When we announced our ‘big lap’ plans to family and friends, we received many a varied response; from “Wow, what an amazing thing to do. I’d love to do it!”, to “OMG you’re mad!” and everything in-between. Just like our last trip, many shared they were happy to follow vicariously as we travelled around.  A common question asked was how we thought we’d go spending 24/7 together. I felt we would go through 3 phases.

Phase 1, the ‘Honeymoon’ phase: All high on life with an exciting adventure ahead of us! Christmas was coming and the kids had just finished a year of school, everyone in a good mood. This was exactly how it was, fabulous Christmas with friends and then 3 weeks holidaying though Victoria catching up with more friends! What’s not to like?!

Phase 2, The ‘working it out’ phase: being together 24/7 takes patience, compromise, a bit more patience, active listening, further patience,
negotiation, another  cup full of patience, compassion, ok, buckets more patience, plus many other attributes we’re all still trying to master! Alex and I were still wired for a frenetic pace, trying to fit a lot in and we were both feeling that time wasn’t as enjoyable as we felt it should be. Tempers could sometimes be high and we needed to take stock, reassess and remind ourselves why we were doing this trip in the first place. With the long evenings of light, we were together pretty much most of the time, kids had been going to bed later and later and by the time we had them settled, it was so darn cold, we pretty much huddled up in bed not soon after so any down time for us was limited. Reflecting back on Tassie, I feel we were in an active chapter of ‘phase 2’ as we were all trying to find a balance and how we were fitting together as a family.

Phase 3, ‘The Equilibrium’: a few bumps in the road but generally just that, a calmness and steadiness throughout the family dynamics
so that we all enjoy having fun together. I’m hoping the scales will tip in that direction soon!

On the hope we were sailing our way to ‘Equilibrium’, we’d dosed ourselves with ginger for what had looked like it was going to be a very rough crossing back to the mainland. After pulling out of the harbour, heads to pillows, we were asleep within minutes for the entire crossing.

We needed to get the solar panels fixed on Minty so had a day kicking around Melbourne that we hadn’t planned for. But good things come from the unexpected… My Bestie had just moved down to Mel, so it was a great opportunity for an unforeseen catch-up and of course another early birthday meal for Reo! We crammed ourselves into Chrissie’s 1 bed apartment and headed out for a scrumptious Thai meal. It was a fun night and fabulous to catch up with her – thanks Auntie Chrissie! We finally headed out of Melbourne late the following day and our next Destination, the Great Ocean Road.

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With the sun soon to set as we crawled our way through rush hour traffic, we didn’t drive too long before finding a quick overnight camp in Otway Forest Park. Temps were starting to drop and we could have our first fire in a long time. Officially the Great Ocean Road starts in Torquay and 664km later you finish in Fairy Port. After a hearty pancake breakfast cooked by Lexi, we headed to Apollo Bay, about an hours drive further west from Torquay to start our journey along the GOR. As the name lends, there are magnificent coastal views as you meander down the windy roads that hug the shore, before long, we were travelling up along cliff-tops offering incredible views and the road then took us back into the lush Otway National Park.

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We found another camp back in the forest as well as an instant friendship with Jenny & Malcom ‘The Roaming Reesons’ who left around the same time we did from Perth and doing the lap with their 8-year-old twins Emily & Mitch. As the following day was Reo’s “official” birthday, we all decided to go and do the canopy treetop walk. Even Reo was happy to do a walk!!! So much more fun with friends 😊. There was a little fairy garden along the way that they loved exploring and climbing all the steps so we could take in the spectacular views 45m up in the treetops was a cinch…

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Having a group of mini people together makes it all so much fun for us all. There is a cantilever that you can venture on, it wobbles as you walk and as someone who really doesn’t like heights made my stomach churn as I inched my way to the end, but I felt brave having done it! That night we had a fun party dinner. It had been a great day, this had been Reo’s 3^rd party, he’s doing far better than when we’re at home!

