Mentally preparing ourselves in Ceduna

Yep as we had planned to get away at a reasonable time (8:30am) of course it was the morning we all slept in so before we even dragged ourselves out of bed we had resigned to the fact we would not be in Ceduna by Hamish’s on air lesson.  Still we packed up pretty quickly and hit the road.  It does take longer to get out of town now that we leave the hayman reece bars off until we are out of all the roundabouts and tight turns but we do have the procedure down to a fine art now.   Ceduna is just over 100km from Streaky Bay but as we would have to stop in Smokey Bay to do Hamish’s lesson it was going to take us a few hours to get there.

Pulling into Smokey Bay was easy and we found an area to park near the water and I quickly rushed to get into the session.  Naturally as I was in a rush it felt like our computer was taking forever to start up and then get into the session.  Still we got there eventually and after a few technical issues on the school’s side we completed the lesson and were back on the road to Ceduna.  We arrived and pulled up at the Big4 caravan park.  Luckily I had rung ahead the day before to different parks to see if we could fit as some couldn’t fit our size van.  So by pre planning it we don’t have to drive around finding out on the day.

I am guessing the caravan park has had a few upset guests due to the way that the manager informed me that they are not like other Big4 parks as they have no playground, pool, jumping pillow etc to entertain kids.  I did tell her I was well aware of that and wasn’t the slightest bit worried at all.  After we had unhitched and set up, Jason took Kayla to go and get lunch whilst I was meant to start school with Hamish.  This did not happen straight away as he had met a little girl camping nearby and they were happily playing together.  He hasn’t seen a little kid to play with for a while so I wasn’t going to interrupt their fun. 

Dad's little helper.

I got speaking to her parents and they are travelling around Australia in a tent.  I take my hat off to them doing it with two young kids in a tent.  We then talked about the pros and cons of both as they can obviously pack up their car and travel a lot faster and are cheaper on fuel than us.  We are slow and have to fuel up more often but have a lot more creature comforts.  Eventually though they went off to the camp kitchen for lunch so Hamish and I made a start on school.  Then we got the welcome break when Jason arrived back with lunch. 

Most of the afternoon was spent alternating teaching Hamish’s school stuff.  When it was Jason’s turn I took Kayla out to the Information Centre and then to do the food shopping.  Well wasn’t that an experience.  The lady in the Information Centre wasn’t exactly the happiest person I had come across and when I asked about the Nullarbor Links golf I really got the impression kids (young kids I should add) weren’t welcome.  Also at $70 a person I am thinking we will no longer be doing that.  I thought it would be fun and break up the drive but it seems that it is a serious golf thing, not something to break up a long drive!  I think they need to find a balance. Have the proper 18 hole course, but maybe do a 9 hole one that only consists of the ones on the Nullarbor and open it up to people just wanting a bit of fun and take away the huge price tag.

So with that now crossed off the list I asked about the weather station tour I had read about in the brochure that we were really looking forward to.  Nope that stopped running over 12 months ago!  What annoyed me more was the tone it was delivered in, as if I should have known!  Well no I didn’t as the brochure I got in Port Lincoln a few days ago still has it in there.  Then as if she could pre-empt what I was going to ask next, she informed me the Wombat enclosure was also closed.  Man I am not having luck and was also looking forward to seeing the white wombat.  Luckily I didn’t talk that up to the kids.  So then I just gave up and asked what there was to do.  Yep I have one arts centre and a museum to visit.  She is certainly not selling the place.

It also was topped off that Kayla kept touching things which I could tell she wasn’t happy about and when she picked up a postcard the lady pointed it out so I had to chase her down, put that back and then had a screaming child in my hand.  At least she wasn’t only grumpy at me.  Any of the local aboriginals who came in got growled at too and told they couldn’t come in without shoes.  Fair enough rule but it could be delivered in a better way which didn’t give me a great feel for the place.

Salt that is getting ready to be shipped.

Another ship being loaded.

A mini lighthouse in memory of those who have lost their lives at sea.

Bit of an education on the area.

