A three month trip around WA in 2013, that was our plan and amazingly after much wishing, planning and preparing, this dream has become a reality! We survived a frantic couple of months on the summer Surf Life Saving circuit combined with busy work and school lives, 18th birthday party planning and holiday preparations. Somehow we did it!! The car is newly equipped with snorkel and custom made roof rack for the tinnie, the van is upgraded with solar panel and battery and boat motor holder - Matt the handy man has excelled! Finally, car and van are packed full ready for adventure: 1 tinnie, 5 surfboards, 1 surf mal, 2 nipper mals, fishing rods, snorkels and goggles etc etc etc.....and the list goes on. On Saturday 13th April we completed our packing, farewelled our beautiful ... read more

After another seven hours in the car and with an additional 600kms behind us we pulled into the Pimba roadhouse. There was a basic camp area situated next to it. We decided that it would do and set up camp and headed to the roadhouse for dinner at ‘Spud’s Pub’. We thought that we had better dress up so we even wore our sneakers with our trackies! Although it was your basic middle of nowhere pub, we walked in to find a fireplace, small playground and of course beer, wine and food. What more could you ask for? With full stomachs we headed back for our last sleep in the van. We played our last round of bard games with the girls and settled in for an early night. Alas sleep evaded us as we woke ... read more

We drove into Alice Springs in the early afternoon with a view of the Mc Donnell Ranges spanning the horizon. We headed straight to the caravan park, set up and raced to burn off some energy at the playground and jumping pillow. The afternoon remained sunny but we were prepared for a cold night. Surprisingly the chill held off and we enjoyed a good sleep and woke to a sunny day. We all launched into action and with great skill and sharing of tasks were packed up in no time - This is one very well rehearsed routine! We were soon on the road again. ... read more

Friday afternoon we packed up our gear and headed back to Luke and Beth’s place to accompany their team down to Katherine as they complete in the Ultra Challenge - A unique race where individuals or teams cover 100km in a day in a series of events such as swim, run, kayak. It was a strange feeling to drive down the Stuart Highway out of Darwin with the thought of ‘when will we be back here again?’ Who knows? But our love of this place certainly pulls us back time and time again. Luke had booked us all into Knott’s Crossing resort for a couple of nights, a change of scenery from the van. So we piled ourselves and our gear into the little room - bigger than the van but not by much. Saturday was ... read more

With a couple more days to fill in before we were due to head into Darwin we decided to spend our time on the Daly River and Woolianna. With a memory of camping trips of times gone by spent on the sandy banks of the Daly River, I was very surprised to be greeted with a shady caravan park complete with facilities, green grass and a pool! We set up camp, launched the tinnie and enjoyed a refreshing swim in the pool. The little girls were reacquainted with some friends that we had met at the hot springs so were very happy to spend a couple of days playing and swimming. We headed out for a serious family fishing trip on our first full day at the river, putting in a good four hours motoring along, ... read more