Wood Family Around Australia

IT'S COMING TO AN END ......

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 10:09:00 +0000

Well hello, no we haven't dropped off the face of the earth, just been busy living!!!! We are all battling the flu at the moment so I will try my best to make some sense.

We left you in beautiful Melbourne catching up with family and on all the kids wish lists for the trip was to see snow. So we took a day trip to Lake Mountain about 2hrs north of Melbourne, what a great day trip. You can hire everything you need here including toboggans and all the snow gear you need to tackle the mountain. Now it's not full on skiing here just a good introduction to us newbies on the snow.What a great day lots of snow fights and frost bitten fingers and lots of laughter. The kids faces were grinning from ear to ear!!!

On the way back we went through Marysville where all the fires were and it was really eerie with the fog and all the burnt trees, this area is still struggling to recover, you really get a feel for this lovely little town and how devastating it would have been.

So on from Melbourne to be blown away by the cyclonic winds at Wilson Prom, a gorgeous part of the world and one of those places to go back to when the weather is fine. We were meant to stay here for 2 nights but after 1 night of severe winds we decided to move on. We did brave the cold wind and rain to go spotlighting and were rewarded with seeing our first wild wombats strolling around the campsite. The kids were very excited.

After a couple of hours we arrived in Sale, where we stayed for a few days and caught up with our friends the Malones which we met up in Qld, so the kids were so excited about playing with the kids. It was lovely to see them again and Sale is a cute little place.I think our livers were glad to leave and have a break!!!

We had one of those moments where we were going to miss Canberra and go up the coast, but after hearing the weather report, more cyclonic winds we thought what the heck lets hit the capital. Yes it was one of those times where we really weren't looking forward to being back in a city, but I have to say we loved Canberra. First stop was to the War Memorial, which I think every Aussie should come and see. You can't feel but incredibly patriotic and touched by this place and especially seeing the unknown soldier, all the kids really got into meaning of this place which I was a little surprised at considering their age, but they all felt the emotion. So just 2 days in Canberra and we packed in as much as we could, a central place to stay is the show grounds and at $25 a night for water and power it was a real bargain for a city stop.

You can't go to Canberra without seeing Parliament House, pity we weren't there this week amongst all the excitement of the new government, but still it was a very interesting place. Free tours run all the time and you get a real insight on how it all works, and it is huge those new politicians are going to get lost for months. Anybody can go and sit in and you generally have to book for special question time, considering how close this years election was, we found it really informative, not quite sure whether the kids took it all in but I can now say when I see those green and red rooms on the news I can say we've been there! To see all the former prime ministers of the country and to see the apology and other indigenous milestones such as being able to vote it was great to see. The mint was a little disappointing as we didn't get to see any of that glorious money pumping out and of course the paper money is made in Melbourne but it was still interesting. Alot goes into those little coins from just a plain bit of metal to being stamped 8 times to make our money. It was good seeing how our coins have evolved.

Fun kids stuff here we come... Questacon is the place where all kids big and small can have fun, the 3 floors of science fun madness from little kid dress ups to free falling and lots in between, we were all tuckered out that day!!! Canberra is so easy to get around and we had great weather to view it and there's nothing like sitting on the front yard of Parliament house having a picnic overlooking the capital!!!

Making our way to Sydney from Canberra was the winding death trap.... KINGS HIGHWAY. This road has the sharpest corners on a mountain we have come across so far, with rain and limited visibility it was a scary drive. To the point where it was nearly all over, we hit a sharp corner only going 20k and skidded around the road with the hand brake on, the caravan brake on and the car brake on, with a sheer drop off the cliff if there was a car coming up the other lane it would have been all over. The scariest moments of the trip, I don't think the kids even noticed watching a movie in the back, but Michael and I didn't breath for for a while after that one. We actually stopped at the next rest area just to compose ourselves!!!!!

After that heart stopper we got to a place called Nowra where there is a Navy, Airforce, Army museum (The Australian Museum of Flight), where Michael took Spencer to see the sights. The girls were fast asleep so I missed out on that one, but it looks very impressive.

Ahh Sydney, and they have turned the sunshine on, we found the best caravan sight at Lane Cove Tourist Park, which is situated in a national park, central to everything and only $37 a night, no kids charges here and we have power and water and close to the train. We decided to take a break from the car and buy a $120 transport family pass for the week which covers you for everything.

Friday night we hit Luna Park which Scarlett calls Luny Park!!It was nice to just let go and be a big kid again and go crazy on all the rides, I don't think I've screamed that much for a while. That Scarlett is a dare devil, Spencer said it was the best night of the trip and Phoebe was hanging on for dear life on all the high rides. FUN, FUN, FUN. So after the kiddie fun we had some Tamara fun and went to the Paddington Markets the next day for some retail action. You all know by now Michael just loves the markets, not, so the day was a long one for him. Michael's Aunty Ann and Uncle George live in Cronulla and it was really nice to catch up with them and see Kate, Mitch and Lauren and be part of a lovely family gathering on the Sunday.

With sore heads the next day we headed off to Taronga Zoo which we all loved. The new baby elephants there are very cute!!!! We got a chance to see Bondi on a windy, freezing day so we didn't go for a Bondi swim. Michael and I had been to Sydney alot with relatives on both sides of our family so we thought we'd just do the main touristy things with the kids.

Which included having lunch at the Opera House overlooking the harbour and having some adult beverages. It would have been nice to catch up with Uncle Colin, but we all hope you get better soon.

It's sad to say we are nearing the end of our trip. We head off to Mudgee for 2 weeks for Michael to do his Permaculture Course on the farm Milkwood to learn how to live sustainably and then we will slowly weave our way back to Brisbane. I have no idea what the future brings, but I will keep you posted. The great thing is I suppose that anything could happen, and we are ready to take on life with a new and enthusiastic view on our lives and how we want to bring up the kids. Hopefully be a little more patient in life and much more open minded and to actually stop once and awhile and know that there's more to life!!!! Thank you so much to all of you that have taken an interest in our big adventure. Something that was going to be a little blog to keep in touch with family and friends and turned into over 80 people tuning in. Some I have never met but hopefully inspired to go on their own adventure and to all those people that posted their own experiences and helped us out about some great places thank you. It's also been really lovely to hear from all those family and friends that have kept in contact, I know you all have your own lives but being away for more than 6 months can be a little lonely. We have been very lucky to tour this incredible country and to have met the most amazing people. Love to all. xxxx

FAMILY & A COMFY BED

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Woo Hoo! We hit beautiful Melbourne and haul the caravan through the city which was a bit of a challenge in the traffic. I must admit we get a bit freaked out now when we hit traffic,how are we going to cope when we get home??????

We arrived to a big smiley face and warm open arms of Aunty Jenny, so nice to see family, we are really missing everyone at the moment and we were so excited to catch up with familiar faces. I can't tell you how lovely it is after nearly 6 months to stay in a warm house and sleep in a proper bed!!!!

For us Melbourne is about catching up with family but we did manage to fit in some shopping time at the amazing Chadstone. If you are a shopper this is the place to be, even Michael liked it here. We thought we better do some touristy stuff and went into town for the day and hit the Melbourne Museum. Wow, what an incredible museum and we have been to a few but this one by far was the best. Phar Lap was so much bigger than what I thought!! The kids got a kick out of catching the tram and it was a really nice day.

We were so lucky, Jenny and Peter gave us the day off, the first day off in 6 months, you didn't have to ask us twice. We had the best day and wondered through Sorrento and had lunch at Portsea and got back after dinner. We hit the Brighton bathing boxes at sunset and had a great day out. I think the kids had a great day as well, Jenny took them to a wave pool and the park and they had so much fun, I think they needed a break as well from mum and dad.

I just wanted to quickly mention some great places before we got to Melbourne, I think Michael had a few drinks on the last blog!!!!!

Apollo Bay is worth a mention we managed to go to the Surf Museum and loved it, check out the photos!!! And Geelong, what a great town much bigger than what I thought. There are these lovely statues dotted all around the city along the foreshore. They were created by a great local lady whos name escapes me but had cancer a few years a go and they were made in her honour.

There is so much to see and do in Victoria and we did plan to go to Ballarat but with the recent floods that kind of put our plans out. It is just so nice to actually stop for awhile and be with Michael's lovely family and see all the kids with their cousins and meet all the little bubs that were born this year.So we thank Jenny and Peter so much for our stay which we will always remember.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 01:14:00 +0000

Well Tam has piked out again so you are stuck with my ramblings for another blog.

After our fantastic trip to Uluru and Kings Canyon we headed for Adelaide with a renewed excitement for the trip. Unfortunately the weather soon took care of that. We arrived in Clare to pouring rain and a -1 deg night, not happy. It was great to have the chance to catch up with old work friends that I haven't seen for 9 years but unfortunately due to the weather we didn't get to see as much of Adelaide and South Australia as we had planned.

On one of the better days we took the kids into the Adelaide Zoo to see the Pandas Wang Wang and Funi. The Zoo was fantastic and was the first big Zoo the kids and I have ever been to.

After spending 4 days in Adelaide we started off to via McLaren Vale and the Fleurieu Peninsula. Again due to the bad weather we didn't have much of a chance to look at McLaren Vale but did find the time to stock up on a bit of Red from our favourite wineries to keep us warm for the days ahead.

The drive down the Fleurieu Peninsula was great and we decided to pull off and stay at a little place called Rapid Bay. For $10 a night you can stay in the community park right on the water, I have to say this was one of the best cheap/free campsites we have stay at on our trip. I can imagine that this place would be busy in summer. The next day we visited beautiful seaside towns like Victor Harbour, Port Elliot, Robe and others on the way to Victoria.

Unfortunately because of the weather all we could do was sample the local coffee and various treats from the Bakeries on the way through to keep the kids happy.

By this time we were wet, cold and had enough of the long drives. We were looking forward to getting to Lorne as this has great memories for Tam and I from our time before kids. We had an idea that we could try and stay in the cottages behind Lorne that we had stayed at 10 years ago. We gave them a call and not only did they have a cottage but it was the one we stayed in last time! Everyone was so excited to be staying in a house with beds for the first time in 6 months. The weather held up a bit for us to experience the Great Ocean Road and 12 Apostles.

I even got a chance to go up in a helicopter with the big kids for Father's Day which was a great experience.

We stayed in beautiful Lorne for 3 nights and had the rest we were all in desperate need of. We had the fire going all weekend, the kids watched TV and movies and recharged our batteries.

We can't wait to get to Melbourne and catch up with family so until next time, we pray for some sunshine and will see you then!

THE ROCK

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:08:00 +0000

Grab an NT Lager, were back in the Northern Territory!

Tam thought it was about time I stepped into her UGG boots and write a blog so here goes.

After leaving Port Augusta (as quick as we could) we headed off to Coober Pedy. This would be the start of a long 3 days. We had 35km per hour head winds and could only get the car to 80km/hr. You could see the fuel gauge dropping as the car struggled against the wind.

We arrived at Woomera to have morning tea and check out the town. We had heard that it was worth stopping in as this is where they used to test rockets for the British Government. It was like we had stepped into one of those 1950's towns they have on movies where Nuclear tests were conducted.

