Bumper Blog Christmas Special / Roadtrip

Happy New Year all, hope you had good ones
Seems like an age since the last blog even though its only been a few weeks. Since the last time we have had christmas and new year with our roadtrip in between followed by a few days in the sun in Adelaide. Tomorrow is back to work for me and the countdown for home has really begun (only 2 weeks now). Anyway here's what we have been up to..

So christmas in australia was predictably quite different to back home. I am not sure we were really homesick as we had a great time still. However it certainly didnt feel like christmas and we both agreed we much preferred christmas back home. The weather makes it different but in addition to that it just isnt such a big deal over here, its more like a normal public holiday. Anyway, to do this in chronological order..Christmas eve was scorching and we were invited out to Annie's house in Gawler which was really nice. Annie's house was full of decorations and Dylan had a great time trying to break as many of them as he could. We had a lovely dinner which even included xmas pudding! From there we went to our local church to the evening navity service. It was packed with families and outside the church they had a BBQ, a petting zoo full of farm animals and free donkey rides. We sang 'All come all ye faithful' with our sunglasses on and a glass of fizzy wine to try get in the spirit. On christmas day we did a whole host of skyp-ing with family while Dylan opened up his presents. I think it was probably quite slim pickings for him but he was more than happy with his Thomas the Tank Engine, Igglepiggle, Squabble and Elmo. Not sure how these will all fit on the plane. We heard that my grandma after a long illness had died on christmas eve which was sad and took a bit of the gloss off the day. Later on we took the tram to Glenelg to the beach and we werent the only ones there, in fact it was pretty busy with most of the cafes and bars open. We had a bbq in the park for lunch and even made a full(ish) christmas dinner back home that evening. Emma bought the Snowman on DVD so it did feel a little christmassy in the end.

So that was christmas, on boxing day we picked up the campervan and began the roadtrip. As it happened we got upgraded to a 6 berth van in the end which was huge but it was a good job in the end as we pretty much filled it. It was certainly luxury camping, we had A/C, microwave, TV, DVD even a playstation ! We headed off to our first stop which was Robe. One thing you certainly realise driving round Australia is just how big it is. Adelaide to Robe seemed a short distance on the map yet it took 5 hrs to get there. In fact over the week we drove over 2500 km ! Anyway we loved Robe, its a really small, nice seaside town. Our caravan park was on the beach and we were a few mins walk from parks, cafes and pretty much anything you might need. The other people on the campsites were also really friendly which is good as they do pack you in a little bit. One thing we noticed is that Aussies dont do camping as we know it, its a bit of a sport here with a competition to make it as home from home as possible. They have huge vans, trailers and tents plus every kitchen utensil you could imagine including (and I am not joking) coffee machines, beer kegs and wood fired ovens for making the perfect pizzas! Anyway we had a few great days in Robe as beach bums just chilling out before we took off on another trip, this time to Mount Gambier to meet Tina and Ben. Unfortunately being further north and elevated Mount Gambier has a reputation for not having the best weather and so it proved to be. The temp was about 20 degrees and we even had rain! Anyway it was really fab to meet up with Tina and Ben. We got a great campsite overlooking the Bluewater Lake (a volcano crater) which was close to a few good parks and wildlife spots. On the first night we had a bbq underneath several hundred of the loudest parrots and then got to see a possum in one of the floodlit gardens (we were promised several but as the temp dropped we were happy with one). The next day we explored the best tourist attractions the area had to offer although attraction was a misleading word in a few cases (we used the words 'one horse town' a few times) followed by another bbq this time in the rain (we joked the weather was probably better at home although i guess it probably wasnt). That night the heavens opened for the first time since we have been here and in a campervan it sounded like it was raining golfballs, at one point we were thinking we might get washed away. Miraclously Dylan (like every night) slept through it all oblivious. Tina and Ben had to head back to Melbourne the next day so we decided to head back the opposite direction towards Adelaide chasing the sunnier weather. It did certainly improve but wasnt quite beach weather. The remaining travels saw us drive for hours on long straight roads with us frequently the only travellers. We did a few more seaside places (Goolwa, Port Elliot and Victor Harbour) and had the best fish and chips ever, bar none (see pic). We arrived back in Adelaide just in time for New Years Eve and headed straight to the river for the family fireworks celebrations which was pretty cool although Dylan wasnt so keen. We spent midnight celebrations at home watching the Sydney fireworks on TV which were amazing.

And so the last few days we have just been making the most of being all together and in Adelaide doing all the things we have done many times the last few months and loved (beach, wildlife parks, playgrounds, outdoor swimming etc). The weather has been above 30 everyday for a few days now and its really great. Last night I went to see Adelaide play Sydney at soccer but at the Oval cricket ground which i think was the most picturesque match i have ever been to even if the skill on the pitch wasnt so good. And so now its pretty much all about coming home although with the falling pound its probably a good job as things are becoming pretty expensive now. I have 2 weeks of work left starting tomorrow and loads to do so I'll be busy. And Emma and Dylan I think are starting the process of saying goodbye to all the friends they have met. We might even try fit in one last trip away next weekend. We are all looking forward to seeing friend and family but we have had such a great time we will be really sad to leave. The stories of freezing cold weather, the credit crunch and most of the football results are not enticing us home at present but hopefully a few of those will improve over the coming weeks...maybe...

Ok, well time to sign out, hope you all had good holidays, would love to hear about them, although dont worry I wont ask for any comments :) Until next time byesbye S, E & Dx