blog housekeeping

Hello Loyal Readers.

I won't be writing any more entries on our trip. I'm intending to print this blog out into book format for the children, so I WILL be stuffing around with the existing entries and getting them into line with the dates we were there, and rearranging some into chronological order.

If you have previously subscribed to get emails from this blog, you may be getting a few emails when I update these dates. I had a subscription link on the blog for a few months, but I took it off as I couldn't get it to work. Then all of a sudden a six months later it started woking again. I can't access it as (for whatever reason) its linked to a defunct email address even though EVERYTHING else in my blog settings have all been updated. Gotta love computers!

I'd advise anyone who has subscribed to UNSUBSCRIBE through the email you receive. There won't be any more new content. I might continue a personal blog, but that will be under a different address, and I'm not even sure if I want to do that yet.

So if you are reading this in an email, at the bottom of it, there is an underline and a message that says: "To stop reading these emails, you may unsubscribe now". Please click on the blue words "unsubscribe now" and you won't be bothered by any emails as I play and fiddle with dates. Thanks for joining us on the road and if you are a family considering doing something similar, I say GO FOR IT!

Reflections of life on the road.

So on the last night of our trip, I did some figures:
387 days on the road
26,300km driven in the RAV
28,100km driven in Bertha
12,500lt of diesel for Bertha for a total of $20,350 (ouch!!)
$1.83 most expensive diesel in the NT
$2.25 most expensive unleaded at Cape York
153 different places stayed at
64 nights spent NOT on Bertha
We flew on a jet, a Cessna and a helicopter.
We caught ferries, barges, jet boats, cruises and paddled canoes.
We swam with whale sharks, sea turtles, hundreds of fish and a reef shark.
We hiked. A LOT.
We got to the Southern, Western, Northern and Easternmost points of Australia as well as the highest and lowest points.
We also saw snow on our endless summer! We saw sooooooo many animals in the wild; cassowary, frilled necked lizard, whale shark, humpbacked whale, minke whale, leatherback turtle, green sea turtle, loggerhead turtle, echidna, oh my goodness this will take all night! We have met the most incredible people who have taught us about their land and their culture.
We have made the most incredible friends who have welcomed us into their travelling community.
We have spent time together as a family and treasured every moment. (Well... Maybe not the school moments...)
We have had the times of our lives and enjoyed it IMMENSELY!

Life on the road in Bertha was awesome. Once back in Melbourne, we didn't quite crash back to reality, more like drifted down slowly. Living in Bertha in the caravan park was fun at first. We had friends come for play dates, and the large grounds and swimming pool were very much appreciated. I went back to work 2 days after arriving, as there really wasn't any "settling in" to be done without a house anyway.

We caught up with the other half of the family, as Dunc's mum and Angus had birthdays very close to each other. It was so lovely to see everyone again, and spend time together. I especially loved the way the grandchildren all arranged themselves in height order to say goodbye to Nana. It was so spontaneous and I'm glad our kids could be a part of fun times like that with family again.

Angus celebrated his 9th birthday on the bus, and with a special dinner at my Mum and Dad's. The caravan park pool came in VERY handy for his birthday present - a remote-controlled boat!

And then life got back to "normal". The kids started school, with a 20-minute commute and I was working full time teaching Art again. Duncan was ferrying the children to and fro and thoroughly enjoying being a part of the school community. He attended his first assemblies and began to get to know staff and parents at the school. He was also picking up jobs and work left and right. Even the neighbour at the caravan park tried to offer him a job! We had picked up my car from Mum and Dad, so now we had one big bus and two cars at the caravan park.

I quickly realised that "real life" in Bertha wasn't nearly so wonderful as the past year. Adding two bulky schoolbags and one extra laptop to the environment was a LOT of stuff. I had worked out a spot for 'everything' and adding a big box of school gear, and three bags in constant use was a bit much. Having to be places by certain times, getting 'dressed up' and just living in the real world was all a bit squishy in 40 feet of bus. It was WONDERFUL when we had a carefree existence with no commitments and time to eat and do dishes at leisure. In the "real world", it had its limitations.