Just when we thought we had left bizzaro town we entered another one, Coober Pedy. This is one of those places that you have to visit if you are up this way just to say you've been there. We got to do the normal things like having a mine tour and went through Fay's house, the kids got a kick out of it but I have to say it didn't do much for me. I think that it is a blight on the landscape. The piles of tailings from the mines just go on for kilometers and it is pretty obvious that they don't have the same environmental commitments to regenerate the landscape like they do in Kalgoorlie.

So on to Uluru. I have to say by the time we got to Uluru we were over it. It had been a long three days of driving 6-8hrs per day, one of our windows on the Caravan had been ripped off by a road train going past and wondered if we were doing the right thing but figured you can't do a trip around Australia and not see Uluru.

We did not know what to expect but about half way along the road we had a sneak preview of what was to come. We came across Mt Conner which they also call the false Ayers Rock. It was pretty impressive and I said to Tam, surely the Rock isn't as big as that, how wrong I was.

We arrived in time to check our van into the park and go out to the Rock for sunset. Wow, the photos don't do it justice. The size and grandeur of Uluru is something everyone should experience.

The sunset was great and we were so excited we drove around the rock on dusk just to see the whole thing. We went back to the park with all good intentions of waking up for sunrise but everyone was exhausted from the drive the previous day. So we had a bit of a sleep in and went out to walk around the Rock. We didn't get to do the whole thing but this again was a different experience again from the Sunset.

You can get right up close to the rock, the colours and texture of the rock where amazing. We also got to see some Aboriginal artwork in the caves around the rock. Then we did a trip to the Olgas which was just as beautiful. Still excited we came back the following day and experienced the sunrise before we had to leave, another amazing experience but one we don't have photos of because some idiot (me) forgot to charge the camera batteries!

We had been told and read a lot of negative stuff about Uluru. "Ulurules" they call it because there are certain places that have cultural significance to the Traditional owners that you can't take photos of and then there is the $25 per person entry fee (kids are free) which gives you 3 days in the park including the Olgas. I just don't get why people have a problem with it. We have paid $50 for plenty of dud attractions like Whale World (Albany) etc and this was certainly not one of them. The park is well maintained and clean and due to the huge amount of tourists that were there I believe they need some rules to control the idiots that want to carve their name in the rock or worst. For those of you wondering if you can still climb the rock, yes you can but they discourage you from doing it due to it cultural significance. I don't know why you would, we got enough out of our experience and the climb is just down right dangerous. Many people have died doing this climb and I can totally see why as it is a nearly vertical accent to the top with only a chain to hold onto.

So we had been talking about where to go next. The plan was to see Uluru, hightail it back to Adelaide and maybe see the Oodnadatta track and Lake Eyre on the way back. I had always had Kings Canyon on my list of things to see on the trip but it was a 3 hour detour and we just wanted to put the next 3 days behind us. But as it usually happens on our trip plans change at the drop of a hat, which is one of the exciting parts of not being locked into a time table. We got to the turn off to Kings Canyon and thought bugger it, lets do it. All checked in we went of to tackle some of the smaller walks in the afternoon.

The kids weren't into it and there was alot of whinging going on. The next day was the rim walk which is 6km of moderate to hard bush walking. It had been raining all night but we were determined to do it no matter how long it took. We got there and it started raining again and decided it was probably not a good idea to take the kids on the walk as it would be a bit too dangerous with the wet weather. I took Tam and the kids back to the van and decided to do the walk myself.

I am so glad I did. It was pretty tough at the start but wow, how much beautiful scenery can you jam in one place? I had read that this was one of the best walks in Australia and it certainly didn't disappoint. I'll let the pictures do the talking. It was nice to do the walk without anyone whinging but it didn't feel right to do it without Tam and the kids. I would have to say that this is one of the best walks I have done on the trip. I met a park ranger on the walk and he said that this was one of the best days to see the canyon as you got to see the water flowing in the park outside of the wet season, how lucky I am! I eventually convinced Tam to do the walk the next morning on her own on our way out of the park and she was just as impressed as I was.

Once again we have been hampered by bad weather. We had planned to do the Oodnadatta Track on the way back to SA but it just so happens we pick the week when they have had a flood and every town on the track has been evacuated! So now we have missed due to the rain Kakadu, Litchfield, Mereenie Loop Road and the Oodnadatta Track. I guess the positive is that we have an excuse to come back.

Thought I would also include some "Man" Stats for you:
So far we have....

Travelled 26,616km.
Spent $7,735 on fuel.
Our average L/100km used is 21.60.
The average price we have paid for fuel is $1.49/L
The dearest we have paid for fuel is $1.80/L at the Barkly Homestead NT.
The cheapest we have paid is $1.29/L at Roma.

So now we are off to explore the wonders of South Australia so stay tuned for Tam's next blog where no doubt we will be sampling the local grape juice.

A BIT OF REALITY

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0000

I thought I might change the pace this week. We see some pretty amazing places and experience some incredible things but we still have to do those mundane things like everyone else. Thought I might share some little special moments!!!

Yes Michael doing the walk of shame - someone has to empty that toilet

Just a taste of those country playgrounds,we've seen them all.
The kids do still from time to time mumble and grumble about doing school work, but we still manage to do at least an hour every day and they are great kids. I'm so proud of what they have achieved and I'm sure I have my shortcomings as their teacher. But what lovely little people they have grown into. It is really quite interesting what they are like away from school. We tend to do alot of schoolwork in the van, much better one on one time, but on those big days it's in the car.

And then there's the washing!!! It never stops, I think they have climbed every tree, rolled around on every surface and been on every play ground in range!!!

And Scarlett, well she is the sweetest thing, but when she gets tired there are those moments...."I'm hot", "I'm cold," "I'm hungry", "I'm thirsty", "You're touching me". Lots of those memories come flooding back from my childhood of all the drives we did as kids going to Sydney.

We all have our jobs packing up, Michael well, he's the bossman and he does all the outside stuff, (the roadie) Spencer makes sure everyone has up to date schoolwork in the car, drinks filled up and rubbish away. Phoebe, well on a good day will clean out the car but she has been helping me with the dishes. And Scarlett, she just looks after herself.Mmmmm

Michael has been cooking, he's so much better than me, while I do the kids, it has worked out perfectly. We still have to do the shopping, in these sometimes, dodgy places and get followed around the centre from the locals.Very odd!!!

There's no truckie lunches here!!Need to lose some of that Margaret River good living!
Living in such small quarters it seems I have to tidy or organise space every couple of weeks meticulously. And then there's the budget, ooohhhh, I tend to do it every day in the car, no holds barred, SCARY! But surprisingly we are doing very well!

But we still get time to have a bit of girlie time and have a day spa!

It's not all happy hours and nibblies, s...t and giggles. But with the end of the trip looming in on us we have been reflecting on our amazing journey. It's hard to believe that we were pretty scared at first what this trip was going to be like, leaving everything familiar and we are not huge risk taking people especially with 3 kids in tow. But what a ride, and how we have all grown as people,brothers and sisters, partners and a better mum and dad. We feel changed somehow and have become much more tolerant, less judgemental and much more open minded in all areas. You learn so much from other people and we have certainly met some characters from all walks of life around this huge country. I'm not going to go all warm and fuzzy on you but we have learnt so much about ourselves I wonder how we will be when normal life sets in again.

NULLARBOR HERE WE COME!

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:00 +0000

Well what to expect!!! Long boring drives, nothing to see and the same old soundtrack in the car. It wasn't actually that bad. It was pretty green and we did it in 3 days. Lots of big days, but plenty of free campsites to stay.

We stayed at one.......which had such a pretty sunrise. Michael thought this was the best one yet,and hopefully you can share our view.There are no fences or anything so you are literally standing on the edge of the country and what a feeling. We had severe winds when we were there, I thought the caravan was going to take off at one stage. It was so cold that poor Phoebe was the hot water bottle in between Michael and I, none of us could sleep from the teeth chattering!!!

I knitted my way through the Nullarbor and the kids did lots of schoolwork and lots of DSIing. It took alot out of Michael driving like that for days but we were rewarded by the most amazing sight when we got to Head of the Bight. Southern Right Whales!!! WOW!!!They come here every year from July to September to have their babies. The platform weaves it's way down the cliff and you are right amongst it. You can hear them, see them clearly within 50mtrs and what a day!!! There were 77 whales spotted and 47 babies just playing in the ocean, we were lucky enough to see 2 albino babies as well. It was one of those moments you never want to forget.

We love waking up in the morning never knowing what's ahead of you, and we have many a day like that, but we did see a cyclist on the Nullarbor, and Michael and I looked at each other and said " We have to stop and give this guy a cuppa". After our freezing night we had pity on this poor guy cycling, it would have been about 1c, winds blowing and the rain on our tails. So we stopped him and caught up for a cuppa at the next pit stop. Well if you need inspiration look no further. Chris is a Kiwi and woke up 2 weeks ago, with his wife asking him what he wanted to do for his 60th. Said, well, I'll sleep on it and woke up and decided to cycle across Australia! WHAT! Bought a ticket to Perth and bought a bike and away you go. This guy isn't a cyclist, a civil engineer come bee keeper from Auckland and a very nice guy. So needless to say Michael and I didn't complain about the cold for the rest of the day. We hope he gets to Buderim to see his daughter!

We were going to catch up with Michael's cousin Mat and his fiance Danie in Ceduna so after a long day on the road and a very relaxed Quarantine, we dropped the caravan off and had a wonderful home cooked meal and a great night out catching up.Danie's family own an oyster business and we organised a tour with Danie's dad Ash on Saturday morning and what an interesting morning. I never knew there was so much involved with growing oysters. Ash has southern oysters here, a real delicacy!!! And we couldn't come here and not try one!!! We got to meet Danie's beautiful family and they were such warm friendly people that were so accommodating. It was so nice to see family and see a familiar face.

Mat is a policeman here and we got the royal tour, what a great guy, and great with the kids! They all got mug shots and sat in a police car what a treat for some city kids. We got to see the holding cells and the padded cell, I think the kids get the picture!!! Mat here patrols the highway so alot of the Nullarbor and a massive area to cover. They check alot of the road trains coming through and because there's only one way in and out there's a good chance to catch a baddie!!! We're sorry we don't have photos of Ceduna, it was not very nice weather while we were there, but a very cute little beach town that we will all remember.The kids just loved Danie and her cat Bella and her dog called Diesel. The kids could have stayed here for awhile, Danie is great with kids.

So on we keep trucking full steam ahead, and at the moment we are in Port Augusta, not a memorable place. You always have to be suspicious of a place that says in all the books, just a place to stock up!!Mmmmmmm. Good place to get the car serviced and get out.

On the way we had lunch at a fantastic spot call Pildappa Rock. We were a bit dissapointed that we didn't visit Wave Rock but were told about this place by Danie's parents and they though it was just as good. What a surprise this was.

