The home stretch

For those that have been following this blog religiously (!), I apologise for the break in transmission. Isn't it always the way though, when you get home, normality kicks in and it is difficult to actually wind up your holiday? The caravan is still sitting out in the dairy yard waiting to be completely unpacked and have the remains of locusts washed off it, and we have been unpacking clothes as we find a need for them! Just last night (a week after our return) I was hunting around in the van for kids medicine!!!

But, back to the holiday. The last post took us up to Day 29, or Friday 16th April, and saw us spend our last day in Mildura. Day 30 became a feature of our whole trip and not in the best sense neither!

We packed up and got out of Mildura by mid morning. The locusts were so bad (and we'd had reports that they were as far south as Horsham) that we stopped at Bunnings to get some mesh to cover the front of the ute to try and keep them off the radiator somewhat. We then decided to head for Halls Gap for the night and do some scenic driving through the Grampians.

Stopping at Laschelles (just north of Horsham) for lunch, we found this free (?) caravan park that had a beaut little playground next to it, and the cleanest toilets I had almost been in, complete with showers. All of this is accessible to the public, but given the population of Laschelles, I doubt they have many problems with abuse of facilities. Anyway, we stopped here to give the kids a break and to have lunch. All which went very well.....until.....

After clearing everything away and watching the kids and Mark play on the equipment, I thought that I could also have a bit of a play. Now I am 7.5mths pregnant, have absolutely NO concept of where my centre of gravity is, and have tripped, stumbled and fell my way through most of this trip. There was one of those small little roundabout things with the pole up the centre and I stupidly stood on it. It twisted, my ankle twisted and I did not twist. Result, a very badly injured ankle.

Imagine this if you will. I am in hysterical tears because of the pain in my ankle and leg, Tom realises that I am injured and rushes down the the steps of the slide, falling in the process and scraping his back. He is now crying hysterically. Biddy takes one look at us and because mummy is crying, she starts bawling too. Mark is simply trying to contain his laughter. In order to keep a check on things, he takes Biddy, and puts her into the carseat, pinching her stomach in the carseat straps in the process. So now she is howling legitimately from the pain of that. A lady that lives in the house next door appears at the car (by which at this point, I have hopped to - again, not the best of things to do when pregnant), to see if there is anything she can do because she heard all the kerfuffle!

Given that there was nothing that any of us could really do, we put ice on it, I took a couple of Panadeine Forte and we got going, thinking we would reassess at Horsham. It would be at this point we would have to make the decision about going to Halls Gap or coming straight home. Because, if I couldn't stand on it, then I couldn't get to the toilet and I need to go to the toilet LOTS!!!!! By Horsham, the painkillers had kicked in, but so had the swelling. Mark wrapped it up and through clenched teeth and a feeling of nausea, I hopped to the toilet. Ok, let's just go to Halls Gap. I didn't want to holiday to end like this.

We had just clicked over 10,000kms by this point, and I can honestly say that the most scenic and interesting driving we did was the stretch from Horsham through the Grampians to Halls Gap. Stunning areas. DSE were doing some burn offs in the northern Grampians and it added to the scenic nature somewhat.

When we got to the caravan park, I told Mark that whilst we had not taken advantage of ensuite sites at all throughout our trip, if there was ever a need for one, tonight was the night! This meant, I only had to stumble 5m instead of maybe 100m in the middle of the night!

Sore ankle!

So Mark looked after all of us that night - setting up, shopping for dinner, cooking, cleaning, bathing kids etc...I should have injured my ankle weeks ago!! It was lovely being looked after!! Ha ha ... Distance travelled today: (will get back)

Day 31 and our last day. A bit sad for all of us, but the pain in my ankle (which is now blacking up quite nicely) tugs at my sensibility to get home ASAP. We left Halls Gap and tootled home stopping in Mortlake for lunch and getting home early afternoon. Distance travelled today; (will get back).

Locusts all over front of ute

Not sure if you can see, but the van is covered in squashed locusts!