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The following day, after getting lots of great intel from Mal on where to go when we get to Western Australia, we continued our way along the GOR which is synonymous with the 12 Apostles. 20 plus years ago, Alex and I did the GOR as young, carefree travellers while we lived in South Australia for the year. I was excited to come back and show the kids a couple of the sights that had stayed with me for the last 2 decades. Naïvely, it hadn’t really crossed my mind how much the landscape would have changed over this time!! What had once been a road you could pull over on, take a stroll and appreciate the vista, was now parking signposts for all types of vehicles along with overflow parking, boardwalks to guide your path and about a million other people to “enjoy” it with. It was like a monkey’s tea party!!

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People squeezing and pushing to try and get to the edge to get their selfie with the Apostles. We also managed to muscle our way through and find a spot for a piccie before continuing along the boardwalk for different aspects of the scenery. It’s quite beautiful looking across the panoramic views seeing the rocky stacks stand tall and proud along the shore if you try and ignore all the pushing behind! 😊We also learnt a little titbit of info while we were there; there were ever only 8 apostles (now 7 with 1 collapsing due to erosion) and they used to be called ‘The Sow and Pigs’ but the name was changed as it wasn’t attracting many tourists!! I can well and truly say that changing the name worked wonders! haha We continued along the yellow-washed cliffs, stopping at a few more hot spots and lookouts taking in the incredible views on offer. We ended up having tea on the run (cheese wrap in the car) as we needed to push further west to ensure we saw all the things we wanted to before our next hard timeline of getting the boat to Kangaroo Island with the Manna family.

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We were up and out early (8.30am I tell you..) the following day, although we did have to forsake our coffee, and stepped across our next border as we journeyed into South Australia. We were there a day earlier than initially planned so we had to stop and scoff the rest of our fresh fruit by the side of the road, chucking a few bits left into the quarantine bins provided. This is so fruit flies don’t spread across States. We made a pit stop at Piccaninnie Ponds with its crystal-clear waters, a mecca for cave divers enticed by a sinkhole with a depth of 100m and the majesty of the ‘Cathedral’ a large underwater cavern. Even though we weren’t getting in the water to dive, the wetlands are recognised as international importance with many varied plants and wildlife to enjoy. We spotted a few different birds, although not being ornithologists, we didn’t really have a clue what we were looking at! We then headed up to Mount Gambia known for its limestone, volcanic landscape and crater lakes.

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Our first stop was an aquifer tour of the Blue Lake. Learning the history of how it formed in the vent of a ‘recent’ volcano, it is now the towns source of potable water. Between the months of November to around April, it turns a dramatic vivid cobalt blue and then fades again to grey for the rest of the year. Our tour guide for the morning was like a robot, the start button had been pushed and off he went in his pre-recorded voice. Lexi was trying to punctuate his dialogue with questions, but the oration continued until he was ready to pause. It was very strange. The guy was an encyclopedia of knowledge and it was interesting picking up the bits we could follow, but his words came out ten to the dozen and it was difficult to keep up with his pace at times. A few times a little sales pitch came in “we’re lucky enough to have the books, DVDs, rocks etc at the shop should you be interested”, I think he slowed down for that bit!

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We then headed to the information centre which had a great little museum downstairs on all things volcanoes, then the Cave Gardens and the visitor centre which showed a great little video on the geology of how the landscape has formed and changed over the last few million years, the kids really enjoyed it and I decided this was their schooling for the day! I then spotted the library opposite and as I’d been told it had a great section for kids, added to their learning for the day by getting them to read us a book each. By then our stomachs were growling so had a late picnic lunch at the Valley Lake before heading to explore Umpherston Sinkhole. I felt like I’d been part of the British TV show Treasure Hunt from the 80’s with Anneka Rice rushing from attraction to attraction.

The following day we visited Engelbert caves. The tour guide was so different to yesterday, completely engaging the kids and getting them interested in what they were looking at. It was another geography day and we learnt that the cave had avons (domed holes in the ceiling of the cave) instead of stalactites, shaped by the water from the lake pushing against the limestone leaving the holes once the water had subsided. Volcanic ash or a layer over the surface ground then effectively sealed the cave and no water came down to create the stalactites that are renowned with most cave systems.

We then headed up the road to Naracoorte caves to go look at some fossils. We did a couple of self-guided tours. The first was a really interesting exhibit of Dioramas, constructed after bones, teeth and fragments that had been found in the caves. The kids took their own torches to explore all the nooks and crannies which was a great way to investigate and learn about extinct animals. The second tour took us to Stick Tomato Cave to search for stalactites and stalacmites. Reo and Lexi acted as our tour guides. It’s nice to see attractions through a child’s eye, you underestimate how much they take in which they then simplify to an uncomplicated but clear explanation.