Oh well what can you do but just go food shopping.  This was a typical food shop experience, though I was shocked at some of the prices.  I shouldn’t have been.  I mean I just have to look on a map as to where we are and you can see it is isolated and anything would have to be shipped a long way.  Still at least it was a positive experience and the checkout girl was friendly and answered a few of my questions about quarantine.  Jason also managed to ring the Coromal repair centre in Mandurah regarding our hot water system with which they replied that they are going to call us back with pricing and some more details.  We are thinking of switching the system over rather than the constantly fixing our existing one.  Apparently (fingers crossed) we should just have to pay the price different in systems as the new one is a bit more expensive but is bigger and better.  Sounds fair in my opinion but I will wait to hear the quote.

Trying to get a photo of Hamish for his teacher and Kayla had to hop in.

We went for a drive around town that didn’t exactly prove fruitful as there wasn’t much to see and as we had been told, the beach had broken glass all through it so you couldn’t let the kids play there, let alone take off their shoes. At least it will be easy to stay at the van and complete school for the week.  The afternoon went in a blur.   I think we were all a bit tired and cranky so between school, going for a drive and having dinner there were a few tantrums, not just from the little ones!  Nothing a good night sleep won’t be able to fix and at least we had the kids asleep just after 8pm so that felt like a big win.

Kayla enjoying the park area.

We didn't play here long - broken glass everywhere.

Well that was another epic fail, honestly I just couldn’t get into a deep sleep.  I kept hearing every noise made.  Not that they were scary or anything, it just felt noisy, so in the end I gave up around 6am.  It was dark and I caught up on the blog whilst watching people roll out of the park.  I am guessing they were trying to get an early start on the Nullarbor.  Why else would you get up so early?  I mean I want to get on the road early the day we head off but for us 9am is now considered an early start.  I think I also couldn’t sleep as I had a million things going on in my head that I needed to catch up on.  Still I would have rather been in bed and based on my cranky mood all day I am guessing so would have the rest of my family.

When I am in the zone of wanting to get things done I get frustrated by the lack of enthusiasm of fellow family members so I was quite short and snappy all day, and of course add to that Kayla has decided now is the best time to commence massive two year old tantrums.  Also the pump was acting odd the other day when we pulled up in Smokey Bay so I just wanted to test it was all good and working before we hit the Nullarbor.  I was sure I was just panicking about it and that I would turn off the mains water and it would work fine.  Umm no it didn’t.  This frustrated me as I just would love to go a week at the moment without an issue (not even a small one) but have to accept this is part of life on the road.

Still Jason couldn’t look at it straight away as he was doing Hamish’s on-air lesson with him (we alternate days) so I looked up google which wasn’t much help.  Then I saw reception to see if there was a caravan repair place in town, which of course there wasn’t.  So needless to say that was my expertise run dry so I waited for Jason.  We tried a few different things but it only seem to be making matters worse as now more air than water was coming through.  I really wasn’t looking forward to the prospect of doing the Nullarbor without being able to access the water in our tanks. 

Jason decided to have a look under the van at the pump and had a bit of a fiddle with something and asked me to try it.  At first there wasn’t much difference but then I noticed there was less and less air coming through until there was no air, so I turned off the tap and viola, the pump turned off.  Issue has been resolved.  I am guessing as we bounced along these ever so bumpy South Australian roads it must have come a bit loose.  Still I was very grateful Jason had fixed it and if it wasn’t 11am in the morning I would have been tempted to crack open a beer.

It seems we were all very short and uninterested in most things today.  I don’t know if it is the constant run of issues or the lack of things to do here or more the craving of a change in scenery (maybe somewhere a bit greener), who knows, but I think we are all ready to leave South Australia.  It has been great but it is time to move on.  We still have another day yet as we have paid for the three nights on check in.  Mind you as the day went on the number of vans that just kept rolling in was unbelievable.  I was starting to wonder how on earth everyone was going to fit, but it is exactly as someone said, as soon as the temperature goes up, everyone comes out of the free camps to plug into power so they can run their air-conditioners.

I must remember to take a photo of our caravan next to the massive 5^th wheeler that rolled in this afternoon and is now our neighbour.  It makes us look so small!  We decided to head down to the main street as Jason and Hamish both needed a haircut badly.  I thought it would be good for us all to get out but nope, that was a bad idea.  The boys couldn’t get into the hairdressers straight away so we headed across to the toy shop.  Jason decided he needed to go to the bathroom and of course Kayla decided now was the best time to stop listening to Mum who was trying to help Hamish and run around the store and then out of the store with one of the toys.  All whilst also refusing to put her shoes on!  Needless to say Jason is now not allowed any more toilet breaks whilst we are out in public unless he takes one child with him!  Hamish was very well behaved and even though was put out because we had to quickly leave the shop, I did take him back later to get the toy army trucks he wanted.

