Ronalds on the road

One family, travelling Australia


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Another birthday, lots of family, friends and fun…………and home!!!

Its been a while since the last post. One of the things we have noticed is the change of pace. Despite being in a holiday region, there is a faster and faster pace happening as we head South!

We stayed in Hervey Bay longer than planned as the places we wanted to visit were booked out, so Ava got to celebrate her 4th birthday and to make it a bit more special the McKeown family met us for lunch. Even providing a cake with trimming! It was so nice seeing some familiar faces. Thanks for making the effort Larry, Cate and girls. Avas birthday also coincided with the annual “Whale festival”, so they enjoyed face painting, bouncy castles and a number of bands on the esplanade.

After Hervey Bay we went to Alexandra Headlands for 6 nights. We had been looking forward to this for a longtime as we had a number of friends holidaying here as well. It was sooooo nice to see more familiar faces.  23 people including littles and Becs mum flew up for 3 nights as well. We had so much fun, craziness, catching up and beach here that we forgot to even get the camera out of the case and take some shots!!

Gold Coast was the next destination for 3 nights. On the way we had lunch with Becs, Uncle Jon, G and the girls and also bumped into Uncle Wal and Becs sister Chelle and family!

Bec couldn’t go to the Gold Coast without hitting the Harbour Town outlets, we caught up with Steve’s Aunty Sylv, Becs Nan a couple of time, we bumped into Barry and Linda, which we first met traveling at Geraldton in WA. We worked out we bumped into them at least 7 times on this trip! They gave the kids MORE gifts and a didgeridoo Barry’s brother made and some massive wild pigs teeth(tusks) and we also went to “Santo Family Park” which is to celebrate Barry’s families ownership of a lot of the land in the area.

It was good to see Becs Nan and for the kids to see her. It was the first time she had seen Maya and they had an instant bond which was lovely.

We had also been telling the kids for a long time that we would go to Sea World to see all the marine life. So we had a day there and we also went to Movie World for half a day.

Phew. No wonder we were tired after our 3 nights on the Gold Coast!

So our Gold Coast adventure ended after lunch on Wednesday and we arrived back at our home Friday to sleep in our own BIG beds for the first time in five and a half months. (Home about 2 weeks earlier than expected. More about that in our next and probably last blog for a bit!

 

 


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Whales!

Whales, what beautiful creatures of the deep! I am now totally in love with whales! This trip has allowed us to learn and experience first hand God’s beautiful creation and marine life is one of our new loves. From the whale sharks of the Ningaloo Reef, to the Humpbacks of Hervey Bay and every marine animal in between. Of course Ava’s and Maya’s favourite is the dolphin with seahorse coming in at a close second.

Today we got to go out on a boat in the sunshine and experienced the beauty of ‘whale watching’ (or ‘people watching’ as the tour staff called it as the whales are very inquisitive and love watching what’s going on on-board). It was truly breath taking watching these massive animals swim and play around in the ocean. They came so close to the boat, Steve and Ava even got sprayed by the spray from the whale! Our particular boat had an underwater viewing area so we saw the whales up close under water which was very cool.

We were out all morning so it was a bit too long for Maya but thankfully we met this really lovely family with 3 kids (2 girls a bit older than our kids and 1 boy a bit younger than Noah) so they kept the kids occupied on the journey home (and even got to have a play at the beach this afternoon!) which was very nice!

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Queensland. Rainy one day, Windy the next. (Or a combination of both!)

We had been so excited to get to the Queensland coast. Beautiful beaches, blue waters, blue skies and swimming, snorkelling and playing on white sandy beaches. (Well, that’s what we expected anyway). So for days and days of driving we had been progressively getting the kids more and more excited to hit the coast again and they had joined in our anticipation of all of the above!

What we actually discovered once we hit the coast at Townsville was rain, grey skies, wind, very tidal muddy colored water with mangroves. (Looked very much like croc country to me!), which had signs everywhere saying no swimming unless you wanted to die from either crocodiles or stingers, and mud for beaches!!

So we had to change our thought process somewhat to a more of a stay out of the rain, stay out of the water and find play grounds, go for walks and rides or just do the touristy stuff.

We did find some great places. “The Strand” (The esplanade) was fantastic, water parks, swimming pool, play grounds and the usual shops and cafes etc. We spent a day at “Reef HQ”, the aquarium which was great. The kids got to do some interactive  lessons and loved seeing all the underwater life.  Our neighbours had one child who was 7, and she LOVED playing with the kids. They even had 2 pet guinea pigs living in the caravan with them which our kids loved!

After Townsville we headed to Bowen and stayed at Horseshoe bay, which was beautiful. The wind continued to blow and blow, but thankfully we were out of the wind at the caravan park.


