Whyalla

Our plan today was to get to Port Augusta, however, when saw Port Augusta we decided to drive on at bit further. It looked pretty ordinary and as we drove into one of the caravan parks there was a car parked with quite a bit of very visible action going on inside!!! We are very glad we decided to spare the boys that experience! We have a site that overlooks the ocean and the tide is out at the moment so the boys are exploring the sand flats. We have the most divine view and lovely ocean breeze. The temperature hit 38 today so we are very grateful for the cool winds. We saw some spectacular views on the road today. The massive salt lakes looked incredible in the middle of outback scrub. Driving into Port Augusta there was the Flinders Ranges on one side of the road and turquoise ocean on the other- the photos do not do it justice at all. It felt like an easy day of driving today. The stop for lunch and a swim at Port Pirie helped break up the driving. The boys are begging to stay here another night....it is very tempting :)

Port Pirie for a picnic lunch.

The tide is out!!

The perfect camp site!

Adelaide- day 2.

We have had the best day! We just wish we had more time to enjoy Adelaide. We will have to plan our time carefully on the way back. The Museum was excellent and we had a lovely lunch in the Botanical Gardens. Campbell found a Dymocks and spent all of his Christmas vouchers. We managed to see most of the city sights in one short walk! It is a really lovely city. My favourite was the beautiful University, how I would love to study there. We didn't make it to the beach today- too much other fun stuff to do. We are reluctant to leave but we can always make it another trip :) We are not sure if we will stop at Port Augusta tomorrow or try to go a bit further- we will just see how we all feel.

Adelaide

Yesterday feels like weeks ago already. We have managed to see so much in the past few days and can't believe that we are already in SA. We have decided to spend 2 nights in Adelaide to try to see as much as we can. The drive from Mildura was lovely with several stops along the Mighty Murray on our way. We had a picnic lunch in Renmark on the banks of the Murray River and stopped again at 'lock 1' in Blanchetown. We were all too tired to detour through the Barossa Valley or Hahndorf- they are the list for the return trip. We are looking forward to a day in the city tomorrow and with an afternoon visit to the beach. Campbell is just hoping to find an Adelaide TV Week.

Sunny Mildura

We arrived in Mildura at lunchtime and enjoyed our easy day of driving. The highlight was spotting a paddock full of emus in the middle of outback nothingness. We will have to google the collective noun for emus. Jonas was especially excited and can't wait to get to the desert. We had a morning tea break with Elissa's yummy Brownies and a cup of tea from Lisa's survival kit. Campbell couldn't wait to get his hands on a Victorian TV Week...but then realized it is exactly the same as his Sydney copy- he has high hopes for the SA addition :/
We all enjoyed an afternoon swim and are chilling out with some games. So far Joe has won a game of Cuponk and we are now having a game of Celebrity Head before dinner.
We have booked ahead for 2 nights in Adelaide and can't wait for a swim in the ocean and some fresh fish- do you hear me boys? Get the fishing rods ready!

Hey, hey, HAY!!!

We had a good day of driving today & made it to Hay with plenty of time to set up camp. We stopped at Wagga Wagga for a picnic lunch and the boys kept themselves busy all day with new books, DVDs, drawing and colouring in. We were relieved to escape the storm that was brewing as we were coming into Wagga. The forecast warned of hail storms and flash flooding- very happy to drive through to find sunshine and 33 degrees. The boys enjoyed a swim after dinner tonight. We are looking forward to our easy day of driving to Mildura tomorrow.

Christmas Day

Excitement levels are high!!! Lots of cool games were received for Christmas and are all packed and ready to go. We have had such a lovely Christmas with family and special friends- thankyou all very much for spoiling us. Our day started at 5:45am this morning and all of the boys were happy and grateful for their Santa goodies. Looking forward to another early start tomorrow morning.
The beautiful sunshine today must be a good omen for the sunny days and fun ahead.

The proposed route.

• The proposed route- we intend to hug the coast of WA a bit more though. We will probably need to escape the heat! First stop Hay on Boxing Day- that has a very nice ring to it.

Getting organised.

The camp kitchen is now attached to the trailer and loaded up with everything we will need. We bought a fridge/ freezer today too. We have managed without one before but figured that the long stretches between supermarkets, as well as the heat, might get the better of us this trip. I had a bitter- sweet victory with our bargain. The ad in the catalogue offered a bonus pack with 'all WAECO fridge/ freezers'. The store manager argued that the offer was only available for one particular fridge- which didn't have the 3 way power we wanted. I was so disappointed and showed her the ad. She very reluctantly gave us the bonus pack. She was so rude and cranky about it that it was a little bit hard to enjoy our victory. Once we got home and opened up our bonus car fridge, camp chair, fridge stand, torch, air- conditioned car seat (LOL) and BBQ set, we were able to smile :)
We are all hoping that Santa is on the ball this year and brings presents that we can take along with us, and help us beat the boredom of long road trips. 
Steven and Janet have kindly let us borrow their portable kitchen sink- so that means we officially have it all. Woooohoooooo!

Progress- new fridge freezer and camp kitchen ready to go.

The camp kitchen.

Eric has been hard at work creating a custom built camp kitchen to attach to the trailer. It's looking good!

Getting ready.

Joe and Drew are preparing themselves for the journey. No doubt there will be plenty of  opportunities to ask "are we there yet?" 

Our family adventure!

We are all getting so excited about our big trip across the Nullarbor this summer. Admittedly there are some nerves mingled with my excitement. We have never attempted to camp for so long before nor have we have attempted to drive across the country.


We are starting to plot out the route but we also intend to rest when we need to, or to stay and enjoy a favourite spot.


We can't wait to set off on Boxing Day!