Clare - time to go home

Don't you just love those camping nights on the eve of having to pack up, when you hear the rain start coming down at 3am and just knowing it is going to be horrible to pack up in daylight!
luckily for us it was only a drizzle, but it started and is still going at 10pm tonight as I write this, although it is now technically P!$$%#@ down.
I had fairly well prepared for the wet last night, and had packed most stuff away and put up one side annex wall to keep stuff underneath dry, and was quite chuffed about it too, as I stood watching the rain coming down with the occasional gust of wind, but everything remained pretty well dry.
We were going to hang around a bit, but this miserable weather ( only 10 degrees too ) made the decision easier to just pack up and go.
Daniel and Olivia made good headway and were off first, whilst we were a little slower, but as usual I was in no rush. Rob was discovering that packing up the Jayco Swan in the wet with Nicole not hearing his ESP requests, all helped keep him warm with steam coming out of his ears, so I backed off with the video-ing of his frustrated mutterings. We said our goodbyes and set off. (They are heading off for 3 weeks to Mildura and the Grampians, so there is plenty of time for them to practice their psychic and subliminal messaging to each other when it comes to pack up time in the future.)
We headed home uneventfully and started the usual post camping chores of 5 loads of washing, emptying the van and car etc, before finally sitting down to tea.
I put together the mandatory video blog of the trip, and am now planning our next holiday....
https://drive.google.com/a/weyland.com.au/file/d/0Bwd2qwl47JWtNlRESGM4aFM2cmM/view?usp=sharing

Clare - Easter Bunny arrives in town

Anyone would thing the kids were a tad excited this morning. Dylan woke up at 5:30 and thought it would be ok to start looking around the caravan for any "bunny droppings". And that is before taking into account the hour the clocks needed to be turned back. Grrrrr. 

After threatening him with Easter being cancelled if he didn't go back to sleep, he lay quietly, but with one eye watching for any sign of movement from us. 

It was about 7 o'clock when Tracy decided to sit up which was his ticket to leap out of bed, razz up Tyler and Kayla and race around the van like a fox chasing the Easter Bunny. 

He managed to wolf down about 3 eggs before we took all the eggs off all of them to avoid any early morning vomiting, and they were off to the jumping pillow for the rest of the morning. 

I did manage to get some pancakes cooked for Kayla, but even they weren't as good as chocolate eggs, so that mix has been stashed in the fridge for another day. 

This holiday has been fantastic with all the kids only fighting once or twice a day, but playing away from the campsite for the whole time.  (Which generally gave us a license to open a bottle of wine prior to lunchtime and continue on until we couldn't eat or drink another thing. )

Today we never left the caravan park and enjoyed what appeared to be our last gone sunny day. The showers are supposed to set in overnight, which should make packing up so much fun with the ground turning into mud and everything getting wet as we try to pack up. 

In the meantime, we are spending yet another night sitting around the bonfire, drinking copious amounts of wine and generally chatting about the day. 

Has been a great holiday with perfect weather in a great location. Have a great set of videos that I will be stringing together when I get home and publishing to have a fun reminder

Clare - Easter Saturday

Despite having way too much red wine yesterday afternoon, I think the early night was my saving grace and the reason why I woke up feeling fine this morning. Phew. 

The kids have been playing a game in the creek behind our van for the last 2 days and were immediately over there again this morning after breakfast, and with the weather climbing towards a beautiful 26 degrees today, that meant us adults could just sit and relax with books in the morning sunlight. Just fantastic. 

Before we knew it, everyone was back at the campsite looking for lunch. I was pretty excited by that, because it meant we were heading off to the wineries soon. 

Headed off to Annie's Lane 1st, as it has always been one of my favourites. Tasted a few, bought a few. Job done. 

Next stop was almost directly across the main road at Crabtree. This one was more of a boutique family winery, but unfortunately wasn't overly nice wines either. Didn't stop is trying them all though. 

Rob had done a superb job at looking after ALL the kids (with help from Daniel) whilst we alcoholics were tasting the wines, but nicely bowed out of visiting anymore, so Nicole and the kids returned back to camp with him and left us to actually look after our own kids. 

We decided to only visit one more and chose one that we haven't been to before, and that was Jeanerett Wines.  This has turned out to be my new favourite Cellar Door. Beautiful wines, a really pleasant guy serving us, and a great big cat picture book to keep the kids entertained. Again, we relieved him of a few of his nicest bottles, and then called it quits and set back to camp, where of course we got out some of the finest cheeses and a taste of each of the wines we just bought. 

Another great way to end the afternoon. 

Clare - day 2

The day started with the usual bacon and eggs for breakfast, and not much else. 

It soon got to lunch time which seemed to be the appropriate time to finish off the bottle of red wine that Tracy didn't manage to empty last night. That seemed to be the trigger to then open and finish another 2 bottles before tea time, and as such, I was pretty well gone by dinner time. However, a big feed, a hot shower and sitting around the fire started a second wind and we kicked on. 

We had a visit for a few hours from Ben and Clare Baker today, but other than that the day was spent drinking (by me) and stopping the kids fighting with each other. Sitting around the fire and chatting about nothing was the true symbol of what camping is all about. 

Look out Clare

It rained last night. I assumed that was simply because it is Easter and we are about to set off glamping. 

As it turned out , today's weather was perfect. The kids got home from school and the race to leave was on. 

We all bundled in and set off for Clare, shortly before 4:30pm. 

About 15 minutes down the road when we hit the 1st 80km/hr zone, the "Tracy must sleep" curse cut in and I was left to talk to myself as the kids had their noses buried in their iPads. 

Just over 2 hours later, we had arrived. I declared that my job had been completed - I got us to our destination safely - and therefore it was time to have a drink. 

Olivia and Daniel had already arrived, albeit only 5 minutes earlier, with Nic & Rob arriving 20 minutes later. 

We had a great meat and pasta meal heated up on the caravan stove, that Tracy had made before falling asleep, which made life very easy and was topped off by cracking a bottle of red. 

Beautiful weather tonight as we all sit around drinking and talking rubbish.