Ronalds on the road

Dolphins, Ava’s favorite animal and most looked forward to experience. And the dolphins at Monkey Mia did not disappoint! They are such beautiful animals, graceful yet very cheeky.

It was decided that because of the rain forecasted we would head to Monkey Mia earlier than had planned so we were a little disorganized and left later than we wanted. Steve was very concerned we would miss the dolphin feeding and it would be a waste of a day and we’d have to go back. Yes, we missed the first session, with 155 tourists and 3 dolphins. But we made the second session, which only had around 70 tourists and 14 dolphins and Noah was one of only 5 people selected to feed a dolphin! So Noah held the fish while Ava and I stood next to him and he actually got to feed the dolphin (a beautiful dolphin called Nicky) a fish! It was SO amazing being so close to this creature of the sea. It seemed to smile at Noah as if to thank him for the fish. Ava was quite disappointed to not be the one who handed the fish over but at least she got to stand very close to one! She is still convinced she will swim with one 🙂

Moneky Mia is a touristy type of place but I really liked it. It was nice to get a good coffee and some civilization! There were Emu’s strolling round which the kids enjoyed (from a distance of course!!), and they got to play a game of chess on a giant board while I spoke to my Mum on the phone (I miss you Mumma!!).

We drove back to our camp at Nanga Bay Resort (not much of a ‘resort’ there but a nice place to base ourselves) through Denham and

there was a kids street performer on the foreshore so we got to eat lunch watching some very talented people do some crazy tricks (juggling, acrobatics, singing).

….

Oh, we can finally add something to this post.
Noah and I went fishing 2 days ago in Exmouth and caught our first keepable and edible fish. 3 bream and 1 parrot type fish….. Finally.
This is after spending many $$$ on bait and lures, seeking advice from many locals and fishing shops. We do hope to add to this one as we keep travelling.

Right from the start we wanted to try to capture memories and moments from our time away that the kids will remember. But how do you get a 5, 3 and now 2 year old to remember much? I’m not really sure, but one thing we thought might help would be for them to take their own photos and videos. Maybe, hopefully, the shots they take themselves might help them remember the moments they thought were worth capturing.

So in Perth we got a so called indestructible, waterproof, bombproof camera for about $60. And weren’t the kids excited!! We worked out a plan to have the big kids take turns each day and they were in charge for each 24hr period.

But now after a month of ownership, what can we report? The camera is still going which is amazing! (Despite Dad’s best effort to destroy it by taking it snorkelling and forgetting to shut the waterproof case!) It has taken thousands of blurry images, possibly hundreds of videos that were unplanned, a ridiculous amounts of selfies and many photos of others bums! Oh, and a handful of great shots thrown in. Every now and then Mum or Dad borrow it and take some as well.

Has our plan worked? For the kids to create memories for themselves?  Maybe you should ask the kids in a few months time, and then again as they get older!

Anyway, below are a few of their happy snapsPerth

PerthGeraldtonPerthPerthSandy CapeJurien BayWho knows?Pinnicles

PerthPerth Perth

I can’t believe our baby is 2! Our last baby is 2! She seems so grown up, has for a while I suppose. But 2! Where has the time gone? The first year of her precious life was so hard for me, and I wondered if the daily grind would ever get easier. The many, many sleepless nights, and all things associated with a baby, could my life be any else other than nappies and ABC2 to keep the big kids entertained while I sat breast feeding or changing nappies?

 

But wow oh my golly gosh, here we are travelling Australia with a now 2 year old!! How my life has changed!! This trip has been the best thing for my little family and I’m very grateful for an adventurous husband to gently encourage me to get out of my comfort zone and do something new! The kids are learning so much, they are outside all day playing with buckets and spades, riding bikes and loving the great outdoors. We are discovering info on all sorts of animals and looking at the history of the different towns. Noah was just telling me today that seagulls can apparently drink sea water.

 

So back to my precious Maya. What can I write about her? Firstly, I am so very thankful to the Lord for her. She is a very strong little girl who knows her mind completely and will let us know exactly what she’s thinking. We just love listening to her talk and verbalise what’s going on in her very clever little brain. She is also very compassionate to others and often will try and hug the big kids if they hurt themselves and you can often hear her saying “OK Noah?” or “OK Ava?”. May May (as she calls herself) loves life to the fullest, that is for sure. And the past few weeks she has been singing “Happy Birthday May May, hip hip Hooray” over and over J

 

We are in Carnarvon for 2 nights so we could be in the one place for her birthday and also have reception before we head into Ningaloo for a while with no phone reception. As it’s raining we were a bit limited in what we could do (no train ride on the pier for instance) so we had a frozen chocolate coated fruit icecream (soooo delish!! Steve, Ava and Maya had a whole banana dipped in chocolate and Noah and I had Mango dipped in chocolate) at Morels, went to Bumbaks to pick up some award winning chutney, and had hot chips for lunch at one of the only nice looking places to eat here! And the lady came and gave the kids a scoop of icecream and a different topping colour each (noooo more additives for my kids in a loooong time as it was a very interesting afternoon with very naughty kids and Noah making his super annoying noise he makes when he’s stressed) which was so lovely and the kids really enjoyed it as they don’t get that sort of treat!! And then the skies dried up for a little while and we were able to go to the very cool park (it even has a flying fox!) which was possibly the kids highlight. For the afternoon Maya had a sleep and I’m still not able to write about the afternoon as I’m still scarred from the mud pies and painting themselves in mud while wearing their best clothes and the fighting and melt downs ;

