23/03/2024
Stopped in at Hopetoun and the lolly shop at Ravensthorpe. Shared birthday lunch with Nanna in Albany. And then arrived home to discover we were locked out of the house 😂
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Follow our first caravanning adventure across the country.
11/03/2024
As our trip is nearly over (and we had a bit of time to kill in the car) we did a little “Big Trip Review”
Best town
C & T Streaky bay
J&O Gold Coast- because we made some friends and the theme parks
Best caravan park
C Broken hill had the best facilities
T Streaky bay, location location
J- Townsville- for the water slides
O- Treasure Island because of the pool and kids activities
Best free/off grid stop
C&T Platypus flats
J& O fire museum (Mackay)
Best wild animal encounter
We all loved the turtles hatching at Mon Repos
J also loved seeing wild dolphins leaping in the surf at the bight and T was pretty happy when we finally found some platypus after multiple attempts
Best activity/day
C Swimming at Platypus Flats
T Wet and Wild - a good family day to hang out all together
J - Snorkelling at the Barrier reef and seeing a turtle, and Summer Bay
O Baby turtles at Mon Repos
Worst thing
C Driving to Platypus Flats/ having to watch the car for overheating
T Leeches! and the other flies , mosquitoes and bugs that attacked us at certain times
J That she didn’t catch a fish
O The steelworks tour at Whyalla (it wasn’t as interesting as they made it out to be)
What didn’t we get do/ would you like to do again
C More snorkelling and Yorke Peninsular
T Great barrier Reef at 1770 (where we were going to go but the cyclone was coming)
J More fishing (so I can catch a fish) and swim with dolphins (Baird bay)
O Wet n wild again
Best thing overall
C no phone ringing all day and no time cards
T living in the moment and enjoying family time without being in a rush and having to worry about all the “mum stuff” of school, after school, excursions…
J no school
O seeing a lot of new places
11/03/2024
Left Smoky Bay and headed west, through Penong to check out the biggest windmill before crossing the Nullarbor once more. Stopped for lunch at the Bight and were treated to a pod of dolphins playing in the surf. Crossed the border back into WA and drove in the rain again.
09/03/2024
Smoky Bay. Last stop to charge everything before we hit the Nullarbor… and the power is out all day and night 😩 It was HOT and crazy windy. The wind dropped in the afternoon and we did go for a swim and snorkel in the swimming enclosure. A couple of beautiful nights of squidding off the jetty, Oakley was SO EXCITED to catch his first squid!🦑
09/03/2024
Back to Streaky Bay, which was our first real stop on the way over, but this time we stayed to explore a little further and enjoy this beautiful spot. Ventured to Baird Bay to see the Sea Lion colony which was pretty cool.
Walked or paddled out to the little islands off the beach at our caravan park to fish and snorkel most days. Kids had a bit of an adventure when they were paddling and the wind came in, Oakley couldn’t paddle back in so Jayelle turned around and paddled back to rescue him and they got blown 400m down the beach.
06/03/2024
Coober Pedy (Mum’s Big Trip list location). We left the van in Streaky Bay and took the gravel. We stayed in an underground motel, it was definitely cooler than the outside. We went up the hill to the Big Winch and the Coober Pedy sign. We went down into the Old Timers Mine and museum. We also took a tour of Faye’s house and mine. She was the only woman to dig her own house, she began the tourism industry in Coober Pedy, and was the first person to dig a pool in Coober. We met a few barking geckos down her mine too. We found the “Opal Bug”.
We also went to the kangaroo orphanage and got kangaroo cuddles! Unfortunately the Coober Pedy Drive in was damaged in a storm late last year so is not operating at the moment.
02/03/2024
Coffin Bay national park. Some more close encounters with the locals. Went paddling and were investigated by a pod of dolphins. And found so many scorpions!
02/03/2024
Spent a night at Moonlight bay and explored the beach.
25/02/2024
Adelaide
Hammerbarn! After missing Hammerbarn in Queensland we detoured to Adelaide to find one. We found the paint wall- where everything is for free, pushed little Hammerbarn trolleys, and found Bluey characters all around the store. We even got dad to watch the episode so he could join in the fun! We strolled through the mall in the city before we headed to the Salisbury carnival (part of Adelaide Fringe festival) for free carnival rides, games and entertainment including Mahalia Barnes, and fire twirling.