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Back to Victoria!

Yay! 10 days back in Vic! We had a very welcomed short trip back to Vic for my brothers Aussie wedding celebration and nephews first birthday 🙂 It was so wonderful being back with our families and friends.

We stayed with my parents and Steve’s parents for the time we were home so it felt like another type of holiday, not home. We loved every second of our time and even though it was hectic, we are so glad we got to see the fam.

Our favourite bits about being home:

Steve – knowing we were coming back to finish our holiday

Bec – hanging out with those we love

Noah – playing Lego

Ava – Tilly (our very loved cat is being looked after by our very loved friends and we went to visit her)

Maya – Nanny

 

(need to upload some pics from Nate’s party then I’ll put them on)


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7500km in 5 days (Technically anyway)

No wonder we were tired. After travelling from Jindivick to Melbourne to Sydney to Darwin to Townsville in 5 days. We must be crazy. Or is it cheating to count 5000 of those kms that were in an aeroplane!!! Even if we deduct the flights and the measly 200kms from Darwin to Pine Creek, we averaged 575km/day for 4 days and the kids did great. Also crammed in there were swims at Mataranka, a visit to the quirky Daly Waters Pub, many Dinosaur sightings and a Dinosaur museum on the “Dinosaur trail” and quite a few playgrounds got a workout including a big one in Mt Isa.


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The Top End

It was decided well before we left home that we wouldn’t focus much on the area from Katherine and above. We were up here 5 years ago and had a pretty good look around with our good friends Rachel, Brit, Ben and Ian and Anne.

There was however a few spots we did want to revisit, mainly Litchfield NP and Edith Falls. The rest of our 6 days in Darwin was to slow down and relax. (As much as you can with 3 little kids!)

Litchfield didn’t disappoint. Especially Wangi falls and Buley Rockholes. And neither did Edith falls. At Buley rockholes both Noah and Ava were jumping into the river off rocks higher than themselves which was pretty brave I thought! Especially considering before we left on this trip Ava was petrified of the waves and Noah wouldn’t get his face wet in the water!!

We were fortunate enough to catch up with friends, Alan, Carly and kids at Edith Falls. We were camping at the falls and they made the effort to pop in to see us which was great. In Darwin we went to the free waterparks which were fantastic. Noah just scraped in being tall enough to go down the waterslides and he very valiantly went down the speed racer on a mat and at another park went down a pitch black slide on a tube with Steve. Very brave! It was at this park we bumped into one of Bec’s old school friends, Jess and her sister Sarah and family. it was great to see these guys as well. Such a small world.

We also went on a jumping crocodile cruise which was great. It was made all the more special by “Nifti”, the biggest croc in the river having a fight with a smaller crocodile beside the cruise boat. The bang of a big crocodile thrown into side of the boat and the splash of water up the windows wont be forgotten in a long time!

It’s truly a different world up here. While Steve, Ava and Maya waited 2 hours longer than expected  for the wheels of the car to be rotated, they learnt a new phrase during a conversation about someone being too busy in the Northern Territory. “That’s not the Territory way”!!

 


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Filling in time

Back in Exmouth, when we made the decision to extend the trip to include Term 3 as well as Term 2, we tossed up the idea of driving back to Victoria and then heading North as quick as possible. (winter seemed too daunting!) or flying home from Broome, Darwin, Alice Springs or Cairns. It seemed most logical to head home from Darwin. (In an airplane of course!!)

A rough itinerary was made which said we catch a plane home on 19th July. And that was all!!!

If you’ve taken any notice of our previous posts, we aren’t very good planners or itinerary writers.

So after some bad planning, we found ourselves with a bit too much time up our sleeves to catch our flight.

So we ducked into Keep River national Park which is just over the border into NT. It had quite spectacular scenery on the 30km drive off the hwy to the camp. It reminded us of the Gibb River Road scenery on one side of the road and it is said to be much like the Bungle Bungles on the other side of the road. But once we got to the camp, there was really only quite long walks (4km rated difficult), so we gave these a miss as it was pretty hot (around 35 degrees) and we figured the pack horses (Mum and Dad) might night make it!!! So we just had a lazy camp here instead.

So we then went to a free camp near Timber Creek on the Victoria River. These popular free camping spots fill up so quickly. We got to this one before lunch and struggled to get a free spot! Those coming in later end up either having to keep going on further or just wedging in next to other kind campers. The kids like these camps as well as caravan parks as they can go a feral! And generally we don’t have too many people want to camp too close as they see 3 little kids playing or riding near by and that scares the oldies off sometimes!!

