On the road again…

Well, it feels like we have just had a little ‘holiday’ from our holiday – if that makes sense – but finally tonight we are back into it, or back in the camper at least. The last time I posted we were sitting on the banks of the Murray. That was our last night in the camper until now. We were to have one more, but late that evening, about 6pm, we decided we loved the Murray, hated the flies, and it was time to head off. We packed up in record time (1 hour 40 minutes) and headed off to Geelong. We were in Geelong a week earlier than hoped, but the purpose was to dispose of some children (that means palming them off onto grandparents) so Tracy and I could do the house boat thing with just the two of us.

 It was quite a drive from Geelong to Mildura, and it was really shocking how dry it was the whole way. The last two hours were basically like driving through desert. We got there on Sunday evening, and checked into Mildura’s cheapest accommodation (believe me, I did the research) a $60 B&B – really quite good value for money. That evening we even got to experience some Mildura culture, a short film festival of locally made short films. It was… hmm… well we stayed for the first two anyway. The next day we shopped for our house boat experience, lost Tracy’s wallet, panicked, found Tracy’s wallet, and got ourselves on the boat.

The boat was one of the older boats on the water, but refurbished a couple of years ago. It had 3 bedrooms, kitchen, lounge, spa… everything we needed really. “Sailing” it was initially a bit more difficult that we imaged, and mooring the thing took some getting used to. We were pretty happy by the end of the first day that we didn’t have the kids, as it might not have been particularly relaxing. The next few days were quite pleasant with just the two of us. We stopped at several places to visit coffee shops, hotels and wineries. Not a bad way to laze away a few days. I even got a bit of fishing in, but this time only got a carp, which is a pest, and no good for eating. Unfortunately, the whole house boat experience was over far too quickly, and we had to drive back to Geelong as soon as we got off the boat.

It was good to see the kids again, who had a great time with the grandparents, visiting the cousins and uncles and aunts. That weekend was pretty much dedicated to family activities, with Dan and Cath coming down from Brisbane for the weekend. It was good to be all together, and the kids really enjoyed the time with the family. On the Sunday we all went to Eastern beach for lunch, and the boys, with their cousin Malya, spent a heap of time riding down the steep hills on cardboard, providing entertainment for the rest of the family.

The whole time spent in Geelong went very quickly. Tracy made the most of the time catching up with family and friends, the kids enjoyed extended family, and I caught up with a number of maintainance issues on the car and camper.

But soon it was time to hit the road again, and thus began 4 of the most frustrating days of the trip so far. We knew it might take a while to get back into the swing of things after a bit of a break, but it was harder than we imagined. It started off quite well, we made our way down the Great Ocean Rd, popped into Apollo Bay for lunch and caught the end of the Apollo Bay Music Festival. We went on to the 12 Apostles and had a look around. The plan was to then head to Port Campbell for the night, get a cabin in a caravan park and then move on the next day. But we couldn’t find anything suitable in Port Campbell, so we went on to Port Fairy and found ourselves a quite adequate cabin there.

The next morning we spent a bit of time looking around Port Fairy (another very ‘liveable’ little town we decided), and then moved on just a half hour down the road to the Fitzroy River mouth, where we had planned to camp for 5 days before going to Robe. We had to be in Robe (South Australia) the following Saturday to meet Tracy’s parents for a time there. But when we got to the camp site we just… didn’t like it. Same with the next camp site we tried… and then another… and then another. Cut a long 2 days short, we ended up traveling an extra 600 kms up the road to the Coorong National Park, which is actually 200 kms past Robe. Never-the-less, 2 days, another night in a cabin, and several DVD’s for the kids later, we were in the Coorong.

We had a great spot there – Long Point. It was right on the water, great views, but nothing in the way of shelter or shade. That first day wasn’t too bad. A nice sea breeze kept the temp down. We were stuffed at night, so went to bed early. The next day the wind was coming from the other direction. That bought two things. Heat and flies. It was awful. We ended up going for a drive in the morning, and again in the afternoon, just to escape it for a while. Eating was terrible, flies over everything. Anyway, finally the sun went down and brought some relief from the heat, and the lies quieted down for a bit too. We put the kids to bed and sat outside with the light on. And that brought the bugs. The air was just thick with them. In ears, up noses, all through hair. We beat a hasty retreat into the camper and into bed and made the decision to head back to the safety of the Big 4 caravan park in Robe and just wait for Bart and Tania to come.

And so we packed up early the next day (with the flies starting up again) and headed south again. And we have been in Robe since. The weather has been cool, actually, its been freezing, and windy and wet. But Robe is kind of set up for that with a number of coffee shops and wineries and the like, and we have been taking full advantage. Tracy and Tania have also managed to find other places to spend money on various items. We have also done some fishing, and have had one fish end up on the table which gave us a mouthful each.

We are booked in here until Thursday, and then its time to head north (again) and into Victor Harbor. Things are starting to get busier again. Victorian school holidays started this week, and South Australian start this weekend. We have the next 2 weeks well booked so we don’t miss out on camping spots.

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