Eating, Drinking, Sleeping.

We now have 14 adults with 19 kids terrorising the park. After breakfast had been cooked and cleaned up, the kids were entertained with a visit to the archery and the hay maze. Tracy took Kayla to the morning animal feeding frenzy along with another 50 or more camp kids whose parents took the opportunity to have their ferals supervised by someone else for an hour or so. 

We have decided that after 12 years of taking the kids camping and supervising them for every minute of their camping life, it is time for them to entertain themselves so we can be lazy bums and eat and drink all day. Pity the kids don't realise that. 

As night crept in and the volume level of the chit chat increased, all 34 of us migrated over to the fire and sat around some more, drinking some more, and talking about nothing some more. 

This is why we go camping. Easter Sunday tomorrow. Kayla has already told every child in the park that Easter bunny doesn't really exist, so right at this moment non believers are non receivers. 

Good Friday

I stumbled out of bed at some ridiculous time of approximately 7 o'clock and was witness to an incredible fog that cast an amazing blanket over the morning sunrise. 

As the fog lifted and the morning started, breakfast was started (on the Weber of course) and the day began. The owner has a morning ritual of blaring the truck horn signalling to all the kids and any adults wanting to be kids, that it was time to feed the animals. I was walking Taz nearby as Dylan, Tyler, Ned, Patrick, Darcy and Teddy climbed onto the hay bales on the back of the trailer and got involved in the feeding process. 

There were chooks, camels, Kangaroos,emus, Carmella the camel, goats, sheep, cows, water buffalo, reindeer....... and everyone of them had the kids involved in one way or the other giving them their breakfast 

What I thought was going to be a 20 minute exercise turned into closer to an hour and a half. (Which all my exercise did that!). But it was a very interesting tour with an amazingly friendly owner who sounded like he really did enjoy his work. 

The kids were entertained for the rest of the morning by trying their skills st archery into some painted hay bales and a few laps in the rather putrid lake in some canoes. Thankfully they agreed it was stinking and horrible and won't be asking to do that again. 

Getting back from the canoes, we discovered an ambulance tending to a poor little girl who had walked through the remains of last nights fire ashes which weren't as cold as she thought 🔥. The worrying part about this was that it was Gracie and she very quickly got raced off to the local hospital before being flown to Women's and Children's in Adelaide. Turns out it was only the top of her foot but was still a very nasty burn. 

With Nicole and Gracie in safe hands, and Rob supporting them, before we knew it, it was wine o'clock 🍷. The other 5 or so families had started turning up, the kids were multiplying every time I looked around. 

Tea was a basic meal of snags in bread with some steakettes and a token bowl of salad before we migrated to the fire. 

With the mood a little more somber as we were wondering how Gracie was, we went to bed early(ish) ready to tackle a new day. 

Keith Farmstay

Last night it dawned on me that I needed to pack. We are off for Easter with The Hardy's and The Mardle's to a place called Cockatoo Downs Farmstay about 7km East of Keith . I threw in as many clothes as I could, got all the accessories together such as chairs and tables, the went to bed. 

The plan is that I will get home from work early, have most of the car and van sorted before the kids get home from school and we will be on our way by 4..... ok, maybe 4:30. 

So I arrive home at 10 to 5. Completely not how I thought my day was going to turn out, but probably a little nicer for the boss who is not only paying for a full days work, but possibly also reading this. 

We managed to get moving at 5:35. Pretty good considering. We got all the way to Tailem Bend before the 1st stop. That's about 40 minutes drive😳

Thankfully this was also a food stop and we spent a small fortune at the local takeaway shop on chips, burgers and Yiros. 

I am guessing nearly 30 minutes  passed whilst they grew the potatoes, killed the chicken and cooked it all up for our extremely unhealthy, but very delicious, dinner in the car, and we were on our way again. We got to camp at about 8:30 and launched straight into setting up. The others were already here, and onto the second bottle of red, sitting around a large camp fire that the park has set up for anyone to gather around and dribble sh*t. 

We joined in for a few drinks around the fire and chatted about anything until finally collapsing ready for a big weekend of glamping, starting with a good fry up in the morning for breakfast. 

