Photos

PS We have been trying to post some photos, but have had no success yet. We will keep on trying. Those people who took photos at the farewell picnic, it would be great if you could send them and maybe by then we will have sussed it all out.

A week of living easy.

Well we are still here! Andre met with Diane this morning and got the go ahead for the project (I'll let him tell you all about it later!), so we will be here at Kangaroobie for at least another 10-14 days. The kids are delighted! Especially Tal, who is having a wonderful time with the groups of kids coming to the program here at Kangaroobie and helping out with all farm activities. He really is in his element here. Nipping around in the ute and getting to do what the big guys do. After all these years of coming on all too brief visits, it is nice to spend time taking it easy, going to playgroup with the other local mums and kids, swimming in the river etc as well as a few touristy things that we have been meaning to do for a while now. Went to the lighthouse yesterday which was a lovely drive and very interesting. Jarra loved the steps inside the lighthouse. In fact he loved them so much, we had to go up and down them twice. On his own of course, not holding my hand and of course with his nickname of "monkey boy" and a penchant for climbing at considerable speed, you can imagine my anxiety when we got to the top and he headed off round the other side putting people between me and him and eyeing off the railing enthusiastically! Suffice to say that I think I may have quite a few grey hairs by the end of this trip! He certainly is an energetic, enthusiastic and curious child. He has so little fear. At the river and at the beach he walks into the water and just keeps going right up to his neck until one of us gets hold of him. That reminds me ... at Port Campbell beach on Friday we saw two beautiful stingrays. They were in the shallows and almost totally hidden by sand. Good job one of the kids didn't stand on them! I was amazed at how close to the shore they were. It's now getting late and time to head off to bed. Off out to the bus to look at the chrystal clear sky, laden with stars and to hear the waves crashing. I had forgotten how little time we spend outside at night........ I have already seen more shooting stars than I have in the past year! I hope this is a very good sign. Thanks to all those that have posted comments. Great to know that you are enjoying the blog. H

Monday 27th. Feb

A We will find out tomorrow morning when the next stage of our trip will commence. I have been offered a wonderful opportunity to create a sculpture at the Apostle Whey Cheese complex. The great view over the valley from their shop window is interrupted by a large concrete water tank. Helen left her bag there when we visited last week and when I went to pick it up Dianne and I got talking about art and her various sculptures dotted about her place. I left her a card so she could look at my website. She called here the next day and asked where she could see something I had made “in the flesh” Dianne came to Kangaroobie the next day to check out Eel River and liked what she saw and then asked me to have a think about something we could do to their water tank to make it a bit easier on the eye. I have come up with a novel idea which I will describe at a later date if it goes ahead. I am meeting with them tomorrow morning to go over the details and am excited about it all. Had a nice game of golf at Peterborough yesterday afternoon with Soph, Matt, Jesse and Trish, hit some nice shots. It is a great course, next to the sea and very scenic. Last night we all drove to Loch Ard Gorge to see the mutton birds flying in at sunset to the imaginatively named Mutton Bird Island. A beautiful sunset was accompanied by a chilly wind coming in off the sea as the five kids ran around the observation area waiting for the elusive display. There are 50,000 birds who live on the island which is secure from predators such as foxes and cats, and they all come swarming back at sunset each night when their chicks start calling for them. Their impressive wing span helps as they come gliding in and circle the island before landing. Finished painting the roof of Bessie just in time, before the torrential rain came, also gave the bullbar a coat of black paint which changes the character of her, looks a bit like a moustache. We are enjoying our time at Kangaroobie, it is very easy to spend time here, and the kids are having a great time. We went to the Cape Otway Lighthouse today, a beautiful hours drive there through the windy roads, glad we were in the Subaru as the bus would have struggled up those hills. On the way home we dropped into the Cape Otway Ecological Centre, run by Shane and Lizzy, stars of the Alien adventure of 2004 ( long story…….) We went for a walk through some of their lovely natural bush looking for koalas without success. Just finished reading The Kite Runner, an amazing book which I would recommend. And like the sands in the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

Thursday 23rd Feb.

