Rain

I thought we were in a drought - but rain seems to be following us wherever we go. It has bucketed down for days, and we're all a bit over it. We are pretty certain it has rained for us every single week since we hit the road - before we left in January, it felt like it hadn't rained for years!!

Unfortunately, while the annex keeps the rain off, water still has a tendancy to sneak in under the sides when it rains heavily, which soaks the flooring and anything in contact with it. Little annoying things like this are not a big deal in the scheme of things, but having a toddler around the place, as always, complicates even the smallest issue.

We reckon we should go and camp at Somerset Dam - at least then if the rain followed us, Brisbane might have something to drink for a while. Cool.

Nambucca Heads

We arrived at Nambucca Heads today - not that we've had a chance to explore very much so far, but what we have seen is great. The park here is one of the best we have stayed in - although it's very small and older in comparison to a lot of others, the amenities are clean and thoughtfully set up, it's about 50m walk down a little track to the beach, the van sites are both shady and grassy, and they have a big jumping pillow, playground, solar heated pool, and a nicely appointed games room for the kids (including big kids like me). Oh, and the staff are both friendly AND helpful - something that's surprisingly hard to find in a caravan park in our experience.

It's fantastic to be here, far away from the Forster mosquitoes - Nambucca doesn't seem to have (m)any at all.

We tried something new last night, and basically packed EVERYTHING up before going to bed last night, and did as much preparation as possible (like hooking up all the towing gear on the car). It had mixed results - we had to have McDonalds for breakfast (aww.. poor babies..), since we'd already packed up the table, chairs and awning, but it meant that we were on the road literally half an hour after getting up instead of the usual 2-3 hours. Some things were not ideal, but it made for an interesting exercise.

On a different note altogther, Grace is getting a lot more independant in the swimming pool (just in time for the world championships too). She has got a lot more confident since she has been wearing floaties on her arms, and now happily bobs around the big kids pool with her head above the water. She's not great at kicking yet (although she's working on it) but seeing her confidence grow is fantastic. It will be great to see her able play in the pool with her cousins at Easter time in Brisbane. We're also looking forward to getting her some more swimming lessons when we're at Caloundra for a few months - it's just so important if you're going to live in this climate that you make your kids water-safe.

The Many Faces of Forster...

We went for a little drive today to explore Forster a bit - it's a nice little town, right near a bunch of lakes (the locals call the "the great lakes") and of course the ocean. As such, there's a real variety of scenery to have a look at, all within a very short distance...

When up at the lookout on the headland today, we saw a pod of dolphins, lazily swimming their way round the rocks and weed beds a hundred or so metres below us. I think we were at the perfect vantage point to watch - if we were on a boat or the shore, you'd have no real concept of how many there were, or where they swam around the rocky shoreline. They are such playful creatures, it was fantastic to see them in their natural habitat like that.

Mozzies that could pick you up and cart you away.

It is with a mixture of relief, excitement and fatigue that we arrived yesterday at Forster. It is such a pretty caravan park here. Our site is sheltered by the shade of some extra tall palm trees and behind them is a beautiful little river. Everything is green and lush and just within arms reach. Our site looks over the two swimming pools, the Castaway Campers Shed (ie. campers kitchen, recreation hall & stage complete with little puppet alcoves), and in the distance are the playground and amenities.

As we pulled in we thought everything looked perfect, with the one exception that there are no concrete slabs for your annexe. But we sucked it up and took it on the chin because, heck, we're only here four days. Let's not get bent out of shape about it!

A few minutes after we pulled up, I took Grace for a short walk. I wanted to hang our annexe matting up on the pool fence in the sun so it would dry off after hosing. So we had a little wander and by the time we'd walked past the hall and into the playground, Grace had at least TEN mosquitos clinging to her delicious juicy flesh. I can not describe the rage I was feeling as I tried to squash these mini-vampires without hurting my little darling.