All in all, we travelled a total of 10382.2kms and didn't have one tyre puncture, one mishap with the ute or van, and had one hellova time. We are already looking forward to our next extended trip, although with the arrival of #3, we now have to change our towing vehicle because we can't fit 3 carseats in the ute. So whilst we look forward to welcoming another baby into the family in a few short weeks, we will also be welcoming a new car as well!

Oh, and to just wrap up the ankle situation......I went to A&E on Monday and after 5.5hrs and an x-ray, found out that it is largely tendon and ligament damage and I need to keep it up and off it! A subsequent visit to my own doctor later in the week revealed that the damage was so much that it really should have been placed in plaster and me on crutches for around 2 weeks. But it is on the mend now, and whilst it is still extremely painful (and colourful), I am able to hobble around.

This is the bruising & swelling coming out (and there is more now!) on about day 3

Back to Victoria

Day 27 and we launched into Mildura, Victoria. It is a relatively quick run from Broken Hill to Mildura, but we encountered the worst locusts that we have seen since leaving Longreach. The locusts here aren't as big as Longreach, but they are in bigger proportions and are making much more of a mess of everything. We actually washed the front of the van and the ute at Broken Hill because they had gotten into the brake discs and under the ute and they absolutely STANK! Although we never intended on driving about with a shiny ute and van we just couldn't stand it any longer. Especially when the ute was parked right outside our bedroom window! Yuk! I have mixed emotions about our trip now: - on one hand, I am extremely jealous of travellers that I speak to in various van parks that are just starting their trips, but on the other hand, I am looking forward to getting home. I am slowing down physically (especially after the mine tour yesterday.....cripes!) and I know that I don't have long to go before the baby is born. But I still wish that we were only just starting out. Distance travelled today: 295kms.

Day 28 was a bit of a relaxed day about Mildura. We took the kids to this placed called "Snakes and Ladders" which is sort of like a big outdoor playground with what can only be described as rugged equipment. No soft edges on any of this stuff! The kids had a ball, although much of the equipment was too big for Biddy. But she coped.

Mark on the Tarzan swing

There was this bloody big slide which both Mark and Tom freaked out about going up (but Mark was eventually brave enough to go up....probably thinking about the ragging I would give him if he didn't!!!), a flying fox which Mark almost crashed off, a smaller flying fox which Biddy did crash off, but Tom thought was just brilliant, plus various slides, seesaws and swings.

the BIG slide

Mark going up: and holding on for dear life!!

Zipping down!

The visit ended with a game of mini golf, but with 2 kids of whom neither possesses any concentration skills, it was a bit of a waste of time, because I spent much of the round keeping them off other people's fairways! But Mark wants me to tell you all that he got 3 holes in one in a row!!

Greg Norman and Carly Webb they are NOT!

In the afternoon, I took Biddy to a local shopping centre for a spot of girly stuff, while Mark took Tom for a boys hour to a local go-kart track. Tom thought it was fantastic - they went in a double kart and they guy said that he had not seen the double one go around the track so fast in a long time! Typical.

Day 29 and we were a bit foiled in our endeavours to do some touristy stuff. Firstly, we tried to go to the ten pin bowling alley, but it was closed for renovations. Then we went out to Orange World (yes...there actually is such a thing) but the next train tour wasn't going for another 1.5hrs and there wasn't much to do in the meantime. So we went to Lindemans winery, which the kids thought was as boring as hell. So back into town, we found an indoor wave pool, but this was also closed for renovations! Sheesh! In the end we bought the kids back to the van park and took them to the pool here, but honestly, it was like a block of ice had just melted. Although we all went in, none of us stayed in for very long. Much, MUCH too cold. Our swimming exploits for this trip are definitely over.

For those that are interested, this is me at 32 weeks and 4 days! Getting bigger every day.

32w 4d

Lots of bitumen....

Well, for the past few days it seems like we have seen nothing but bitumen. Largely because there has been not a lot between where we have been and where we are now.

