We found the red dirt in the 'backout'

Well Port Augusta redeemed itself this morning after the barbed wire experience of the night before.

We had a lovely morning watching the massive freight trains rumble out of town and visiting the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens, a really different garden that got us in the mood for starting our western journey.

 

Discovering the red dirt was also very exciting. 

We all felt energised as we turned west onto the Eyre Highway - it was really obvious from the landscape (and emus!) that we'd entered a different part of Australia. We are all keen to explore areas that feel completely different and unfamiliar from what we've done already.

Evie sagely reminded as us we drove along that we'll have to be very careful of snakes now that we're in the 'backout'. All of us agreed that caution is a good idea in the 'outback'.

We drove through the 'halfway across australia' point at Kimba (as the sign said) and admired some lovely scenery. My favourite was the rusted steel sculptures of Eyre & Wylie, very striking.

Tonight we're at a place called Tcharkuldu Hill - an outcrop of granite boulders - camping in the red dirt.

There was a picturesque game of Scrabble before dinner and then, after almost two months, for the very first time, we put the aerial up and switched on the television at the pleading request of Lukas to watch the Socceroos become champions - whoo hoo!!!

And we plan not to turn it back on again :)

Still powering through South Australia

We're at Port Augusta tonight, and here is the slightly unnerving view at the caravan park:

Barbed wire? Really? That's a first for us in terms of caravan park security. It makes me wonder whether they are trying to keep someone out or trying to stop us from leaving!

Anyway, thankfully the rest of South Australia has been much more welcoming to the Suzy Q explorers.

After the Coorong we made a stop at Murray Bridge to see some paddle steamers and houseboats on the mighty river. We also had a quick scout around for Max's plastic rake which floated away in the Murrumbidgee in Victoria, and we are pretty certain would be in the Murray by now!

Town Hall at Angaston

 No luck with the rake unfortunately, so we drowned our sorrows (metaphorically) in the Barossa.

There were some lovely little towns to drive through, some nice buildings to admire and some yummy produce. The kids didn't mind a quick wine tasting at Angaston, as there was a basket of toys and books which hold great appeal when you're restricted to only one box of toys for six months on the road! They did mind the Barossa cheese shop though, which had a rather pungent odour of goat's cheese - they sat outside for that one!

Hanging about at Port Adelaide

After a night at Nuriootpa, our next Port of call (!) was Port Adelaide. We hadn't explored the 'port' on our previous trips to Adelaide and quite liked it, although it was very quiet as school has just gone back. We stayed on Semaphore Beach and had a lovely relaxing day catching up with our Adelaide friends, the Wallaces (thanks guys!)

The Pier at Sephamore

And then today, the drive north to Port Augusta. We're about to hang a huge left and head west, west, west....

The big boys have just looked at our giant map of Australia and realised exactly how far west we have to go before we get into the areas of southern WA we are keen to explore. They are googling car games as I write this!

Flying through South Australia

Blue Lake - Mt Gambier

We drove into South Australia this morning.

Instead of the ticker-tape parade we were expecting, there was a large quarantine bin in which we had to deposit all of our fruit and veges.

So, because I hate wasting food, we sat on the roadside and worked our way through a punnet of nectarines, a punnet of lychees, a punnet of cherry tomatoes, three carrots and two bananas before deciding that the rest would just have to go in the bin!

A sinkhole with a beautiful garden - Mt Gambier

First stop was Mt Gambier where we looked at the fascinating Umpherstone Sinkhole and beautiful Blue Lake.

Then Max, Evie and Lukas all decided they were exhausted and slept in the car for most of the afternoon. So we just kept on driving and got a fair way towards Adelaide!

Tonight we're camping at the Coorong along with the pelicans and thinking about Storm Boy.

Suzy Q camped at the Coorong

Could this be the best 'little' place on earth?

Oh yes, I've found my little piece of heaven.

Backtracking a little, we spent a night in Geelong after getting off the Spirit of Tasmania. Dylan was really keen to spend some time here, and he definitely made a great call. We really enjoyed the waterfront and the lovely old streets.

Some might argue that 12 months ago a new drawcard was created for Geelong:

That's right, Little Creatures opened a brewery. But it is also so much more. It looks like a warehouse from the outside and then you see this sign:

And then you walk around the corner and see an old piano inside a cargo container and know that you're going somewhere cool....





I'll let the pictures do the talking (yes, I did take more here than the Great Ocean Road), but this is my kinda place....we had beer and pizza for dinner and then went back for coffee and homemade muffins (that tasted like I'd made them myself!) the next morning.


Thank you Geelong. Thank you Little Creatures.

Mum, is this still the Great Ocean Road?

That was the question asked quite a few times as we spent a couple of days driving the 'great' drive.

We didn't realise that large portions of the road were actually away from the coastline, through forests and farmland.

While the ocean bits were pretty spectacular, the rest was a little boring. I suspect probably because we've just done some amazing coast and forest drives in Tasmania.







Our unfortunate timing of the Australia Day long weekend meant all of the pretty seaside towns were crammed to the brim with holiday makers, so we didn't end up stopping at them.

We did see some koalas dozing in the gums as we drove to a campsite on Cape Otway, which is always pretty special.

The Apostles are right towards the end and they were spectacular. I actually thought that another 10 minutes down the road was even more spectacular, the Bay of Islands and the Bay of Martyrs.