Addicted

It's about 7am and I am stirring in my bed as I hear Tyler whispering rather loudly "Dylan - it's time to go fishing". Next minute they are up and gone. The water is only just over a metre deep at the end of the jetty and both boys are very good swimmers, so I am not worried at all about them being out there on their own (and I have blocked out all thoughts about other nasty things that could happen). I hear them grab the can of corn kernels, pick up the two rods from under the van and they are off to empty the lake of carp.  I wander out there a couple of times to check they are still alive, and Grandad even took Dylan a couple of toasted sandwiches at lunch time because he quite clearly wasn't coming back any time soon. He has actually caught a good number of fish at this stage and appeared to be keeping everyone at the end of the jetty amused with his antics and good humour.

Tyler's interest level lasts about 30 minutes each visit before he leaves Dylan on his own, however he did keep heading back out intermittently to check on progress and have another 10 minute attempt at catching something.

I headed down to the bakery in readiness for a visit from Mike and Pauline Brady and got distracted at the tourist information centre checking out the freshly painted train and surrounds. It was then back to the van just in time for the miserable weather to get worse and dump a few more mm on the ground and raise the mud level to be truly annoying.

   

 I went out to sit with the boys for the last hour of the day whilst the wind picked up and made conditions pretty horrible. Dylan wasn't going to quit, especially with Tyler starting to catch some fish (with my help..), however once the clock ticked past 6pm, I put my foot down and made them come in.

 

I think secretly Dylan was glad I did, as he basically collapsed in a chair and looked like he was ready to fall asleep the moment he had eaten.  Us adults sat up and braved the elements with chocolate and wine, however with the scattered showers and windy conditions, it wasn't long before we hit the beds for the final time on this holiday.

My prediction is that the boys are going to want to go fishing again real soon. Just as well Easter is around the corner. Better start thinking of places to go. 

Dylan goes fishing

For the last week or so, all I have heard from Dylan is him asking to go fishing whilst we are camping this weekend. I was hesitant to say yes, because he would have asked me questions about it every hour until we got there, but I also couldn't say no, because he would be heartbroken. So today was going to be the day we went fishing in Lake Alexandrina. For carp.

I woke up feeling like I had slept with a knife stuck in the back of my neck all night, and so when the first thing I heard from Dylan was "can we go fishing now", it took all my will power to smile at him rather than tying him up with the fishing line and throwing him in as bait.  A couple of painkillers soon settled the pain, albeit temporarily, and I was functional again. We had breakfast, which was the usual bacon, eggs and "toad in the hole - ( egg in the fried bread on the hot plate), cleaned up and then I finally set up some rigs to take Mr Excitable fishing.  Dylan insisted on doing everything himself, including casting the line out. Against by better judgement, I let him and after showing him how to do it, he did ok the first few times, before reminding us all not to stand within 10 metres at any angle when he is casting. Instead of the line going straight out where he was aiming, it somehow went 90 degrees to his right landing smack in the middle of the only clump of reeds in the 1 million plus square kilometres of water. 

   

 

After retrieving the line minus the hook and sinker, I put together a new trace and threw in a bit of free training that he actually listened to this time, and left him to it.  With an expectation of him becoming bored in 3 minutes, I was pleasantly surprised to see him still sitting out there 2 hours later. There was plenty of tiny nibbles and bait missing, but no catching, so we headed back to the van for lunch.

No sooner had he swallowed the last mouthful of his second sandwich, Dylan was racing back to the lake with fishing rod and bait, accompanied by Tyler and Darcy. I decided that they didn't need me watching over them anymore so we all stayed put and settled in for an afternoon of camping fun. 

   

With the drinks, food and tall tales flowing, I suddenly realised it was nearly 4pm and the kids - including Kayla - were still out on the jetty fishing. For a moment there, the thought of a 12, 9, and 7 year old spending 3 hours on a jetty fishing unsupervised made me start looking around for Child Welfare staff taking them into responsible care and us two parents being thrown in jail for 6 months. However, I wandered down and found them having the time of their lives and actually catching fish. 

   

When I say fish, I actually mean 3" baby Redfin, but at least he had caught something. Turns out he started talking to complete strangers also fishing out there, and somehow managed to convince them to let him use their bait (which happened to be bacon!) He then also managed to catch 2 decent sized carp, but as with all good fisherman's tales, these "huge fish" were nowhere to be seen because a pelican took them. A few people vouched for his story, so either he had somehow bribed everyone to tell the same story, or he did actually catch them.

Before I knew it, tea time was beckoning and everybody was starving. I cooked up some sausages and marinated steak, with a token spattering of green salad.  By the time clean up was done, Kayla had been showered and we had moved our chairs 5 times thanks to the weather unable to decide if it was going to rain or not, it was sunset and time fo take the mandatory sunset photos - although it turned out West is on the other side of the hill behind us, so I managed to snag a rainbow off to the East instead. 