 

Maya got a few little goodies for her birthday, like a new wiggles DVD and some cool duplo and new dress. But her favourite new birthday gifts are a toy turtle and little dolly from our new adoptive family Linda and Barry. They happened to arrive at Coronation Beach as the people next to us were departing, and it was so good having them near by when Noah was in hospital. We also saw them at our last place we stayed Nanga Bay (blog to come) which was so nice as they got to see Maya for her birthday, well a few days early.

 

Overall we have had a lovely day celebrating our precious Maya’s life.

 

Noah was vomiting and had a very sore tummy on Thursday night (24th April), he then had an episode of swelling up on the Friday, and on Saturday woke up with a very odd rash on his limbs so I took him into the local emergency department and we waited. Just before us a group of 4 guys involved in a cycling race accident walked in with cuts and broken arms so our wait to be triaged was a long one. We were eventually seen by a Dr, then paediatrician as his presentation was concerning. I asked the first Dr if we’d be there long, meaning hours, and she said yes, meaning days! So Noah was admitted and given meds to stop him vomiting and feeling sick, IV therapy to help him as he was dehydrated and IV Panadol for his sore tummy. My poor little boy was so sick, only talking to tell me his tummy was so sore and just lying there otherwise not even wanting to watch TV (we don’t have a TV with us, just a DVD player that they sometimes watch so I knew he must be sick when he didn’t jump at the chance to watch normal TV) or me read him a book. He was also so so brave, I was so proud of him! I’ll put on some photos of his rash.

 

Times like this make me really miss home. Steve of course was amazing and had the girls under control! He even did their hair in pigtails! And what made it easier for me also was having our amazing caravan neighbours next door who I knew we could count on if we needed anything (thanks Linda and Barry if you ever read this, we really appreciate you!). These caravan neighbours even gave the kids gifts and Noah things to read in hospital like a really big map of Australia which he loved. One of the best things about this journey is meeting people you would never meet going about your daily routine.

 

So very long story short, they are not sure what has caused this episode and think it’s an allergic reaction to the vomiting virus, or to something he’s come into contact with. So he’s now got an epi pen and we have antihistamine on stand by. But hopefully it was just a one off.

 

A hospital stay was not in the plan for our holiday!! But then again, when do things ever go to plan? 🙂

 

While staying at Coronation Beach Noah had a night of vomiting so the next morning it was decided that I should take the Ava and Maya out for the day to try to reduce the chance of them catching whatever it was Noah had.

So I decided that perhaps we should go meet a Prince. A real, fair dinkum Prince. Ava was delighted with this idea as I think she hoped she may see a real “Barbie Princess” and potentially a mermaid as well! (It did all sound a bit far fetched)

So we headed off inland heading for the “Principality of Hutt River”. A real independent state since about 1970 that has its own passports recognised by other countries and Australia (I think reluctantly!), has its own currency and has its own stamps and the list goes on! It has even been officially at war with Australia for 2 days

After driving for an hour or so we arrived in the capital of Nain. The first thing we saw was a giant rock statue of Prince Leonard 1 of Hutts head. A bit like I imagine the Sphinx in Egypt, but a tad smaller? There was a Church, a post office, Govt offices, Historical society etc. Quite fascinating. But if you looked past all the buildings and rolls Royce and flags etc, all you could see was a big grain farm.

After a bit of a look around we found Prince Leonard in the post office and we brought a postcard and some currency for Noah. The Prince was a in his late 80’s and of very sharp mind and after talking to him for a bit, I discovered he had started out as a farmer like me, (that’s as far as the similarities went! He would be doing 9 figure multiplication sums for fun!) but the Aussie Govt. put quotas on the amount of grain he could sell. He had planted way more and argued with Govt. about this and to cut a long story very short, he found a loophole in the constitution and he turned his property into an independent state.  

He also studies subatomic physics. He was contracted to NASA and I was told by others that he was critical in the mission to land men on the moon!

So after bidding farewell to the Prince we went on our way back thought the scrub to home, at Coronation Beach.

You might be wondering if I am considering turning our farm into an independent state and becoming Prince Steve 1 and have my Princess Bec 1?? Not a chance! haha

And you might also be wondering if Ava was happy with meeting the Prince? I don’t think she believes me that we actually met a Prince. In her eyes we met an old farmer!!!!

After a great Easter at Sandy Cape, we thought we should top up water and batteries again. We are becoming a bit more educated these days and have learnt to fill up a 20 litre water container whenever we can, which helps when Bec has 30 minute showers using the outside shower and our precious tank water. (She may argue this point in a later blog and unravel the exaggeration!!) I have been suggesting to Bec that maybe she could shave her head like me to save water on her “upkeep”.

