who to blame?

thurs 16.9.2010

Why are we doing this? Well we have my good friend K.B. to thank for that. Discussing with her (over coffee) where we could go on holidays, she said "why don't you go absolutely crazy, buy a camper and drive with your four nutbag kids and your husband all the way to Darwin and back?" or words to a similar effect. She may not have actually mentioned the driving bit. Anyway, the really cuckoo (as my children would say) thing was not that she suggested this, but that I then went home and suggested that exact thing to my husband (henceforth known as J.T.) Now anyone who knows J.T. knows that once he has a project he kinda becomes really focused, some would say obsessed. J.T had been trying to convince me to go on driving holidays for years and I had generally resisted, prefering to lie around a read a book in a nice location for my holidaying. Up until now we had generally combined our preferences, meaning neither of us was particularly satisfied. At first we thought we'd take the girls out of school a week before the holidays and have three weeks, but that eventually extended to three weeks out of school and five weeks all up. J.T. spent hours researching campers and we eventually decided to check out a Jayco Finch. I'm so glad we didn't get that, because it was just way too small. We ended up buying the next size up, a Dove, off ebay. Then J.T. discovered it's "issues." He spent every waking moment in the weeks before we went away welding, cutting, designing, wiring, kicking and swearing in, on and at the camper. the short story (ha!) is that it was almost done before we left. He and his Dad and Mum worked on it for two days straight as their place was our first stop.

And then we started travelling... so far we've seen some of the most amazing things, things that J.T and I have always wanted to see and things the girls will (hopefully) never forget. We still have many more days to go and hope we have an amazing holiday. So, saying all that. We have K.B. to thank, with only the smallest hint of sarcasm.

Well, well, well.... well

sun 12.9.2010
we are into day 6 of our trip. This morning while visiting the loos at Woomera Traveller's Village with H and E I overheard a woman exclaiming that "it was the one luxury she couldn't live without!" What was this luxury? "It" was washing her face. Now, I agree that washing your face is mostly an essential part of personal hygiene, but the place we were staying had fully functioning, pleasant ammenities, including showers. If you are bush camping and have very little water and it's 50 degrees in the shade, then face washing may be seen as a luxury, but when you are in a place that has showers, it's really the bare minimum a grown woman should be doing. Both for her own sake and others around her. And that's all I'll say on that matter.
Today we visit the rockets. It's been a long time coming with us being a full day behind schedule, plus getting here too late last night to see anything, let alone explore a rocket park. I'm not sure what we're going to bribe Erin with into staying calm after we've left the rockets. Maybe we'll lie and say there's more rockets in Darwin.

later:
Well we made it to Coober Pedy. It was freezing cold and raining the whole way from Woomera. So much for warm weather in the outback! We're not going to get to see anything here in the underground town because we have to leave at sparrow's for Uluru to try and make it for sunset. Which there won't be because it will be raining. We also won't make it because it's a huge drive and Molly insists on feeding every half an hour. *Sigh*