Next stop was Victoria River Roadhouse. This was our cheapest Caravan Park yet. $25/night. It was a pretty cool spot. The first place we could throw Noahs boomerang (Thanks Barry and Linda) with out risking losing it into croc infested rivers or other forms of water and also avoiding hitting someone’s  house, caravan, car or worse still taking out some old granny!!! There were helicopters coming and going, the RM Williams big truck camped just near us. It felt like we were in a bit of cowboy country! It was around here that the TV show “Keeping up with the Jones’s” was filmed, so we kept a close watch out for “Milton” and “Little Milton”. We did see one of their road train cattle trucks pull in.

 


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Good bye WA

It was a sad day leaving Western Australia. We have LOVED it and have made some amazing memories with the family. We also realize that it will most likely be a long time before we are able to visit again!

We really enjoyed Kununurra visiting the Sandalwood Factory, Zebra Rock, Feeding the fish at Zebra Rock, eating bananas from HCJB, Hidden Valley, Fishing below the Diversion Dam and other rivers. Having our real neighbours from Jindivick pull into the site next to us in Kununurra was a bit strange, but very nice to see some familiar faces. Becs brother Jon flew into town for a few minutes as well to refuel the plane he was on. It was surreal to see his plane fly directly over head and the kids waving franticly at Jonny!

Our last place in WA was Lake Argyle. The only word I can thing of is stunning. We swam in the freezing infinity pool which was pretty cool. (Literally as well!!). Noah and Steve hired a boat and cruised doing some fishing. Noah loved this as we caught many catfish. The neighbours were disgusted that we threw them all back. Apparently they are a delicacy around this area, although they had to change their name to “Silver Cobbler”, as they taste much better that “Catfish”


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Gibb River Road Part 2

This end of the Gibb River Road was very different, much more commercialised. We loved Home Valley and El Questro.


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Gibb River Road

The Gibb River Road (6-700kms)? is an iconic, last frontier kind of road. A shortcut from Derby to Kununurra, that takes a lot more time than the main road. It is renowned for its scenery, ruggedness, remoteness and rough corrugations. We had been looking forward to this as on the map, it’s about the furtherest point from home and marks a change in direction, from constant travelling North to now heading East. ;-(
Unfortunately a couple of days before we headed off Ava came down with a nasty cough and high temperatures, so it was another trip to an Emergency Dept. to get her attended too before we headed out away from civilisation. She was found to have fluid behind her ears and a very red throat. So we headed off with a pile of drugs for her. Along the road we all managed to share her illness and none of us could run more than a couple of minutes without having coughing fits and struggling for oxygen!!! This meant we were a bit restricted in the walks and sights we could see.
One of the first things we noticed was the cost of everything. Our first 2 nights at a place called “Birdwood Downs” (Just out of Derby) cost $41/night for an unpowered dusty site. Although it did have the first bath in over 10 weeks. The kids really enjoyed cramming in it together. It made us realize how much they have all grown, because they don’t really fit anymore!!!
At Imintji we got 98 litres of fuel for only $243. ($2.365/litre) This was the cheapest we saw. The most expensive was $2.65/litre! They also advertised the “Best Coffee on The Gibb”. I probably should have checked the prices, but I had to fork out $17 for two coffees and one loaf of frozen bread. (and I’m assuming there must be some pretty average coffee on the Gibb, as it wasn’t the best we’ve ever had!)
Ellendale Station is said to have the “Best scones on the Gibb”. (and they were delicious!) but 5 scones with jam and cream cost $27.50!
Home Valley Station are happy to charge us a $20 surcharge/day if we want any power as well!
But………is it all worth it? Too right. It’s a great experience. The scenery is stunning, the stars at night are amazing, the grass is taller than the car, the cattle are taller than the car, the crocodiles are longer than the car, the corrugations are relentless on the car, the gorges are beautiful, the people are friendly, there are helicopters buzzing around, the trucks are almost 60 metres long, the graders have 2 semi trailers towed behind them with fuel, equipment, utes and sleeping quarters. Each station is unique have their own quirky features. We hiked, swam, fished, ate and relaxed our way.
Our car and caravan have survived and fared quite well. It’s a 14 year old caravan and it had a few minor dust leaks. A handful of screws came a bit loose on the caravan, one day we didn’t lock a sliding window properly and it opened a bit and let in some extra dust in.
But what we did see was cars driving towards us with driving lights hanging on by the wires, many rattly cars driving by, number plates fallen off, 1 car destroyed totally (no spare tyres left, ran out of oil and water leaks), 1 car with some oldies saying they were broken down but under control. Some people who camped next to us in Home Valley said that in 33 kms between El-Questro and Home Valley they saw 12 broken down vehicles. Mostly tyres and broken axles/springs. We even saw a helicopter towing a broken down/crashed helicopter.