We have to mention a funny thing. Yes like the rest of the country we are, including the kids, getting right into all the election hooplaa and had a very funny incident this morning. Sitting at the breaky table watching the news (ahh power we love it) Scarlett's sitting there eating her coco pops and says"Is that Tony Rabbit?'Well we were in fits of laughter!!! The kids are constantly making assessment on Julia Gulia's hair. We are all getting in the spirit of this election!!! So with our voting done will hopefully be out bush somewhere on that day.

FROM HERE TO KALGOORLIE

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 10:47:00 +0000

So we left you in Margaret River and headed south to the Valley of the Giants. The Valley of the Giants is in Walpole, a little, friendly country town with the biggest eucalypt trees in the world. These trees are 60-80mtrs high and up to 400yrs old,they are truly amazing to be in their presence.

You can take a drive through this incredible forest or do the treetop walk, we did both and it was good to get up close and personal. They really do look like they are something out of Lord of the Rings and going to grow legs. You really feel a special presence being around these enormous trees.

Can you believe they used to drive their cars through here in the 60's, until that particular tree died. No one knows why these particular trees grow here. The rest of Walpole is filled with green luscious hills of farming. The day we were there it was pretty miserable. But we haven't been blessed with the best weather lately, it has been incredibly windy, cold and rainy. The rest of the coastline is as you would expect, really rugged but beautiful.

Next we headed for Albany. We stopped at a beautiful free camp site called Cosy Corner, right on the beach, 30 minutes outside of Albany. We had been spotlighting most nights on our trip and had not seen anything but here got to see Quokkas, rabbits and a possum which the kids thought was cool.

The Albany coastline was amazing but freezing and windy! We visited the wind farm which produces 50% of Albany's energy giving it the "Greenest city in WA" label. We also got to see whales breaching along the coastline.

All the information we had about Albany was raving about this Whale World, and the kids were all excited. We thought it was going to be filled with some great info about the whales in the area and had already seen a photo of the sperm whale skeleton on display. BOY, WERE WE IN FOR A SHOCK. Now I've read some other blogs raving about this place (obviously we thought differently) and we all thought this place was in really bad taste. It was all about the days of killing whales between 1954 - 1978. We were taken to the boat ramp where you stood for 20 mins listening to an audio of them killing, cutting, sawing the whale apart. Yes, actual audio from that time. Then we were lucky enough to be taken to the top deck where they saw the head off and spear the blubber into the ovens under the deck. But it gets even better, they actually take you down to the cookers and play another audio of them cooking the whale fat into oil. Now the greenie in me was disgusted, to say the least. Spencer said he felt sick, Scarlett was practically crying and Phoebe and Michael just wanted to get out of there. I know that this was part of our history, but to be honest this place, to me, was glorifying this horrible act. A place to forget!!!

So onto Esperance, and what a nice beachy town. It felt a bit like Kingscliff to us. The camp ground was opposite to the beach and we managed to pull the bikes down for a ride. So bitterly cold and windy here but did get into Cape Le Grande which is a great spot to see whales, a small accessible national park. Unfortunately we didn't see any. Now Esperance is home to Sammy the Seal, and the kids were pretty excited to catch him under the jetty, poor old Sammy though looked like he was on his last legs, think he was nearly ready to hang the old flipper up!!!!

Now we haven't stopped much over the last week it's been go,go,go,next stop on the the express trip was Kalgoorlie. I was always a bit curious about this place. It's a very old town with the remains of tho gold field homes everywhere. This is where they discovered gold, and still mine today with iron ore, bauxite,silver, copper,lithium and nickel. This is the tough man's town, we reckon you have to be pretty hard to live out here. This is home to the superpit, a working mine and the tour we did through Goldrush tours was fantastic.

It also incorporated a tour of the flying doctors which was very interesting. They have 6 planes here at a cost of 4 million dollars each and then $600 000 to revamp them. They come from Switzerland as a passenger plane and are then converted to the special needs of the medical staff. There are some photos of Spencer and Phoebe ringing for help in the olden days, they look worn out to me!!! I can't believe this service isn't fully funded by the government, they still have to do some heavy fundraising, and thankfully the mines have chipped in and bought 2 planes recently. Michael was so cranky about this that he sent off an email to Kochie and Mel on Sunrise so stay tuned!

The super pit is really super big, these trucks look like little tonker trucks in the photos but are huge and you can see the kids in the super scooper. This place is run 24hrs and the truck drivers do 12 hr shifts and get paid about $1500 a week. All mines have contingency plans in place before they even start the mine, and have a conservation plan in place. So when the mine needs to be back filled they have the local flora and fauna already growing and can go straight onto the site. That includes all piping and cables need to be dug up after the mine is no longer needed. They are extending this pit so it's huge. The trucks generally know if they have hit gold by the weight of the truck and have listings of blast times everywhere. 4 blasts a week here!!!! I can't remember how much they make here but someone is getting very rich here. All the gold bullions go straight to Perth. Oh and if one of you guys were interested in a super big play toy one of these trucks will set you back $6 000 000 and just to show off even more the tyres alone are $25 000 each, and there are 6 of them and they only survive for 6 months.

The town itself looked a little weary as there was an earthquake here back in April so alot of the buildings have scaffolding and some have even been closed down. But the earthquake didn't seem to rock the foundations of the red light district. Prostitution is illegal in WA but they have this so called law called the containment law where you can have a brothel as long as it's near a police station and they are all in one street. These fine establishments have the girls on show in front of their doors ready to go 24hrs. The girls have a lovely oasis to live behind the fence where they have a pool and a massage therapist and an on call doctor service all at your fingertips. It is certainly another world here, where the pubs out do each other with half naked to fully naked bar staff called Skimpies!!! How hygienic!!!Yes guys get excited BUT it is known that one of the prostitutes here is 80yrs old!!!! Ahh Kalgoorlie you are a rough old town. The madam is on the city council and the coach for the women's softball team and her name used to be Bruce!!!!

So until next time, we'll see you on the Nullarbor.

PHOEBE IN ESPERANCE

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 06:52:00 +0000

Hi guys, I've been missing all of you. I' ve been to some cool places lately, my favourite has been Big Valley at Margaret River. There were 3 special sheep I became friends with their names were Dancy, because he loved to dance and jump in the air. Then there was Buddy who always came up to you and gave you a cuddle and Noogy because he head butts people, but he was very gentle. We got to feed the baby lambs every day and put them to bed they were very cute and soft. One was called Buf because he had a big head when he was born and Chardy was named after Chardonnay of course. I was nearly crying as we left the farm, I'm hoping mum and dad can buy a farm and have lots of animals. I would really like a horse some puppies and sheep.

We went for a big bike ride today and I got really tired, we went to see Sammy the seal but he was on holidays. We are doing lots of schoolwork which I don't really like doing, I wish we didn't have to do it. We have started writing a book about a kookaburra and a red roo, and the kookaburra is called Cooey, so will let you know how I go.

We have special spots in the car I sit behind mum I like it when we get to watch videos, Scarlett is in the middle and she is funny when she falls asleep and Spencer likes playing his game in the car.

When we were at Cosy Corner near Albany we had a very funny next door neighbor, a shy little quokka. I had never seen a quokka before they look like a possum with a little tail and a bit like a kangaroo. Spencer got scared when he went outside and ran inside all frightened he thought it was a feral cat. Then we went spotlighting with Dad and saw a possum and some rats in the bushes, it was very cold.

Mum has been teaching me how to knit with bright pink wool and I'm really liking it. I still love my drawing and got some magic pens in Fremantle that change colour. Spencer and I have been playing chasey alot in the park. Scarlett and I like playing on the slippery slide and knights and princesses.

I'm having a fun time and seeing new places and learning alot. I started drinking tea in the morning to warm me up and I feel like a big girl now.

MARGARET RIVER - PART TWO

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 02:25:00 +0000

Welcome back from Margaret River, I thought you might like to see a picture of our new farm...

I'm joking....we didn't buy property although tempting, and Michael was dreaming of becoming a butcher but didn't get to the chopping, but I did join a knitting group and met the most beautiful people and did actually make a jumper!!!!!!! Justine the lovely lady that owns The Wool Shop held my hand through many stitches and you can just sit on the big comfy sofas all day if you want and just knit, knit,knit. She has many classes that you can just come and meet the locals while knitting and drinking coffee from Yahava and having a good old laugh. I know me knitting, but it was more than that for me, the people of Margaret River are really special. They all look out for one another and are the friendliest most thoughtful group of beings. All the people we have met here have touched us deeply, we feel like we are part of their community and have opened their hearts to all of us. After all the travel and incredible people we have met along the way, we will have treasured memories of this place.

Having the coast and the beaches right at you door stop you have the best of both worlds. The surfing here is unreal, and we did travel north to Cape Naturaliste which rugged but beautiful.

South to Cape Leeuwin, Augusta where the tallest lighthouse in mainland Australia is at 39 meters high and 176 steps later, it was very impressive. We did the tour and it was well worth it including the eeriness of past light keeper's ghosts.

Margaret River has some impressive caves to see if you have time. We went to Mammoth Cave and at $50 for a family and an audio tour was good value. This cave is millions of years old and active stalagmites and stalactites it was really cool to see. The kids loved it, they could go at their own pace and at such history and findings of fossils we all were really impressed with the scale of how big this cave actually is .

On the farm today the owners daughter is bringing some baby rabbits to farm this afternoon which we are all excited about, she's going to start breeding them for meat. We have extended our stay 3 times this week we can't seem to bring ourselves to leaving this place. Phoebe has started knitting so we are having an afternoon session overlooking the hills and pulling the balls of wool out while we look at the woolly sheep. Spencer is going to finish naming all the sheep, you should see all the little lambkins with their mums. They don't go very far from them and the cheeky ones play chasey which is so funny. There are no male lambs as they go off to slaughter at about 6 months old. Sheep only live to 8 or 9 and they have their babies around Easter so it has been a real treat to see the babies with their mum's. Michael has been getting up and close with permaculture so there might be a farm in the distant future.

So we reluctantly leave Margaret River unless we wake up tomorrow and extend again???? Having fond memories and nearly losing us to this place we will catch up next time from Albany and Esperance.

MARGARET RIVER - PART ONE

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 07:14:00 +0000

Hi from the amazing Margaret River!! I'm writing the blog this week from the rolling hills of Big Valley at Margaret River. With the sheep baa baaing in the background, the sun shining brightly and the smell of fresh air. The kids are off... somewhere... playing with the sheep! Margaret River is about 3hrs south of Perth on the coastline, this is wine country, but it is so much more than that, as we have discovered and had 10 glorious days here.
We had a heads up on where to stay from our friends the Shafers, and Big Valley has certainly been one of the highlights so far. Big Valley is a sheep farm owned by Shelly & Kevin Silverthorne and has nearly 2000 sheep.

This is our backyard at the moment pretty cool huh! There are the cutest baby lambs that the kids feed every day at 5pm and green rolling hills to disappear into. So needless to say the kids want to live on a farm now, they've all put their order in for all the animals they want including guinea pigs????