After leaving Charleville, we headed for Bourke on day 24 (11th April). We were amazed by the township - every shop had a roller shutter and was locked up tight. Made me glad we were spending 5kms out of town! The weather has definitely changed...for the worse. We are now experiencing cooler weather, but in an effort to drag out the tropical holiday, we hit the pool for what might be the last time for this holiday. And such a shame. The pool at the van park was amazing. It was easily the best pool and surrounds we have been too. Pity the water was cool and so was the ambient temp! Tonight was the first time we have not had the a/c or the fan on! Distance travelled today: 455kms.

On the highway headed towards Broken Hill. Note all the bugs on the windscreen!

Day 25 and we packed up and headed for Broken Hill. Unfortunately, we are stymied by water over roads throughout the Bourke shire, which has meant that instead of being able to do a bit of off-road driving following the Darling River, we are constrained to the bitumen once again. Cobar was a much bigger town than I expected, and although Wilcannia looks to be the same size on the map, it is nearly the opposite of Cobar. Broken Hill is enormous. I'm not sure why I am amazed by its size, but it is a huge town. Distance travelled today: 624kms,

Day 26 and we took the kids to Day Dream Mine just out of Silverton. This turned out to be a great visit...Tom was unbelievably good (!) and Biddy was ok too. We took a surface tour before descending 80+ meters. Mark would never have made a miner - 6'4" is just a might too tall to be walking around the mine. In fact, the only ones that didn't bang their heads were the kids.

Day Dream Mine, Silverton

Tom and Biddy ready for the mine

Sam and Tom

Tom and Biddy exiting mine....Biddy exerting a bit of effort to get out!

After the mine we checked out the town of Silverton....strange little town. Nice though.

And just as a bit of a side note....thanks to Dicko for posting a comment on the post that spoke about the police station at Avon Downs, NT. Dicko (being a copper himself), did a bit of research and found out the background behind why there was a station in the middle of nowhere. Check out his comment on that post. And for his efforts, he has got himself a bottle of wine!

Dinos, Stockies, Planes and Locusts

When we woke up on day 21 (now April 8th for those that are after dates!), the flood waters had still not receeded and roads were still cut off. We made the decision to check out some of the stuff in Winton and then head to Longreach that day. Maybe...but not likely....we might backtrack if the roads open in time again. So we went to a static display in town that depicts the Lark Quarry stampede. For those that are not wise to the whole story, basically, this farmer had just been mustering stock when he happened upon some strange footprints. He called someone in the know and they came to have a squizz. Turns out, the footprints were fossilised dino tracks. At the time, there weren't that many, but teams of palaeontologists and the like descended on the site like a Glendambo fly on a tourist (see previous post to get that reference) and eventually hundreds of tracks were unearthered. Turns out that the tracks were made by about 500 small plant eating dinos running for their lives from a huge meat eating dino (3 meters in fact).

Tom in front of display

This is what is now known as the Lark Quarry (the place they are located) stampede or "trackways", and amazingly, was the inspiration of the stampede scene in Jurassic Park! There were also other bone replica fragments on display...quite interesting, but with no actual dinosaurs, it wore thin quite quickly for Biddy in particular. We then went to the Waltzing Matilda Centre which is pretty much dedicated to Banjo Patterson and the song/poem "Waltzing Matilda". As expected, lots of pioneer and early Australiana stuff to see.

Biddy playing "Waltzing Matilda"!!!!

Onto Longreach in the afternoon and as we pulled in quite late in the afternoon, all that was on the cards was a swim and dinner. But what we weren't prepared for was a locust plague!! They are everywhere and have stripped all the trees around the van park and town. In the daylight hours, they tend to just flit about and accidently bump into you (actually, they land on you with an almighty thud), but at night, they swarm around you if you are anywhere near a light. And this was just too much for dear little Biddy, who couldn't even make it through her dinner for fear of them. Distance travelled: 180kms

Just a VERY small sample of the buggers....these literally landed on our van the minute we pulled up.

