The Ellis Oz Blog: On the road again!!

There was a real buzz in the air as we pulled out of Mum and Dad's street. It was sad to be saying goodbye again, but very exciting to be back on the road. We are starting our third year of travelling around Australia in our 25ft caravan.

Our first stop was to Bacchus Marsh in Western Victoria, were Sam and Pete and their three kids live. We met the Richards family in Alice Springs and they have been home since before Christmas while trying to sell their house. We had a lovely time visiting them, and the kids really enjoyed seeing each other again.

The kids all started the year of school together, after discovering that they are in the same classes at DECV (Distance Education Centre of Victoria). Once finished school, Sam served an amazing roast lunch and homemade crumble, both cooked on their BBQ.

We left Bacchus Marsh, promising to see Sam and Pete on the road somewhere, and drove to Ballarat. Dan's Dad has been working in Ballarat, so we decided to call in and say hi. We stayed at the Eureka Caravan Park for a couple of nights, and Dan caught up on work while the kids settled back into the school routine.

Leaving Ballarat, we drove for nearly 10 hours and arrived in Adelaide. We are staying at Levi Caravan Park where Mark and Amanda are staying while working in Adelaide.

Dan and I were pleasantly surprised by the kid’s behaviour in the car. It has been months since we have done a big day driving and we didn't hear a single complaint from them. Their new electronic purchases are most likely the reason for our peaceful trip. We have ipods, ipads, andriod tablets, phones, laptops and dvd players, to keep them amused.

Mark is working evening shift at the moment, so we didn't get to see him until Saturday afternoon. We had dinner with Amanda and the kids on Friday night and went to the caravan and camping show on Saturday morning.

We were tempted to sit around, drinking beer and chatting all afternoon on Saturday, but the weather was too good to waste. We reluctantly packed our bathers in the car and headed to the beach. We were so glad we did, because we had a wonderful afternoon and evening at Henley Beach.

After a swim in the ocean, we got fish and chips and sat on the grass, while an orchestra serenaded us. We got ice creams for desert and watched a beautiful sunset over the beach.

We left Mark and Amanda, and Adelaide on Sunday and headed north to Port Augusta. We didn't stay long in Port Augusta (just long enough to fill up on fuel and groceries) and continued through to a little town in country South Australia called Kimba. The home of the giant Galah and officially 'halfway across Australia', we stayed in a little rest area next to the railway.