 

Setting up

It was just me and the kids tonight. Tracy had managed to book herself and her friend some tickets to a Fringe show tonight, meaning she would be coming up in the morning sometime.  I wasn't in a huge hurry, still undecided if I even wanted to go this weekend, and considering it was only 45 minutes away, there was not the usual urgency.  When we arrived, the kids had a reasonable amount of enthusiasm and desire to help, until they spotted their Grandparents 2 sites away. This doesn't overly bother me, as I like to do things myself, my way anyway - which is probably not a huge surprise to most people.  The local Corellas had certainly left all the signs that this was their territory and that we mere humans were invading their space. The trees were absolutely shredded and the ground was completely mulched with their destruction. 

   

It was a beautiful warm night too, and with the Corellas destroying the trees above the van and everyone of them screeching to another, it was a mix of enjoying the camping life and wanting to shoot the damn things.  Finally I had finished (well enough for tonight ...) and it was time for me to sit and relax

 

It wasn't long before Kayla pointed out that she had a dozen mosquito bites, so I decided it was time for everyone to get cleaned up and ready for bed. We played a few games of UNO in the safety of the chemically sprayed van before all 3 kids were screamed at to go to sleep. At least 3 times.

I was buggered too and crashed reasonably early as well, listening to the park full of kids still awake and running around our van, shouting at the top of their voices. I fell asleep regardless, with Taz curled up at my feet with one ear up, still listening for strange noises to bark at. 

Milang - again

Preparation isn't one of my strongest qualities - apparently.

We are heading off to Milang in 3 days time for the Adelaide Cup long weekend.
I am out late tonight (Tuesday), having a big session on Wednesday night and potentially getting home super late, leaving me with Thursday night to pack.
Plenty of time........

Thankfully it is only 44 minutes drive away, so in my mind, it doesn't matter what I forget as long as it isn't a chair and my esky full of drinks

Meningie - marching with ants

Another great day, weather wise, was presented to us today. Clear sunny sky and warm weather around the 31 degree mark. 

True to yesterday's promise, we agreed that there was no long boring drives checking out this magnificent state of ours, and instead we would go for a nice relaxing walk up to the Main Street. Tracy had seen a short walk on the park map that led us around the back of town to the playground so we headed off in that direction. 

In less than 10 minutes, we had reached the sign indicating we were at the start of the walk. Not the concrete path that we were expecting, but a gravel, ant infested trail through the native scrub typically found in the Flinders Ranges. 

The sign said it was only 600m with an optional 800m detour in the middle so reluctantly, I relented and agreed to go after the kids and Tracy who had already disappeared into the bush. It may be worth noting that Dylan had ridden his scooter on this walk and I had my best hiking footwear on. The scooter was now slung over my shoulder and my footwear was just a case of "suck it up Princess". 

We did the detour and it turned out ok, except for the 10 billion ants that kept trying to climb up my feet and ankles and bite every millimetre of my leg. We got to a dirt fire track road, with a sign on the other side indicating stage 2 of the trail continuing. Despite this not showing clearly on the map, Tracy was in control of the map and apparently worked out where we were and convinced us all that this was the same length track as we had just hiked and would pop us out at the playground. 

Well...... 45 minutes later with no more water in any of our bottles and enough sweat pouring out of my head to add another inch into Lake Albert, we were still bush walking...  in my thongs with a scooter wrapped around my neck!

 It was at this stage I took the map off Tracy and advised that she was never to look at a map again. 

Thinking I would resort to my ever faithful Google Maps, I whipped out my phone to see just how lost we really were, only to find the stupid thing was locked up and wouldn't go off the home screen. 

We kept trudging along for what seems to be another 30 minutes encountering a couple of friendly blue tongue lizards and all of a sudden heard some cars nearby. 

The kids actually started running at this stage in excitement (and not having a scooter on their back or a pair of ant infested thongs to slow them down), and reached the road. 

My excitement wasn't quite as clear... we were on a section of road where the speed limit was quite clearly 100 km/hr which immediately said to me that we were not really that close to town centre. And to top it off, every inch of the side of the road was covered in bull ants, meaning the kids needed to either be mowed down by the next passing car or eaten alive by an army of ants. 

Using my impressive directional skills, I went left and started walking towards what I hoped was town, with the kids being reminded every minute that the next car to come over the hill behind them was likely to flatten them all to the size of the ants we were desperately trying to avoid. 

