Caravan Of Courage 2017-18

Our final evening in Canberra was accompanied by light showers, by morning it was starting to clear and we were able to semi dry the camper during our pack up and head off across to the coast. Our first stop was at the AIS for a guided tour of the facility with one of the athletes, “Riley” who was studying Sports Science and is an 800m runner in 2.04 (aiming for 2min flat). The tour took us thru several of the training areas including gymnastics, volleyball, combat, gym and finally the pool. Many of the training rooms contained state of the art video capabilities which allowed the trainers and athletes to review their performance and correct techniques where necessary in real time and therefore maximise their training sessions. The pool looked no different to any other, except there were cameras in the water and a glass window the length of the pool to video the athletes as they were swimming. The pool temp is set at 20 degrees which is apparently the optimum temp. After we said goodb...

This morning we awoke following a night of torrential rain, the boys stirred at 2am following a huge thunder clap and lighting flash. The weather was overcast but at least it wasn’t raining, enough to make bacon and eggs outside the camper (the outdoor electric skillet is getting a workout) and by 8.30am we had loaded our day packs and hit the road. Our first stop was the National Museum, here we spent 2 hours looking at exhibits ranging from the Pioneers, introduced species and the impact they have had on this country, and even a small display on Carnamah of all places! The boys also got to sit in a 15 tonne ONK shovel bucket used at Tom Price many years ago. Our next stop was the National Art Gallery and then off to the High Court where we were treated to a tour which explained the role of the High Court and examples where the Court had represented the best interest of the people in relation to our Constitution. After lunch we headed for the Australian War Memorial situated whe...

We were up early again this morning and off to the local pool to join the Canberra Surf Club, Steve and his team were very welcoming and the boys had a blast, even though this is only their second season they were very well organised. The entire team made the boys feel welcome and everyone had a blast! Aiden has detailed all the events for the u/11s and as you will read he is pretty competitive, even though we told him to just go and have fun!! The Canberra team had more than enough water safety members which allowed us to just wander around and watch the boys in their events during the morning. After enjoying some lunch at the club and a few photos we hit the road to Questacon. Highlights included the Nitrogen show which Riley has all the details and the freefall drop. Even though you only free fall for about half a second, it takes some courage......many headed for the stairs instead of giving it a go! Aiden bought his first souvenir that was not eatable (all previous attempt to pur...

We started our day with a morning run around the show grounds followed by a visit to the markets on site! Aiden was in his element, with all the food tasting and delights he was about to burst...... all before breakfast!   Meanwhile back at the camper, Chris was removing all the inspection panels to find the cause of the uneven roof, we found that one of the 4 cables connected to the winch had almost separated, there was merely 3 threads connecting it to the winch, if failed the roof couldn’t be raised and we would have been in dire straits. By 9am we were on the road and our first stop, the National Zoo (it did not have the largest aquarium of Australia as they stated, but it was lovely nevertheless) we managed to see an amazing array of animals including Hyenas, Penguins and wombats, even an amorous Gazelle! We cooked lunch at the BBQ’s and headed off to the Mount Stromlo Observatory, we found out there were 2 previous Observatories which had been destroyed during the 2003 b...

Officially we started this trip 1 week ago today and to date we have covered more than 3800kms. We felt tied this morning, these long trips with little rest on arrival are catching up with us, however we were up early once again, had some breakfast and made some small changes to the camper following the storm to try and correct some of the damage before hitting the road for Canberra. As we passed through Gundagai we headed for the lookout and then dog on the tucker box just off the Hume Hwy. To set the scene, we’d been having fun finding our way around ... most of the time ... and sometimes ...when things aren’t going to plan it can be an interesting conversation. Once we arrived at the dog we looked at each other and said ‘Is that it?, it looked so much bigger in the flyer!! Have you ever read the poem?, the kids enjoyed the words http://www.thedogonthetuckerbox.com/poemsfolk_songs Crossing the border into Canberra the Welcome sign was difficult to find amongst the others. We de...

Today finds us up bright and early and on the road by 6.45am crossing the NSW border on the road to Wagga Wagga.   Unfortunately the RAAF museum is closed, but we may have managed to secure a contact so we can do it on the way home. The Stuart Highway is a nightmare and feels like a little rollercoaster......... for over 560km!.   On arrival we headed straight to the visitors centre and identified the Botanic Gardens with Avery and Zoo, Bike riding on Wiradjuri Track, National glass art gallery and last but not least the Wagga Beach! Yes they have a beach punters!, they shipped in a couple of hundred ton of sand to the Murrumbidgee River smack bang in the middle of town......and its popular!. It was long before “The Sarge” had the boys doing a swimming lesson, into the current of course! It was rather entertaining to say the least! Followed by a 6 km bike ride along the river we headed out to dinner on our bikes downtown, now since this was to be our first night ou...

We awoke to a clear and warm day.......perfect weather for “The Sarge!”, so before we knew it we were on the Mountain bike trail which took is to the top of the mountain behind our camp site then down along the gulley for 3km thru the bush. It was a great trail with heaps of rocks, creek crossings and steep ridges........see Aiden's page. Soon it was time to pack up before it got too hot, and hit the road as the forecast was 38 and windy! ...........see Riley's page for our trip thru Hallett. Following the Wind Turbines we passed thru the South Australian wheat belt and towns like Jamestown, Burra ( for lunch) and onto Renmark. During our pack up at Melrose we noticed “KAOS” the campers lid was misaligned when we were lowering it, so once we hit Renmark we found a caravan repairer to discuss a possible solution and also purchase a new hand pump for the kitchen. We decided to lodge an insurance claim and arrange a repairer when we stop with mike and Kirsty at Co...

Mt Remarkable here we come, following another big trip, over 675kms. After a quick run on the beach and a good breakfast we headed off at 10am. Our first stop was to check out the windmills in Penong, with Australians largest collection and undeniably the largest of them all being "Comet " which operated from 1977 to 2003. In 2016 it was repaired to be added to Penong’s display after being destroyed in a storm....go figure? It was a quick stop, as it was already 39⁰C at 11am! We continued... and continued with a few quick stops including Kimba where we had a family photo in front of the Galah. We then travelled through the Flinders Rangers, finally arriving at Melrose at the base of Mt Remarkable. The boys could not get on their bikes quick enough to explore the tracks and beautiful trees that backed onto the caravan park. With the sunset at around 8.30pm and riding till dark, we finally settled down to showers and dinner, only to discovered the milk b...

Very overcast this morning but a great morning to fit in guitar practice, bike ride and wheetbix!   You could not stand still as the ants would have carried you away no matter where you stood. A beautiful 19 degrees we hit the road at 7.30am. Since leaving on the 17 th Nov (3 days ago) we have already covered 1700kms. Covering almost another 600kms today, we crossed our first boarder to South Australia and headed to Fowlers Bay, along the way we stopped at the Great Australian Bight Marine Park where we got a great view of the ocean! We check out the Head of the Bite, but no whales so kept on driving along the Eyre Highway, which links WA to SA via the Nullarbor Plain 1660kms (Named after first European to cross to cross the Nullarbor in 1840. With a fuel stop at Eucla and the crazy sign with all the distances we made our way to Fowlers Bay (36km off the Hwy on a dirt road). What a view when we arrived and went exploring with the kids.