Well where to start, we were excited to get to Margaret River simply for the wineries and the incredible produce here. And you know Michael and I we love a drink and of course our food. Which by the way I think we have certainly given it a good nudge this week. You really have to get into the spirit of things and immerse yourself in the place and appreciate all it has to offer. Mmmmmm... Thank god I didn't bring the scales on this trip, the belt has been let out a few times!!! What a diverse, magical, inspiring, tantalising place to be. The wineries we've done have been fantastic, alot of them charge for tastings so we did stay away from alot of those, but there are so many wineries here it would take weeks to get through. I must admit though they all accommodate for kids, with massive playgrounds and some really inventive ideas to keep those kiddies busy while you're spending that hard earned money on giving your taste buds a party. I'm not going to go through every winery we went into, don't want to rub it in too much, let's just say, when you get to this region you have to just get lost and try everything. Everything here is so tastefully done to the amazing architecture to the inventive interiors to the inspiring gardens. The food and fresh local produce here leaves your taste buds tingling.

The Colonial Brewery was a special favourite, they brew their own beer and on a rainy day we got to sit in front of the fire and watch the kids in the playground while having lunch with a local Windows red, ah what a hard life. Annie Brook was also a great place to pick up $8 bottles of Shiraz that were yummy.

The Bootleg Brewery was a great place for a good feed and the kids loved the play area. It's been pretty cold here especially with the rain this week, but when that sun comes out the place just glistens.

It's not all about the wine and beer...well....yes there is the Margaret River Dairy Farm, great cheeses. The Nut and Cereal place, great muesli and spicy nuts, Providore for it's incredible infused garlic olive oil and dukkah dip. Ok ok so your mouth is watering I'll stop...but I can't leave out the Margaret River Chocolate Factory this place was heaven!!!! I'll let the pictures show you what I mean. The Oompa Loompas had a day off when we were there so we had to make another trip out, it was a hard decision!!!!

The Soap Factory was a little bit of indulgence for the senses and the Yahava coffee place was the best coffee we've tasted. Michael has taken the teacher reigns this week and given me a break, I think he is a fantastic relief teacher, he's been cracking the whip. Although the kids said they want Mrs Wood to come back from holidays even though Mr Wood is very thorough.

So they've been real troopers this week and so took them to the Sunflower Animal Farm, every animal known is here, from lamas to pigs to chickens to rabbits. Those rabbits are so fast you should have seen us trying to catch the little buggers. But as you can see we did have a cuddle due to the AMAZING RABBIT CATCHER SPENCER!!! The guinea pigs were also up for a bit of catchy!!!

After a morning of rain we stumbled across The Shearing Shed. This was so much fun, a working sheep farm with 4000 sheep and held tours for $10, best value yet. Spencer got to shear a sheep and the girls got working, putting the bails of wool together and I was put to work sweeping the wool. Michael got the best bit and had the dirty job of cleaning the sheep poo!!! The farmer was a great character and taught us all about running a sheep farm. It was really interesting and much harder than I ever imagined, those amazing sheep dogs and kelpies make the farmers life a lot easier what devoted loyal animals.

So with Part One done as if you haven't had enough of Margaret River there is a Part Two to come. Where we buy a farm, Michael gets a job at the local butcher and I start mixing it with the locals at knitting classes!!!! The kids have become expert tree climbers and talk about becoming farmers!!!!

HI FROM SPENCER

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0000

Hi Spencer here, it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to blog it! We were so busy that I forgot, when I woke up everyone was still asleep. We went out for breaky at Carnarvon and had a video day. I turned 9 and had a great day.

We are in Fremantle at the moment, it's a good city I would like to live here, but still keep trucking. It's so cold over here, but I'm sure it's cold back home as well.We went and saw Toy Story the other day it was 3D . It was a really cool movie.

I'm liking the trip, I like that we get to meet new people in each place, we've met some good friends along the way.

I love travelling but find it hard to meet friends and then have to move on. In Kalbarri I liked playing AFL with all the boys and we were showing off to the girls.

I got a new game yesterday called Transformers, I really liked it. I'm reading some really cool books, I finished a book today called Kakadu Calling, it's about aboriginal stories and learning from their experiences.
I'm loving all the great books and have read heaps of books on the trip. I've been writing lots of stories and it's the most I've ever written. Mum thinks it's really cool!

My favourite thing is snorkelling in Turquoise Bay it was amazing.

My Tips for the trip is make sure you have your game charged up and when you go riding on your bike to come back every 5 mins so Mum and Dad don't worry.Don't go wandering around the caravan park.
Miss you all, see ya. Spence

WINTER FINALLY

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 02:38:00 +0000

Hello from the teeth chattering Wood family! I really need to get my act together it has been too long.

So we head south down this amazing, rugged, untouched western coastline. From the yummy Carnarvon produce to the crazy tow surfing at Kalbarri to the Pinnacles and to my home away from home Fremantle. Now I'm not going to bore all of you with blow by blow description of the trip this week. Let's just say we are having the time of our lives, loving every minute of this adventure. It's not only about the places and ticking things off on the map. For us it is alot about the people we have met, the friendships we have formed and hoping to maintain. But I have to say there is something about the WA people, they have been so warm and friendly. Everyone is so happy here and so accommodating towards the kids.

So we stocked up at Carnarvon on loads of fresh fruit and veg and met some locals at the markets. Love the chocolate coated fruit! Now I love the markets mixing with the locals and really getting a feel for a town. Michael is at the other spectrum, I think he would rather pull his toenails out but he did like these ones! We did a few day trips from Carnarvon, the weather wasn't great they got their worst windy weather in 20 years. So for Spencer's birthday we went to the local video store and had a lazy day. Stocked up on the old classics for the kids and they actually loved them.Storm Boy was a fav.

We stumbled across an amazing place called Gladstone. At $10 a night right on the coastline.

We did Shark Bay area from here, we missed the dolphin feeding at Monkey Mia unfortunately, but we did see Denham and pretty places along the way. Shell Beach is a white haven of shells, they say the shells actually go 5mt under the surface. Eagle Bluff was really windy and you can see an array of sharks out here, not that we saw any that day.We hit the point where we were a bit over the driving. And let me tell you, you do get sick of sitting in the car for days on end . We've started to do schoolwork in the car which seems to be working well.

There are some pretty amazing free campsites along this stretch and the next place we stopped was Kalbarri. A great little surfing town, amazing rugged coastline, and we did actually see some daring tow surfing in 10ft surf. The national park had been closed from the rain so we had a day doing the loop around Red Bluff, hope the pictures do it justice. The kids loved this place still being school holidays there was plenty of kid action.All the boys were playing AFL, poor Spence didn't have a clue what they were playing but had fun. Phoebe was queen of the playground and Scarlett developed turrets syndrome. Yes I think she has been around me too much.We got to see the pelican feeding . Now this was pretty funny there were about 50 people all waiting at 8.30 in the morning freezing our butts off waiting for "the amazing" pelican feeding!!!!Well only 1 pelican turned up!!! But the story behind the local tradition is cute a local fisherman started about 30yrs ago feeding the local pelicans and when he died they continued on the tradition . Every day volunteers come here and talk about the history.

We found a little beach town which I have to mention, Horrocks, what a cute little place. Little cottages a line the beach and a lovely place to have a cuppa.

This is the area of the Pink Lake, and yes it is pink due to a special algae in the water, it just glistens.We thought we would have a stopover in Geraldton, but once we got there it wasn't much chop so quickly kept moving and had some freebies. All along this coast they have the most beautiful sweet fish and picked up some local snapper and lobster at Julien Bay, which was amazing. We have been running the high stakes of best fish and chips and I think Exmouth is still in the lead. At times I think we are going to turn into fish and chips.

The Pinnacles is an interesting place, we've all seen the pictures and I thought it was going to be quite small but the amazing limestone structures are quite big and the area is quite vast. They don't know how they were formed but approximate they are about 500 000 yrs old. AMAZING!You can actually drive through this area but I think it is much better to walk through. Getting a feel for this bizarre desert terrain should be felt up close and a must to see.

Now I could devote a whole blog to Perth, Freemantle and Cottesloe. Ok I thought here we go, just another major city, boring. Traffic jams, expensive living, rude city folk. I couldn't have been further from the truth. And yes we have read alot of blogs about this area and they were pretty negative. I am here to say it is the most amazing, easy to get around place. Filled with character and charm. We based ourselves in Fremantle, what a vibrant place. Why couldn't you be closer to home, you have the beach and the cool shops, fantastic cafes and gorgeous people all at your doorstep.

We had a great lunch at a place called Monk and the kids just drew for 2 hours while we had a couple of wines and had a really normal time, which we have craved for. Yes the kids were fantastic they have really grown up, have become so confident. Fremantle has 1 major street with everything happening and many an hour was spent here shopping, eating, going to the markets seeing movies and having a great time. Really do not want to leave. The houses here are full of charm and the people here are very trendy and very friendly.

Perth itself feels a little like Brissy but scratch the surface and it is so pretty and green and a really pleasant place to be. We went and saw Mama Mia which was lots of fun and the botanical gardens overlooking the city are spectacular.Cottesloe Beach is an amazing place to just have a coffee and watch the world go by. If only I could afford a place here. Michael and I drove round for hours just having a look at the most interesting, charming architecture. Would love to live here, it's right on the beach and has incredible views out to the ocean and Rottnest Is.

We have had a few problems with condensation in the van, so as soon as we hit Freo we invested in a small heater which seems to have fixed the problem of droplets on our bed. But I don't know how we are going to go with free camps and not being on power. Michael was also very proud of himself and saved ourselves $300 replacing the bearings and stabilisers on the van himself. I don't feel so bad about my shopping addiction! The countryside has dramatically changed from half way down the coast, with lots of green rolling hills, sheep, heaps of cattle and horses. Which they actually eat over here, yes horse meat! It is incredibly cold at the moment and have had to succumb to wearing ugg boots. I hear you all saying oohh! But they are the warmest things things and have had to buy some warmer clothes for everyone. Hitting 2 here at night and going to get cooler heading down south.

No Tam's Tips this week but thought I'd leave you with this funny sign we saw at Horricks.

So I will leave you until next time, where we will be heading to Margaret River, wine country, can't wait to go!!

CAPE LEVEQUE,EIGHTY MILE BEACH, EXMOUTH!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 11:56:00 +0000

Hi from WA! No we are not at Leanora Detention Centre, or kept driving into the Indian Ocean! It has been awhile so grab a glass of wine and strap in for another long one. We left you at beautiful Broome and the last 3 weeks we have been hitting it hard, snorkelling with the fish at Ningaloo, rubbing shoulders with Paul Kelly and mixing it with the oldies at Eighty Mile Beach.

So I might just back track a bit first, after Broome we decided to head an hour south to a place called Barn Hill a working cattle station that is right on the coastline. A little freaky as I only heard about this place by random from a sranger at a cafe in Brissy. Barn Hill has about 8000 cattle and it is grazed purely for the export market, but also has very basic camp facilities right on the edge of the western coastline. At $20 a night with water supplied and the most amazing rugged coastline we have seen yet it is worth a stop. The red sandstone cliffs hit the deep blue sky with the turquoise coloured water, it is a pretty spectacular scene. It's like stepping into a tourism ad for Australia. The stars at night are like diamonds here and decided to stay 4 nights. Michael liked the loos with a view, no roof at the amenities so you could star gaze while your saving the planet on the loo. We decided to leave our van here for a couple of days and head north to camp at Cape Leveque since Broome was booked out. Most of this road is red corrigated dirt or sand so we were advised to leave the van and just tent it.

