October 21, Day 545 Home (temporarily)

Yes we are home, though only for a short time. We snuck home for Mum's surprise birthday party and to catch up on 18 months away.

We stayed in some lovely places in NSW – Gum Bend Lake at Condobolin was nice, no water in the man-made lake yet but a free camp with hot showers is always great; we saw Utes In a Paddock (utesinthepaddock.com.au) which was really well done and well worth going for a look, we visited The Dish at Parkes (that's so much bigger than we expected), stayed at Dumaresq Dam near Armidale with some stunning Crimson Rosellas, just to name a few places that we visited.

We made our way into Queensland Monday 11^th in pouring rain and drove through ½ metre of water on the east side of Kilcoy, nicely cleaning the underside of the caravan and car.  We couldn't believe how much water was over the bridge and road, Anzac Memorial park was completely submerged. No cars were getting through but luckily we were allowed with the 4wd.

Yes, we are home, however we are booked on the Spirit of Tasmania in December so we aren't done travelling just yet.  The only thing I'm not looking forward to is Erin in Year 10 next year, should be interesting, she's pretty good with her schooling though – most of the time. Show me a teen that's good all of the time!

It has been great catching up with family and friends, even Geoff's parents came down from Townsville to visit.  We should be home for 4 or 5 weeks and may try for a bit of work while we are here. I tried to get my old job back at Woolies but it had been 3 months and 1 day since I finished at the Fremantle store, 1 day too late to walk into a job without going through the interview, induction and probation period again. "Sorry, rules are rules, no exception, even though we are really short staffed at the moment, if only you'd come in 2 days ago." Bugger. However, I am assured that I can have my job back when we return from Tassie, but I still have to do the interview, induction and probation for the third time. Woohoo.

 

October 3, Day 527 Griffith NSW

I know, I've been slack with my blogging but getting back to nature involves kicking back and soaking it up, so I did.

We visited a couple of national/conservation parks around SA. Mambray Creek at Mt Remarkable was terrific even though it poured most of the time we were there. We did a few of the walks, one in the rain but found the view was a white-out when we got to the top, the other was during sunshine and we could see all the way back across the gulf to Whyalla.

We also stayed at Bool Lagoon which was in full flood for the first time in 6 years so the rangers and bird watchers were very happy, as was Erin, ever with the bird book.

Naracoorte Caves was interesting, we went into the fossil exhibit and the Wet Cave, a bit costly but we enjoyed it.

The Murray River in South Australia has several free ferry crossings so we couldn't help but try one out at Wellington on the way to Strathalbyn, Geoff found it a bit unnerving, especially when the site has claimed a few punts and cars in the past. No dramas for a while now though. The ferry was quite large with a pantec behind us and four cars beside us doing the crossing.

Friends from home, Terry, Carolyn and Rachael came to South Aus to catch up with their friends and family so we caught up with them at Deep Creek Conservation Park on the Fleurieu Peninsula then again for a trip into Swan Hill in Victoria on their way home.

As it was school holidays, we decided it would be a good time to go into the Swan Hill Pioneer Village as they'd probably have more activities going on and we weren't disappointed. Carolyn and I went with the girls to watch the butter making demonstration while the boys checked out the blacksmithing, we all went on the horse and carriage, Erin and Rachael made nails at the blacksmith shop and then dressed up in pioneer clothing for photos and there's no going past ye olde lolly shoppe without buying something yummy, is there? We went back the following day to pick up a wrought iron tripod that Geoff had ordered from the blacksmith and visited the lolly shop again.

We are currently touring through NSW and enjoying the colourful displays of flowers everywhere, there are fields and fields of Patterson's Curse in full purple flower, yellow canola flowers, golden wattles, cape weed and orange gazanias. There are also flashes of white and yellow and pink that are also everywhere but I have yet to stop and get a closer look to identify.

We are looking for warmer weather as the cold and wet has got to us and we seek the warmth of the north again before we return south to Tassie for Christmas.  We loved South Australia and cannot fault the people (one lady even baked cookies and slices for us at Whyalla, apparently she does that for everyone who stops at Weeroona FC), though I think we had four fine days the whole time we were there so we will hopefully return another time, another season, and then probably complain about the heat!