NT here we are!!

We have finally got to where the sun shines!!!
We arrived in Alice Springs Last night - happy birthday dad - and have settled back into our swags. The kids have finally found lost of kids to play with, so today we have not seen them since 7.30 except for food.
Our travels have been good - after Victor Harbor and our fairy penguin tour, we continued around the Flueriu Peninsula and camped at Moana Beach, which is really a southern suburb of Adelaide - fabulous beach that is surrounded by red cliffs. We did lots of walks and shell collecting. Great lawn here to, which has been a change.
From there we skited around Adelaide, and had a great coffee at Glenelg, decided the city was not the place for a dirty car and kids, and contiuned north. We discovered the St Kilda Adventure Playground and made us realise what a "nanny state" NSW really has become. The slides and tunnels were great, full of risk and real adventure. After burning some energy, we travelled to the Yorke Peninusla where we camped on the water again at Port Broughton. The boys went fishing on sunset and caught 5 yellow tailed whiting - again, just a couple of cms too small, although Dek was sure we could have kept a couple.
We managed to hear a weather forecast that was not great, so we bundled up early just before the rain, and headed for Port Augusta. We are soft, so booked into a very glamourous apartment and enjoyed watching the rain fall outside. The little laundry in the apartment has never worked so hard, as we set up the Ward chinese laundary, and washed a weeks worth. From Port Broughton, we did the long kms to Coober Pedy. This was the first part of the trip that the kids pulled out the DVD and DS machines. We booked into an underground motel, and also went on an opal mine tour. Another highlight for the lids, as they 'noodled' through the heaps and found opal chips.
We bunkered down for the longest stretch so far - 760kms to Alice. The boys journals are very brief about yesterday - sat in the car all day!! We got to Alice in time to set up, and last night went on a star gazers tour, with the lids getting to see the moon through a very large telescope.
Summary - All good, the weather is now great - finally getitng the shorts and T-shirts out, the kids are well, and we have surprising survived being in close confines for nearly three weeks. the original budget has been thrown out the window, so we are now working out where we can regroup the budget with a lot of bush camps.

Robe to Victor Harbor

We seem to have got the go slows with the kms, and not travelling far at all. We have had a facinating couple of days learning about the Coorong wetlands, and from Robe travelled through them for the day, stopping and doing walking trails as we went. Fortunately the boys had both seen the Storm Boy movie, so this was a great basis to talk and learn more about the pelicans and delicate nature of the wetlands. We had planned to camp in a bush camp that night in the national park, but as Hunter was the navigator yesterday, he decided to take us into Wellington. This proved to be a great choice, and we had to catch a ferry across the Murray River to get to the caravan park. We got to share the ferry with a semitrailer load of hay - a bit worried about the load limit - but no-one else seemed to be.
This morning after another ferry ride - because they are free, and fun - we travelled to Goolwa and saw the mouth of the Murray river as it enters the sea. I have found this part of the trip facinating, as having worked in the whole NRM area for the last 15 years, it has all been about getting water to the Murray, and now I understand more about why.
We went across the controversial Hindmarsh Island bridge to see what would have to be one of the worst marina developments we have ever seen - proudly labelled heo largest freshwater marina in the southern hemisphere - it was McMansion sprawl - disgusting!! After getting over that, we travelled a whole 20kms and have set up in Victor Harbor - great little spot right on the beach. The kids have found some other kids which is really their first lot of kids since we have left. At $26 per night, this is also probably the best valued site that we have come across, except for the free bush camps!! tonight we did a tour of Granite island and saw the fairy pengiuns as they came ashore after the day at sea - this was great and the kids loved being able to be with these animals and see them in the wild. Not sure whether we will stay here more or not - have to start making our way to Alice Springs at some stage, as we need to be there by lunch next wednesday. Will see what the weather is like, and what we feel like doing as to where we go next.

Entering SA

A chance for another update. We came across the SA border and got to Mt Gambier for a great morning tea. The kids were amazed at the number of sink holes within the city, and found this more interesting than the Blue Lake.From Mt Gambier we went back to the coast and had a stop at Beachport where the kids got wet in the Great Southern ocean. From there we went to Robe, where we did a bit of recovering and washing!! The caravan park washing facilities were very expensive - costing nearly $50 to get everything washed and dried!!We spent a couple of days in Robe, and the fishing trips again starting, with Dek the only trophy winner, a yellow tailed something - again, not big enough for the dinner plate - these boys have not been great providers yet - pressure is on the NT to deliver.

Finishing up in Victoria.

Again - so much happening,and not enough time to blog to keep you updated.

After Lake Yakum - and how things are so different in 12 hours. When I posted, it was quiet, we were woken up by the sounds of blazing guns. It was the second last saturday of the duck shooting season.

We went from here and backin Port Fairy for some of the best fish and chips we have found. From there to Portland where we were able to witness the chaos of the tuna running. There were about 500 boat trailers parked everywhere. We heard that one of the ones caught was 137kgs - thats heavier than Dek.

That night we camped at the Lower Glenelg National Park in a bush camp again. The kids did some fishing, one of the best fishing locations around. The boys caught 24 fish between them - none big enough to eat - but only short by about 2 cms.

From there we bush camped in Dartmoor. Our last stop in Victoria.

Yakum Lake

Friday night - we a camping at a small place called Yakum Lake. It is lake that is blocked from the sea by a sand bar, which opens in big storms. We are the only ones here, which has been a bit of the story for the whole trip so far - not many campers. We left Apollo Bay yesterday and camped last night on the edge of the Hoskins river, which has got the kids the fishing bug. Oscar caught a very small bream this morning, but they had ambitions for something more. We went to a wind farm this afternoon, the sister and brother-in-law of Rebecca who I work with. It was really interesting - their farm goes down onto the coast - so wonderful.

The blogs should be more regular now, as I have sorted our technical problems. I am now sitting up at the laptop with the little USB modem. We plan to continue to stay around the coast for the next few days, heading up to the Glenelg National Park.

So much seems to have happened already. We left in the dark on Friday and got to "Ascot" resort and our dear friends Cath, Neil and Roy by 9pm that night.The circus hit the road the next day and we got to weethalle for morning tea - huge trip!! We stopped in Hay, and the photo is of Hunter by the river. We stayed the night on the Edward river at Deni, thousands of cockatoos, making the kids seem quiet. The next day we stopped in Eucha, and saw the paddle steamers, and Oscar his place in the world. We travelled to Ballarat where we stayed at what the kids thought was heaven - a Big4 caravan park - plenty for them to do - and they did not hear the train go past every couple of hours through the night like their parents. Monday saw us travel through the Ottway ranges to Apollo Bay. We have spent the afternoon at the fish co-op, with the boys enjoying lobster for dinner. We saw some locals cutting the big surf waves on the reef - Hunter said to write that it is him in the surf. We have three days here, so we will get to enjoy more lobster and beaches before we move further down the Great Ocean Road.