Here are five things I’ve learnt as a family of four on a 14 night roadtrip from Victoria to South Australia.
- My last roadtrip was over 11 years ago across the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. I remember reading, wandering, laughing with friends, day drinking, tuning out to watch the incredible passing landscape. This weeks’ trip played out to the soundtrack of Trolls 2, near constant drizzle, and the sound of my 5 year old and 7 year old punctuating every sentence with ‘I’m hungry.’ Let me be upfront here, roadtrips with children are more like endurance tests than holidays. There’s very little downtime!
- When I asked said little people to sum up their highlights, they named playing on Wye River beach in a hailstorm, the waterslide in Glenelg, rainbow flavoured icecream in Port Fairy, a game of air-hocky in the daggy campsite games room in Robe, some rusty go-carts in Port Campbell and making friends in a rainy playground in Meningie. No mention of the Naracoorte Caves, Mount Gambier or the Twelve Apostles. Sorry UNESCO.
- After seven campervan set up and packs ups we came closer to being a well-choreographed team with our snack boxes, charged phones, dirty laundry contained to one giant Ikea bag, and everything generally in its place, in under 20 minutes. For the record, our longest attempt took 3 hours one year at Walkerville. So, progress.
- The Australian spring weather was NOT on our side. We slept in sleeping bags, under two woolen fire blankets, in four layers of jumpers and a beenie, nightly from 8pm. When the sun finally emerged (day 13 of 14!) we all became our best selves. We hiked to Venus Baths and The Pinnacle in Halls Gap all in one day. We finally had the moment; sat around a campfire, playing cards, toasting marshmallows, telling bedtime stories under the stars. It felt like we’d eared it!
- In all honesty, it took us until day 10 to hit our stride. This trip was meant to be a teaser for a bigger round Australia trip one day. It confirmed one thing; that a big round Australia trip is really not high up on our bucket list anymore, and that our love and longing for South East Asia still burns strong.
Where we stayed
Wye River Caravan Park, NRMA Port Campbell Holiday Park, Narrawong Island Holiday Park, Discovery Park Robe, Lake Albert Caravan Park Meningie, Oaks Adelaide Horizons Suites, The Little Miss House Boat Murray Bridge Marina, Big4 Naracoorte Holiday Park, Breeze Holiday Park Halls Gap.
Best eats
Lavender fudge at Adelaide Farmers Market, Toasted Sourdough bread from Adelaide Central Market, Let Them Eat at Adelaide Central Market, the Bloody Mary at Wye General Store, Blueberry Poko Sticks from Warrnambool Coles.
This post was written on the traditional Country of the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains. I pay my respect to Aboriginal Elders past and present.
You must be logged in to post a comment.