25/02/2024
⚡️Lightning Ridge ⚡️
We started the day at the information centre where they have a large heap of “mullock” that anyone is free to dig in looking for opal. While the kids were “noodling” a friendly bloke, Derrick, came to show them some pieces of opal so they knew what to look for, and then let them keep the pieces! He shared many stories and some tips, showed us lots of different colours and pieces of opal and even an opalised dinosaur tooth!
Then we jumped in the car and took the self drive “car door” tours to check out some of the sights, and interesting architecture of Lightning Ridge. Houses of cans and bottles, and castles made of rocks. We went to the art gallery of John Murray, who also painted his emu murals around town. After a long hot day opal fossicking we went to the artesian bore baths, that were a very unrefreshing 40degrees! They are apparently good for muscle recovery and Jayelle thought her hair felt nice and silky in the morning.
22/02/2024
Roma - the town of bottle trees (not boabs). We also went to check out the Roma sale yards, they had a very modern information centre walk through showing the history of cattle farming in the area. And it was a sale day so also cows.
St George- stopped at “The Unique Egg”, hand carved emu eggs that are lit from the inside to show the layers and colours.
20/02/2024
On our way drive we saw a rainbow cloud- the photo doesn’t show it well but it was quite bright. And we found the “largest painting on an easel”, a replica of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, because they used to grow sunflowers in Emerald.
20/02/2024
Time to turn around and head south again. Trekked back down the Cassowary coast and found some swimming holes. We have had a lot of rain… 165mm in 12 hours (that’s nearly 1/3 of Katanning’s annual rainfall) Babinda is also Australia’s wettest town so no real surprise that it was raining there! We then stopped at Cardwell spa pools, that are usually a calm swimming spot with milky blue water, but with all the rain the blue washed away and they had become rapids. We still jumped in for a a swim.
17/02/2024
The Great Barrier Reef! This was Jayelle’s “big trip” request. We did a day trip out to Moore reef, glass bottom boat, semi submersible, snorkelling. Cam and Jayelle saw a turtle 🐢 and Oakley and I saw a shark 🦈 and got back on board the boat just before the rain started.
15/02/2024
Day trip to Kuranda. Rainforest markets. Bird world where we got up close with heaps of tropical birds, and the Australian Butterfly Sanctuary where we surrounded ourselves with a kaleidoscope of butterflies. And stopped off to see Barron falls in their full wet season glory on our way home.
15/02/2024
Pancake day. We drove to Mossman Gorge, stopping at a spot to build some cairns (that’s what piles of rocks are called). Along the walking track we stopped at some waterfalls and towards the end of the walk found a Boyd’s forest dragon.
14/02/2024
On our way to Cairns we stopped at Ingham for lunch and came across the Tyto wetlands. A beautiful walking track and wetlands area and fabulous information centre too. Tyto’s are also known as grass owls and live in the area. We didn’t see any owls but did find a whole lot of turtles! Officially made it to Tropical North Queensland and found the Big Gumboot of Tully. Across the park from the Gumboot were 2 huge “rain trees” that had starlings nesting in large grassy nests.
12/02/2024
Bowen’s big mango on the way to Townsville. Magnetic Island, being stinger season we stayed out of the water but did find the famous bikini tree. Our caravan park has curlews that come out in the evening, they are quite interesting to watch, running and freezing if they think they have been seen. They used to be found near our house but as they are mostly ground dwelling I’m guessing the foxes got them.
09/02/2024
After the cyclone off the coast interrupted our plans for a snorkelling trip from the little town of Seventeen Seventy out to Lady Musgrave island, we continued to Mackay. We took a drive out to the Eungella (Yunga-la) national park to find platypus. After some terrifying leech close encounters, we did actually find some platypus!
06/02/2024
What a big day! Up early to meet the Tin Can Bay dolphins. They are Australian humpback dolphins (a species only found here in Australia) This is a single family group that started coming in in the 50’s after an injured dolphin was fed by fishermen until he was healthy enough to return to his pod and brought them back. As they are a vulnerable species the Tin Can bay centre is an approved feeding site. We were lucky to see 7 dolphins including Ella a 42yr old grandma (the oldest in the group) with her 2 yr old calf, and another mother and calf. One of the boys, Luna, also brought a crab shell in to present to us (a natural behaviour, boys will bring presents to impress the girls).