A I have no idea where Wednesday went, days are already starting to just be days, without any significance of them being weekdays or weekends. Have stopped wearing the mobile phone on my hip, not very good reception here, but that is not the main reason. Spent this morning putting the first coat of paint on the roof of the bus, who I am going to call Bessie. Got pretty warm up there today. After lunch Rennie and I went out with one of the school groups onto the Gellibrand River for their canoeing activity, while Jarra had a sleep, and just before dinner we all went down there for a swim and a paddle. I managed to hit Jarra in the head with the paddle while he was on my lap and he got an immediate half egg lump on his forehead. Tal has been spending quite a bit of time with the groups on their activities and he really enjoys it. Rennie is finally looking a bit like her old self and is almost better I think. This evening at bed time she wanted to stay up longer and said, “Dad, I wish we were nocturnal” Jarra is just full on, no fear and so much energy. The kids had their first day of “school” today. Tal does not really want to learn from us so it is going to be interesting to see how he handles it, Helen tried to show him something he wasn’t doing quite right with his subtraction and he ended up storming off. It is really nice being here at Kangaroobie ( www.kangaroobie.com) We have our own space so we do not feel like we are imposing on Matt and Soph. Will finish the roof tomorrow and we have decided to paint the front of Bessie as well.

Tuesday 21st. Feb

A Left the polluted Colac Lake earlyish, with the blue/green algae involved, this certainly put us off any swimming, fishing or watersports that the guidebook suggested. But a fairly pleasant stay anyway. Arrived there about 4pm yesterday, a strong wind was blowing hard across the lake and was making a cool sound as it passed by the hollow section of steel from our bulbar. We had parked up parallel to the lake. It sounded like a cross between a flute and a didgeridoo, a deep, rhythmic, whistling sound. So after a day of shopping, organising, clothes washing, park playing, pie eating, rug buying, haircutting, cow milking, cheese buying and all that other stuff, we finally arrived into the welcome haven and safe harbour of Kangaroobie, a great farm in Princetown, not far from the 12 Apostles. We plan to stay here for a little while and finalise a few loose ends, and I am going to paint the roof of our bus. There is a bit of rust happening upstairs, so I am going to give her a bit of a lick. We also stopped at our friends cheese factory for a cuppa. Apostle Whey Cheese is on the Simpson Road, check it out! . Dianne and Julian helped us out of a sticky moment 5 years ago when our headlights blew near their place on our way to Kangaroobie for Matt and Soph’s wedding. They are dairy farmers who want to stop relying on the dismal prices that the milk companies are paying them and create a future where they have control of their own destiny. They have started making cheese recently in a newly constructed factory and shop next to their dairy and I reckon they will do very well. It is a fairly similar step that I have taken with my artwork, trying something a bit different. We talked about enjoying the different challenges that a new pursuit like this brings. We watched the black and white cows being milked for a while. The kids have now been cured from any desire they may have had to be a dairy farmer when Julian received a fresh cow pat on his hat. No, the cow did not pat him on the hat…….. Is a pat really a pat before it hits the ground…?? Aaah, so many questions and no Google on tap. Will try and put these posts up tomorrow

Monday 20th Blog

A Left the bus at Inverleigh after good nights sleep and some nice scrambled eggs for brekky. As we were driving to Geelong to see Bevan, a mate who works at Ray’s Outdoors, I commented to Helen that all the fields and paddocks looked very dry and yellow and she promptly informed me that we were in “golden” country, as she had read somewhere in an ad about the area. H The joys of life on the road. I could spout many, but after breakfast this morning would be a good start. An interesting visitor to the outside of the bus - a fairly large spider, which was duly caught by Tal in the bug catcher and examined, guide books attended to, discussion had and the conclusion made that it was a wolf spider with fantastic camouflage, which we had almost stepped on just beside the step. The perfect moment to share together that would be missed in our busy getting to school mornings. Bring on more of these moments! T (Tuesday morning.) Hard morning I’d say, trying to catch the wolf spider, whew!!. We left the bus at Inverleigh that morning and drove out to Geelong to see our friend Bevan who worked in a camping store. We bought quite a lot off things like some jackets and a chair for mum and dad (!!!!Gaga!!!!).

