SIGHTS OF DARWIN “We are not on a holiday! We are on a lifestyle!” This is what we keep telling ourselves at the Free Spirit Resort (fancy name for a caravan park). Our days have been just like they were at home: work, go home, work, go home, work, and go home… you get the drift. The exception however, is that we are doing it in the Northern Territory and living what we have dreamed about for ten years. Normally at home we would do something on a Saturday - so that’s when we do things now. So my blog entry [View Full Entry]

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We left Katherine quite late in the day, mostly because the kids were having so much fun playing in the pool with the Aboriginal children who had traveled for the event at Katherine Gorge. It had been 30 years since the land was handed back to the local tribes, and the tribes people and their families were staying at the park free of charge to celebrate. The park has a rule that children are not allowed in the pool without adult supervision, so we were impressed with the kindness of the pool cleaners who sat and watched about 20 Aboriginal children [View Full Entry]

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Alice to Katherine After a week’s rest in Alice Springs our exploration of the MacDonnell Ranges had rekindled our desire for touring. We packed up and head off to Gemtree, 140kms from Alice Springs. We had read about Gemtree Caravan Park in an old issue of “On the Road” magazine. It is on the “gem trail” from Queensland along the outback on the Plenty Highway and is one of many places in Australia where you can fossick for gems. Gemtree caravan park is unique in that it offers tours, providing all equipment and instruction. There are basic facilities w [View Full Entry]

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ALICE SPRINGS SIGHTS When we arrived in Alice Springs we felt in need of a rest. We checked in to the Big 4 caravan park which costs more than any park in the area, but is jam packed with facilities for the kids. There is a games/TV room, jumping pillow, 3 pools and a playground. On Sundays they have a free pancake breakfast as well. With all this to choose from, the kids were more than happy to hang around, especially since our friends the Sheltons (who we were meeting up with more often) had arrived the next day. When checking [View Full Entry]

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Olgas, Kings Canyon and the beginnings of the Alice With the sudden appearance of rain, our time at Yulara (Ayers Rock township) became restful and an entire day was spent watching DVDs. The next day was brighter so we ventured to the Olgas for another walk. The Olgas (Kata Tjuta) are a cluster of 36 rock domes - the largest being over 500 metres high. This is higher than Uluru’s 348m and certainly impressive, but the fact that Uluru stands alone gives it a much more striking appearance. Our first walk was to the Gorge. This is not a long walk, [View Full Entry]

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Port Augusta After a restful time in Hawker we headed down to Port Augusta to catch up with Rachel, a friend of ours who was returning from her own trip touring the centre and West Coast of Australia with her two kids, Britney and Ben. I had been following their blog with interest, looking forward to experiencing the same places with our family and it was a great time to see both her and the children. Our kids were most excited because they have missed the company of other children to play with and they all got along like a house [View Full Entry]

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We have blown our accommodation budget here in Hawker, staying in the Big4 Caravan Park (Hawker Caravan Park), but have enjoyed the time of rest. The kids have been focused on their project and math books and enjoy dipping in the pool and playing in the playground (especially Cody, who is addicted to slides). We were unsure as to whether to tour the Flinders at the start of our trip or at the end, and figured that there is no time like the present. We were concerned that after seeing the wonders of the Alice and the Pilbara we would figure [View Full Entry]

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On the road… finally! Our expected date of departure came and went due to car problems; the kids had left a small interior light on and flattened the battery overnight. Despite the fact we are with RACV total care, the battery man would not replace our battery because he had to remove the intercooler to get to it and he is only licensed to work on batteries. I figured its not worth getting upset over - if a man isn’t confident to touch our car I don’t want him touching it! Coupled with the fact that we had noticed coolant leaking [View Full Entry]

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There are two types of people in this world - people who come up with great ideas and people who use others' great ideas. 11 years ago I was working for a man who renovated a bus and took his wife and three daughters on a road trip around Australia. They had a ball. I am a homebody at heart and this sort of adventure had never occurred to me before. The freedom of travel and the chance to expand my horizons and "see the bigger picture" really appealed to both myself and my husband of one year, Grady. Thus THE [View Full Entry]

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