So heading north and the school holidays around the corner we couldn't actually get into Cape Leveque and booked a place called Middle Lagoon about 40 min away. All this area is completely run by aboriginal communities and it is a bit of a drive in between each community. 3 hours of bumpy road and lots of airborne moments, free entertainment for the kids giggling away, we finally arrived . Middle Lagoon is run by Peter and his wife and his grandkids were playing with the kids in minutes.

Aboriginal kids are so funny, they are so free and the fastest tree climbers I've ever seen. This area is just beautiful and walked down the hill to an oasis of blue water so calm and peaceful. The next day headed to a little place called whale song cafe. Now Michael and I had not had a real coffee in weeks so it was like a beacon calling to us. It's remote up here there is nothing but red dirt roads, and came to a house that they had turned into a cafe. It overlooks the ocean and the reason for its name is this is where the whales come to mate every year, can you believe it, what a place to live. They had 3 kids so our kids were off in an instant, these kids get picked up by a bus every morning to travel an hour to school, gee we have it easy! Just as we were heading out Paul Kelly walks in, wow, I had been teaching the kids about the aboriginal land fight and had been reading "From little things big things grow". So for us to be meeting the man that wrote the song, sang the song and worked on the book it was a real surreal moment. So I grabbed the kids and we met him what a nice guy very softly spoken and incredibly charismatic. Took me days to get over that!!!!

Had a drive up to Cape Leveque and One Arm Point, so when you arrive at these places you have to pay an entrance fee but it is so worth it, it is so untouched and so beautiful. There is a hatchery up there and got to see all the great things that they are doing to preserve the turtles and fish. They grow tronchis shells here and export a huge amount to Italy to make pearl buttons. Now I'm not much of a camper so as much as this was a pretty part of the world I wanted to get back to comforts of the van so after a couple of nights we headed back.

On the way back we visited Bealge Bay where there is an incredible church made of shells, the photos don't do it justice. The aboriginals were held captive from german missionarys and this was what they did while held here. It is also the church featured in Bran Nue Day the movie.

So after a very long tedious day back to Barn Hill to pick up the van we headed south to Eighty Mile Beach.
Love,love,love this place. After so much driving we had really had enough so stopping off here for 5 days was exactly what we needed. This beach is 220km of uninterrupted beach, shells you have never seen before, as big as your hand. There are millions of shells here and everyone here collects them and makes them into mobiles so we had a bit of a go as well. The oldies put us to shame. All the oldies get up every morning and go fishing and catch king salmon, we didn't have any luck but the couple across the way gave us some for our last night and it was beautiful. The nicest people, every year the same people come here for 3-4 months to get out of the cold, and put on a concert. We were lucky enough to get invited and had a great night singing all the old songs. Eighty Mile Beach had a cyclone hit here at xmas time so all the grass and alot of the trees were destroyed, but they have worked like trojans to get the park back into order. Some of the regulars even bought along some grass to plant and watered it every day. It restored our faith in the grey nomads! This was the place that we found out 2 days later we had a new prime minister, felt completely out of touch!!!What Happened!!!

The weather here has been sunny and warm, but as we head south it is getting chilly. I think we must be the only crazy people heading south. Travelling through Port Headland and Karratha were just for supplies, heavy mining areas famous for it's salt and natural gas and iron.

We were excited about getting to Exmouth the window to whale sharks and Ningaloo Reef. We haven't met too many people our age that are taking the plunge and going around Australia, but met some wonderful people from Newcastle.We miss you Julia and Paul, will miss the card games and the laughs.
We stayed at Yardie Creek, which was central to most things, but I have to say if it wasn't for our friends we would have not stayed, the facilities were shocking. The toilets over flowed, the showers were so tiny you had to change in front of everyone. No power or water and $35 a night shoved down the back. We had car trouble on our last day and lets just say they were not very helpful. Exmouth itself is quite small but still cute. Went into the markets with Julia and not much to see!

AHHH Turquoise Bay!!! You can actually walk off the beach and snorkell and see the amazing reef fish, we even got to see and touch a turtle. The water is so clear and the reef is very different to the Barrier Reef, for one you don't have to spend 2 hours in a boat, the coral itself is alot more muted in colour but is in really pristine condition. I think what we saw here was much better than Coral Bay.

Unfortunately we couldn't get in there but Coral Bay was still fantastic. My favourite place, we all feel so lucky to be able to see such amazing things and the adventure is still as exciting as the first few months. I desperately wanted to swim with the whale sharks but at $400 and had to wait 4 days just thought we would move on. That can be the next trip!!!

We debated whether to go to Karigini National Park and our gorgeous friends Julia and Paul were heading up there, it would have been nice but felt like we were back tracking a bit so kept going onto Carnarvon. There is not much here but still a cute little fishing town known for its amazing produce so a good place to stock up.

Also took a shot of the satellite dish which took place to help put the men in the moon, not in use anymore but huge when up close. You have to make a trip to Morells- chocolate coated fruit, yummy. The mango chocolate coated ice-block was my fav!!

We are still having the best time of our lives. The school holidays are posing a bit of a problem everything is booked out but you just cope, free camp sites here and there. The kids are still loving the travelling and not really phased by the long days on the road, have to say the school work gets a bit tedious, but they are keeping up to date which is the main thing. It will be interesting going into the colder weather now, how we all cope being in the van a bit more.

There hasn't been any real dramas apart from Michael running into a timber divider and having a flat battery at Yardie Creek, I'm sure that place is cursed!!! So we will catch you up next time from the beautiful west coast.

TAM'S TIPS

Look I don't have any tips this month, just to enjoy the most out of life!!
The most amazing people are just round the corner and its so lovely to meet wonderful people along way away from home.
Good to just stop every now and then take it all in and be happy!!!!

TAM'S ON THE ROAD PLAYLIST (Thanks to the Shafers)

Xavier Rudd - Koonyum Sun
Bill's Music - Bill Granger TV Show Compilation

By the way, if you were wondering if we have gone feral, here are the pictures to prove it. Love the red dirt!

BROOME

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 10:04:00 +0000

Ok I know it's only been a few days but I am so excited to share Broome with you I want you all to see this magnificent place. We left Turkey Creek very early and thought we would drive as long as we possibly can, so we drove for 8hrs and got to a great free campsite called Lakeside. We both looked at each other and said is this actually for free, it's on a cattle station by a lake it was so pretty, lots of birdlife and cows wandering around and my beautiful boab trees everywhere, so we stayed 2 nights while the kids did walkabout and discovered nature. And of course we caught up on some schoolwork. We had only 2 days worth of food left so we were all hanging out for the big shop in Broome - no more sausages please!

Ahh Broome, I really can't say enough about this place, and everyone who has been here know what I am talking about. Everyone said we'll never get in and we got 3 nights at the Cable Beach campsite yes a bit squishy but nice. We have fallen in love with the place so first things first food shopping high on the list! Then treated ourselves out to lunch at Zanders and after a few wines and beers over lunch we felt like locals!! And yes of course we did the camel ride on the beach. Kids loved it and what a bargain, only $40 for the whole family.

Phoebe and I rode on NED KELLY after getting his name from his head stuck in the tin of food and the other 3 rode MISSION IMPOSSIBLE because he was impossible to train. NED featured in the film Australia so you could say we have met a movie star right on Cable Beach!!!! Lots of fun and yes I know what everyone is talking about now when people say watch out for the bushes. Let me explain - on Cable Beach there is fine white sand with amazing clear blue water then there are cliffs with grass and rudey nudeys come out of the cliffs. Scarlett had the clasic comment of the day "Dad they are wearing naked today and they are having a naked day!!!" Funny what little ones say.What a great first day.

I needed some time away from the kids so Michael took the kids to Malcolm Douglas wildlife park, they had the best day it was like verbal diarrea as soon as I hit the car. They all got to hold a croc and see massive crocs feeding, barking owls, pure dingoes and much much more. Well I hit the shops. Broome is well known for it's pearls so there are 50 shops here just dedicated to pearls, not really a pearl girl but had a good break and spent lots of time in the bookstore stocking up on my aboriginal literature. The property here is pretty exy, but this is heaven over here. The sunset on Cable Beach is one that leaves the sea look like it is glowing!!

Even though the beach was a little crisp we all had a morning loving the sea and sun, feels like home. Off to Matso's Brewery for lunch and to try some local beer, you really have to do a stop here, even though I have to say Dad XXXX is better. The alcholic ginger beer is good but the fruity beers like mango beer is a bit sweet.

So we are off to Cape Leveque north of Broome. The area north of Broome is run by the aboriginal community so you have to book and they are not open on the weekends so it is a good thing to ring and book ahead. No caravans allowed up here so we are heading to Barn Hill Station south of Broome on the beach and keeping it there for 4 nights while we take the tent. They have an overflow thing here in Broome where you can camp because it is so busy here but they don't open for another week so we'll have to pay double camp fees. Oh well. Can't wait to get there and chill out and do some mudcrabbing and live with the locals!!!!

Now I need to to vent, sorry, but the grey nomads are really getting to us. They are so rude to the point of pushing into queues, they have pushed the kids out of the way on tours and we are over it. Not saying that they are all like that we have met some lovely people in Broome but I think we are needing some away time!
So that is it from me hope you are all well and for those mums and kids getting ready for school holidays, have a good break.

TAM'S TIPS

Be sure to watch that in coming tide on Cable Beach it comes in so quick we did the crazy dive for our stuff and everything got saturated!

Click Click Click, we went to Gantheume Point to see the dinosaur prints and we forgot the camera! Not that we saw the prints but the most beautiful place , with red sanstone cliffs overlooking the aqua sea and the horses from the stables galloping along the beach, the eagles catching fish from the ocean and taking it to the lighthouse. There are meant to be dinosaur prints in the sandstone on low tide but worth the trip anyway, will need to capture the memory.

So until next time from the wild west!!!!!

GROUNDHOG DAY

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 11:23:00 +0000

Hi everyone, jump aboard the Wood Express as we sail through Lake Argyle, have a groundhog moment, surprise our Brissy family and friends, and fly over the Bungle Bungles!

I'm having a nice local WA red as I write this so strap yourself in it's going to be a long one.
I know it's been a while and what a few big weeks, I left you at Darwin and we were heading to WA. I have to say it is really exciting to think we are on the other side of the country, a state which I never thought I would reach. So we reach the border, and no mishaps with any flat tyres, yay! As soon as you hit WA it changes in landscape straight away as if they have drawn a line in the sand.

I have a fascination with these beautiful boab trees, they are everywhere, in all shapes and sizes and are thousands of years old. We were told if you take a seed home it might actually grow in our QLD climate, I'm going to give it a go, although rattling around in the caravan they might get a bit of a shock after a few months.