Then the weirdest thing happened. The first car to come over the hill slowed down and reversed back to us, with the driver sticking her head out of the window saying "Hello Weyland's". Turns out to be a mum from Soccer and her kids heading into Meningie from their farm property that we were potentially going to reach if we had kept on the trail earlier. 

We very gratefully accepted a lift and got driven in luxury to the playground where I collapsed on the beautiful green grass whilst the kids played on the equipment and Tracy chatted. 

After recuperating with an ice block and some much needed rest, we ambled back, passing the local Australia Day thong tree.

After lunch we spent the afternoon sitting on the edge of the lake whilst the kids played in the shallows with some new friends they had made. Tyler took Taz in at one stage and let him go, but I am not convinced that the poor dog liked it at all, judging by the speed he swam back to shore and ran around like a rabid wild animal chasing its next meal. 

Before we knew it, the day had ended and we were cooking tea on the Weber for the last time as this is our last night of this holiday. 

We should be home by lunch time tomorrow, which gives us plenty of time to get the house into some sort of order after 3 weeks of absence. 

Australia Day in Meningie

There is an annual fun run starting from outside the caravan park every Australia Day, as well as a 5 km and a 10 km run. I have been psyching myself up for the last 24 hours, I even did a couple of stretches at one stage, but Tracy tells me that trying to climb over her in the middle of the night to get out of the van bed isn't classed as a true stretch. I am sticking with my story.
We dragged our athletic bodies out of bed at around 8:15, only to find the races started at 7 am. I was so disappointed, that I fired up the Weber and cooked some sausages, bacon and eggs for a traditional breakfast. I even thought about cooking some for the rest of the family at one stage.

The kids spent the morning swimming in the lake, whilst we sat in the shade of a Coolibah tree, watching over them enjoy their time in the waist high water.

After lunch, I packed everyone into the car and went exploring, as I like to do. I had seen on Google Maps some indication of dirt roads hugging the edge of The Coorong and curling back up to Narrung, so I wanted to go and see for myself. There was a mild smattering of interest from Tyler, whilst Tracy and Kayla fought the urge to sleep, and Dylan buried his nose in his book. I found my way down to Long Island point which had the potential to be a great campground, but even on this mild Summer's day, the wind would have driven me crazy if we were there. Great scenery though

We headed back along a road that had more corrugation than Stratco's fencing section, which kept everyone in the car a little more alert than usual. Next stop was Marks Point and then finally Pelican Point, where, unlike Google Maps, the road actually stopped at a set of gates and we had to turn around. Rather than going all the way back to where we started, I took a gamble that Google Maps was mostly correct and that the dirt road we had travelled on so far, did eventually get us to Narrung. The first sign of civilisation was a little town called Raukken, which is home to the church that appears on our $50 note. According to Google, this town has 95-100 people living here. We saw their houses, their church, their school and their general store. But we didn't see a single person! It was literally a ghost town that was immaculately maintained.

So off to Narrung, over the ferry, past the only inland light house in the Southern Hemisphere, and back to camp for a drink or 3 to finish off a very different Australia Day for me.

The kids have banned me from taking them on a drive tomorrow, so it looks like we are going on a few hikes to see what can be seen on foot instead.

Meningie - because I can

I was almost excited to be leaving Millicent for Meningie... almost. I have been wanting to stop there on every trip out this way so far, but because it is less than an hour and a half from home, it is a major battle to convince Tracy to stop. Even the kids are making noises about just going home, so I guess I have only won half the battle after all.
The trip took us through Kingston SE, so i ensured we did the mandatory stop at The Big Lobster for photos. It was under construction again, but with what looks like a new coat of paint.

We only booked 2 days ago and I now know that is not a wise thing to do when the weekend is a 4 day holiday for Australia Day with 80% of the population that are not already on annual leave, taking Friday the 27th as a leave day. we have been allocated  a corner of the bark garden normally reserved for the ants, however it does mean that we will potentially only have neighbours on one side.

I was in absolutely no rush to do anything this afternoon, so I pottered around slowly setting everything up, whilst Tracy and Tyler went for a walk into town to get some supplies, and Dylan went exploring with Kayla.
The Weber was fired up for a delicious round of  pizzas for tea, before we actually crashed early(ish).
I tried to get some good photos of sunset over the lake, but this turned out to be reasonably difficult due to the fact the sun doesn't set over the lake from where we are. I did get a couple of good panorama shots however on this very pleasant evening.