Doesn't matter that you are on hols...the cooking still needs to be done!

Day 22 and we visited the Stockman's Hall of Fame. I thoroughly enjoyed looking through here and I think Mark did too, but we kept Biddy in the pram for this visit and many of the displays were above her head height, so she was bored and was constantly asking to "get out???". Tom, on the other hand, was belting around the place like a mad kid and I was trying to ignore the fact that he belonged to us, but it was difficult when he'd run up and call me "mummy". Sigh.

Stockmans Hall of Fame (Mark and the kids are in the front centre)

After lunch we went to the Qantas Founders Museum which held Tom's attention for a lot longer. Must be a male thing, looking at engines, planes and machinery. I, on the other hand, thought it was interesting, but it wasn't the highlight of my visit.

However, for both kids, it was quite exciting to see a big 747 up close (one was on display).

The locusts are starting to thin out, and we found out later that they are definately moving on but have also been sprayed for.

Day 23 and after pouring over the mapbook last night trying to decide what route we will now take, we have decided to ditch our first thought of travelling to the coast in favour of sticking inland. We will leave the coast for another visit. So we are headed to Charleville today with the intention of heading eventually to Mildura for a number of nights. The actual route may depend a little bit on road conditions and closures due to rain in the SW of Qld. So today, was pretty much spent packing up and driving to Charleville. We went through Tambo with the intention of buying Biddy a Tambo teddy, but we missed shop opening hours by 20 minutes!!! Arghhh...sometimes, the luck is just not with you! Travelling on a Saturday does have its disadvantages. I will ring them when we get home and see if I can arrange something via mail. I have a Tambo teddy from my last pass through this town (his name is "Sonic"...all teddys are named after a local property). Distance travelled: 511kms.

check out Biddy's hair from the humidity...curls galore!!

Heading for the West

Day 18 saw us leave Katherine and make for Three Ways. We had planned to go south a slightly different way - through Cape Crawford and then down to Barkly Homestead and then through Camooweal to Mt Isa - but fuel stops and accommodation was an issue. And the distances that we would have had to do made it a little unfeasible with the kids. So instead, we retraced our steps to almost Tennant Creek stopping at the Three Ways Roadhouse for the night instead. This was the first night in a while that it has not been humid and I think we slept without the a/c on!! Distance travelled: 613kms

Road trains at Three Ways

Leaving Three Ways on day 19, we headed straight for Mt Isa. The only place you pass through before you hit the Qld border is Barkly Homestead and it is only 187kms into the trip!

But one little strange place we passed through - and stopped for lunch (a sandwich in the caravan) - was Avon Downs. What made this place so strange was that it consisted of a property (that we didn't see) but also a largish police station. In the middle of nowhere! There was still 50+kms to go before the border, and Barkly was about 200kms west!

Avon Downs police station

We are not sure why this place exists so if anyone knows, post a comment!

Baby in NT; Sam in Qld

Sam at the Queensland border

We pulled into Mt Isa at about 6pm and headed straight for the caravan park. A bit of a mishap tonight....Mark decided (unknowingly) to see just how waterproof his mobile phone was. He thought he'd checked his pockets before plunging into the deep end of the pool, but obviously not well enough. After 5 minutes, he discovered the phone. Oh oh! There was no display and when he opened the back, an awful lot of water came out of it. We joked that it is water resistant to 1.9m but Mark went to 2m so that is what stuffed it! Tonight, we treated the kids to Macca's - this is the first fast food we've had on the trip. Distance travelled: 637kms

Day 20 and whilst we would have liked to get an early start, we had to wait for the Telstra shop to open to get another phone. Because although I have mine (and Mark's sim card did work in my phone, so that wasn't stuffed), I don't have the cables, software etc to allow us to use it to get onto the internet to do important things like updating the blog!! We got away with buying just a prepaid phone and swapping the sim cards. At the rate that he goes through phones, I reckon he should just stick with the prepaid handsets and run the plan through the sim!! We eventually left Mt Isa at around 10.30am and headed for Winton. Remember the pub in the movie "Crocodile Dundee"? The Walkabout Creek Hotel? Well we passed by it in a nondescript placed called McKinlay.