So I'm babbling, had a few free campsites on the way which they are plentiful here. When I talk Free I mean on the side of the road, after a long day driving pull up sites, which we find in the Camps 5 book. Lake Argyle was one of those places which caught our eye being a manmade lake, interesting!!! What a top place, it was found by the Durack family a cattle family from Qld, that went through drought and heard there was water, so after 18mths of droving and a lot less cattle than when they started, they arrived in WA. So after each generation they finally made Lake Argyle with the help of some investers and government, made one of the biggest manmade lakes in the world. We thought it was a must to go on the sunset tour, and we certainly weren't dissappointed, seeing lots of local bird life, rock wallabies and a croc or two. Lake Argyle is 900sq km's or to put into persective 19 Sydney harbours, it has an overflow each day of the amount of water Adelaide go through in a day. The campsite was amazing with the infinity pool overlooking the mountains and the lake we couldn't get enough of it. The days were a beautiful 28c and the kids painted aboriginal rock art onto the sanstone rocks there and painted boab seeds, that was our art lesson for the day, pretty cool huh!

Now I don't want to get all hippy on you but the kids are so happy and peaceful and have really become their own little people, it is lovely to be able to be part of this whole wonderful experience. Spencer is even writing stories and reading as many books as we are about our aboriginal culture. He has even started his own aboriginal art book, this, from a kid that hates drawing and writing!!!

So sadly leaving Lake Argyle we thought we would hit diamonds at Kunanurra, yes girls it was exciting! Unfortunatley you can't go through the Argyle mine, only on a very expensive private tour. This is the place of the pink diamond, they only get a half a glass of pink diamonds a year so they are extremely rare and very expensive, so my plans were dashed, at $100 000 a diamond, thought that was too many free campsites to make up. But my beautiful husband turned to me and said"Well it is our 10 year anniversary". I was in heaven
so I was very lucky and got an amazing anniversary present! No girls not a pink diamond, but the next best thing white diamonds!

I know you're all waiting for the groundhog moment, we get a call from the caravan people saying that the awning that was ripped is waiting for us at Darwin. Nooooooo! So back to Darwin to get the awning replaced and other repairs and I really didn't want to stay in hot hot Darwin. So the kids and I decided we would surprise my sister having twins and go back home to see the babies and catch up with everyone. And of course so the kids could get their Nana and Grandad fill! So congratulations Kerri and Craig on the arrival of Olivia and Ashley. The kids are so good with travelling now, they just take it in their stride, they are little troopers. A big sad good bye to everyone and in no time at all we are back trucking, back to WA.

So after a couple of big days on the road we arrive at our destination - El Questro! This wilderness park is in the fringes of the Kimberlys, so if the Pentacost Ranges wasn't enough you hit this amazing countryside. I know I keep saying it but each place just gets better and better. WA is spectacular and with the boab trees only in the northern part of WA it will be a real shame when we leave this magnificent area. The ranges here are so big every corner is like driving up to Ayres Rock they have that beautiful red colouring and with the blue sky in the background, you can't get enough. So we stayed 4 days an extra 2 than what our itinerary had planned, think we are getting into trouble, how does next year sound on getting back. Just kidding! We were lucky enough to get one of the private campsites and at the same price $34/night we thought that was pretty good. We had our own waterfall and stream and some cattle saying hello and some wild brumbies passing through, it was a nice back yard for a few days. With camp fires every night and the stars so bright we were really spoilt. There is plenty to do here, go 4 wheel driving, nature walks or hot spring swims or a gorge walk, what to pick. So we did a bit of everything, go the Branco track, Pigeon Hole track

and the incredible Emma Gorge which the kids walked about an hour to get to and was rewarded in the end by a beautiful waterfall and a very cold swimming hole. LOVE EL QUESTRO WE WILL MISS YOU.

There is the well known 4 wheel drive track to Broome, the scary, but challenging GIBB RIVER RD, everyone we had run into said you have to do it, well after a long corregated unsealed road to El Questro and the van taking a bumpy run we decided to get real and say no to THE GIBB. I know we are wimps but with low food supplies and no more time for repairs on the van we decided to take the easy boring way to Broome via the Bungle Bungles. Turkey Creek here we come, now this place is only designed for o/n stays, there is completely no reason to be here other than to fly over the Bungles. And at $200 a go, Michael and I thought it would be best if we went and not the kids, which was a good thing, I think the kids might have had an issue with a vomitting factor. AMAZING I will let the pictures speak for themselves. The Kimberlys just go on forever!!!

Michael and I are hanging out for sand between out toes, I have to say I'm over the dirt and the flies. Not that the flies are really bad, I haven't pulled the head net out yet, but I need some beach action. Everyone is saying that Broome will be booked out, so we have a few spots to stop off before then, maybe a crater to check out and another gorge and then I will be relaxing with a G & T at the beach watching the sun go down. So I'm getting back to my wine and I will catch you next time on the Wood Express.

TAM'S TIPS

BE FLEXIBLE!!!!Scarlett has been really sick and had to go to the Darwin Hospital for a urinary tract infection which put us a bit behind. On the mend now.

BUDGET SMUDGET!!! Sometimes you have to just have those moments and go the extra expense and blow the weekly budget for an amazing experience.

TIME OUT!!! Living in such small quarters there are moments where you just have to disappear.

IT'S NORMAL! I think it's ok to have a melt down here and there it's only natural. Has only happened a couple of times but it's ok.

WEEK 7 - SWEATY DARWIN

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:34:00 +0000

Hi from the hot and stinky travellers!

HOT, HOT, HOT TOO HOT DARWIN!

I'm sorry is this some sort of in house joke, the temp on the news says 32c, well I am here to tell you it is definitely around 40c. While you are all rugging up down there we are sweating our patooties off up here. Because of the late wet season up here it is still raining which means it hasn't cooled down yet for their winter. The wet season officially finishes the 1st of May, but they are a little late this year, so it's affecting a lot of the tourism up here. The first night we had a power failure due to bats flying into the transformer and the whole of Darwin was nearly out, apparently it happens all the time. We pulled that generator out as fast as we could, they had 30 cancellations the next day in the park! So that means our plans for Kakadu and the Kimberleys have been put on hold, everything is closed, and now the labour govt has bought in that you have to pay to go to these places now, we thought we'd put it off and head to W.A.

Without the heat Darwin is a really nice place, yes it feels remote and it's tropical, but what a melting pot of cultural diversity. It feels very alternative and easy going up here, I love it. Our first night was watching the sunset at the wharf where we had a beautiful barra dinner and everyone got to try some crocodile. Yes it tastes like chicken! When you see how big the harbour is here you can see how cyclone Tracey just blitzed this area and when Darwin was bombed in WW2 even though the Japanese were sneaky and went inland, they really had no chance.

The art gallery and museum is a great place for the kids to learn about the area and they had lots of fun dressing up and the cyclone Tracey information was really interesting for us oldies. To think they had a cyclone warning a week earlier and it turned into nothing and no one took it seriously when it actually happened is frightening. Who would have thought that midnight xmas eve anything bad was going to happen.

There are some cheap fun activities for the kids here including the fish feeding at Aquascene and the wave pool in the city. The markets are full of yummy cultural delights. A muddy for $18/kg - crazy.

The crocodile tour down the Adelaide River was full of crocs and bird life and the wetlands is really pretty. We had a chance to stop off at the war cemetery, which was beautifully looked after, and this was also the place where they were evacuated for the bombing. The kids got to be the tour guides, which we all had a cackle at! They took the job very seriously, maybe we should have got a discount?

Well after 10 000k in 7 weeks I must admit we are pretty tired. The days can sometimes gel into one another and you feel like you should be out there constantly doing things. But that can be exhausting. The kids have settled into the nomadic lifestyle, but I think they miss kid interaction from time to time. As for us we are missing some people our age as well. The grey nomads are so rude up here. We are pretty keen to get out of this heat and head west! So keep cool down there and thanks to all those people emailing and dropping us a line it's nice to hear from you all.

And a big happy birthday wish to our little Scarlett who turned 4 today!!!!!

TAM'S TIPS
Make sure that kids don't eat the bread you have to feed the fish, Spencer must of had a chomp on some mouldy bread and was up all night vomiting.

In addition to the heat there are Parana ants that attack with the speed of light up here, so be prepared to empty a can! ( The locals cool them ginger ants)

HI FROM THE BIRTHDAY GIRL

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:06:00 +0000

I turned 4 today and I was so excited I really wanted nail-o-polish and eye stuff and I was so lucky I got both. I opened my salon and painted mummy's and Phoebe's nails and we had a beauty spa day and I put hot pink eyeshadow on everyone. They all looked so pretty!

I went to see crocodiles yesterday for my birthday and we saw some big ones and some baby ones. They are very scaly.

And guess what - I got to be the captain of the ship and drive the boat, everyone cheered and clapped as we putted down the Adelaide River. I wasn't scared of the crocs at all! Thank you for all your presents I'm going to have fun with them. Dad took me out for a special birthday cupcake while the big kids did their schoolwork. Lucky me! I'm having a really fun holiday and I was giggling all day at the wave pool the other day. Bye!

WEEK 6 - LAST STOP QLD, HIT N.T

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 20 May 2010 09:37:00 +0000

Hi from the weary travellers!

Before I tell you about us breaking through N.T border - the kids wanted me to mention what a fun place the Barramundi Farm in Kurumba was. Michael took a trip there with the big kids and they were all excited about feeding the barra and came out with a wealth of knowledge about our favourite fish to eat. This is a volunteer based organisation that breed only certain types of barra for the Norman River and the Gulf area. They've put more than 600 000 barra back into the Norman River alone for all those fisherman. The kids thought it was cool that all barra are actually born male, then all turn into females, and they are also the top of their food chain. There only predators are crocs and humans! The kids do talks (Super Speaker) each week and this was Phoebe's topic this week, she did a great job.

So we are getting closer and closer to the border, the last stop in Qld is Lawn Hill. Some of the roads are still closed up here due to a late wet season, but we heard that the road to Lawn Hill had just opened, which meant we didn't have to go through Mt Isa, and took 2 days off our trip! The National Parks can't resurface their roads here until the local government have done theirs first. Now when I say road I use it very loosely - we hit some pretty big, sharp rocks and went over some deep streams. So the road is unsealed and a lot of RED DIRT.

But what an oasis - we pulled the van up to a freshwater stream and I don't think you can get much better than this. Boodjamulla (Lawn Hill) is in remote north west Qld and has a spectacular gorge with its huge sandstone cliffs. The aboriginal people believe that if you pollute or misuse the water the Rainbow Serpent will go away and the water will dry up. It is so pretty here, we had a fire and did bush school and made damper. Yes I made damper and it was pretty good too!

We hired canoes and paddled all the way down the gorge to the waterfalls where we had lunch and a swim.

There was no way there were any crocs because I think Scarlett screamed the whole way down and scared all the wildlife away. The water here is a deep turquoise from the limestone underneath and the cliffs are a deep ochre colour from being burnt by the sun, what a beautiful place.

This would have to be in my top 3 at the moment, it's very peaceful and almost has a spiritual element to it. We came across a researcher that was collecting a rare type of turtles and tagging them for monitoring, it seems the wild pigs out here like to have them for dinner.

