Archive for December, 2009

We had a fairly quiet day today – it was quite warm, so we didn’t feel like doing terribly much. After such a big day yesterday, Andres needed a lot of sleep, so we were a bit restricted in what we could do anyway.

We headed out to one of the local parks with my parents and sister for a picnic lunch, which was very pleasant.

Leanne and Andres say hello to an emu at a small fauna park outside of Clare

Up early this morning to get ready for Church – we attended my sister’s church where they put on a Christmas service with an excellent (and very funny!) localised telling of the Christmas story. After church we returned home to feed Andres some lunch, get changed and then we drove up to my cousin’s place at Jamestown, about 40 minutes away, for a family gathering with my mother’s side of the family.

It was a lovely afternoon sitting around, enjoying delicious food, chatting with family and enjoying the antics of the kids.

Clare to Jamestown

Our final day of travelling for a while saw us start pretty much the same as every other day – breakfast, pack the car, top up with fuel, then hit the road. Rather than stick to the main highways, we decided to take the back-roads through to Burra and then Clare via Morgan.

Leanne and Andres at Barmera

I was expecting quite rough roads, but was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the roads – especially from Morgan through to Burra. We stopped at Morgan for morning tea by the river and then continued on, arriving at my sister’s place in Clare around lunchtime.

After unpacking the car and enjoying a delicious lunch prepared by my sister, I headed down the street to see if I could find a bike repair kit to fix the puncture in the pram tyre. I came across exactly what I needed at the Mitre-10 and grabbed some other supplies from the supermarket across the road. It has been a long time since I repaired a bike tyre, but it all came back to me and the supplied tyre levers made it easy to get the tube out and back in again. The water test I did later seemed to indicate  that no air was leaking anymore – so hopefully that did the job.

My parents arrived late in the evening from Peterborough where they had been visiting my Aunt and Uncle with my grandma. We sat around talking for a while before heading to bed – my sister was gracious enough to let us sleep in her bed (there was enough room for a cot in the room as well), while my parents slept in her spare bedroom and she slept on the couch (it is a large couch!).

Barmera to Clare

The trip so far

Tweets from today

strange – last night could not get a NodeMobile (Optus) wireless broadband signal at all here in Barmera (SA). Great signal this morning.

19th December, 2009 7:55 AM from TweetDeck

It was a much more pleasant start to the day today – it looked like it was going to be really nice weather. Once more, we had breakfast, packed the car, topped the car up with petrol and then set off for our next stop – Barmera via Renmark.

A fairly short drive today – we stopped for some morning tea on the banks of the Murray River at Renmark before driving out to Bredl’s Reptile Park on the outskirts of the town.

Leanne and Andres pat a large python at Bredl's Reptile Park

We spent a couple of hours at the park – and Andres got to pat a large python and a capuchin monkey and seemed to enjoy looking at the animals – especially the foxes and dingoes which were curious and came up to the fence in their enclosures. I took quite a few photos which I will be uploading to my ZooChat photo galleries.

Andres says hello to a fox at Bredl's Reptile Park

Dinosaur at Bredl's Reptile Park

We then drove back in to town for some lunch – again, a picnic by the river, before continuing on to Barmera. When booking accommodation, I was a little disappointed with the lack of choice around Renmark – although it was a Friday night, so I guess a lot of people were already starting their holidays.

It was just a short drive to Barmera – we were staying at the Barmera Country Club which looks out over the golf course, quite a nice location. We unpacked the car and then decided to go for a walk around the town with Andres in the pram.

We were walking down the main street when Leanne stopped to pull a prickle out of the pram wheel. That proved to be a mistake, as the tyre started going flat quite quickly. It was hard work pushing the pram back with a flat tyre – by the time we got back it was completely flat and I was a bit worried about damaging the wheel.

I did a bit of research online back at our room and discovered that the pram wheels have inner-tubes and could be repaired just like bike tyres. I did see one comment which suggested we should always carry a bike repair kit with us as the tyres do tend to be prone to punctures. We’ve not had any trouble up until this point, but then we don’t seem to get three-corner-jack prickles in Sydney which tend to be the main culprit for punctures in my experience.

We had planned on walking along the lake-front before dinner, but cancelled that plan. Instead, we drove down later, stopped at a playground and while Leanne fed Andres some dinner, I went to get some take-away for us to eat.

After dinner we stopped at the supermarket for some supplies and then headed back to the room. Once Andres was in bed, we sat up and watched a bit of television.

Mildura to Barmera

The trip so far

Tweets from today

lovely morning in Mildura – about to head to Renmark and then Barmera

18th December, 2009 9:26 AM from TweetDeck

grr – our first outing with the Mountain Buggy pram in South Australia this trip and we get a puncture! Dreaded 3-corner jacks strike again.

18th December, 2009 5:12 PM from TweetDeck

Early start again this morning – taking advantage of the cooler air before it gets too hot again. We had breakfast and packed the car once more, stopped to top up the tank with petrol and then set off for Mildura.

Simon and Andres grab a quick nap before hitting the road

While driving along the highway with lots of road-trains heading in both directions, I was glad we had hired the more powerful Aurion rather than something like a Camry, which may have struggled to get up to speed quickly enough to overtake the long vehicles safely.

It was already getting very hot and by the time we reached Balranald, it was also blowing a strong hot northerly wind which was quite unpleasant. We stopped for some morning tea (we love country bakeries!) before heading off again.

It was hot and dusty when we reached Mildura, but it looked like it was going to start raining later. We checked in to our accommodation – this time it was a holiday apartment which was a very nice two bedroom unit.

After unpacking the car and feeding Andres, we set up the pram and went for a walk up the road to the shopping mall for some lunch and some supplies. It was still very windy, but it was also starting to spit a little. We picked up some food for dinner and headed back to the apartment.

While I sat and got caught up with a bit of work, Leanne took Andres to play in the small playground at the back of the block, but then it started raining a bit and Leanne brought back this strange looking boy who had reddish-brown spots all over him. The air was so dusty that it was almost raining mud! It was bath night anyway, so we took the opportunity then to clean him up.

We made hamburgers for dinner with fresh bread rolls and potato salad -  it was all quite yummy. Andres had some steamed vegetables along with a bit of beef which he quite liked.

We sat up and watched a bit of television after Andres had gone to bed and then went to sleep ourselves.

Hay to Mildura

The trip so far

Tweets from today

cool change in Mildura has brought rain to damp down the dust blown up from the hot northerly wind from this morning, much more pleasant now

17th December, 2009 6:07 PM from TweetDeck