Day 7 - Mt Remarkable to Wilpina Pound

Today we were up bright and early again for 2 reasons. The first was the wind which was horrible again and the second time was to my alarm waking me up to get packed and ready to leave to Wilpina Pound. When I was packed up and ready I went on the rope swing with a few of the other kids to pass some time. Then when we finally got into the car and started our drive to Wilpina Pound. The about 2 hour drive was pretty boring. There was nothing interesting to stop at, so the only place we stopped was Quorn. In Quorn we went shopping for some groceries and other stuff. While some people were getting petrol or something we all just waited around and stretched our legs. When we were finally off again we didn't stop until we got to Wilpina Pound. Then the process of getting everyone set up was a slow and painful real life Tetris. We are all camped in 2 'bus bays' and we had to get people in then move there cars to get others in, it took forever! For the rest of the afternoon, after we had set up, we all just relaxed and soon enough started the fire. Then we all just sat around the fire until you wanted to go to bed.

P.S: photos still don't work sorry! :( 

Today's blog is written by Chloe :) 

Day 6 - Mt Remarkable

Today we woke up early due to really bad winds. It went all morning from about 4:00 till about 8:30. So all morning I stayed in mums bed reading and finally finished my book! But it was pretty awesome because there were heaps of emus going through our kitchen and and around the camp sites. Everyone decided to call them Edward and Edwina the Emus. When the wind finally stopped, dad cooked us pancakes for breakfast and then we got dressed and ready for a walk. So us 3 and 4 of the jackos went to go on a 8km walk to Sugargum Lookout. It was all rocky and and some steep hills. We saw heaps of kangaroos and a lot of those fluffy caterpillars. When we were getting closer to the top we reached a path that was really steep and rocky and took ages to get up, but halfway up we saw a goanna go up a tree and try to get to a birds nest. We watched the goanna trying to get to the nest and the bird attacking it. When we finally reached the top it was quite disappointing. The view was blocked by trees and even the view was just hills with trees on them. So we sat and ate something and then started to walk back down the hill. Going down the hill a couple of us almost fell over and when we reached the flat part we were all quite relived. By the end of the walk we were all tired and didn't want to do anything else for the rest of the day, so I went to go have a sleep and dad decided to wake me up because he wanted go for a drive. So me, mum, dad and Tracy went for a drive to Port Germain. When we got there the sign out the front was really nice and made it look like it would be an awesome town but everything was locked up and the town was inhabited by lizards. So we turned around and went back to the camp. It was another chilly night around the fire and another early morning to get packed up to go to Wilpina Pound.

Today's blog is written by Chloe :)

Day 5 - Drive to Mt Remarkable

Today we set off in convey for the short 150odd km drive to Mt Remarkable.

We drove through some beautiful green lush fields of wheat in the early stages and made our way up beside the Spencer Gulf to the Mt Remakable national park which is in the southern Flinders Ranges.

We arrived nice and early around 1pm for the set up in a beautiful bush setting. Upon arriving kids set off to explore, play footy & swing on the rope swings someone has hung from the trees along the creek while the adults got to set up chairs and sit around chatting and getting reacquainted with those we have met before & getting to know those who are new to this trip.

Lots of wildlife in the form of birds, kangaroos & the exciting emus who casually walk through the camp sites.

Another night around the camp fire having a few drinks was had as tonight it was extremely chilly, beautiful sunny days followed by very cold nights, but that's all good when there is no rain.

Day 4 - A look around Burra

Today is the first official day of the My Swag Flinders Ranges trip. This year we have 10 cars consisting of 20 adults & 17 kids aged between 2 & 17.

Burra have a fascinating self tour around their heritage buildings. Burra is the first mining site in Australia & it was copper they mined for. We set off for the Burra information centre around 9am where we collected a special key which allowed us access to buildings & sites around Burra which are not accessible to the general public. Burra is a beautiful little historic town, we walked along looking at the old church, town hall & some old shops. It was there we decided to head back to our car & drive up to the old mine site, glad we decided to drive it was along walk with lots & lots of little walks to see things. Our key came in handy as the gates did not officially open until 10, John & Jasper jumped out in front and the key opened the gates for us to get in early. Old mines are fascinating, old townships are more fascinating. So much history. Following the mine we headed out to see the old police station & gaol. The gaol story was very interesting, after it was a gaol it became someone's home, odd place to call home, but then it became a Reformatory for Girls which apparently gave the town some good stories of some very naughty girls. The teenage calls Chloe, Indi & Ra thought this was fantastic and both Dads suggested we could leave them there.......

After checking out the mine & local establishments, we decided to head back to camp to have some lunch before heading out again to a couple of sites closer to camp. The Unicorn brewery gave us underground tunnels to walk through & then an old home with some antique furniture & real clothing from the time rounded it out. Of course no trip for me would be complete without a visit to the local cemetery, this is where you find out the real stories, but the little cemetery only had 4 gravestones and not in good condition at all......later that night around the camp fire I got talking to the owner of the caravan park & he explained that the cemetery was washed away during a flood and if I had of walked a little further and looked over the crest of a hill I would have seen all the other gravestones.

Another site we found today was the house which features on the cover of the Midnight Oil album Diesel & Dust which was pretty cool.

Amazing little town Burra, freezing cold & windy but lots to see.

