We finally got our drive figured out so I'm able to go back to our last weeks in Australia. After only a little delay with the flood weather, we were able to leave for our camping trip on Monday, the 3rd of Feb. It was a long trip north to Cania Canyon but there was plenty of construction on the way to keep the kids occupied lookimg out the window. Which reminds me of a funny story. There aren't too many stop signs over in Australia, mostly roundabouts, so when we saw men holding stop signs for construction on the road Sophie was all curious as to what the sign said and why they were holding it etc. Well there are stop signs all over the place over here..... the first time Sophie saw one she couldn't figure out why there wasn't a man holding it. That was fun to try to explain to a 4 year old. Now everytime she sees one she yells "STOP" at the top of her lungs. Maybe she's scared I won't see it or something???:)
Anyway, back to camping. We arrived in the near dark. Michael set up the tent while I fed the kids. Betwween the time when we got out of the car and found the bug spray and put it on - only a matter of minutes - we all looked like we had chickpocks due to so many bits. Thankfully that was the worst night, and as long as we put on bug spray when we woke and after our showers at night, we stayed pretty much bite free. We also had our first visitors while eating that night. Bettongs came around searching and scratching for food. For those of you in the States, those are a cross between a possum, a big mouse, and a kangaroo.
In the morning we heard the kids russelling around and finally an excited exclamation - 'Kangaroos!'. And they were out in force. Michael and I enjoyed just lying there listening to the kids look out the tent window counting and pointing and exclaiming over all of them. Finally they felt they had to come tell us about them so we had to 'wake up'. After breakfast we went exploring the campground. They had a jumping balloon that entertained them for a good long while, then we stopped by the pool area to see what was there and boy did the kids get excited. Three deep swimming pools, a 'Sophie' play area with slides and stuff, and a big water slide 'for Blake'. It wasn't open quite yet so we went and checked out the camp kitchen where we would have pumpkin dampa later and the small shop.
Tuesday we were still recovering from our 9 hours in the car, so we just went and played in the pool, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Wednesday we were up for hiking. They had several trails of all lengths. We choose one that was only 2K's and it was set up very well for little kids. There was a two storey cave with bats to explore right at the top when they were starting to get tired, then the way down went very smoothly. We had morning Tea at the local picnic area and then decided we could try another 1K route since the kids were doing so well. Thankfully it was that short, because I ended up carrying Thomas for most of it. It was mostly flat though and there were cows to look at. The site at the end was a large print on a rock that looked like a foot.
The kids fell asleep in the car on the way to the shops to restock our fruit and such and were ready for the pool when we returned to the camp. Wednesday we just stayed and played in the water again. The camp was set up really well and since school was in session we had it pretty much to ourselves. They had a fully stocked kitchen that we could walk to. We used the fridge and the BBQ and decided to go posh with the toaster for breakfast. They also had a laundry room with a bath for the kids, and of course showers for us, though I'm not sure how much we needed them with the pool area and the fact that we needed to spray ourselves with bug spray as soon as we came out, but they were nice to have.
The pool area was a blast. Michael and I took turns getting in with the kids so was able to steal some reading time as well. There were three salt water pools and then the kids play place was chlorean (sp?). The water slide was fun once the kids found out they could ride on our laps. I didn't have to worry about not doing my workout for the day because of all the times I climbed those stairs!
Friday we did the nasty drive back, but it really wasn't that bad. The kids did very well in the car, both ways. We didn't even have to pull out the electronics until the last hour. We did find a McDonald's to play in the middle each way for a 20 minutes play. All in All a very satisfying holiday.
Sat we packed, cleaned, and organized. Though Michael and I were able to sneak out that night for a night alone to celebrate our upcoming 7 year anniversary which was much needed before our up coming seperation. Sunday was finalizing, and of course, Monday we were up early to catch our flights, but you already heard that story :)
'Big Foot'
Hiking to the Two Storey Cave
Cania Dam
The Jumping Balloon
Along with Kangaroos, Wallaby, and Bettongs there were Emu's. Here is a mother with her children.
Every night they had bird feeding at the camp ground and every morning Blake's favorite came to say good morning and hello at the tent site.
Sophie wanted her photo with the Wallaby. It was the best I could do, though she got to be very good walking quietly and softly to get really close before they hopped away.
The nightly bird feeding.
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