Week 1

Well the time has finally arrived! 17 months since we made the final decision to travel this awesome country of ours!

So many of you have said to us ‘we would love to do that one day’ so watch this space for weekly blogs. It will be brutally honest…. the good, the bad and the ugly of life on the road with kids! I have no doubt it will be an amazing experience but its also the feeling of entering the unknown. Spending 24/7 with your little tribe, when life is usually absolute freekin hecticness will have its challenges but will also hopefully bring us all closer together. I am not sure why Chris has packed the shovel but hopefully we will still come back married and he wont leave me at the nearest town. He has told me I have the spreadsheet so Ill know where to find him! Jokes, we really do love eachother.

Day 1 was a fleeting visit to Merriwa. We stayed in a free camp behind the RSL. And lets be honest, you haven’t lived unless you have been to the Friday night raffles at the Merriwa RSL. The free camp was great but a rooster started at 2am. Didn’t seem to bother anyone else. I guess I need to #toughenupprincess.

Day 2 we made the last minute decision (because we can in the next 4 months) to ride our bikes around Dubbo Zoo. We had never been before, but what an awesome way to see the animals! 

Night 2 we stayed in a free camp at Cobar. We woke up in the morning and the kids bikes, bike rack/lock, spare caravan tyre and bracket were all gone off the back of the van! We made the immediate assumption they had been stolen o’night. …..BUT… the power of social media proved us wrong 36 hours later! A lady from Cobar put it on her fb page to try and track the bikes down and believe it or not the bikes actually came of the back of the caravan and were found the day before (bikes/rack were destroyed)! We didn’t even notice they weren’t on the back of the caravan when we turned up on dark to Cobar. We drove straight onto our site, didn’t even un-hitch and went to the club for a beer before bed. Well wasn’t this a blow to the week one budget and the mood in the camp!! And yes maybe we did feel like dickheads but I told you I’d be including all the experiences .. good and bad (police report has been updated)!

Night 3 we stayed at the racecourse in Broken Hill. A nice grassy site surrounded by lovely folk and we got a beautiful sunrise over the track ( yes, you heard correctly, Nicole Butler was up at sunrise). Luckily later that day there was a Coromal dealer in Broken Hill that agreed to sell us the spare tyre and bracket off one of there display caravans.

While in BH we visited a beautiful little outback town called Silverton where the Mad Max movies were made. Kids loved it, we visited the gaol, the old hotel and Chris got chased by a donkey (yep never thought I’d be saying that either).

Night 4 was a quick visit past Port Augusta and then full steam ahead to Coober Pedy which was not as we expected at all! Actually I didn’t know what to expect. We had drinks on sunset the first night in Coober Pedy and maybe a smallish barnie abut my lack of drone control (still learning). The next day we went on an awesome underground half day opal mining tour. My little Opal Miner Harry was in his element, up the front with the tour guide asking and answering questions all afternoon!

This week the kids have been unbelievable with the long travel times. They have been super motivated to read, write journals and do school work. Don’t know how long tha will last but we will roll with it while they are! At this stage we are also on the phone to every ARB, Repco, Autobarn etc trying to chase up a bike rack in the middle of Aus so we can buy the kids some new bikes! Its harder than you think!

And geez the pressure is on to switch roles to a landscape and drone photographer.. watch this space…

Thanks for reading, thanks for following! Check out the slideshow (in HD) and some fave images below. Next blog… Uluru, Kings Canyon & Macdonnell Ranges!!