So we leave Lawn Hill after a relaxing couple of days to hit more red dirt and even more flies if you can believe it. The car was pretty excited about that. Not! I have attempted to patch every hole in the van and we actually travelled pretty well until Michael decided to leave the hatch up after our last stop and the shower and toilet were painted a nice red dirt colour. So I was impressed with that clean up!! The drives are getting increasingly longer now that we are really in the outback. Lots of lollies later and we hit N.T, woohoo.

We all run out of the car and to get that "we made it to Northern Territory photo" and come back to a..........

flat tyre. Our first one, so Michael shows his red undies off to the travellers on the highway and changes the tyre in 50 degree heat.

The landscape has changed almost immediately to what you would assume the outback would be, dry and dusty and miles and miles of bitumen. The drives are heading into the 8hr mark so we've been taking advantage of some of the free camp sites by the highway which are safe if there are a load of people there.
You can't beat the sunsets and sunrises here, we have been leaving the fly off and this is the view from our bedroom. Yes life is tough!

We kept seeing this sign for a cheap campsite with grass, I never thought I would get so excited about grass but after so many days of dirt we pulled into Banka Banka. We were allowed to use a generator here so the boys were pretty pleased about putting the TV on for the broncos game, until we ran out of fuel half way through the game, yes there were a few unsavoury words. After no TV for a month I think they probably get their fill.

It is so remote out here and if you haven't been out here before I don't think you really grasp that concept, we didn't. There are no grocery shops and a lot of the petrol stations we pulled into that don't sell fuel or the fuel is $1.80+? I have to say hitting Tennant Creek was an eye opener and will stay with me forever. I was breath tested as soon as you hit Tennant Creek, this is an alcohol prohibited zone. The police up here look like park rangers in their brown uniforms, but are conforming to blue by the end of the year. The aboriginals were all sitting in the gutter on the medium strip drinking, kids running around everywhere not in school, no one wears shoes, the kids are going through lifeline bins for clothes, all the white people have barbed fences around their property. You can't help but feel responsible for what is going on here. Throwing money at them obviously does not help. It was a really sad moment.

We were off to have a good old aussie lunch at the Daly Waters Pub for my birthday. What a lot of character this place has with everybody's undies hanging up in the entrance, thongs,money, bras you name it, it's stuck onto everything and no I didn't contribute, maybe if I was 40 maybe...... no not even then! We had yummy barra burgers and chips for lunch! We also came across one of the original airstrips used for the war up here, how amazing. Next was one of those disappointing moments, Mataranka Springs. Dirty, dusty, stinky springs. Stayed 1 night and it just wasn't safe. The first place we have felt unsafe on the whole trip. I think that was the fastest pack down.

After Mataranka we hit civilisation - thank you Katherine, I really like this place the people are friendly and we stayed at the national park, with a bar and restaurant at the pool it was a bit of light relief for the arvo. We did the 3 gorge cruise where you travel up the gorges through the sandstone cliffs onto the waterfalls and swimming holes. They have about 50 freshwater crocs here at the moment and constantly setting traps for the saltys, they caught one last week so we were lucky to be able to swim. Our tour guide was very informative and talked a lot about the indigenous people here. The Jawoyn people have recently taken back this land and they have many aboriginal elders on the board here who are passionate about preserving the land and its beliefs, so the park is run with that in mind and what a great job they are doing. All the money they make here goes into a trust for the Jawoyn community and they have to apply for funds so no individual gets money here which is the way I think it should be run.

We did some schoolwork the next day and I thought it might be good at morning tea time to take the kids to the museum at the info center. Phoebe was asking lots of questions about burning off and how the gorge was formed and aboriginal history. The kids are really growing up. The national park have just started to do burn off the last couple of weeks and the reason for this is to rejuvenate the vegetation so the animals have a new food source.

The kids and I were lucky enough to meet Long John the in house artist and buy some artwork, I later got to talk to him at dinner, what a sweet old man. His parents have passed on, his brothers and sisters live out at Arnhem Land and he lives in a donga just behind the campsite. It was one of those incredible moments for me, I felt really privileged. So now every chance I get I'm hunting down our lost history. I tried to organise a day in an aboriginal community but it was going to cost about $800 so maybe next time.

I hope I'm not boring all of you but I am loving the spirit of N.T it is nothing like I have experienced and am throwing myself into our culture. We visited the Katherine School of Air and I was so impressed I could honestly send the kids here, if it wasn't that hot! We got to sit in on the lessons. All the kids get one on one and are so happy. Would you believe they are all above average on their Naplan tests? What an inspiring passionate place, no bullying, peer group pressure, just happy well adjusted kids. We donated the first book here to be given to one of the families.

So a quick stopover in Edith Falls, and off for another day! That's all for now, we are off to cool down with a bottle of wine it's so STINKING HOT UP HERE!

TAM'S TIPS
Go the free camping in N.T
Buy some crocs (shoes) for those gorge swims even though they are ugly
If you see a dump point (toilet drop off), use it, you never know where the next one might be

GREAT READS
An Awkward Truth - The bombing of Darwin Feb 1942 (Peter Grose)
My Place - (Sally Morgan) - An aboriginal girl uncovers her heritage.
An Introduction to the Dreamtime (R.Lewis)
A Beginners Guide to Australian Aboriginal Words (R.Lewis)

HI FROM SPENCER

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:40:00 +0000

Hi everyone, the 5 weeks we've been away on the road have been great! I am loving all the fun stuff we are doing and the friends we are meeting. The places we have seen have been exciting and I am liking the different scenery. I like the homework and the pop quizzes mum does in the car. I've seen lots of animals like wallaroos, emus, cows, cockatoos, horses, kangaroos, bats, snakes and lots more. The things I've liked the most are going down the rapids at Murray Falls and sight seeing in the rainforests. I am missing my friends and family and actually missing school, but am loving homeschool. Most afternoons we have nibblies and mum and dad have a relaxing drink! I loved seeing all the mango, pawpaw and banana trees lining the road.
It's been a really fun time. By for now.

Spence

HI FROM SCARLETT

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 10 May 2010 09:13:00 +0000

Hi I was feeling left out so I asked mum if I could do one too. I am missing everyone too, especially the nanas and grandad. I really miss my bed as well. I am having lots of fun, I really like the bushwalks and the fishies I saw when we went snorkeling. All this exploring makes me hungry so mum has to make sure there's lots of food for me. I love talking a lot in the car and listening to mamma mia! We have some new pets, but just for a day, we caught some hermit crabs off the beach and set up a home for them and painted their shell. It's been lots of fun collecting shells and painting them. I keep asking mum if we're going to see snow tomorrow, but she says that's a long time away. Dad takes me to special things when the big kids are doing their homework, like fishing, walks along the beach, ice-cream lots of fun stuff but it's a secret! I thought it was fun sleeping in the tent at Cape Trib and we told lots of stories. I couldn't stop screaming at the fun water park at the campsite it was so much fun going down the slides. I talk about kindy and all my friends and teachers at kindy and can't wait to see them again. Bye big hugs for everyone.
Scarlett

AHHH! KARUMBA

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Sun, 09 May 2010 10:59:00 +0000

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums, especially ours.

If your wondering why your lucky enough to get 2 blogs out of me this week we might be out of range for the next couple of weeks as we are heading into the Northern Territory (woohoo).

As much as we love being near the sea and to us it feels like home, these coastal areas is where we spend a lot of money. Being a tourist up here is expensive. They charge the most outrageous prices and there seems to be surcharge on everything.

So we head inland, the drives can be long and a whole heap of nothing sometimes, but it's the little surprises around the corner that make it all worth it. Windy Hill was one of those. Travelling through the tablelands we came across this wind farm that produces enough electricity to run 3500 houses. The kids got a kick out of seeing the windmills up close and it was amazing how cold it was up there. Then there are those moments when you look at each other and say "is this it?". Innot Springs is one of those moments and with thoughts in our minds of gum trees lining the bank and hot bubbling springs to soothe our weary bodies the reality was a dirty creek and all we came away with were scalded feet and a sense of major dissapointment.

But the disappointment was short lived when we arrived at Undara, back with the kangaroos, starlit nights and the peace of country life. Still travelling with our buddies the Malones, Jacinta and I decided to take the kids to a sunset tour of the lava caves. About 20 of us hop into the bus and the kids got a buzz about seeing all the different kinds of kangaroos. They are amazing - did you know that when the mother kangaroo feeds her joey she also has an outside teat to feed other baby, glad I'm not a kangaroo! There's only one variety of kangaroo that we eat and it's the eastern grey. This is volcano country here and we head up the mountain for champagne and nibblies, pulled up a rock and watched the sunset. With it's amazing array of colours it's quite a site. Then the really exciting bit came when we all headed into the lava cave and saw the bat show. This particular cave is huge and goes in 350mtrs but you can't go any further because of the co2 levels. Each of the guides have to bring in a lighter to check the o2 levels. The bats in the cave are small miro bats and there were a couple of scary snakey characters on the way out that were eating them. But the fun didn't stop there for the kids as the guide took them on a night bushwalk with torches too see all the wildlife that comes out at night.

We all wanted to try our luck and try some gem fossicking, hoping we'd find that bit of sparkle so we could just keep going around and around this amazing country. ( By the way we have met a few grey nomads that do just that, just keep going round and round). Mt Surprise was a bit of a surprise as you could drive through it in under a minute. We stopped off at the info centre and met a very cranky rude old lady who told us we had to go 40k out on a dirt track, little did she know there was a little gem fossicking place 2 buildings down?? So for 1hr we bought our 3m x 3m pit and go for it. For $30 all the kids got a kick out finding gemstones and there were lots of digging and sifting action going down. The Malones got the prize for most gems found! Then we walked up the Kalcani volcano rim, a 2.5k walk which was perfect for the kids.

Undara campsite is made up of old train carriages done up for accommodation, but at $250 a night it's a bit steep. We had an arvo session in one at the pub which was cool. That night the kids had a great time making a fire, melting marshmallows and eating damper. How nice is the country life!!

After 7hrs in the car I was ready to leave Scarlett on the side of the road. The kids have been surprisingly good on the car, but Scarlett has grown her 3yr old horns the past few days. So needless to say the journey to Kurumba was long and painful. Ahh Kurumba, this is grey nomad party time here. Everyone has a boat so we definitely were not in the cool group here. There's no one around till the afternoon happy hour where they get together and tell their fishing stories. We went to Ash's for barra & chips and we watched the sun go down, by far this is the best one yet setting over the sea. We are all on croc alert up here and getting really excited about getting closer to the N.T border. We ran into one of the locals when we were buying prawns and she said you even have to go to Cairns to get a decent pair of undies, that's how remote it is, us city people are lucky. The petrol seems to be getting more expensive the higher we get which we expected. We paid $1.47 at Kurumba but when we went through Normanton it was $1.87! (needless to say we did not fill up there). We have been really pleased with the car and van, both have been travelling really well. We haven't got cabin fever yet and haven't even watched TV in weeks, can you believe it.

