Here's the Newest Little Van I

Baby JAK is only 20 weeks old this week and having a jolly old time inside his Mummy. S/He has been a great baby so far...hasn't made Mum sick once!

I have just started to feel JAK move...which makes this whole pregnancy thing so very real! I am certainly getting bigger and slower, but I know, 'you ain't seen nothing yet!' Seeing JAK in the ultrasound room was very exciting, so was the news that both baby and Mum are doing fine. Daddy's pretty fine too!

We have started playing 'the name game' and it's proving somewhat controversial! J doesn't like my names and so far, I haven't been a fan of the 1 one name he has suggested. Hmmm....lucky there's 4 months to go before JAK actually needs a proper name.

In other baby-related news....we have officially sold our Carry-Me-Camper! The money is in the bank, but not for long as J will spend part of the weekend looking at new toys..AKA motorbikes! The camper gets delivered to her new owners in the next couple of days and while I am a little sad to say goodbye, I will be saying a big 'hello' to having our style side back for the Navara. So now, back to tenting. Gotta get one though coz our last one got blown to pieces up at the top of the cape last September:)

The End is Nigh

From Fraser to Freo....from Lake Eyre to Lawn Hill.....from Tassie to the Tip.

She's served us well!

Yes, we are selling our Carry Me Camper and I think there will be a few tears:(

So glad we have so many great memories of our travels and adventures last year...and wonderful photos too. As much as we'd love to keep it, our needs are changing and certainly a baby on the way means that we need space for 3, not just 2. And Jon wants a motorbike!

So if you know anyone who might be interested in a new addition to their camping gear, let us know. She's a little ripper!

The Delightful South

I never thought this true-blue Queenslander would say this, but....

I like NSW...a lot!

We've been tripping around the coast of NSW for the past 2 weeks and as the pics show, there's been a lot to see and like and do. I wonder how many of these places you recognise.

N___________ Heads.

F_________ - T____________

N_____________

Friendly fellow campers at Canton Beach, near The Entrance.

Now the real fun begins.....

We had a blast during the 3 days of the Sydney Telstra 500...the final round of the V8 Supercar Championship for 2009. It was the first time it was held at Homebush in the almost dormant Olympic Park precinct. And it was a huge hit! Not just because the racing was amazing...which it was. But because of all the 'extras'....like.....

......the Showtime crew.....Yamaha freestyle motocross and the Hilux Heroes...

......being able to get 'up-close-and-personal' with the beasts....

.....access to the ute, mini and porshe pits (and all the big cute guys you find there)....

.....the crazy wonders you found round every corner (30 inch wheels on this baby!)....

.....evening concerts in ANZ Stadium. This was 60 000 or so for Cold Chisel. It went OFF!....

......panel interviews with the big names of the sport

(who do you recognise up there on stage?)....

....more posing with the beasts, including the famous 'Green Eyed Monster'.....

......being so close to the V8s you could almost touch them. That's Jamie Whincup on his victory lap after winning the championship for 09.....

....celebrating your team's victories and buying some cool merch.....

Certainly a highlight in the 'events' category of our trip. And we love that we were there for the first ever one at Homebush.

South of Sydney, the coastal beauty continues....

The Grand Pacific Drive......if you look real hard you'll see the 665m Sea Cliff Bridge.

W______________....hint! Home to Wayne Bennett.

Mystery Bay....awesome camping spot, despite the rainy night.

Beautiful place for a swim though.

Still on The List

If I made a list of my favourite places in Australia, Fraser Island would be so near the top. To me, it epitomises so much of what I love....sunshine, freedom, splendid scenery, beach living, 4 wheel driving, swimming, simple living, camping and adventure.

We've just spent 3 nights on the island with our parents...both sets!!...and Kirsty's sister, husband and 3 of our nieces and nephews. Perfect weather - sunshine and cooling breeze. Well-timed early afternoon low tides. 2 cars bogged....not the Nav (of course!) The worms were biting and the pippys were almost jumping into the bucket. Dolphins were playing in the south and sea eagles spread their majestic wings in the north. And the best bits - Lake McKenzie, Central Station, Eli Creek, Ocean Lake, the Maheno and all the beaches - were showing themselves off to full advantage.