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We then headed rural as our next stop was at Lester and Kay’s farm. We didn’t actually know them, they are friends of our friends, but were happy to meet us on our travels and have since become firm friends. We got there late arvo and after introductions it was straight to the barn for a tractor ride and to discover the driving ability of the kids in a little red fiat!! Reo started off in the tractor with Lester and Alex took Lexi in the fiat. Big open fields to practice, what could go wrong with an 8 year old driving a gear shift car?!?! Reo looked like he was having a ball moving big hay bales from one area to another, Lexi on the other hand blew me away… she took to driving pretty quickly. To be honest, the biting point on the gears was extremely forgiving, but even so, within 10 minutes, Lexi was starting the car and getting it up to 3^rd gear independently with Alex’s instruction. Lester then set her a little course to drive around, glad he used plastic containers and not humans, she did well and I think there would have only been a couple of broken legs if we’d been standing there!

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It was then time to swap and Reo stepped into the car. Unfortunately for Little Fella, he could barely see over the dashboard, however, in his opinion that was immaterial to his ability on how to learn to drive the car. Just imagine the iconic picture of Jack Nicholson’s crazed, maniacal face from The Shining movie – that’s the only image you need to have for Reo trying to drive around a field. His motto, ‘foot on right pedal hard to the floor and let’s see what happens’. It gave me an eye opener as to what Reo may be like in his 20’s!! It was a very fun evening and dark by the time we get back to the farmhouse for dinner.

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Having already visited 2 farms on the trip, Reo is determined he’s going to be a farmer when he grows up, so was keen to understand what Lester did and Lester was all too keen to reciprocate and show. Lester was up at the crack of dawn, Reo, no where to be seen. LOL. Once we’d had a lovely brekkie cooked up by Kay, Alex and the kids went off to explore with Lester and I stayed back to chat with Kay and get on to the washing – such joys. This was a new lesson for me, I was introduced to the ‘twin tub’! None of this lazy push your washing into the machine, add soap, push a couple of button and away you go to read a book…. oh no, fill up the tub, only to a certain level or it overflows, oops, then add the clothes and soap, let the machine so its thing for 15 mins, then take out the clothes from the tub and rinse them in the sink while you empty the dirty water and refill with clean, once clothes are rinsed put them back into the tub for a second rinse/wash then move them into the spin tub to wring the water out.. and repeat! That was my morning gone after about 4 loads 😊 Hats off to Kay who has brought up 4 kids, runs a farm and still finds time to keep clothes clean!

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In the afternoon we went to see Lester de-crutching the sheep. He’d taken Alex with him, I think for a helping hand, but alas, he’d made a grave error in judgement there! Looking at the process, Alex was happy to give moral support but not much else. It was interesting to see the technique, Lester must be in his mid 60’s but physically strong and you can see how he keeps his fitness up, these sheep are huge and very powerful. The kids had had a late night the previous night so I thought I’d try and get them into bed a little earlier, Lester had other plans…

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He took the kids to go and feed the sheep, then it was time to explore the barns a little more to see all the other tractors and machinery he had. It was then time for Lexi’s second driving lesson and if that wasn’t enough, we had a quick drive up to the local sand dunes for a play and then back at the farm Lester thought it would be fun to teach the kids to shoot! I did have to take a second look when I saw Reo holding a gun, but yes, that was a gun and the kids were keen to see how it worked. I’d been observing from a distance up to that point so I idled my way over to see what they were about to do. A target was set up and Lester showed them how to hold the gun and aim for the target. We have a family joke that even though Reo is the nosiest of the family, he hates loud noises and this was no different. As soon as he heard the bang, that was it, no more ‘gun play’ for Reo (secretly I was fine with that). Lexi on the other hand was not put off and keen to give it a try. It ended up being another late night and the kids went to bed on a promise they could feed the sheep if they were ‘up and out early’ (our motto!) and brekkie eaten before we needed to leave the farm at 7.30am for the Kangaroo Island ferry …. challenge was accepted 😊

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