Possums arrived in droves last night to the campsite, with the sole purpose of raiding any foodstuff that might have been left in reach. Tell-tale footprints on the stove and tables showed the action didn’t stop after we went to bed.
This morning we had many more visitors, wallabies and kangaroos.
Just a couple of our avian visitors, many more of whom we encountered today in the verdant botanic gardens. One of the favourite spots was the mossy path through the forest gully pictured below.
Jervis Bay is beautiful! The birdlife at Green Patch was fantastic. In a couple of days we have seen variegated fairy-wrens, endangered eastern bristlebirds hopping through the dense bush, ospreys, sea eagles, king parrots, eastern rosellas, wood ducks and much more. There are swamp wallabies, kangaroos and echidnas around too, some even tame enough to pat. At the derelict lighthouse we found a snakeskin (brown snake!) almost 2m long.
We played a variation of Pooh Sticks with pumice pebbles we found on the beach – Pooh Stones.
Martin serving up a Lowenbrau favourite at the Bavarian Beer Café on Manly Wharf. Farewell drinks on a beautiful evening watching the sun set behind Manly Cove
The beautifully made Camprite TX-6 arrived today, with the NSW rep, Colin giving us the introduction, and showing us how everything works. We’re very happy. Given it is squeezed into the front yard it’s a bit tricky to get good photos but here are a few. A few people have already dropped in to check it out.
It took us about 15-20 minutes to put up once Colin had gone, and we’ll be practising many more times before we go. The logo stickers are now on the car so with 7 days to go things are falling into place. The next few days we’ll be packing then the fun will begin when we drive out of Sydney and start heading south.
My trusty Australian Geographic Map of Australia (for Travellers & Dreamers) is undergoing serious scrutiny at the moment. Even the kids are getting into it putting their suggestions on coloured post-it notes (one of Hannah’s suggestions – “Perth – lots of swans”)
Map of Australia for Travellers & Dreamers – to keep us focused.
We have 3 weeks planned in Tasmania from mid Nov, Christmas booked in Kangaroo Island, so we’re filling in the gaps between departure and January. We’ll be starting the adventure in Green Patch, then a practice climb up Pigeon house mountain, before we make an assault on Mt Kosciuszko a couple of days later. That’s our first challenge, so if you have any others please send them in and we’ll consider them. Just remember we have 3 kids 6,7, and 8 and the challenge has to be done by all as a team.
From The Snowy Mountains we’ll be making our way to Wilson’s Promontory to do Challenge # 2 – to visit the most southerly point of the Mainland at South Point (guess what 3 other related challenges are?). That one might be a bit challenging getting the kids to hike 16km.
We then will head up the Great Ocean drive, through the Coorong, towards KI, with a few stops no doubt in the Coonawarra, for refreshments of the Cabernet variety.
Here’s a picture of a fraction of our material belongings being stacked meticulously(?) into storage. It is a great opportunity to get rid of stuff that has been lying around for a while too. The flip side is trying to work out the minimum amount to take to last 12 months on the road. We’ve got to the stage where we think we have everything we need so can continue storage without the worry that we may have to go back in to retrieve something later.
The Camprite trailer arrives in the next few days when the focus will turn to packing whatever we can into it. Then we’ll have the “Oh heck” moment when we have to halve what we can take. I’m looking forward to the interesting discussions and justification surrounding what we have to take (I’ve already prepared mine).
Storage begins
Five of us will be living in a car and 4.5m trailer for the next 12 months together and I figure if we can survive the first month it should all get easier, but that could be the view through my rose-coloured specs!
The kids got to meet their new teachers today, and picked up their school bags, first learning packs, and are very excited by the prospect. Sydney Distance Education Primary School (SDEPS) will be sending us work packs regularly which the kids fill out (4hours a day) and return every fortnight for marking. The curriculum will move to more electronic means next year when we can do more work on iPads. Looking at the packs we were very impressed with the quality of content – we even get a craft pack for them to use for some of the activities
The Anderson plug fitting was completed today on the Pajero too so the car is ready for action.
My good friend Greg, from Aquarius Design Solutions has updated the Fifty Toes Walkabout branding for the car.
Here is the new look – let us know what you think – they will be stuck to the side of the car so you can say hi and toot your horn if you see us!
Fifty Toes Walkabout 
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