Sadly, we couldn't get all the way up to Sandy Cape as they've closed a couple of tracks due to severe beach erosion, but there was still plenty to see and do to the south.

I absolutely love camping on the beachfront...despite the south easterly winds and sand blowing every which way....so it was great to have 2 nights camped on the dunes. And it was fun building sand cars and damming the creeks and playing tennis ball golf and all the other fun bits that go along with camping with kids.

Thanks everyone for a great time....and cheers! to the Tenacious Terracan, the Dominating Defender and the Courageous Colorado. You gave the Mighty Navara good competition but just weren't quite up to the mark. Maybe next time!

Blackdown Tableland

Once again we have found a little piece of magic....right in our own backyard. Just a few hours north-west of Gladstone is Blackdown Tableland NP where you can: 4WD the loop track; bushwalk amongst wattles, palms and eucalypts; swim in a clear cold pool at the base of a waterfall; sit back, relax and watch the birds and butterflies; camp amongst the big trees in the well set out NP campground and soak up breathtaking views from the escarpment lookouts. God's creation is awesome! And we had a great couple of days checking it out and enjoying it last week.

Lovely Lawn Hill

I said in an email last week that anyone who has ever told me Lawn Hill National Park - north of Mount Isa - was beautiful, was so right. We had a lovely couple of days camping in the national park and canoeing the middle and upper gorges, swimming and bushwalking. And we weren't alone. A swarm of grasshoppers...in their millions....maybe their billions....or even gazillions....gate-crashed our visit. As did 2 VERY hot days...thank goodness for the cool water in Lawn Hill Creek.

Jon swims with new friend Richard in LH Creek. No sign of 'Whitelip'...

....the menacing, enormous catfish.

Lawn Hill's famous palms look a little worse for wear. The grasshoppers' favourite treat seemed to be the tips of the palms leaves.

Undarri Falls divides the middle and upper gorges. You carry your canoe about 50 metres up and around the falls to explore the upper gorge.

View from our swimming spot up to the middle gorge at 8am one morning.

Ahhhhhh...lovely!

I'm hoping that if you click on this photo and enlarge it you'll have some idea of how

prolific the grasshoppers were.

Creek to Coast

March 3^rd

Adventure plus on the tracks today. More ups and downs and scrambling, but no dust billows as we had some light rain this morning. Came across 2 big trees down across the track and Jon’s ingenuity kicked into top gear. Using our whole arsenal of tricks – the chain, axe, winch and tree trunk protector  - we spent just under an hour moving the trees enough to slide the Navara through. All of this down in the rain! Great work by Jon! The terrain and vegetation changed a lot on the Nunniong Road. Lots of ferns in the understorey of some fairly dense gums. Many cleared areas and we even passed a loaded logging truck on a pretty narrow section of road. Lunched at Moscow Villa – a little wood hut built in 1943 by Bill Achow – a man who was at that time the local bushfire spotter. He used to spend his days up a tower in the forest and his nights in the hut. No fires for us today, although the descent to Omeo revealed very dry farming / grazing areas. We stopped for a look at the Washington Winch – an old steam driven cable winch used in the early logging days. Quite an impressive old girl. So were the spar trees they used to anchor the cable and hooks to. Found a loaded peach tree beside the road and proceeded to load the camper with fresh fruit! Now camped beside the river at Omeo in a caravan park…..and taking time out to do the washing and a few unfinished projects on the camper.

