Jono Dahna

The day started in a very civilised way over goats cheese, poached egg, mushrooms and dukkah with a yummy expresso coffee and ended eating dinner on a balcony looking over a mangrove swamp watching the sun go down. Who said travel with babies was hard? Ok, so as I confessed, it can have its harder moments but all in all this trip has been absolutely smooth sailing... dreamy driving might be a more appropriate expression. The distance from Sawtell to Karuah (320km) was probably about the biggest distance we have done with the girls and it is probably about the most we would want to do in one day at the moment. We had a morning tea stop at Kew - a small town as right on the highway as a town off the highway can ... read more

"Welcome to sunny sawtell" reads the sign as you come in to the cute seaside town. Ironically it was the first cloudy day we have had so far on the trip. Though, as the sign promised, the afternoon did clear up -- while the girls happily napped and napped and napped! This trip has seen a whole lot of firsts in the girls' development: they have learnt to touch their head, clap their hands and today they had their first ever 3 hour day time nap. They must have been worn out by their morning at Boambee creek where, I am delighted to announce, they finally enjoyed themselves in the water. Perhaps they will be beach babes after all. The creek is another beautiful salt estuary which is part of a reserve and absolutely perfect for ... read more

I feel like we are becoming seasoned family holidayers already. I can feel the coating of salt on my skin, but I guess this is from the sea rather than from being seasoned. My attempt at humour aside, those first 7 (to 9?) months of the girls' existence where we struggled to even get out the door seem a distant foggy memory, touch wood. Holidays can exist with two babies afterall, despite often held scepticism (my own included.) Yeah, there's still dishes and laundry and nappies but each day so far we have swam and walked in the bush, done yoga, read books, gazed at sunets and stars... wow. The girls have been sleeping all night every night and having great naps during the day EVEN THOUGH big painful pre-molars are starting to poke through their ... read more

Leaving no grass to grow under our itchy feet, (which were probably itchy more from foot fungus caused by poor on-the-road hygiene, than from any metaphysical relationship to the travel urge) Jono and I made our way to Smith Rock. On the way, we visited the very good and very pregnant friend of mine, Jane, who we had only managed to catch up with once in the whole time we were in this part of the hemisphere. I am slack. I confess. But slack things can tend to have more give and be less likely to break than tight things… where that point is leading and what, if anything, it is justifying I do not know. I have already mentioned this earlier I think, but I just could not get my head around how much my ... read more

Faced with a week of forecasted bad weather in Squamish, and enough experience from a year of living in the area to believe the forecast, we joined up with the rest of our friends from home and hatched plans to go to Skaha for a few days, chasing the sun. The trip started with a night out in Vancouver drinking, dancing to bad music, and then crashing at Tim's place - all 7 of us crashed out on Tims apartment floor made for very cosy accommodation. We put Damo out on the deck due to his tendency for snoring, loudly. The sun chasing plan worked. We had a good three days of sunshine and climbing. After this we all split up. Ev went home back to keep his business running. Damo went abroad for more adventures ... read more