(Have I mentioned how I have now shaved my head? Not deliberate mind you! Noah and I have had numerous bonding moments in our lives thus far cutting each others hair. He uses the clippers on my head and then I do his. Well in Perth it was decided a father son moment was needed so we got the clippers out and decided to go a bit shorter than normal. Noah gave me a number 3 which was good and I gave him the same treatment. My lessons learnt so far in these bonding moments is to get Mum  to check the 5 year olds job. So after we had finished I asked Bec if Noah had missed any bits. She pointed out a couple of spots at the back of my head that were a bit scruffy. Noah meanwhile had got sidetracked so I went to finish the bits myself. I was actually quite proud of finding the scruffy bits first shot with the few quicks strokes. It was after a few swipes of the clippers that I realised the plastic cover was now not on the clippers and I had a few totally bald stripes across the back of my head. Bec cried……from all the laughing when I showed her!)

Anyway…. we decided to head to the safety and luxury of a quality “brand name” caravan park to rejuvenate our (caravan) battery and top up on water and give the kids some good playground action and try out some “glamping”. What we actually discovered is that there is a couple of classes of camping and then there is “glamping” as well. (Glamping according to Wikipedia(Glamorous camping) is a growing a global phenomenon that combines camping with the luxury and amenities….etc.etc).  The other bit that my dictionary would add is that it includes a variety of levels of snobbery.

But what we actually discovered in our 2 nights staying in Geraldton is this.

1.Geraldton is probably not really a place you would do “Glamping!

2. The people spending there school holidays camping don’t want to associate with “travellers” and are quite snobbish at times

3. When nature calls and you wander to the loo for a pitstop, you may disturb a burglar poking their nose into everyones sites seeing what they can collect. (Next morning it was discovered that our neighbours had 2 sets of car keys stolen, another car had a window broken and handbag stolen and other minor things on our otherside!!

4. Not all “Brand name” parks have good facilities. We were expecting pools, jumping pillows, holiday programs, petting zoos etc. etc. All the kids got to play on was a couple of tractor tyres half buried in the sand, a swing that had “d” shackles digging into the kids hips ready to take a chunk out of an unsuspecting kid and an old monkey bars same as what I grew up on at primary school all those years ago!

So after our attempt at “Glamping” for $46/night we went 25kms out of town to a beach camp called Coronation Beach and set up camp for a couple of nights at $14/night. It even included a playground better than a lot of caravan parks, the cleanest drop dunnies in the country, our own little shed called “The Hilton” and showers (without water mind you) and ocean views! What could be better?

Noah had a vomiting bug and ended up in hospital which Part 2 will cover, but it was here that we caught our first fish. Noah claimed it because Bec kindly handed the rod to him when it was mentioned that it had a fish on it. (Aren’t Mums good!) I also caught another random reef fish we named “Nemo” as I wasn’t really close to a reef. (I call any fish I cant recognise a “reef” fish if it has big fangs and sharp prickly fins)

I need to mention the memorial in Geraldton to the navy ship “HMAS Sydney II” that was sunk in battle in 1941 taking 645 lives with it. It was very moving (despite having 3 kids  running amuck around it). There was also a statue called the “The waiting woman” looking out to sea looking for her loved ones to come back. (The boat was only found in 2008)

It is just amazing how many people stop and talk to us and our kids. Mostly people who have grand kids and are missing them, or those who have travelled with kids before, but people on the road (especially at free camps or National Parks) are mostly very genuine and interested in a chat. We have met some really great people.

Sandy Cape was a great spot, again we were a dune away from the beach and a short drive into town and it only cost $15 a night! We really weren’t sure if we would get a site as it was going into Easter and it’s a very popular spot. The overflow caravan park at the footy oval was the next option and as it was Easter and very hard to find a spot any where we had to stay for the 4 nights so we really wanted to get into Sandy Cape! As we pulled up to the road to access Sandy Cape, we saw the “full” sign and were feeling quite nervous about what to do. But as we were sitting there a car was driving out and stopped to let us know the people next to them had just packed up and left so we should find a spot! So we drove through the “full” sign and ended up getting the best site there!! Praise the Lord as finding a spot was really wishful thinking but the good Lord provided yet again  Why do we doubt when He has it all in control?

It was such a beautiful place and we really enjoyed ourselves there. We had 2 great neighbours and one of them had travelled 3 years ago with her 2 daughters and gave us heaps of tips on places to go with kids. They also had a little dog called Buddy and my kids instantly fell in love with this little creature and walked him and wrote him letters!! The owners even wrote a letter back on behalf of Buddy and tied it to his collar to bring over to the kids, signed with a woof and paw prints. The kids thought this was the best thing ever and still talk about it!
One of the best things about Sandy Cape was the sunsets, just gorgeous! There was also a really good walk to a look out and a nice sandy area for the kids to play in the waves. There was also a tiny little beach around some rocks that Ava loved and wanted to stay at all day. Easter Sunday was really busy there and there were cars all lined up along the beach and people everywhere! The kids had an Easter egg hunt up on top of a sand dune, and I’m not sure they’ll get a better place to hunt eggs again!