Posts from — November 2009

As a bit of a getaway we decided to make use of the school holidays last month and take a last trip to one of our favourite places in WA – Monkey Mia. It’s a beautiful place but unfortunately requires a massive 10 hour drive through some really really interesting scenic areas (not!)

But it’s so worth it when you finally get there – it may have been cold and rainy in Perth – but here it’s beautiful, sunny & warm.

But of course the main attraction up here is not monkeys but the wild dolphins who come into shore every morning to be fed by the park rangers and then other times during the day they might swim casually in beside you.

Caitlin & Georgie had this one swim right up behind them.

Early morning start for a fishy breakfast!

 

Besides sitting watching dolphins and building sand castles, we also went on a wildlife cruise out into Shark Bay.  This is a protected World Heritage area due to the large amount of rare sea creatures and sea grass meadows not found anywhere else in the world.  We saw numerous dugong, turtles and dolphins.  

 It was a short break but very relaxing and got us excited for our next adventure in a couple of weeks.

We are feeling quite relaxed, now that the  ”To do list”  is a lot smaller.   We had a huge garage sale a few weeks ago

We’re still amazed at how much stuff we managed to accumulate!

Michael was the only one who really struggled with his separation anxiety (from his toys).   On the days leading up to the garage sale, he would come home from school, only to find his bedroom becoming more & more bare.

I think the final straw was when he came home to find he had only a mattress on his floor for a bed, one train set & a few toy cars.   Funny though,  a week later and he was more than happy with his new sparce surroundings.  Perhaps this is our lesson number 1: We need less stuff.

Speaking of separation, here are our 2 puddy cats, before they were to board their 4 hour flight to Brisbane last month.

 Well our last big financial hurdle was cleared today – we have rented our home. The tenants take possesssion the day we leave!  Big relief. 

And here it is – 6 peoples lives for a year, all to be packed into 6 backpacks, 1 electronics gear pack, 2 day packs & 2 sachels (for homeschooling).  It has taken alot of time, planning, research & online ordering to get to this stage.

All our clothing is lightweight, quick drying, moisture wicking & UV / Mosquito protectd.  We all have a pair of keen’s sandals, converse joggers & thongs.

We have a lightweight fleece each, Gortex rainjackets, thermals, shorts, T-Shirts, long pants, a smart long sleeve shirt each & bathers.  In the electronics department, we have 3 x 9″ notebooks, 3 x cameras, 1 x movie camera, 2 x portable harddrives, 6 x Nintendo DS, 1 x I-Phone, a secondary phone,  2 x walkie talkies & (1 x hair straighteners!!)

We have school books to take, knives, forks & a spoon each. A plate & cup each.  A penknife & a steripen (for water treatment). We have foldaway water bottles & of course the first aid kit / pharmacy.

……So with under 3 weeks to go, the countdown continues.