Camping is hard work and we've been struggling to keep a good attitude about a lot of things,... but these mozzies are so ferocious that they could almost pick you up and cart you away. This morning Grace wakes up and is covered in big pink bites. In an attempt to minimise mozzie bites, she is confined to the annexe. Our annexe has no concrete slab so we have little sections where the sand has made it's way through. I'm trying not to get cranky,... but between the mozzies and the sand all my efforts to remain calm have failed.

[sigh]

Forster is our first stop on our journey home to Brisbane and I am really glad to be heading back. Three months is a long time to be on the road and confined to a small living space. It is also a long time for Scott and Grace to have to put up with the ebbs and flows of my hormone therapy. I stopped taking it two or three days ago so we'll see if I calm down a little bit more soon.

Forster

We got to Forster yesterday via the scenic route - literally. We came in through the scenic "lakes way" which was a beautiful drive but ended up being really windy (as in bendy, not blowy) and bumpy - we really should have gone the main highway, but it seemed a good idea at the time.... I managed to rip one of our stabiliser feet off the caravan while doing a tricky manoeuvre on a rocky lay-by on the road. Not happy about that at all, but have managed to rig up something for now...

Not that we've seen too much of it, but the town here looks nice and sleepy - split in 2 by a big river, which is quite odd. When I say sleepy, in some ways it is - I went out looking to buy a couple of beers at 8.30pm last night, and nothing was open (apart from a petrol station or two, and the ubiquitous McDonalds - seemingly now a part of every town on the highway). The park we're at is pretty much in town, and backs onto some good looking mangroves. Perhaps unsurprisingly the mosquitoes are REALLY bad - I can't recall ever seeing so many. We are, as a result, bathing in RID whenever possible, so no need for deodorant!

Before leaving Sydney we managed to get Grace another car DVD player after the life-changing end-of-the-world-like failure of the other one. The result was a reasonably peaceful trip yesterday - excellent!

A Word of Warning...

A word of warning. Don't EVER ask a toddler questions when you might not like the answer - even if the toddler is only 18 months old, and just learning to speak.

Grace : (sob) (grizzle)
Anna : "Ohhh poor Gracey. Is Mummy being a bit old and boring for you?"
Grace : Yep!

11 years....

We have just been out to dinner (to the local pancake restaurant - excellent feed by the way) to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary. 11 YEARS. That makes it 11 years since my mates convinced the pianist at our wedding to play "Wonderwall" by the then-great brit band Oasis. 11 years since a dear friend of ours (after a couple of quiet pints) hoed into a plate full of whipped cream in the mistaken assumption that it was pavlova. 11 years since Anna was in such a rush to say "I will" that she interrupted the minister before he could do the "forsaking all others" bit. Great memories :-)

I completed the first practical component of my uni course today in Parramatta - only 11km away from where we're staying. That 11km took me 65 minutes (count them) to drive. Sydney traffic sucks the big one - and that wasn't even trying to get NEAR the city, which we're assured by everyone is a lot worse. Tomorrow I have another practical - more of the same to look forward to. Excellent!

We have coffee and tiramisu cake for dessert later on. The diet can wait for today - happy anniversary baby.

Syd-a-ney

Since yesterday, we have been here in Parklea, an outer north/western suburb of Sydney. The park is nice enough - we are told that it was built for the olympics in 2000, so it all has a much newer feel to it than most caravan parks we have been to.

We went for a drive today, into the city to just have a squiz. We drove across the Sydney Harbour and Anzac Bridges (both of which are very impressive structures). The Sydney Harbour Bridge apparently has its 75th birthday this weekend - wonder if those responsible for building it envisaged it would carry a bazillion cars a day well into the 21st century?? Doubt it. Driving today reminded us of how much Sydney's traffic issues are. Driving here between 4pm and 8pm (yes, rush hour lasts for that long) sucks. There's no other way to put it, sorry. Sydney is a vibrant city - there's always something going on - but it's just crazy for us kids from Brisbane.

I am off to do a couple of days practical work for my course on Friday/Saturday in Parramatta - I am looking forward to it, but don't quite know what to expect. I will see soon enough I guess!