On my own in Millicent

It was a big night last night with Tracy and Tyler gone home for the funeral.

I forgot to get Kayla into bed, until Tracy messaged asking if she could say goodnight to her before it was too late. I raced around frantically and got Kayla into her PJ's in record time, teeth cleaned and ready for the call within 2 minutes, before making a goodnight call. It was already time for Dylan to be in bed as well, so he was hot on her heels and also in bed in record time.

As I was flicking through the channels on the TV, I noticed that one of my all time favourite sequels was about to start - Lethal Weapon 3. I have probably already seen it half a dozen times, but it didn't stop me getting it to a warm bed with a brew and some snacks to watch it again with Taz curled up beside me.

This morning was a little better with only Dylan and Kayla trying in vain to be quiet, but they did manage to get themselves their own toast cooked before I surfaced and cleaned up their mess, so that was a marked improvement.

With scooters and helmets, and Taz all leashed up, we went to the local playground and Skate Park for the next hour and a half, until Dylan realised it was 12 o'clock, and therefore he was starving. 

The kids polished off the rest of last nights winner winner chicken dinner, with absolutely no intention of saving any for Tracy or Tyler.

I was going crazy trying to find reasons on how I could say no to Dylan's persistent pleading to go back to the soccer pitch/cricket nets this afternoon, and ultimately he wore me down.

With cricket bat under the arm, we marched to the local sporting field, to find the grass on the soccer pitch had been mowed (well, slashed at least) and it was resembling a soccer pitch once again. It appears Taz may have never seen cut grass like this before, as he went absolutely crazy picking up mouthfuls of grass and shaking his head around until the grass had flown out at every angle and completely covered him.  He has had a huge amount of off-leash time this holiday, but instead of getting better at the constant commands to try and keep him close, I am convinced he is taking full advantage of it and acting just like the kids with his pretending he doesn't actually hear me.

Tea was a little simpler tonight, but still the Weber with sausages, minute steak and a nice fillet steak for me. I tried again to balance it with some pre packaged pasta salad and coleslaw that the kids have refused to eat over the last 2 nights, and I think that I have passed my duties as a responsible parent for the day, on my own. Except, maybe, the fact that I didn't put any sunscreen on any of them all day, and they now look redder than an angry Tracy's face when she sees them burnt.

Tomorrow we move for the last time. Off to Meningie for 3 days, before heading home on Saturday. I have been trying to get to stay at this place every holiday. I am desperately hoping it is as good as I need it to be.

Weird weather - Millicent

Once again, the 3 kids version of being quiet in the morning is the equivalent of a classroom full of kids with no teacher. And once again, the morning started with the threat of incarceration if it ever happened again. We did however confiscate their iPads with no intention of ever giving them back (which is really (not) going to help with them being quiet in the mornings.....)
It was already warm, so I took the kids over to the pool whilst Tracy stayed close to the amenities for a little longer, thanks to some of our food not wanting to stay inside her.
The water appeared to be warmer than yesterday, and as we were the only ones there, I ripped my top off to expose my hulk of a frame and jumped in with the kids.
It's only when I start doing things like continually jumping in the pool from the pontoon and then climbing back out again, that I start to realise that my body just isn't designed for physical activity the way my mind thinks it is - and that the pool is going to have no water left in it if I keep jumping in and causing Tsunami's every 3 minutes😜
A few spots of rain started but also brought a bit of a cool breeze, so we packed up and went back to the van to get stuff in, out of the impending rain.
More games of UNO, a bit of a snooze and some Sudoku puzzles filled the afternoon. There was no real rain this afternoon, despite the threatening clouds, but it was damp enough to stop us sitting outside. 

Tracy and Tyler took off back home tonight. The sad passing of brother-in-law John's dad, Paul Morrissey last week, resulted in a funeral being scheduled for tomorrow, and Tracy quite rightly felt the need to attend and pay her condolences.
 I decided to cook up something different to feed the remaining two kidlets and made up a bread roll stuffed with diced chicken thigh fillets, mozzarella cheese, bacon, tomato paste, spices etc. considering the limited ingredients we have here, it turned out bloody awesome, if I do say so myself. The kids loved it too, and took great delight in telling Tracy on the phone tonight how nice it was and that we were not saving her any.

I made sure there was some resemblance of salad on their plates to keep the child protection agencies away, and settled in for a cool night watching TV with the kids.