 

March 4 & 5

Great adventures today as we spent more time in 4WD mode. Started the day with a couple of tourist activities…took in the view from the Mt Kosciuszko lookout. Not actually on the mountain, it’s a place kms away where you look back and see the mtn. In all honesty, very unimpressive. Why can’t we have a mtn like…Everest or Cook or Kilimanjaro?? Anyway, what was interesting was the info on the 2003 bushfires that raced through the areas. 80 fires started by lightning, burnt for 2 months. Areas of the alps were decimated, as the no. of dead trees we have seen in the past few days testify. Nature does have an amazing ability to regenerate though. We also popped into Victoria Falls, not to be confused with the African falls of the same name and a totally different magnitude, These tiny little falls were the site of the first hydro power station in Vic. Then onto the good stuff…the 4Wd tracks. The first ones took us through Vic’s largest cattle station…lots of blackberry bushes and lots of cows. As we headed onto the Dargo Track we were amazed to see so much recently burnt out area. Apparently they had a bushfire up this way around the same time as Black Saturday, but this fire was left to burn out itself. Have not seen anything like it, and it gave us some tiny idea of how horrendous things must have been and probably still are, down in the Gippsland area. We had the ride of our lives down the Stock Route Spur Track…..a 3.4 km descent on rough, narrow tracks full of humps. Took nearly an hour…but we had only 1 bottom scrape! Go the Navara! Camped the night at Black Flat and caught up with the only other people we have seen on the tracks in the past couple of days. Quite surprised that there have been so few people….until we came across the ‘Road Closed’ signs today. Oooppppps!  Made our way down through the Dargo Valley on tracks that follow the slow flowing and ash-ridden waters of the river. Once we were in the green bits again, it was a very pleasant drive…past quaint farms, walnut trees and little townships. Couldn’t stay on the bitumen too long though and took a back road through to the highway, before deciding to meander into Melbourne tomorrow. All this off road travel has taken its toll though, as Jon’s wash of the Nav revealed. We have a whole set of scratches down the sides that just weren’t there a few days ago in NSW. Ah well, a small price to pay. We’ve scooted down to the coast south of Sale and have discovered C17…a little campsite right behind the beach dunes in the Gippsland Lakes Coastal Park. Skies are grey and it’s windy, but we’re happy. So we’ve covered the mountains to the sea in 1 day…impressive!

On the Road

Well, we're off! Have enjoyed the last 4 days on the road and you'll read more than enough about them if you make it thru this very long post. I promise the next ones will be shorter....just let me indulge in a little of the excitement of the whole trip finally moving from dream to reality. I do apologise for the layout too....seems you can't cut and paste from Word directly into your blogspot post. Oh yeah....photos to follow sometime soon. 

Feb 26

We’ve just finished eating our first dinner meal on the road and it was delicious! How could it not be….sitting by a creek (50ks south of Tamworth in a little place I can’t even pronounce the name of) with a peach sunset going on behind us, lightning dancing in the clouds to the south and the prospect of this being our life for the next 11 or so months. Very nice!

We left Mum and Dad’s at the lake yesterday morning and headed south to Brisbane for more car work….tyre check this time. Bought a SatNav on the way  - which despite my protests for the past 6 months has proved to be very useful. We used it to get from the north side of Bris all the way thru the mess of roadworks to Jon’s brother’s workplace, under the Story Bridge and then out to our friend’s place 15ks out of Stanthorpe. Lovely to catch up with Noel and Jude who moved from Gladstone earlier this year and enjoy a last night in a real bed in a real house.

Set off on the real journey today – Jon calls it ‘real’ because we actually left the state. Cockroach territory now. Highlight of Kirsty’s day was finding a loaded apple tree beside the road and without too much coaxing, getting Jon to do a u-ey and go back to pick a few. Lunch in a park in Armidale and then a photo with the Big Golden Guitar in Tamworth. Our plans to get to Bathurst for the night fell by the wayside and we found a freebie overnight spot right beside a First Fleet Memorial in the middle of central, country NSW. Go figure! Apparently it is the only memorial in Australia that lists all the First Fleet voyagers – both convicts and British Military. Did you know there was only 1 free settler on the First Fleet…a Mr Smith! There were 3 Knights who were marines – Knight is Kirsty’s Mum’s maiden name. Too bad they weren’t convicts….there’s more notoriety in that. 