Grace has started clapping whenever she (or anyone else for that matter) does anything she perceives as "good" - it's so cute. She went to bed the other night, laid her teddy bear (May May bear - long story...) down, pretended to put her own dummy in its mouth, then patted its head to put it to sleep, and gave herself a clap. Another example - this morning, when Grace went for her morning nap, Anna gave her some panadol to try and stop her current teething pain, since she has been grisly all morning. After every mouthful of panadol, Grace gave herself a sleepy little clap for taking her medicine, until it was all gone and she went to sleep after a little more grumbling. Even when she's in pain, she's cute.

Tomorrow we are going to visit Anna's old workmate Shelly, who has just had a baby after going through years of infertility treatment not unlike our own. It will be great to see them.

Planes, Mesh and Cable Ties

Since we have been here at Anna Bay, we have been puzzled why there's so many military jets in the air. It's not uncommon to see a couple of F-111's or occasionally F/A 18's in formation zooming around, obviously doing some training manoeuvres. They are amazing aircraft - I am not really a war or weaponry nut (although I am partial to a documentary or three on the history channel whenever I can manage it), and I am certainly against war (woah what is it good for, etc) but both those planes are just amazing pieces of machinery.

I decided to check out what looked like a small Air Force museum just up the road (with a name like "Fighter World" you don't hold out a whole lot of hope, to be frank - it just sounds so amateur) - which turned out to be the main military aviation museum in Australia. It's located next door to Williamtown Air Base - one of the main Air Force bases on the Eastern Sea Board. It was amazing - they have something like 8 or 10 old military planes in there (including a couple of Mirage fighters, and a World War 2 Spitfire) plus all kinds of bits and pieces related to aviation - it was fantastic to spend a couple of hours looking over all the stuff on display. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend it if it piques your interest - it's real "boy's own" stuff. If not, you (like Anna) will be more than happy to do pretty much anything else!

Today's big achievement was the making of a big playpen for Grace. Basically, we have got ourselves some plastic mesh, which I have zippy-cable-tied onto the poles of the beer garden (awning outside the annex). This basically gives Grace twice the play area - the annex area, plus the awning area, which is more "outdoors". She was EXTREMELY happy when I finished it this afternoon, and came and gave me a big hug when I was done - very cute. I figure we just cut the cable ties when we pack up, and put some new ones on when we arrive at the next place. This makes yet another thing to do when you set up at each new destination (the last thing we need, to be frank), but if it stops the girl from going crazy, it's well worth it. I am planning on a modification to the mesh setup, which will allow us to put it up without the annex being up - this will need some velcro and some nifty work, but will allow us to give grace a playpen under the caravan awning without spending hours setting the annex up, if we so desire. This is important if we, as planned, do a couple of overnight-only stops in the future, when it's not worth the effort setting the annex up - at least Grace can still have a wander around without getting too far...

We're looking forward to moving on next Tuesday - we're spending 6 days in Sydney next week. For 2 of those days, I am doing practical work for my studies, so I think the time will go quite quickly!

We also had a visit today from some old friends Penny & Pat - they live in Singleton, an hour and a bit drive up the road. They're great fun to be around, with their fantastic sense of humour and their army of kids.

We have been at Anna Bay for almost 2 weeks, which we both agree is too long for our liking, despite it being a nice place. This park is crazy - in the week, it's really peaceful and quiet - but come Friday night, it gets invaded by literally hundreds of people for the weekend - all of which seem to think making lots of noise and leaving mud and sand and crap all though the amenities block whenever possible is a fine idea. I guess we're half an hours drive from Newcastle, or about 2 hours from Sydney - so it makes for an easy getaway destination for those Monday-to-Friday workers in those places. Roll on Monday.