TAM'S TIPS
Don't believe the hype (Innot Hot Springs)
Watch out, if you hear a kangaroo grunting he's about to attack!
After having many happy hours on the road, elastic pants are your friend

WEEK 5 - WET, WET CAIRNS

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Fri, 07 May 2010 02:59:00 +0000

Well, we have survived the 1st month. I read somewhere if you can survive the 1st month you can survive the trip. Yes we have had moments where I have screamed at the kids to do their homework and have opened that bottle of wine a little earlier than normal but overall the trip has been amazing. We have seen a different side to all the kids - Spencer who doesn't really like trying new things and won't go outside his comfort zone is really trying. Phoebe talks the most she has ever spoken and is turning out to be a very responsible, happy girl. That Scarlett well, she's crazy as a cut snake in the nicest kind of way, has improved with her speech and really grown up - sometimes!!! And as for Michael and I we are closer than ever and work as a great team, no one has been locked out of the van yet!!

So we leave Mission Beach and it's paw paw, banana, passionfruit, sugarcane everywhere for miles on end. When does it ever stop raining!!

We were happy to hit Cairns and catch up with the Malones again and have decided to stay a week here. The Big 4 at Cairns is like a theme park there are 3 pools, 2 massive jumping pillows, huge playground and also a restaurant so it ticks all the boxes for us. The weather hasn't been great but what can you, do we are in the tropics!!

It was Michael's birthday this week so he and Chris went white water rafting along the Barron River and the boys had a great time, while Jacinta and I took the girls horse riding through the Daintree which was lots of fun. The bums were a little tender the next day.

Kuranda was pretty but not what we were hoping for a little too touristy for us and the Skyrail being $300 was a little steep for us. We walked through the markets and had the best fruit ice cream ever and went to the Butterfly Museum. Phoebe and I loved the blue Ulysses butterfly and the kids loved seeing the big caterpillars. They actually do look like the ones off Bugs Life, so next time you go to touch one don't forget you shorten their life if you.

Went to the Mossman Gorge which is absolutely beautiful with its massive boulders and breathtaking views it's something that you'll always remember. We thought we would brave it and go up the Daintree to Cape Tribulation and try our luck 4 wheel driving up the Bloomfield Track. We camped out and christened the tent at Cape Trib near the beach and it was lots of fun, the kids told stories at night and you couldn't keep the smile off Michael's face. He was in his element. And yes people I braved the tent, thought it might be too rough but loved it.

So with excitement buzzing in the air we headed off for the track, we drove 9hrs from Cape Trib to Cooktown and then back to Cairns, a massive day. It was pretty hairy at times. The track is unsealed, muddy, and very windy and steep but what a rush! Walked through croc infested streams that were waist height and for me the highlight of this trip. There were 2 french guys who had been waiting for 2 days to be rescued, so I hope they are out by now! They hit the boulders and panicked and stopped and flooded the motor so they might be up for some big dollars to get them out.

Finally we made it to the Lions Den Hotel and what a place, over a 100yrs old, used to be an old tin mining area.( which seems ironic as it's our 10yr wedding anniversary which is tin). It's an alcohol free zone here so it was pretty lucky we didn't have any in the waeco. It's a long way up to Cooktown but we made it. YIPEE!

On our way back we stopped off at Port Douglas which I loved and I must say a place where I could stay if we didn't have kids.

Our beautiful friends the Malones had made a fantastic roast and we all tucked into a great home cooked dinner, we will miss the dearly when we part ways at the end of this week. It has been a lovely surprise to meet such wonderful people. So we celebrate our 10yr anniversary in Cairns and share our last night together with the Malones. We survived!!!

TAM'S SURVIVAL TIPS #5
Might be a good idea to be organised when you leave the van and go off the beaten track! Came home to a rip in the awning from the wind blowing the awning into the clothes line and ripped it.
Go the extra money when it comes to the Big 4's you definately need a break from the kids.

Michael's tip - always send your wife through the croc infested waters to check the depth of the stream before crossing

WEEK 4 - TOWNSVILLE, MISSION BEACH

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:36:00 +0000

Well from dry heat and flies to humid sweaty heat and mozzies. We've hit the tropics!

Townsville the heart of the military was so hot and humid it was unbearable, you would be sweating in places where you don't normally sweat. I have to mention The Frosty Mango before I go on which is on the way, everything mango, the best mango ice cream ever. Also took a quick trip to Murray Falls for some bottom surfing under the waterfalls. The look on Spencer's face of shear terror going down the rapids was something I'll never forget, but he got up again down he went.

Townsville is not a place we wanted to stay long at. The Strand is very pretty though with beautiful views to Magnetic Island and the Pandanus trees and the big black cockatoos. We ventured to Reef HQ Aquarium where they have a turtle hospital on the premises. After the reef trip the kids could really identify a lot of the fish and coral they saw. This place was so interesting we loved it, I could have sat there all day just watching the fish. They talk to the divers and have an interactive part where you can ask the diver questions about the sharks and other fish which was pretty cool. And I think the kids got a lot out of seeing those poor turtles being rescued.

The boys were going to go to the Cowboys game but it was going to cost an arm and a leg and half the night just to get there, they decided to give it a miss. We all got up super early for the dawn service on the Strand and as the sun was rising over looking Magnetic Island as they played the The Last Post it was a special moment. We were happy to leave Townsville and hit paradise at Mission Beach, cassowarie country, even though we haven't seen any.

And those beautiful Ulysses butterflies they are everywhere. It's like all the bugs and insects have been on steroids they are huge up here. We could actually live up here, even though the locals say the wet season is really hard to get through, which I can understand. The kids went for a swim in the netted area because the box jelly fish and irukandji are everywhere up here, the beach is filled with vinegar canisters just in case. It is a pretty idyllic place with the palm and coconut trees swaying in the breeze all I needed was a g&t and some nibbles!!! Now I know I was only joking to everyone about me turning into an alcoholic but with 3 kids 24/7 there's nothing better than that g&t at the end of the day! Got some shopping in as well here, after 3 weeks of nothing a girl needs some retail therapy so I got my fix for the next month.

If you are around this way it is worth having a drive to Bingal Bay it's so pretty, peaceful and untouched, no photos sorry was too much in awe. We hit the waterfalls today and went to Millaa Millaa, Zillie and Ellingaa. Even though it was raining and low cloud cover it was pretty spectacular and it's only going to get better more north we go. We also visited the Malanda Dairy farm where they make cheese, yogurt and milk and got to see the way they make it. The countryside is breathtaking here.

We've been aching for some adult conversation and met some lovely people from Victoria with beautiful kids which we met briefly at Airlie and stayed across from us at Townsville so we are looking forward to catching up with them in Cairns tomorrow. So will keep you posted with some more tropical fun!!!

TAM'S SURVIVAL TIPS #4
Go off the beaten track, you'll never know what you might find.

Get those kids working, this is not a holiday

TAM'S ON THE ROAD PLAYLIST
More John Butler Trio - Spence has finally come around to love the John
Angus & Julia Stone - Perfect for rainy days

Until next week, keep on truckin!

WEEK 3 - AIRLIE BEACH, BOWEN, TOWNSVILLE

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 10:11:00 +0000

After a very long tedious 8hr drive we finally got to Airlie Beach. You do not want to see this sign!!!!! I think the GPS chick had gone out for a drink or went on a smoko break because she took us out to a 53km dirt track, we thought we would cut an hour off the trip but actually had turn back so we were an hour behind. I'm so glad that chick can't talk back, there was some major name calling going on (very quietly of course there are kids in the back!).

Our beautiful Phoebe turned 7 this week and we told each of the kids we weren't doing presents this year, just an amazing adventure. So with pink balloons everywhere and birthday cake for breakfast we headed off to the reef. Mantaray Adventures has a great day trip, they pick you up at the caravan park and you travel to Whitehaven Beach, it's an all day experience.

The trip out was incredibly rough so let me tell you, you need those motion sickness tablets or you will have a bit of vomit action going on. Let me just say what happens on the boat stays on the boat!!!!

Whitehaven has the most pure sand on the earth, it is beautiful. The American government used it for the lenses of the Hubble telescope it's so pure.

We all looked pretty special in our stinger suits! Mmmmm!! As you could imagine the reef was amazing, the species of fish, coral, clams, stingrays it was just an amazing experience. Our gorgeous little Scarlett was incredible. We were so proud of her she just picked snorkeling up like she had been doing it her whole life.
Each person was given a swimming noodle and it gave Spencer & Phoebe a chance to explore on their own if they wanted. With massive smiles on everyone's faces and Phoebe beaming "that was the best birthday ever" it was one of those special moments.

I have to say the Big 4 here is fantastic. Great stuff for the kids, the pool is the biggest in Airlie, has slides, a huge playground and we love the big jumping pillow. We even had our own ensuite, and after 2 weeks in the country with the dust it was heaven. I recommend signing up for the Big 4 discount!

This was our view from the Bowen Big 4 site. There are about 7 caravan parks in this little town. Bowen itself is quite spread out but cute, this is where the movie "Australia" was made. There are grey nomads everywhere here. They are very friendly but we are looking forward to meeting other families like us travelling around as we are craving a bit of adult conversation.

If you are thinking of doing a similar trip and looking at home schooling, don't underestimate how much school work takes up your day. I'm spending about 1 1/2 to 2 1/2hrs a day doing school work which takes a huge chunk of the day. The kids have been fantastic and I'm actually enjoying seeing the progress. The proximity of living so close is slowly appearing. Had to send the kids out this morning for a while, while I got my sanity back.

We've hit Townsville today the Strand looks like kiddie haven so will be checking that out. We are also excited about having Anzac Day here with the army being based here. Keep you posted.

BOOKS OF THE WEEK
The Aussie Outback Party - Megan Bartlett - Horne
The Aussie Outback School - Megan Bartlett
(Winners of the Australian Bush Literary Award, great illustrations, comes with a cd, kids love them)
Caravanastan - Greg Bearup
(Hitting the outback and travelling around Australia with a Jayco, a Volvo and an 18mth old child. Inspiring! True story!)

TAM'S SURVIVAL TIPS #3
Always look at the map as the GPS chick could of had a few the night before and give you a bum steer.
With small kids always ask how long the excursions take - be prepared for anything, vomit bags a must during boat trips.

TAM'S ON THE ROAD PLAYLIST
Jack Johnson - Some beachy in the mood vibes
Missy Higgins - Calm those kiddies in the back
Vampire Weekend - Bit of adult sanity

PHOEBE'S BIG BIRTHDAY TREAT - by Phoebe Wood

noreply@blogger.com (Wood Family) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:03:00 +0000

It is my Birthday today and Mum & Dad put balloons in my bed while I was asleep. I got new earrings and a movie! Mum & Dad had organised a big birthday surprise - SNORKELLING. We went on a big boat to Whitehaven beach, we had lunch on the boat & went out to the reef. I saw lots and lots of coral and fish. I actually touched some fish. I saw a stingray eating too. The fish were really fast & colorful and I was waving to them. It was sooo exciting! It was the best birthday ever.

I'm really liking my trip but missing everyone. I like the countryside because it's pretty and I've seen kangaroos, cows, kookaburras, emus, camels and a snake that nearly bit mum at Carnarvon.

And Mrs Igo, I am doing lots of great school work!

Thank you everyone for all of your birthday wishes.

Phoebe