Tomorrow we are off the Mt Remarkable to stay at the Mambray camp ground for the beginning of the bush.

Still having photo issues :(

Today's blog was written by Di

Day 3 - Renmark to Burra

Today we headed off to Burra where we would meet everyone else going on the trip and have a meet & greet BBQ. We drove through a lot of small towns that were either full of orange trees or grape vines. We drove past a lot of famous winery's and vineyards including Banrock Station. Driving through all the vineyards was really pretty because most of them now have there leaves back and are starting to grow grapes. We had to go on a ferry in Morgan to get onto the other side of the Murry River. That was pretty cool and when we got off at the other end we pulled over and stopped to wait for the Jackos and Linda to come over as they couldn't fit on the one we were on. As we were waiting for them we watched a hawk swoop at seagulls to get away from the river and trying to catch fish. When everyone was back on the same side of the river we set off again and our next stop would be Burra. 

When we got to Burra there were only a couple people from the group already here so we set up and watched everyone arrive. When everyone was here we set ourselves up in front of the camp kitchen where there was a fire barrel and started a fire for us all to sit around. Dad went and cooked dinner at the camper while me and mum sat around the fire. I was feeling a bit sick so after dinner I went and lay on mum and dads bed and read for a bit before I got in my bed. Tomorrow we are going to do a heritage tour thing around 

Today's blog is written by Chloe :)  

Day 2 - Pink Lakes to Renmark

This morning we were all up bright and early packed and ready to leave by 8:00. We were aiming to leave at 9:00 at the latest but leaving early was good to. We drove a bit down the road to the salt museum where there were old salt mining machines and some big salt rocks which we all climbed. When we got back in the car we headed off towards Renmark but going through the national park on corrugated dirt roads that the sign said 4x4 only. It was quite a good drive besides the corrugations and we saw heaps of kangaroos and a group of about 50 emus up on a hill, we also saw a mother emu with 4 chicks drinking from a puddle in the middle of the track. We also saw a few snakes, one of them dad missed but we must of made it angry because Jacko said the snake flung its self at his car. Then there was another one which we think dad might of hit but we aren't to sure and Tracy said that they didn't see it on the road so... :/ we made a couple stops at other camping grounds for toilets or something and Mt Crozier campground we walked up Mt Crozier. It wasn't that long of a walk but it was steep. The whole walk went up, up some stairs to the top and it was really steep. One of the other places we stopped at was the Shearers Quarters. We all thought it would be an actual Shearers shed we could look at but it was locked up old house. Not very exiting. So again we were on the road heading to Renmark and our last stop before Renmark was just to put air in the tyres when we hit the bitchumen. When we finally hit Renmark it was quite hot so after we all set up we sat in the shade and while all the girls went grocery shopping, dad and Jacko fixed the broken runner in our pantry slide and all the kids went to the pool. Later on a few of us had showered and we all started eating dinner. We had a BBQ with just sausages and kebabs with salads. Again it was quite a early night for all, I think because we couldn't have a fire here maybe. So tomorrow we head to Burra where we meet everyone else for the start of the Flinders Rangers!

P.S: photos are not working so we will add them later! 

Today's blog was written by Chloe :)

Day 1 - Melbourne to The Pink Lakes

Heading off bright and early we swept past the Jackos at 5am to make our way to the McDonalds next to Calder Park to meet up with Linda, Kristin & Tayla. We walked in to be greeted by 2 bus loads of teenage girls on their way to a netball tournament so our quick Maccas stop was not so quick, but after a nice brekkie we were on our way.

Linda decided to lead this leg of our journey through some gorgeous little gold rush towns around Avoca & St Arnaud and on towards Murray-Sunset National Park where we would be spending our first night at the Pink Lakes. When we reached the Pink Lakes we stopped at Lake Hardy to grab an information Boucher. The lake wasn't that pink but it definitely had a pinky tinge to it. So after the little stop we went on to the Lake Crosbie camping ground. It looked quite nice so we found a spot we all could fit and set up for the night. After we had set up, the kids all went down to Lake Crosbie to see what it looked like. The only problem was that there was no water, only a thin layer of salt that sits at the bottom of the lake. All the water was miles out in the middle of the lake. Then we (the kids) sat and played charades on ra's I-pad. While we were doing that the parents had started the fire and set themselves up around it. Dad went to look that the lake and when he was walking back up to camp a plover bird started to swoop him, it was so funny! For the rest of the night we all sat around the camp fire and had a delicious dinner of spaghetti bolognese that Kristin kindly cooked the meat for everyone in the camp oven. We all went to bed quite early for some reason and hopefully had a good nights sleep.

P.S: photos are not working so we will add them later! 

Today's blog is written by Chloe :) 

And we are off........

Well we are off again on another adventure, this time to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia. We will be saying a fond farewell to our eldest daughter Amber & heading off for three weeks with the My Swag group.
We will be heading up via Murray-Sunset National Park, Renmark to the Ranges where we will spend 2 weeks travelling around seeing the sights then home via Innaminca, Cameron Corner, Mutawintji National Park.
This is an exciting trip for us, not just because we have never been to the Ranges before but we have also since our last trip bought a new camper trailer & this will be our first big trip in the Kimberley Kamper.
Stay tuned.......
Matt, Di & Chloe