It is obvious that it was only the hotel scenes that were shot here, because the surrounds are almost farmland rather than outback....nothing like I remember from the movie. Now, I have to admit that the visit to Winton and surrounds was purely so we could take young Tom to see the dinosaur exhibits at the newly opened 'Age of Dinosaur's centre and maybe also visit Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways. We didn't say anything to him about this just in case we didn't even make it here. And just as well, because on our arrival this afternoon, we discovered that the bloody cyclone that has been dumping a crapload of rain in the gulf region also dumped a fair bit around here and the roads to the dinosaurs are all cut off!!!

The road to Lark Quarry....flooded

Something that the flood waters threw up! Killed just before we saw it!

I could cry. But what do you do? There are some dino exhibits here in town and we will take him to those. Maybe, if this dino fever he has keeps going over the next few years, we might fly him to Longreach, get a hire car and drive him to Winton to see them. But it ain't going to happen this trip sadly. Distance travelled: 467kms

Nitmiluk at Eastertime

Happy Easter everyone! Yes, the Easter Bunny found our kids in Katherine and left some goodies near their beds. Although mum had to rapidly put them in the fridge to ensure they still resembled eggs and bunnies, and not a lump of chocolate!

We visited Katherine Gorge today, and for those that don't know (and I didn't prior to yesterday), you pronounce the National Park as "Nit-me-look". It means "place of the cicada" or something similar. We took the 2 hour cruise of 2 gorges starting at 9am. Thank god we chose that one, because it was so hot and muggy this morning.....I couldn't imagine what it would be like on the punts at 11am, 1pm and 3pm. Yuk. I was a sweating mess by halfway through - as were most people!

The Katherine Gorge (or Nitmiluk Gorge as it should be known) is really beautiful, but there are limits to the kids attention spans and they were well and truly over looking at scenery and rocks by about 3/4's through. Which was fine, because the aforementioned weather was starting to get to me too. Our guide talked us through the areas we visited and it was really quite interesting. There is currently no swimming or canoeing in the river as the wet season has washed some salt water crocs into the system. Nasty buggers.

Jeda's Rock - this is the rock that featured in the film "Jeda"

A hot day for a small girl and her dad.....38 degrees and 70+% humidity

Back at the caravan park, we were all just hanging out for the pool and a bit of a relax. It is amazing how much the humidity takes it out of you.

I think that the word above me just sums it all up! Thanks Tom (the photographer!)

Tomorrow we push on further south for Three Ways (just north of Tennant Creek) so we can push into Queensland in preparation for a big surprise for Tom! Stay tuned for that one!!

The Top End

After a bit of a blogging hiatus, I'm back.

Day 11 (this is now the 29th March), and we met the Stevenson's at Crocodylus Park. This is a crocodile park and research venue and houses in excess of 15,000 crocs. We had promised Tom even before we left on this trip that he would get to see a crocodile close up and probably even handle one....this was his day!

There are about 20 breeding pens which house 1 male and 1 female...these crocs have mainly been taken from the wild due to either injury or being a rogue croc. The males were ENORMOUS. Most of them were over the 500kg mark.

Keeping a safe distance

Tom and the baby croc - how pleased does he look with himself??!!

At the end of the croc tour, 2 baby crocs (2yos) were bought out (mouths suitable taped shut) for you to hold and take photos/video. Tom was right in there, which surprised me as I thought he would be reserved when the time came. In fact, it was Biddy who didn't want a bar of them and I thought she'd be the one wanting to hold them.

The rest of the park was set out like a mini zoo with both Australian and exotic animals on display. The kids got to see emus, dingos, wombats, variety of birds, lizards and snakes, lions, tigers, monkeys, and ostriches.