Saturday 18th Feb + 19th

A After a nice sleep in this morning, we woke up to the sounds of the birds. It is a lovely spot here in Somerville, there is a lot of wildlife about including possums, many galahs and other birds of which we need to find out the species. We spent the day re-organising the bus and are feeling much more on top of it all now. (Not on top of the bus….. you know what I mean….) The boot and the trailer are all set up so we are raring to go. Tomorrow morning we head back to Mt.Waverley for our picnic, and then we are off. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……………………………….. (Fell asleep on the beanbag…..Oops……….. SUNDAY 19th 9.30 pm. Wow, sitting in Inverleigh, on the beanbag, in the bus, at a rest area 28km east of Geelong on the Hamilton Rd (B140), starry, starry sky. Just got the kids to bed, Jarra was up a few times. It was late for them, into bed at 9.30 after an exciting day. Tal was looking out his window as he was lying in his bed and said, “Look at all the stars Dad”. I told him about how hard it is to see out of a car at night when the interior light is on, and that is what living in a city is like when trying to see stars. It is going to be a fairly slow trip, she’s an old girl and pulling along 10 tonne of bus, car and trailer, people, food, fuel, and water aint easy for an old girl. Al Jack said that if we receive a speeding fine on this trip he will pay for it. Watch out all you school kids in the 40km/h zones, here we come!! I would like to run a poll to see if I use too many commas in my posts? There is ongoing debate in this family about my use of commas and I would like to see what the general public think about my use of commas. Do I use them unnecessarily at times? Did I spell unnecessarily properly? We finished sorting the bus before we left Somerville this morning. We are in the process of “moving in”. Seeing where things fit, and what slides out of which cupboards when we are moving. Everything needs to be tied down, and plugged in. Thanks Marc for the call. He told me that our right indicator on the trailer was not working as we left today, so we stopped at a service station and I bought some indicator globes, and replaced it. Went and tried it, still not working. Must remember to plug the trailer in…… Is very peaceful out here, there is the occasional passing of a big truck or car, breaking the silence of the night. Our picnic today was sensational. So many of our family and friends turned up to help see us off and we appreciate the support of everyone, the spread of food was great, it is nice to share food and see all the different tastes. Thanks also to everyone for keeping an eye out for Jarra, He is all over the place these days, so it was great having all those eyes out there. It was an amazing feeling driving away from the crowd of friends there, just seeing a whole bunch of great people in the rear vision mirror, as we tried to catch the two official “dunny paper ribbon holders”. Thanks Al and Richo!! Nice running!! I learnt something today. Put down the rear wheel ramp/ tailgate and drove the Subaru into the trailer, squeezed out the gap between the wall of our aluminium clad enclosed trailer and the car. Strapped all four wheels down. Close the tailgate. Tow bar in the way. Oops. Put down the tailgate again, undo four straps. Squeeze back in, move car forward three inches. Squeeze out door. Restrap wheels. Put up ramp. Whew……. I Went over the West Gate, past the big leaf sculpture in Hoppers Crossing, great name that. Sometimes names like Hoppers Crossing just roll off my tongue without me even thinking about the actual words I am saying. Funny that. Been a great start to the journey Around the Massive Stone. Helen here. What an amazing day. They say that moving house is up there with funerals and weddings when it comes to stress, which I agree with, but I never thought leaving would be just as emotional too. It was splendid seeing everyone there today to see us off. It really made me realise what wonderful friends and family we are surrounded by, not to mention all the good wishes from overseas. Thank you all. It was great to show everyone our rig, all decked out and ready to go. Finally I started to get really excited. I hardly ate a thing and as we headed up the hill and off on our grand adventure two things really struck me 1) I was starving and 2) I was dying for a wee!! A quick stop at Cash Grove to visit our friends, the new owners – they have already improved the place with a lick of paint - a visit to the loo and I was feeling much happier. Heading over the Westgate it was funny knowing that we won’t be seeing that view for a while. Dinner was late tonight, snags etc. but it never tasted better. After a long day Rennie finally got the rest she needed and we patiently sent Jarra back to bed a dozen times. He has had a lot to contend with in the past few weeks, and now he is in a bed in a room with his big brother and sister on a bus…. quite a lot to handle when you are not yet two! Apart from bedtimes he has been great. Our only drama is keeping track of where he is. He’s very quick! Tal & Rennie are taking it all in their stride. Rennie is still not quite well yet, still got that cough, but no temperature today.