So now we can say we've done the Great Ocean Road. Was it lovely, yes. Was it the best drive in Australia? I suspect not for this group of travellers.

Happy Australia Day (Eve)

From Dartmoor, Victoria, just 50km from the South Australian border.

What could be more Australian than lamb sausages over an open fire at a bush camp, together with a game of cricket?

Happy Australia Day everyone!!

Goodbye Tassie - from four little devils

We've arrived back in Melbourne this morning, jumped off the boat and headed for a coffee at 

St Kilda.

We had a great time in Tasmania, and left our mark at the Red Bridge cafe at Campbell Town:

So goodbye Tasmania, and onto the next leg of our adventure!

Around Launceston

 Our last few days in Tasmania were spent in and around Launceston. The place we stayed, Old Mac's Farm, was great and a perfect example how to run a business. Old Mac converted his property into a self-contained vehicle campsite with dams for fishing, alpacas and lots of flat, grassy sites. He even built a restaurant on site which he leases to a local farmer for fresh and local cooking. They do a great campers breakfast which we had one morning as well as delicious local strawberries.

We visited the macaque monkeys in City Park in Launceston and rode the chairlift at Cataract Gorge. Upon driving north to Beauty Point we found, a little bit unusually on the pier, a platypus and echidna sanctuary right next door to Seahorse World.

And of course, the moment you've all been waiting for, our last Tasmanian stop* was Liffey Falls. The verdict from us is divided about whether these or Russell are better falls. Dylan and I fall on the Liffey side - they are possibly not as immediately spectacular as Russell, but the series of beautiful falls culminating in the big ones in a very peaceful section won the two of us over. Our verdict is deadlocked so you'll just have to visit yourselves and decide!

 

*Actually, that was a lie, our very last stop was a return visit to the raspberry farm for more sampling of the divine choc-coated raspberries. We just couldn't resist!!

Having a couple of 'rest' days

Our pace through Tasmania has been quite busy as you've probably noticed, because there's just so much we want to see and do.

But we've stopped for a few days at a caravan park at Swansea. The kids needed some R&R - which for them means some time without driving and a chance to ride on their bikes.

Beautiful views and beaches don't hurt either.......

Prior to hitting the east coast we made a day trip to Bruny Island, which provided us with our expensive cheese & bread and the fun of watching an echidna ambling along the road. It's a nice location but not that motorhome friendly so our visit was pretty short.

We then made a quick stop at Richmond to see Australia's oldest bridge. I was so busy snapping the cool swan-shaped paddle boats that I forgot to take a photo. But it was old, stone and convict-built so I'm sure you get the idea!

The next couple of days were on the Tasman Peninsula looking at some great ocean cliffs and rock formations as well as a visit to a Tasmanian Devil Conservation Park and a few hours at Port Arthur.

We've run out of time to do the north-east of the island, so we'll base ourselves around Launceston for our last few days and no doubt will have a couple more Tasmanian stories to tell.

Our most gourmet dinner (measured by price per kilo)

We visited Bruny Island and loved the tasting at Bruny Island Cheese Company.

We had some morning tea and purchased a soft cheese and a medium loaf of sourdough for later eating.

Fine food certainly doesn't come cheap.......$26 worth on our board for dinner tasting!!

Contrasts nicely with our lunch a couple of days later when we stopped at the Blow Hole on the Tasman Peninsula for apparently Tasmania's best fish and chips from a takeaway van in a cliff top carpark. $20 fed all of us amply and, for the record, Lukas said it was the second best, after Burnie where I had my birthday lunch on the waterfront.

Mind you, I did prefer the bread and cheese which was simply superb, but I can't imagine I'll spend $17 on a wheel of cheese again for a while.

The rain has caught up with us!

Yep, we're smack bang in the middle of the massive rains that have hit the south-east of Tasmania. Luckily we were already staying in a well-appointed caravan park and not camping somewhere on a flood plain.

We are in Huonville and while the rain last night kept me (and only me!) awake wondering if we were going to be flooded, the worst that happened was the lovely meandering creek at the back of the park turned into a fast-flowing river that has taken a couple of local kayaks hostage.

We had to abandon our plans to go to Bruny Island and have just sat tight here today, reading, journaling, playing Uno and Mathletics on the computer. Hoping to get back on the road again tomorrow!

Meanwhile, I can fill you in on a great day yesterday at the Tahune Airwalk. Tasmanian Parks and Forestry seem to have this amazing knack for creating great experiences that draw people in to their locations. The Airwalk is one of these. It's located in a swamp gum forest, the 'giants' of the flowering plant world, and has been setup so well as a forest experience.

Lukas called it a 10/10 day, and that was largely based on all of our favourite experience of the forest flying fox hang glider.

You get strapped into a hang glider on a cable and pulled up backwards across the Huon River and into the forest. There's a minute or so to appreciate the view and then the cable releases and the glider speeds back down across the river.

Awesome fun!

There was a minimum weight of 25kg - luckily Lukas ate a big breakfast and was wearing his heaviest shoes so snuck in at 24kg which I managed to convince the ranger looked remarkably like 25!

We also did a 3km walk including two big swinging bridges that take you across the Huon and Picton rivers and provide a great view of where they meet. Evie did really well on something that was a little bit scary and managed to chatter most of the way across.

And of course the airwalk, a marvellous feat of engineering that lets you walk 40m above the forest floor, through the tops of the trees and along a big cantilever bridge over the river.

Tasmanian-lovely as per usual!!