After the Park visit, we headed off for a late lunch before heading back to the caravan park with the Stevos for a swim and a BBQ tea of croc snags, kebabs and hamburgers!

Day 12 was a serious tourist day with Deb and I taking my 2 kids into town to do some souvenir shopping whilst Mark and Stevo went to visit a WWII museum. A fishy lunch on the wharf before heading back to the caravan for some relaxation time.

Deb mentioned that there was a local garden supply place that happened to have a heap of lifesized statues of various animals on display that the kids would love. Tom thought it was great because there were DINOSAURS!!! So day 13 saw us spending a good hour and a half at this place having a look at the various displays before having some lunch in the surprisingly fabbo cafe.

Yes....Mark found a dairy cow in the Top End.....albeit fibreglass!

We then headed off to a waterpark not far from our caravan park which was almost the highlight of the trip for the kids (both small and large!) This park was absolutely free and was so well equipped. There was an enormous water adventure playground complete with a number of small slides, various water fountains, and a huge bucket that filled and tipped a cement mixer worth of water on you in one go. There was a huge pool that was made to resemble a beach (it got deeper as you waded out into it) and there were 3 really big water slides. One you went down in a tube, the other 2 you just sat down and sped through. Tom didn't quite make the height requirement, but at the right time, he stood on his toes and passed muster. After a number of goes, he did get sprung for being on the short side and was stopped from going up again. Nearly broke his heart. Mark had some definate views on that decision for the lifeguard! Nevertheless, Tom had a ball on the slides and I doubt that any swimming pool in any caravan site is ever going to match up again!!

Who is the bigger kid?

Day 14 (April 1st), and we are rapidly approaching the time when we will have to leave Darwin. Sigh....our holiday is almost half over. Today, Mark and I took Tom and Biddy to the Territory Wildlife Park in Berry Springs (south of Darwin). This is sort of like Desert Park in Alice Springs, only it is tropical based. The highlight for Tom was the birds of prey show because the lady called them raptors and this is just too close to being a dinosaur for Tom. After the show, we got to go up and get a really close look at them. Beautiful.

Wedgetail Eagle

Barking Owl (Tom was particularly taken with this one!)

The lowlight for both kids was the enormous spiders that inhabited the area. These are orb spiders and are very big (maybe the size of my hand). Both kids got a fright at various points during the day - Biddy nearly had a melt down when I made her walk under one (I didn't think she'd saw it) and Tom got a huge fright when he was looking into a display and one ran nearly right under his nose! From then on, he was on spider alert!

Just for those that are interested....me at 30 weeks and 2 days. Suffering a little in the humidity!

Day 15 (halfway point) and it is Good Friday today. Nothing much open, which is just as good as we took the opportunity to start to pack up surplus stuff and get some serious washing done. We took the kids around to the Stevos for dinner and to say goodbye. Not for long though as Deb and Stevo are planning to return to Colac (for good) just before Christmas and will be parking the Big Blue Bus at the farm until they can move back into their house. Biddy has taken to Laura and follows her everywhere calling her "Lola". Tom thinks Will is pretty good too.

Biddy, Laura, Will and Tom

Sam and Deb

Day 16 and we leave Darwin headed for Katherine. Darwin has been great and once you get a bit used to the heat and humidity, I would fully recommend visiting in the wet season. Mainly because there are just so few tourists around and you really can have your pick of things to do without fear of missing out due to overbookings. Sure, some things aren't running and some things are closed, but you can always find something to do. So we headed south for Katherine and lobed into the Low Level Caravan Park. This is a very nice park - very shady and quite a bit out of town so you tend to not get the riff raff. We have booked in for a cruise of the Katherine Gorge tomorrow and have elected to do the 9am cruise which goes for 2 hours (to miss the heat of the day). So an early start tomorrow. Afterwards we'll see what else there is around here to do that may interest the kids. After all, when the kids are happy, I am happy!!