FRIDAY 17th Blog

A Well, well, well, 3 holes in the ground. We have just got back from a lovely child free dinner at the Yaringa Boathouse . We are now officially “On the Move”, our first night away After a pretty manic time packing up Cash Grove, we are finally liberated from the whole same old, same old, day in, day out, pay the mortgage, ra ra ra lifestyle. We arrived down at Somerville at 5pm this afternoon, with a nice bottle of champagne and a hastily thrown together cheese platter from our trusty old 24volt fridge, ably powered by good old, yours and mine, the Sun. The Galahs were just dropping in for their evening feed, it was a far cry from the stresses of the last few weeks of sorting and resorting a whole load of materialistic crap, to be honest. It was nice to have Fizz, Ty and Mardi drop in on their way to VSK at Somers. I finally got my shed/studio cleared this afternoon, which was a pretty major accomplishment, consisting of 7 trips to the scrap metal yard, at which I reckon I dumped over 3 tonnes of very good coloured steel. Along with 8 trips to the storage place, about 5 more to Op-shops and 2 to the tip, this has made me much more aware of the dangers of accumulation. “I might just use it one day”…. Yeah, to create a journey for myself down to the scrap metal yard, more like it… Was a good trip down here this arvo, time for bed now.

The Final Countdown

Wow, about 17 hours to go until our departure from our home, which I suppose is now just a house, as it is empty, apart from the debacle out the front. We had some cleaners booked in for this morning so I was determined to have the place ready for them this morning, which took to nearly 3am. Will probably be a similar scenario tonight, but will be well and truly worth it, once we start motoring down the freeway tomorrow around 2pm. We are looking forward to our children free weekend ( thanks Mum and Helen J. also!), the last for a while we expect. It has been an experience realising the crap we have collected in the last 6-7 years, and has been rather therapeutic at times, throwing things out that I really wanted to hang on to, just in case I might need it one day...... So we are booked in to a restaurant tomorrow night in Somerville and we are really looking forward to it. Next time we update this we should be into our trip, on the road around the Rock. Will be in touch soon! Andre

Car and chaos!

Well the car goes in tomorrow for a new CLUTCH and we lose it for a couple of days, just when we need it the most for running around for things! The house is almost there - well I think so, Andre is not quite so convinced. We are now almost down to what we are taking with us. The sofa goes tomorrow, so I think that will feel weird. No furniture at all in our lounge room. I have to admit I am finding it all quite stressful and am soooo looking forward to when we are finally on the bus and all this is over. It is so hard to even talk about any of the things we want to do on the trip, as my head is so full of packing and boxes!! I am also going stir crazy being at home so much, which hasn't helped. Today was great. I had my last meeting with my philosophy group and then friends round for the afternoon. Tonight I have sorted and packed heaps because I have had a break. Now I have my second wind and am raring to go! The kids are being good, but it is hard when we are giving them so little attention. Poor Jarra fell asleep whilst eating his dinner tonight ( I had to fish the food out of his mouth before I put him to bed!) as he was so exhausted. We are packing or seeing people constantly and it is hard to keep the routine going. Everyone is being so supportive and if good wishes and positive thoughts are what will help us then we will fly along on a wonderous adventure. It is so hard to say a goodbye that conveys the absolute warmth and fondness one feels, to last a year in one hug! We can but try... H

Clutch

Just to let you know Darling, the car needs a new clutch, not a gearbox. Make sure you let me take it in to the mechanic OK?

Hi there Well we seem to be up and running again! Life is chaos just now. As various bits of furniture disappear, piles appear. Slowly they too disappear and we now have big gaps around the house. The piano went today. Andre was sad... it will be a long year for him without his beloved. Today we got the car serviced and need a new gearbox. We replaced the bus one a couple of months ago. Thank goodness this didn't happen in the middle of nowhere! We had a successful stall at the weekend and got rid of a lot of stuff. Andre did fantastically well selling the majority of his plumbing leftovers. For me it was an emotional time seeing all the old baby clothes and our belongings moving on to new homes. The bus is looking great! Penny (Andre's mum) has been very industrious making us curtains which really bring it all together. Andre is packing like a mad thing and I just seem to sort and sort and sort. How much stuff can one accumulate????? Tomorrow or the next day, the beds dissappear and we sleep on our mattresses on the floor. The children are more excited about that than going on the bus at the moment, which puts things all back into perspective. One day at a time. Hope to get Tal back on here again soon. Ciao Helen

Here we go!

Looks like it worked. We have 9 days to go now, will let you know what we are up to. Andre

Starting Again

We have been having all sorts of dramas with this blog.....already!! We are starting it again and see how we go this time. Keep an eye on it as we are determined to keep you all informed of our movements on this adventure, which begins in 10 days time,, AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!!!!