in a house has the joy of being able to watch Christmas TV!

Sadly on the 26th we had to move out of the house - I never ever thought we would fit everything back into Charlie now that the presents have all ben redistributed to individuals but eventually we did although we did run over our check out time by an hour.  We then drove up to the far west end of the island which is all national park and stopped at the visitors centre on the way in and saw our very first wild koalas in the trees there - fantastic.

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