To Strahan and Beyond!!

Last night we did a spotlight tour and a visit to a Tasmanian Devil Sanctuary - was very educational - the fellow seemed to have an endless pit of knowledge regarding Devils and liked to say "the bottom line is..." - needless to say there were a lot of bottom lines. The spotlight tour was great as well - saw Wombats, Bennett's and Paddy Melon Wallabies, and some bush-tailed possums. Kids were asleep by the time we got home and parents weren't far behind. It was in the low single digits in terms of temp when we went to bed and on waking well above the teens - balmy almost! We cleaned up, packed up camp and managed to get ourselves back on the road off to Strahan - a seaside town on the West coast. The drive was incredible with windy scary roads but incredible vistas and the temperature rising the lower we drove. By the time we arrived in Strahan it was 34 degrees - quite a change from the 21 degree highs in Cradle Mountain.

After a bit of housekeeping we headed to the Ocean Beach - a vast expanse of sand and erratic surf. The kids had a go with the boogie board to no avail as the surf was too scattered. It was virtually vacant and beautiful though - just the same. We returned to Strahan and headed into a small theatre company production called The Ship that Never Was - it was a true story of some early convicts and their attempt to free themselves from "slavery" at the ship builders in Hobart in the early days of settlement. There were only 2 in the cast and as such they involved a lot of the audience (including Aidan and Cole) in the production. Was great fun except that by the end Cole was feeling the effects of the insidious "febrile illness" that has been taking it's toll on our ranks. Piper has recovered, Aidan is recovering and Cole is now in the midst of it. Tomorrow we'll hit the dunes - sand board and all! Should be a blast! Happy New Years!

Our Canoe Day on Dove Lake

It's busy up here on Cradle Mountain - they estimated about 3000 visitors yesterday ! We were fortunate to get a spot with a local kayaking/canoeing group to do some paddling on Dove lake - the lake just below the Cradle (hence the name for the mountain). Aidan, Cole and I took to the lake, while Jen and Piper held fort on the shore. It was a beautiful day for a paddle and we could see a whole new side to the surroundings. Afterwards we enjoyed an ice cream and headed home to prepare for a night out with the spotters and a visit to the 'Devils' - a small sanctuary up the road. You'll be happy to know we haven't destroyed the caravan yet and the kids are still doing their daily journals - albeit - with a little coaxing,  sweat and tears. It'll become routine soon enough. Hope this finds everyone well.

Walking the Cradle

Today we had a leisurely morning doing some "administrative" things we never had chance to address before leaving Narrandera, then headed out to Dove Lake at the base of Cradle Mountain for the 6km circuit around the lake. It was absolutely beautiful - blue skies as far as the eye could see, no B-doubles with engine brakes, nothing but fresh air, the wind in our ears and Vitamin D absorption! (Yes I'm a doctor geek). Managed to see a wallaby and echidna on our ventures - very exciting. The kids did great and should sleep soundly tonite.

We've got 3 theme songs for our trip and one poem ...thus far. The Caravan of Love by the Housemartins is the official theme song, with If this was your last day by Nickelback and The Crazy Frog song taking unofficial honours. The poem of course is Walden Pond by Henry David Thoreau - you know - the one about sucking the marrow out of life - look it up if you haven't read it - words to live by.

Notable discoveries since leaving N'dera -: 1) Food tastes so much better on camping trips!
2) Caution must always be taken when putting beer in the freezer (even when you think it isn't cold enough to freeze) and 3) never leave crumbs on your kitchen table outside overnight - or you might wake with a little faecal present!

Onward Ho!

So we've made a start. Managed to finally stuff the caravan full of what will likely be a whole lot of unnecessary gear, clean the house and finish giving away whatever we couldn't pack into the caravan. Moving house and getting sorted in a Caravan really makes you aware of the clutter that seems to hamper everyday living - couldn't believe how much junk we've accumulated in 6 1/2 yrs! Mental note - buy less stuff! Right - so we made it without much ado to Port Melbourne and the Spirit of Tasmania terminal and managed to get fairly reasonable fuel economy along the way - was worried about this as our trip back from Dubbo a month or so ago seemed to guzzle a full tank over 150kms - must have been the wind!  The Spirit of Tasmania is a beautiful ship - and it looked like our crossing of the Bass Strait would go smoothly overnight until I woke in the wee hours with Piper beside me virtually burning up - I was suprised not to see steam rising from her - managed to cool her down in the shower, as being a good doctor, had left Nurofen/ Panadol in the inaccessible caravan down in the hold. Needless to say we didn't get a lot of sleep! Drugged her up first thing once out on the road and she stopped cooking. Once all buckled in we headed to Sheffield en route to Cradle Mountain. Very nice little town with lots of good quality murals and an early opener (6am) to fill our innards. Aidan had heard of some place called Tasmazia and assurred us it came highly recommended from his friend Lucy. It was a short jaunt from where we were so we made the trek. It was adjacent the Lake Barrington Rowing Centre so we had to have a look - it had hosted the world rowing championships in 1990 - 2000ms of straight, flat water - looked amazing ! The maze place was great as well and we fortunately were able to find our way out again. Once back on the road we headed to Cradle Mountain, found our camping spot and pulled out the bikes for an afternoon explore. It is rather hilly country and the boys struggled but prevailed (eventually) over some nice little rollers. I was so proud! Did a little "Enchanted Walk" as well in preface to a few more days of tramping around- had to get the kids' legs up to speed. At dinner back at camp a wee Wallaby wandered through sniffing out the Lego before scampering away - ahh - nature! It was a pleasant way to cap off our official first day out!