Grace's Emerging Voice

Grace's voice is the sweetest sound I have ever heard. Every goo, ga and cry is music to my ears. The newly emerging words and sentences, the "great", "oh, beach!!!","it is, yeah", "Din-ner!!!!", "play?", "Danni" and "Dad-dee"s are precious sounds that I hope I never forget.
There are laughs too - like yesterday when she put her bucket in the toilet and shut the lid, and she put her spade in the bleach bucket provided by the cleaners to keep the amenities tidy between cleans. Or like in the toilet at playgroup,... so keen was Grace to get back to playing with the other kids that she began to pull paper towels from the dispenser and place them on my lap. Then, because I still seemed to be sitting on that darned toilet, she pushed them down between my knees. Once I had recovered from laughing, I managed to get her to stop getting more paper towels and convinced her not to turn the nob that changes from "Engaged" to "Vacant".

Watching Grace give a doll a dummy or a boppy is a sight to behold. She picks them up and plants a kiss on the forehead and shoves that plug in the cakehole before the tears can start. I wonder where she learned that trick? As one mum said to me "Sometimes it just,.....shuts 'em up", almost embarrassed that she'd said it so bluntly.

I confess,... I too have to "shut 'em up" occasionally and if the dummy won't work, The Wiggles will. This group of musicians deserve all the millions they get, because their music has a way of capturing a toddler's complete and absolute attention. There are times when this is invaluable - like whenever us parents have to get something done on time.

Thank God for the precious gift of children, and the handy gift of The Wiggles,... and for that beautiful little mouth as it says "Mumumumumum" and plants a pretty pink kiss on my forehead.

Places Our Journey Takes Us

Sunshine emerges after the storm. Light shines through the dark, leaving shadows as a reminder of its presence. Once in a while, we sit in the dark and listen to the rain,... but our beautiful daughter sleeps through the rain, oblivious, and we all wake tomorrow to the drying sun and the cooling breeze and we journey. It doesn't stop us,... it is just a kink in the road, or a rest stop, a speed bump or a perilously narrow bridge. These are the places our journey takes us, and finally the sun is out.

A break...

Forgot to mention... we have gone ahead with the idea of having a break from travelling for a few months on our return to Brisbane at Easter. We have booked a holiday unit at Caloundra (Southern end of the Sunshine Coast) for 4 months, starting on the 20th of April - we decided that it would be nice to have a break from caravanning for a while, and recommence our travels afterwards.

We are staying at our favourite holiday unit called "By The Sea" (truly imaginative name, given that it is, indeed, by the sea). It's an older unit, with no real mod cons, and is situated in the less trendy northern end of Caloundra, on the hill overlooking the rocks and ocean. Although the unit itself is very 70s, we LOVE the position - you get uninterrupted views across the ocean to Moreton and Stradbroke islands. I would love to buy this place. Because the unit is older and kind of run down, we can afford to rent it off-peak (after some price negotiation with the owner) at about the same price as what an unfurnished unit would cost us to rent in Brisbane anyhow... The REAL bonus is that it's furnished, and thus we don't need to delve into the scary place that is our storage shed, and get some of our stored belongings out (if we could indeed find them). It's also a shortish drive to Brisbane (about an hour) so when I need to be there for my study, it's an easy commute. Plus we can have friends and family around, or visit them, or... whatever... We have always fancied living at Caloundra - I guess we're about to get a really good idea what it would be like to live there long term.

We're on the road for a few weeks more, and we are spending a couple of weeks with our families over Easter before then, but it should be good.

Wildlife and Weather

Port Stephens and its surrounds really are beautiful. Port Stephens itself is a massive inlet, which seems to go for miles and miles, stretching in all directions. The water - even in the inlet - is a beautiful clear blue, and the sand is powdery and white. All the little beaches and bays which surround the port - both inside and out - are pretty, and most seem to be separated by rocky outcrops and steep hills. Just walking along them, you really do feel like an adventurer!

