Day 98: Fitzgerald Bay to Clare Valley! Oh Clare, you are beautiful. I had been doing a little bit of research on the area and looking forward to the quaint little wineries that it has on offer and it didn’t disappoint. The first afternoon we went to Pikes winery and Brewery and to Sevenhills Winery. Both gorgeous and the wine was also a hit, well on my way again to restocking the wine cellar, quite possibly even returning home with some. Oh that sounds really bad!
Day 99: We spent the morning exploring the main st of Clare, coffee and scones were on point. In the afternoon we went to a couple more wineries which turned into an amazing long lunch at Mr Micks winery of which we are now members!
Day 100: Claire to Adelaide. Kerry, Matilda and I spent the afternoon shopping in Rundle mall while the boys were spoilt for choice with the little old British pubs to visit. One particular one they found was across from a comic shop so they made friends with the comic shop employee and didn’t see the boys for the afternoon!!
Day 101: Discovering Adelaide the best way, riding our bikes! The boys spent the morning on an Adelaide oval tour. Harry got to kick the ball around the sheds, control the markers on the old Adelaide scoreboard, walk out onto the field, and sit where Sachin Tendulkar sat in the sheds. They had a great morning… me and Maddie… manicure and pedicure! Our caravan park was so close to town and the botanic gardens. We went to Chinatown and the central markets for lunch and walked through the botanic gardens in the afternoon. I would come back to Adelaide tomorrow! The heritage buildings and layout of the city is incredible. You don’t actually feel like you are in a capital city.
Day 102: Fathers Day! Just when I thought I couldn’t love Adelaide any more we head to Glenelg for the day. Beautiful big breakie (not that bacon, eggs and avo havnt been on the menu most mornings of the trip anyway). But we lashed out and had someone else cook it for us this time for Father’s Day! Spent the morning looking around the shops at Glenelg and the kids played in the playground on the water. NB: maybe I did feel a little guilty about shopping up a storm on Father’s Day but he did ok believe me! A couple of drinks in the beautiful old pub on the water in the afternoon and already planning a trip back to Adelaide & Glenelg!
Day 103: On the way into Adelaide we discovered we had actually timed it right on the money for the Royal Adelaide Show. We kept it a surprise from the kids the whole time right up until the minute we walked through the gates. Excitement was an understatement! The kids have never been to a show before. Harry went on his first roller coaster (yes he is finally tall enough)! Then he continued to the graviton (vomitron)! No sickness BUT watch the slideshow and I’m sure you will agree I don’t think he was far off! No fear! Matilda kept to the chair swing, surfs up and the dodgem cars. I still think she out did what you would do Terry Rhoades-Brown 😂😂. We watched pig racing, wood chopping, iszuzu utes and motorbike shows and saw all of the baby animals. The show had it all and we all went home exhausted!
Day 104: Heading out of Adelaide we had been recommended a little town called Hahndorf on a number of occasions. A little German inspired village only half hour from Adelaide. It’s tree-lined traditional streetscape another reason to love this area. A cheese-maker, a candle-maker, traditional German pubs and food and chocolatiers…. say no more!
From here??? How to get home??? Which way to go???? What do we want to see?? We DID NOT know. Melbourne, Ballarat, Mount gambier, and the Grampians are all ideas that had been thrown around. We honestly were filling up with diesel at the BP and we still didn’t know where we were headed. Sooooo we decided none of the above and planned for Mildura, Canberra, and kangaroo valley. Happy with our decision we headed on our way! Stayed at a freecamp on the water at Loxton.
Day 105: 3 states today. SA followed by Victoria, followed by NSW! Had a lunch stopover and a walk around in Mildura. Then we headed into Yass and found a great little freecamp on the river. Such a pretty town!
Day 106: Camberra! 4 states in 2 days! Thought this was a great place to visit for the kids and we hadn’t been to Canberra since our year 6 excursions. Well actually I speak for myself, chris was too naughty to go on his!
We stayed at EPIC. Wow what a busy little spot. They are developing the tram line, plus there was a book fair, equestrian competitions, a baby Expo, farmers markets, gemstone festival and a dog show all where we were staying in the space of 2 days.!
First stop for the day was the war memorial. Again, nothing like I remembered from year six! What an amazing place to visit, we timed it well for the light and sound shows. We walked out of there and Harry says ‘that was a sad place to visit’. The kids placed a poppy on the memorial of all of those soldiers who lost their lives at war.
Next… a long lunch at Kingston foreshore (thanks for the recommendation Emma). Had a 12 course yum cha and rolled out of there to Parliament House. Got a jumping shot out the front of Parliament House which made a slideshow… not this one (the out-takes).. after my 12 course yum cha belly made an appearance!
A quiet Friday afternoon at Parliament House. We got to view the senate and the House of Representatives. Kids have learnt a lot today. Topped off by harry getting a photo with the policeman out the front of Parliament House with his m4 assault rifle. Matilda also still has her obsession with fancy toilets.! She has literally gone from freecamp with no facilities but a public dump point the night before to walking into the bathrooms of Parliament House!
Day 107: Kids has a heap of fun at questacon. A fantastic science display where they learnt a lot about colour, gravity and all things science. But the favourite for the day was the free fall experience, where you need to suspend yourself on a bar and get the feeling of free falling for a little bit before hitting the slide. After the initial confidence, Harry suited up and ended up being up there for about 20 minutes building the confidence. After many failed attempts they both did it, and then we couldn’t get them off it!
We had a lovely dinner that night visiting a beautiful long time friends in Canberra Emma and Marc. It was the first time we had been in a house for 4 months!
Day 108: What a way to end the trip with a stay in the gorgeous Kangaroo Valley. Bendeela free camp was an awesome spot on the river with wombats roaming everywhere! Just when you think you have seen it all in 4 months you don’t expect one of your last photos of the trip to be a selfie with a wild wombat (see below!). Sitting around of a nighttime and they are literally wondering under your chairs!
We have had some fun this week doing kids trip trivia in the car over the UHF with the wards. Makes those long hours of driving go fast. And makes the kids think about all the things they have learnt along the way.
We keep getting asked by the locals, are you ready to head home. The honest answer is NO, actually a big fat NO. We could totally keep going on our adventures, we have completely settled into living this life on the road and the kids are happy! BUT, with 16 weddings booked between when I return and the end of the year it will be straight back into it. NEXT BLOG… Favourite photos and an info blog. Stay tuned!
The Butler did it 
Hello, just wanted to say I do like your blog 🙂 Nice post too, well done 🙂 Check my blog out if you want. Irene
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