I feel like it has been forever since I wrote a blog post. Probably because it has been. But we are taking a road trip and so it is a great reason to get back into it.

We decided to do a road trip because hey, we don’t have full time jobs or a home – there probably will never be a better time! And surely a 1 year old is the perfect travelling companion….right?

We borrowed my dad’s caravan and after many many reiterations of an itinerary, we were off.

 

 

Our goal is to head up to Cairns, with a bit of ‘outback’ thrown in for good measure for Elmar. I keep telling him it is a whole lot of s…p…a….c…e out there, but he is still keen.

 

 

Despite many lessons from Dad (who is quite the caravan task master!), we were still a little nervous pulling out of Hervey Bay. For starters, every other car pulling a van was a 4WD. We were in an OLD Ford Falcon. But, it does the job well even if we can’t go fast. We look super cool cruising along at 80km/hour with even a horse float passing us…

 

 

(Yes, that is an iPad strung up between the seats)

 

 

We arrived in Tannum Sands without incident, though I think Elmar and I will be sick of listening to The Wiggles by the time we are through. We were greeted by Gary (Gary the Greeter!) in his golf buggy who literally guided us every step of the way into our site. We set up the van without any swearing or incident and proceeded to have a celebratory beer (I had a shandy). 

 

 

We were advised on check-in that Matthew the Magpie is our neighbour and that is he currently very busy swooping everyone so we should take care. Silly me forgot to bring my bike helmet covered in zip ties. Luckily I was able to teach Isabella to wave her arms above her head to keep him away.

 

 

We stopped briefly (very briefly!) in Gladstone where I discovered Gladstone’s first IKEA….ahhah!

 

 

We have limited time so can’t spend days sightseeing invert place, but I don’t really think we are missing much by just having an overnight stop here in Tannum….

Onward toward the beef capital of Queensland… We gave Rocky a miss this time, preferring to stop in at Emu Park, the ‘beach holiday destination’ for Rocky residents. Cute and small, it had everything we needed for our stay – including a drive through caravan site! No need for Gary the Greeter today!

Isabella spent most of the afternoon smuggling sand from the beach home in her clothes and shoes, and then indulged in a game of chess. Elmar swam, but I told him to keep an eye out for crocodiles…

 

 

Hitting the road again tomorrow with our new driver.