Travelling at 90km an hour

We are on the road again.  However this time it was at a reasonable hour.  I was a little confused this morning due to my QLD time clock – thankfully daylight savings ends soon.  Packing up was easy as Hamish hung out with his adopted Grandparents and even gave them a cuddle and a kiss goodbye.

Not a lot of traffic today - this is pretty much it.

 

The journey consisted of one narrow bridge crossing which we just happen to cross at the same time as another ute with a trailer (after hardly seeing any cars for the past 100km), a toilet stop in the home of the Cod (Collarenebri) and then to Walgett for morning tea.  I can’t say my memory of this town is great as I stumped my toe on a piece of metal sticking out from the ground and cut it open.  Lucky we have a first aid kit on us and a few wipes and Band-Aids later I was off and hobbling again.   Though a new lesson learnt – keep the first aid kit in the car as it is easier to get to.

 

Hamish making sure we are on the right road.

The country is quite green out here and a lot of water in the low lying areas.  Jason asked a local about it and she said it was all water from QLD.  Brewarrina was our lunch stop and now we are on the final leg of today to Bourke.  Probably best as Kayla is just a tad bit over it today but will hopefully be happy enough for these last 87 km.  Hopefully we will find some free internet in Bourke so I can upload these to the blog.  I find writing these blogs are helping me get through some of these long drives. 

 

Travelled all this way and apparently we weren't too far from Angledool.

We have decided to not do the Bourke to Broken Hill drive all in one day.  Instead we are going to break it into two as that will take the pressure off us to get going early but also the poor little ones won’t be stuck in the car again for another massive day.  We are staying in Bourke for two nights as it will make it easier for the Easter Bunny to find Hamish (ha ha). 

Basket is out with a carrot in it for the bunny.

 

Bourke is certainly different.  I find it quite sad how a lot of things are boarded right up and extremely high fences around a lot of the things like school, bowls club etc.  Even just going to the bottle’o they were gated in.  Though on a good note we did manage to stock up on some beer and wine (phew).  Anyway I seem to be having a lot of trouble loading up the photos so I think I am really going to have to limit them which is sad.

 Hope you all have a fantastic Easter.

Kayla doing what she does best!

We are off.

Well today we started our five and a half week trip.  Not ones to be stuck in the Easter traffic we made the call to leave early.  So at 4:30 am we hit the open road.  It isn’t hard to do when everything was all packed up, lunches made and kids are asleep.  There was however one flaw in our plan… the ability to transfer sleeping kids from bed to car.  Kayla transferred well, however Hamish woke up and was like an energiser battery.  He had been looking forward to this day for years (that is what is feels like for toddlers and parents who try and explain weeks/days to them). 

The first ten minutes was spent answering all his questions and listening to Hamish rattling on about anything and everything.  Then he drifted off to sleep again and Kayla woke up, looked around, obviously wasn’t impressed and went back to sleep.  The fog and dam reflections along the Cunningham Highway and the sunrise as we were going up Cunninghams gap were just spectacular and really makes you appreciate the beautiful country we live in.

Needless to say with such an early start we made great time.  As most of you were waking up for breakfast, we were having morning tea in Warwick.  Next stop was Goondiwindi where we had a play on the playground and another morning tea (way too early for lunch).  I had to admit I was surprised to see a McDonalds, obviously was a lot bigger than I thought.

Setting up camp on our first night - kept it simple.

 

We arrived at our destination for the night (Moree) at 1:30 (NSW daylight saving time – 12:30 pm normal time).  So we set up, had lunch and then made the most of the artesian spas.  Honestly, anyone with kids, this is the way to travel.  In our caravan park for the night, there were a lot of “Grandparents” who hadn’t seen their own grandkids for a long time, so Hamish and Kayla were a huge hit and loved hanging with them.  So read between the lines (entertainment for kids)!!!!!  Not to mention Hamish made friends with another little boy who was on holidays with his Grandmother.
 

Have to still keep up with the soccer.

Obviously we are learning as we go with this trip.  Firstly and foremost we must ensure that beer/wine is on the "to pack" list.  We found out the hard way that we had only packed 3 beers.  That was fine for the first night, but tomorrow night there might be a fight (jokes).  We obviously only packed what was in the fridge and forgot the ones in the pantry.  Secondly we think it will work better if one of us takes the kids for a walk/play outside while the other cooks, and then after dinner the roles are swap while the person who didn’t cook clears away and washes up.

 So first day equals success and we are going continue on J

 

Off on a walk.

 

Time to sit back and relax.

 

Two sleeps to go!

Only two more sleeps to go!  How excited are we!  Okay truth be told we are certainly getting there, however so much is running through our heads too as to what to pack, how much clothes and where on earth we are going to fit it all in.

The majority of items are packed except for the things we are putting in the car and what we need to use tomorrow (ie Kayla's high chair).  Due to the sudden realisation too that every man and his dog will be leaving to go away on Good Friday, we have decided to get up at the crack of dawn and hit the road early.  This should not be a problem for us as we have an alarm clock that still wakes for an early morning feed.  Though I bet if there is going to be one morning she decides to not need her morning feed, Friday will be it.

So we might have to get the neighbours (hint, hint) to take a photo of the family tomorrow afternoon in front of our fully loaded up car and van.

Well we hope you are all looking forward to your Easter break, I know we are (none more so then Hamish).

Under two weeks to go

Well now that the rain has finally cleared we have been spending our weekends getting the van ready for our big trip.   Obviously a lot of planning an organisation needs to go into a 5 week trip with an energetic toddler and a active baby.  Hamish was more then happy to help us out be reading up on places for us to stay.

Obviously we aren't looking at booking anything but it will be nice to have an idea of what is available (facility wise) in each town.

One of the main issues we had was where and how to sleep Kayla.  Obviously when she is a bit bigger she can share a bed with Hamish, but at the moment we are more worried he will roll on top of her.  The solution is for Kayla to have the bed that the table forms into, and we have found this wrap that goes around the mattress that will hold her in place and stop her from rolling off.  She looks pretty happy about her new bed.

Next on my shopping list (yes I love shopping) was a chair for Kayla.  I found this awesome moon chair and she sits so nicely in it and doesn't fall out.  So another job ticked off.  Don't worry Jason hasn't just been sitting around.  He has been building shelves so we can pack things away better and sorting out where everything is going to fit.

With our departure happening on Good Friday, it means we will be away on Easter Sunday.  Don't worry the Easter Bunny will find the kids (and I am sure they will share with the big kids)!  However I like to make the day special and filled with lots of fun.  So look out Bourke, the McCulloch family and their Easter Egg hunt are coming to town.  I read about this great idea of glow in the dark eggs, so I wanted to try them out before we actually pack them in the van as we all now how precious the space is.  They were a hit, so I will pop some little eggs inside and Hamish can do a night time Easter hunt.

Well that is all for now.  Who knows our next post may be on our holiday.

Go away rain!!!

So two of the major jobs that needs to be done before we go away is get on top of the yard work and organised the pop top and add in a bit of extra shelving.  What do we ideally need for both of these is some good weather?  What don't we have?  Good weather!!!!