All over the map

We’re away at dawn, leaving the dusty park for the open road, Ben's after the elusive flat white in Streaky Bay. It turns out to be a beautiful little town with tidy streets and nice shops although at 8:50am only the coffee shop is open. Breakfast is finished in the van by the time Ben brings back some hot drinks. We have internet for ten minutes then we fall off the network again.  It’s 2pm somewhere, but not here, because we’ve crossed the border and every device has a different time. We crossed on dark after a seriously long day driving, leaving before sunup. Due to the lack of internet there was some delays showing our travel declarations but here we are marching on through the dark.  We find our roo spotters which send beams of light out over the berm which is helpful when we dip our full beams to oncoming traffic.  The next day we start a lot later as some of us need the sleep in, I’m nervous as Ben had a waterfall of messages come in when he linked to the ...

The girls and I were out to get some fresh air but I had to double back to lock the van and a man passing by blurted out “half your luck”. Not being up on the meaning of this phrase I just made an okay mate sort of face. Later in the day I googled it. Half your luck - to declare your desire for even half the luck of another. I chuckle, he sees a lucky family on holiday with their brand new motor home and it made me feel a bit better as we’d literally just smashed the internet on the roof with a low hanging branch and we are recovering from a rough round of covid.  We’ve been boondocking to keep isolated while we recover and found some great spots on the dunes to camp. The sunsets and sunrises have been amazing and our one Finding Nemo DVD and colouring in have kept the girls busy.  We were lucky enough to have already stopped in Robe and Hahndorf. Hahndorf is in the hills around Adelaide and is just a  beautiful little  historic German town surrounded by...

It’s too hot for a fire but it is the first place we are allowed and we need it to roast our marshmallows. We have some great neighbours who’ve lent us a road trip book.  Ben peruses the tome of road trips and decides, as everyone we meet recommends, we should travel to Alice Springs. Theres talk of an emu wandering around the campsite that afternoon but we don’t spot the giant bird anywhere.  We enjoy breakfast at a lovely cafe in town and instead of a cheeky sparrow pinching abandoned crusts there is a cockatoo dining at the table next-door with a trusty lookout. (Check out the pic).  The nature trail to Venus Baths, which starts in town, is just beautiful and well worth the walk, then it’s back on the road to Port Fairy for Ben’s wallet. We’re well underway by the afternoon,  the sun is hiding and a shower passes through, we’re out of the Grampians and back in farmland when Ben starts getting a warning about the tyre pressure in the right rear inner wheel. The...

Dawn over East Beach - Port Fairy We Arrive on Monday afternoon in Port Fairy to the aftermath of a huge thunderstorm and the end of Australia’s biggest Folk Festival. The power is out and the remnants of a three day party is getting cleared away. It’s obviously a seriously large event if the marquees in the adjacent showgrounds are any indication. Where's Wally - Looking South over the end of the campground Port Fairy is a quiet seaside town and we spend our time here catching up on our work and schoolwork. We have a lovely grassy spot so we spend an afternoon creating some art outside as the scheduled thundest torms never eventuated. During our stay here we start receiving some information suggesting the builders of our apartment in Burleigh are about to go bust. They have various projects underway, ours is almost complete so we’re hoping the developer can work with the subcontractors  directly to finish what little is left. We are unsure how this will affect our settlement ...

It’s a gorgeous day here this morning after another chilly start. We’re away at 9am and heading 10 mins inland to Erskine Falls with the intention of a scenic morning hike but we spot a great big sign warning the road is too steep for campers and trucks which stops us in our tracks. We’ve seen some impossibly steep roads around here so we flag down a lone cyclist who concurs that the road is extremely steep at the end, so Ben swings us around and we side trip to an overlook for a quick looksee instead, then back to Lorne to continue our journey westward.  We’ve heard there’s a ‘no fail’ place to spot Koala’s at the aptly name Koala Cafe. In the carpark at the start of the nature trail there is a warning sign for snakes, which is a first, so we heed the warning a stick to the short grass. We meander the nature walk but the only wildlife we spot is on the information boards. Wongarra has some great rock pools all along the coast between the Great Ocean Road and the big blue sea, so w...

Its 8:33pm and I’m sitting up in bed on my laptop, the kids are fast asleep after a day exploring town, playing at the playground and running up and down on the beach with their kites. It was almost warm enough for a swim in the sea this afternoon - almost.  Outside, loud suspenseful music is blaring as people prance theatrically around a large fire pit. There is a huge dragon and a lady on stilts rehearsing for Sunday nights performance - we have happened upon an Art Festival this weekend in Lorne, what luck! We’ve already discovered several art installations dotted around this small sweet seaside town. We find them around corners, in the gardens, along the beach and at the end of a tall pier. We even came over a rock wall on the beach to find strange stone figures half buried, their heads in a packing crate broken in the sand. But the girls are more interested in the figures along the promenade and stop to have a conversation with the wooden carvings. A large plane and a large ho...

After arriving in Melbourne yesterday we returned to Jayco for a few minor repairs. One of which was drilling out a deeper hole to stop the bathroom door miraculously jumping free and playing corners. W e spend the night nearby at Bens previous home of 4 days, the Dandenong Big 4, which is deep within an industrial zone but has decent wifi so Ben and the girls pile on the bed to watch Turbo while I make dinner less than 2m away. Chilling out watching movies with Dad. We're up before dawn again and we clock up some school time then we head outside into the 13 degree dawn and Ben, April and I are trying to keep up with the Les Mills workout on the laptop which Ben kindly refers to as Jump Jam.  A quick breakfast and a bit more school.  Then we're rolling out of our campsite slightly later than planned at 9:27am, heading for Iveco Servicing Centre to find out what they can do for our van. Leaving Iveco and going for a walk to find some lunch. So they replaced the m...

We were blown away by Torquay, no like literally - it was so windy. The dramatic lean on the coastal trees suggest this is not uncommon.  The sea was so wild but still the odd person braved the water, mostly kite surfing. Maybe we will be lucky enough to see Torquay again soon, on a calmer day, as we’ve had our second hiccup. The first of course being the debacle at the airport on day one which had me waking Ben in Melbourne at 3:30am to let him know we would not be landing in Melbourne that day. Here we are enjoying a layover in Mangere. We are successful the following day and Alila, April and I land in Melbourne at 10:40am and Ben parks the camper up outside a short time later to welcome us. There's some delay getting the bags and Ben has been smart enough to park in the rideshare zone so the parking wardens leave him be while he waits 45min for us to get the carseats and clear customs. Then after a quick RAT test it's off to Torquay to start begin our journey on the Great O...