Dinner: pre-made stew  Weather: a few drops of rain  Mozzies: yep…Note to Self: I must wear a shirt, not just a singlet, on dusk.  Quote of the evening: Jon – “I know you think I’m a geek….but this is so cool….sitting beside my camper, on my laptop, surfing the web.

26 Feb

Lots of dirt roads today as we wound our way from Wallabadah through backroads to Merriwa and Bathurst and Goulburn. Got to take the Navara on laps of Mount Panorama…very cool. Much steeper than I thought and so many properties on/in it – even a winery. Plethora of wildlife on the drives today….white cockatoos, swimming snake at lunch stop, mobs of roos and a wombat facing the sky on the side of the roadL Did 4 or so creek crossings too….only 5cm deep max, so I didn’t have to get out and do a walk thru. Finally stopped close to 9pm outside of Canberra….by a lake on which sheep graze. No water at all. Cold here and the ground so hard J couldn’t get the pegs into itJ Slept under 4 layers…sheet, doona, sleeping bag and the canvas bed cover.

27 FebInto the nation’s capital today and started our visit with a tour of Parliament House. Our bright and bubbly tour guide was most informative and her style was such that we weren’t sure if she was a politics or drama major at uni. Despite this being about the 10^th time Kirsty has been to P House, she still didn’t get to see parliament sitting…seems it’s unconstitutional to sit on a Friday. Really!!! We made our way 20ks out of town to check out the Cotter Reserve campsite right by the mighty Murrimbidgee River. Not so mighty at the moment as drought certainly has a stranglehold on Canberra and surrounds. A quick trip to Tidbinbilla Space Station allowed us to marvel at the achievements of mankind beyond our planet. Quite amazing stuff, but the best bit was seeing the moon rock. Our home for the night came with 2 bonuses – showers and barbeque fireplaces. Both were very welcome, especially when the marshmallows were finally found in the bottom of the food crate. A lovely summer’s evening under the stars.

28 Feb

A really warm day in Canberra with strong, dry winds. Talked to the ranger this morning and he said the current conditions are a lot like those in 2003 when the big fires tore thru most of the parks surrounding Canberra and burnt houses in outlying suburbs too. He was actually on his way south to Victoria tomorrow to continue to assist the parks and wildlife staff and CFA in fighting fires. Good man. A 30k bush run was being held in the area and we had 40 or so super keen (or silly) runners sprint, trot, limp, waddle past us as we ate breakfast. Questacon (National Science Centre) was a heap of hands on fun for the morning and we especially enjoyed the ‘Boom Crash Boing’ show with Sven, the crash test dummy in training. The afternoon was spent by the lake – trying to get a bit cooler and then at the very moving War Memorial. I have a hard time staying dry eyed whenever I am there. Did you know that there are over 102 thousand Australians who have lost their lives serving in wars? The sound and lighting shows about bombing raids in Germany and the Japanese mini-subs in Sydney Harbour were very good. And we got to see the daily closing ceremony where a lone piper played a lament on the steps of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Headed south out of Canberra to a rest area where we are the only campers. We’re on our way up into the high country tomorrow.

The New Toys!

Here's a couple of the cool Christmas presents we received to take on our trip!

Jon can have a shave now that he has his axe. He used it yesterday and "argh arr argh!" He says he feels like a real man. I like that it is such a versatile tool - chops wood, bangs in tent pegs, protection in the night, weapon to use against crocodiles.

The Totem Tennis set will come in handy for fitness and venting frustration over navigational errors!

ZZZzzzzzzzzz! The whole idea of being ready to go in less than a month now (aahhhh!) is a little overwhelming. Or perhaps J is just exhausted from his 4 hour epic setting up Wireless Broadband. 

We spent a good deal of time and $$$ at the camping shop yesterday buying all sorts of 'essential' Round Oz Trip goodies.

A washing-up tub....

Self explanatory I think...but try saying 'Porta Potti' out loud in public. Hmmmm.

Oh yeah, and we bought an Engel 40l fridge/freezer. But that's not even out of the box yet, and unlike the PP, it comes with a picture of a semi trailer (???) on the box. Very helpful for showing you what you've just spent the big bucks on:)