The we finished the day at Mon Repos (pronounced Mon Reppo) turtle centre. They have a beautiful centre with documentaries, ranger talks, kids ranger exploration, interactive exhibits to entertain while you wait for an “event” to occur on the beach. Once there is something to see groups are called to walk out to the beach. We were the last group of the night so didn’t leave the centre until 10:30. Out on the beach a few hatchlings were wiggling at the surface but after nearly an hour with no further action our ranger had a feel around the outside of the chamber and removed a small handful of grass roots. After that a volcano of turtle hatchlings poured out of the chamber and across the sand. We got little turtle hi-5’s before we followed them down to the waters edge and made sure they were all washed out to sea.
The turtles are very sensitive to light so limited photos were allowed.
We also spotted a few flecks of blue bioluminescent algae sparkling on the sand.
Ranger Kelly was fabulously entertaining keeping the adults and kids awake and informed for the evening.
04/02/2024
Crikey! It’s Australia Zoo.
Started the day with the Tiger talk. Hunter the tiger is completely blind after cataract surgery that his body rejected, he now has prosthetic eyes. He still moved around the enclosure confidently and found all the food that was placed around. Cheeky lemurs, meerkats, a close encounter with a wild water dragon, Tasmanian devils, dingoes and the most active bunch of koalas I have ever seen. And of course crocodiles 🐊
We watched the Wildlife Warriors show in the “Crocoseum”, and I won a prize for my lizard impression 😂
04/02/2024
Wet n Wild was a great family day. The kids got brave and came on all the big slides too! We were having so much fun I forgot to take photos.
And we finally made it in to Surfers Paradise.
02/02/2024
Play at the park while the car had a service. They had a really cool pedal track roller coaster thing!
02/02/2024
Movie World. Oakley loved the Scooby Doo 4D movie- we watched it twice. We were too busy having fun to take many photos. Cam and I did the big rides - Superman was fast, Green Lantern was quite slow but smooth and twisted off the edge, and we finished the day with the front seat of the DC rivals hypercoaster- steep drop and long coaster- video thanks to Jayelle. And she was pretty happy with a new “JL” hat- they say it stands for Justice League- but we know the truth 😁
02/02/2024
David Fleay’s Wildlife Park. Dr David Fleay was a naturalist who was the first person to successfully breed platypus in captivity and successfully bred many other endangered species. We went hoping to see a platypus but after checking multiple times over the day the platypus didn’t want to come out. We did see crocodiles feeding, turtles basking, brolgas dancing. And some bridled nailtail wallabies that were believed extinct for nearly 30 years.
31/01/2024
Sea World. Seal show, Dolphin show, stunt ski show, a few rides and lots of animals. Feeding stingrays was lots of fun.
31/01/2024
After a bed upgrade and putting the kids to work, we rolled into Queensland.
26/01/2024
🇦🇺Happy Australia Day from Platypus Flat.
It was a bit of an adventure to get in, and out, but a beautiful spot. Little rapids that opened into a smooth river. We went looking for platypus but bubbles and a platypus shaped shadow under the water was as close as we got. We did go for a lovely paddle this morning and rode the rapids on our paddle boards - Jayelle’s idea! And enjoyed sitting in the cool clear water.
And finished the day with dinner in Byron Bay.
26/01/2024
We stopped at Stoney Aqua Park, before we had another impromptu stop. 43degrees and towing up the side of the mountain gets a hot car. But we finally made it to our stop “Platypus Flat”
25/01/2024
Looking for accommodation in Port Macquarie I came across a spot labeled “Fire Museum” so we went to check it out. We were not disappointed. The museum was not officially open when we arrived but owner Don was more than happy to show us around and tell us stories of his collection. Port Macquarie is also a big koala area and there was a wild koala living in the gum tree at the front of Don’s. Port Macquarie is also home to a koala hospital. Unfortunately after the last big bushfires koalas are now endangered so the hospital is also running a breeding program to try to re populate and improve numbers.
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