In the end the hair got cut and we got out of there!  Trying to recover from our miserable day we decided to take up the caravan parks offer of lending out crab pots and try our luck.  It is a wonderful extra feature of the park and they even gave us the bait and told us where to go.  Surely we couldn’t go wrong as the people the day before got a dozen in half an hour.  Hamish was so excited to be going crabbing.  I don’t think he could stop telling anyone who would listen.  When we got there we set up the pots and then tried our luck fishing. 

We caught heaps of fish but they were only small and we had no idea what they were so threw them back.  We asked one of the locals what they were and they said they call them shitty fish as they are so small and bony that they aren’t worth keeping.  So yep we are more than happy to throw those ones back.  When it came time to pull up the pots, Hamish was so excited and Kayla (who was in a better mood as she had a nap driving out) was too.  We managed to pull in four keepers on our first check so we were over the moon.  Apparently six will feed a family so we thought we would throw them back out to try and get another two.  We managed to get the last two we needed so called it quits and headed home.

Very depressing names some of these places have.

Nope, not big enough.

Pulling in a crab pot.

The kids checking it out.

Of course as we were leaving Hamish was telling anyone who was arriving that we had caught crabs and asking if they wanted to look in the bucket.  There was a backpacker couple coming to try their luck and Hamish asked if they wanted to know where to go.  Politely they said yes and Hamish just pointed down the jetty (which they were already on) and said you go a long way down there!  Such a helpful little man but talk about state the obvious, but realistically we were only about half way along and seem to be having more success there then the people at the end.

Our keepers.

Hamish and Kayla were really into it.

So back home Jason and Hamish (who would not let the crabs out of his sight) went over and cooked them up whilst I gave Kayla a shower before she decided to go and join the boys.  I started walking over there to join them and the couple said I should turn around, go back and put my feet up.  I didn’t realise it was that obvious with the sort of day it had been, or maybe they had been in the shop when Kayla had her meltdown.  I decided it was wise advice and went back to the caravan, opened a beer and sat down to peace and quiet.  Unfortunately it was short lived, but it was a beautiful moment all the same.

Jason enjoying his dinner.

We will have these bad days on the road, but I know I also had these bad days when I was at home.  Some days you are just tested more but as long as we all survive and come out the other end then it is just a bad day and you move on.  Though I might try and get a few jobs done tonight so I don’t wake up so freaking early thinking about them.  Or it could have been the fact Kayla joined us in our bed part way through the night and of course was hogging my side of the bed.

Our last night in Ceduna was pretty much as uneventful as the rest.  We decided to knock over the last of the school lessons for the week so we didn’t have to worry about it the next day.  Then I stocked up on some food supplies needed for our Nullarbor trip that the Quarantine inspectors would not take off us when we crossed over into Western Australia.  Then the rest of the afternoon was spent packing everything away, topping up the water tanks and filling up an extra water container with drinking water from the rain water tank. 

Part of school - imagine games.  Hamish is a cop and Jason is getting a ticket.

As I was walking around with the kids outside I noticed our lovely neighbour in the massive fifth wheeler looked upset.  I asked if he was okay and he just nodded and waved me on.  It saddened me to think he was upset and had no one to talk to and I made the assumption he either had received some bad news or it had something to do with the fact he was travelling on his own.  In the end Jason went over and did what blokes do best and chatted about everything caravanning and camping.  This lifted his spirits and he opened up how his wife had passed away from cancer a year ago and he was now visiting all the places they had talked about. They had bought the 5^th wheeler together two years ago. 

I kept the kids inside so they could have a good chat and hopefully he didn’t feel so lonely.  Mind you he then showed Jason his ‘unit on wheels’ as he called it.  Jason said it was really impressive and was so roomy and well set up inside.  I think he might have gotten a little jealous but then at the price we wouldn’t be able to afford the fuel.  I really wish we had done more to involve him whilst we were all there.  Be it invite him over for a BBQ or some cake that we (okay Jason) had cooked.  Just something as we really did enjoy his company.  He did say that we were wise getting out and doing this now as they had retired and sat around for seven years before starting to travel.  He now wishes they had started travelling straight away.