THANK GOODNESS for close family friends who were off to the UK and offered us their house for a 6 month house-sit. It was just what we needed to spread out a bit and work out what we were going to do next in our lives. Perfect.

Last days on the road.

Our time in Canberra, and our time on the road, was coming to an end. In addition to seeing the glassworks and checking out the wonderful markets nearby, we managed to catch up with some friends of Duncan's.

Greg, Crystal and little Charlotte had moved to Canberra just after Charlotte was born, and it was lovely to see them again. The kids had fun playing with little Charlotte while we all caught up and then we all went for a walk through the bush (which is never far from anywhere in Canberra) and down to a fab little river beach. Both Angus and Charlotte were wet and filthy before too long!

And then the next day we were off. On our way, homeward bound to Melbourne. We zoomed right through New South Wales, with only a stop at the good old Dog on the Tuckerbox for one last family pic. And some yummy apples.

We continued zooming (as much as Bertha can zoom...) through to a suitable rest area just past Glenrowan. Being so far south, we didn't need power for air conditioning, and we had a lovely quiet night with just the four of us. A very low key end to our massive trip. Which was just as well, as we got some very sad news as we were pulling up. One of our oldest friends wasn't well and we had arranged to spend some time with him in hospital as soon as we got back. Unfortunately we never made it to our reunion as Marck passed away on our final day on the road. We had a simple meal and raised a glass to a dear friend on our last evening.

The next day we were off at a reasonable hour, and keen to see the familiar city skyline.

We had booked a spot at the Wantirna Caravan Park for a few weeks, not knowing what or where we would be living in the future. Bertha fit perfectly in her spot, and the paving on our site couldn't have been laid any better. It was meant to be!

We wasted no time (really, it doesn't take us long to settle into a site these days!) and were off in Baby Bertha to pop in and visit our darling cats at their foster home and call in to see my Dad for his birthday.

Mum and Dad had arranged a BBQ for Dunc's mum and all of my family as Richard was over from the UK and we had pretty much this one single night of crossover time. And, of course, it was Dad's birthday! The kids caught up with their 2nd cousins and we caught up with everyone and it was just wonderful to see everyone again.

And after all the festivities, we returned home to Bertha - in the Wantirna Caravan Park! LOL.

Ending on a high note.

One of our last days on the road was spent at the Canberra Glassworks. I’d gone with a group of Art teachers on a conference 15 months earlier and had been jealous of the teachers who had been able to do the practical glass-making activity.

I ‘saved’ that activity for when I would be here with the kids, and that day had FINALLY arrived. I chose to make a paperweight and had an absolute BALL doing so. First I got to choose the colours that would go into the glass. I chose blue, green and white in the hope that the end product would look like the sea. My instructor Sui was fabulous and I was pleased he approved of my choices.

Then we got some molten glass on the end of a rod and rolled it into the coloured powders.

I chose to go 'freeform' rather than structured, which meant I had to pinch and pull the glass to create waves and holes, which would start to create the bubbles in the end product. It was also lots of fun!

After the pinching and twisting, we added more glass on top, which trapped the air in the pinches and made those bubbles.

Then the big blob of glass had to be guided into shape. I had to spin it and roll is along to cool a bit before using a wooden mould to make it a proper round shape.

The final step was pinching hard to create the neck for the base, and then Sui took over to flatten the stand on the cool metal table. I was surprised to hear that the glass needed to aneal in a kiln and cool down slowly over 3 days to prevent it from shattering and being incredibly fragile. This meant that it had to be posted 'home' to Melbourne. The magic of the internet and the fact that I'm writing this EIGHT months later means that I can put a pic of the end product in!

I think I managed to achieve my objective of making it look like the sea, don't you??!