While walking yesterday, we came across a koala in the wild - not every day you see one of those! I reckon you must walk past heaps of them in the bush, but never realise that they're even there. This one was having a good munch on eucalyptus leaves, and it was perched on a branch not much thicker than my thumb - how it didn't break the branch I'll never know. They tell me there are a lot of koalas in this area - unsurprising, since most of the forest here is untouched (and is indeed national park) so it gives them a good space to live. Thinking of this, it makes me sad - sometimes, I feel like we humans are insatiable invaders that just don't care about anyone or anything other than ourselves. Sigh.

We had a big thunderstorm about 2am this morning - it was VERY loud, and the rain really did bucket down for an hour or so, but then abated to a drizzle - which has endured until now. It's been thundering in the distance again for the last couple of hours, but nothing like last night. We are nice and safe and dry, but still, rain is a bit of a downer while in a caravan. We were worried about Grace last night becase of the racket, but when I checked on her, she was fast asleep, holding her pillow over her ears.

I bought a new mobile phone the other day since my old one had just about died - its clock was losing time, and about 4 times a day it supposedly couldn't find the SIM card - very annoying and inconvenient. I took the opportunity to change carriers, to hopefully get better signal while travelling, and also so that Anna and I had different carriers (so we have mobile signal between us more often). I got me an LG flip phone, which I'm pretty happy with. It took Grace approximately 30 seconds to work it out - no exaggeration - despite never having seen a flip phone before. She now happily grabs the phone, flips it open (with a LOT more ease than I do, her fingers are smaller and less clumsy), turns it right way up, presses half a dozen or so random buttons, then holds it up to her ear, and babbles into the microphone, having an imaginary conversation with someone. Who said kids were silly??

Anna Bay

We are finally at Anna Bay! It is situated about 40km north of Newcastle, and like a lot of places we have been, has its own beautiful little beach, nestled in between rocky headlands. The locals seem to have the name of the place a bit confused - you seem to be able to use any of "Port Stephens" (the name of the council, and greater area), "One Mile Beach" (the name of the little suburb, and also the beach), or "Anna Bay" (which is the bay on which One Mile Beach is situated). Take your pick. We choose Anna Bay, because it makes Anna feel special, and we can sing "We're on our way to Anna Bay" to the tune of the Wiggles' classic song "We're on our way to Wiggle Bay". Good reason eh.

Just up the road is a place called Samurai Beach, which while beautiful, seems a bit of an odd name for a beach on the NSW coast. Part of the beach there is apparently a designated nudist beach, so my personal theory is that they call it Samurai Beach because there's always a bunch of guys there swinging their swords around. Not too sure.

The caravan park here is pretty special - big slab sites, plenty of shade, and about 50m walk to the beach. The park has one of the best pools I have ever seen, complete with waterfall and waterslide. The people are also quite helpful - the site we were put on was smack bang between the tap/electricity/sullage supply points, and our water hose and sullage pipes weren't quite long enough to reach. They loaned me a hose extender, although it was normal hose, so we drank rubber-tasting water until I bought some food grade hose yesterday.

We are toying with the idea of staying here 2 weeks instead of 1 - I need to be in Sydney the week after next to do some practical components of my study (which has been sadly neglected lately, although I plan on changing this today). Will be nice to get them out of the way.

Talking of ideas, we are also thinking about seeing if we can split our trip up a little bit. The current thinking is to maybe get back to Brisbane at Easter as planned, and spend 3 months or thereabouts in the region (or within a short distance), then move on to travel north QLD maybe August-December, then travel south and look at South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania (and a bit of New South Wales) early in 2008. The idea of renting somewhere for a few months is made more difficult by the fact that we have all our gear in storage, but we are working on some ideas - will let you all know if/when the idea progresses any further. We have pretty much given up on exploring the Northern Territory and Western Australia on this trip - as much as it really kills me to give up on doing them (they really appeal to my sense of adventure - I really wanted to see Kakadu and Uluru, as well as the Kimberley region), the distances are just too big for us, and having a baby in tow makes long distances just that much more difficult. Next trip maybe. To be honest, those places really ARE ones where we'd be best with a 4 wheel drive anyhow, but it's still got me bummed pretty badly.