Travelling Harpers | Public figure
Travelling Harpers
Phone: +61 423 810 631
Reviews
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24.01.2022 All set up. Had a swim. Now the sun has gone it is very pleasant. The boys have found some friends to play cricket with. Forecast for tomorrow is 39 degrees. looking forward to a relaxing week.
23.01.2022 It was great to catch up with our besties is Mount Gambier. We had dinner and pancakes for breakfast with them. We did a quick lap of the Blue Lake before visiting the Umpherston Sinkhole or the sunken garden. It was a flying visit before they headed for home. We visited the information centre and got all the hot tips on where to visit. We did a tour of the Engelbrecht Cave. These cave are in the middle of Mount Gambier and go under the highway and homes. Cave divers frequent... them. (They can have that) we returned to the van and walked around the Blue Lake before heading back to the sinkhole to feed the possums. It was packed and the possums are very tame. The kids got to feed and pat them. All went well until The possum grabbed Grace’s finger. No harm done, just gave Grace a fright. Having dinner in the packed camp kitchen. An early night with another packed day tomorrow. See more
19.01.2022 Today we drove nearly 400km from Streaky Bay to Port Augusta. It always pays to check websites as Discovery Park have a promo going at the moment where kids stay free but they only give you the discount if you ask for it. Have saved us about $30 over the last 2 nights. It was raining overnight and when we left this morning. Our first stop was at Kimba which is half way across Australia. We admired the silo art and checked out the big galah. We had a quick drive through Iron K...nob (hahahaha). It was a pretty run down place. From here we drove straight to Port Augusta. We set up on our drive through site and went for a walk into town. Luke and Grace now have new runners which has saved us a job on the weekend. Were going to have fish and chips for dinner but everything looked ordinary or was closed. We decided to use some cupboard items and we’ll have fish and chips for lunch in Adelaide tomorrow.
19.01.2022 What we have learned on our trip. The kids have learned just how big Australia is. They have learned about mining, agriculture, the climate, invasive species, geography, history (white and Indigenous) and they are all now bird experts. They are now excellent at making new friends and have more confidence talking to adults. Matt and I have learned that it is really hard to get kids to do school work on a holiday. You can only put $2,000 a month on a Motorpass card. The kids c...an behave beautifully in the car until there is one hour left to travel and then all hell breaks loose. Geelong has the best checkout operators in Australia. There are a lot of people from Geelong travelling Australia. I was surprised at how much of Australia is used for farming animals. What was disappointing was the number of dead animals on the roads. The amount of litter along the highways. The damage that invasive species are doing to the environment, cane toads, cats, foxes, camels, goats, pigs, buffalo, buffel grass and die back (fungus). People on the road are really friendly (with a very few exceptions). There is a lot of great work going on to protect our environment. There are many wind and solar farm projects across the country. We need more time off to explore our country.
18.01.2022 We started today by me entertaining everyone by falling off the bed and getting stuck down the side. The family thought it was quite hilarious. After managing to extract myself we hit the road for Adelaide. We ploughed into a headwind for the trip and you could watch the fuel gauge going down. Anyway, we arrived safely at our caravan park and quickly set up. We headed off to find fish and chips for lunch. We found a great shop which had the best service we have ever had in a ...fish and chip shop. Their food was amazing too, which we ate by the beach in the car because it was too windy and cold to go outside. We have a breakfast date in the morning so we went to check out if we could park our van anyway near their house. We pulled over on the side of the road at one stage and some lunatic drove so close that his mirror clipped ours. Luckily no damage was done. We headed back to the park so the kids could have a swim. Lucky it was warm in the water because it was bitter watching them swim. Sally went for a walk while I cooked dinner. It will be an early night, with an early morning tomorrow with a big day of driving to get home. See more
16.01.2022 Some of the stats from our trip 95 nights away 93 in our caravan 2 nights in safari tent at Cape Leveque 20,223 kilometres driven... 4,452 litres of diesel Most expensive diesel $2.15 per litre 14,868 kilometres towing the caravan 20,093 kilometres driven by Matt 130 kilometres driven by Sally 45 different places we stayed Longest stay in 1 place - 5 nights Longest days driving 697km. Adelaide to home Shortest day towing 73km Kununurra to Lake Argyle Borders crossed - 5 Flat tyres - 0 Boat rides - 7 Free camps - 5 night See more
15.01.2022 On the way home now and I’m thinking how right our friends were when they said to treat this trip as a scouting trip. When we get home we will have driven just over 20,000km around this spectacular country. We have seen so many amazing places and had unforgettable experiences. Here are some highlights: Places we will go back and spend some more time:... Matt: Cape Leveque/Dampier Peninsula Sally: Karijini National Park Nathan: Exmouth/Cape Range NP Luke: Cape Le Grand National Park Grace: Monkey Mia Favourite paid activity: Matt: Whale Shark and Swim Sally: Swimming with the sea lions Nathan: Adelaide River Jumping Crocodile cruise Luke: Yellow Waters Cruise Grace: Lake Argyle cruise Favourite caravan park: Matt: Ayr Sailean Sally: Bitter Springs Cabins and Camping Nathan: Big4 McDonnell Ranges Luke: Big4 McDonnell Ranges Grace: West Beach Big4, Adelaide Favourite swimming place: Matt: Fern Pool/Karijini Sally: Fern Pool/Karijini Nathan: Oyster Stacks/Cape Range NP Luke: Bitter Springs Grace: Bitter Springs
15.01.2022 All set up in Mount Gambier.
10.01.2022 On Saturday morning we got going early and walked the mountain trail. The walk is around the rim of Valley Lake and Brownes Lake which were both volcanoes. We started with a very steep climb to Centenary Tower. It wasn’t open when we arrived. A friendly local was on for a chat and pointed out all the points of interest that could be seen. By that time the guide had arrived and opened the tower. She took us up the top and let Nathan raise the flag. Everyone knows the tower is ...open when the flag is raised. After completing the 4.2km walk we had lunch at the van. After lunch we headed into town. We visited the Cave Garden where we bumped into some friends from Geelong. We then headed to the art gallery where we saw a movie called, Volcano. It is all about the volcanoes in the region. It was very interesting. We found an ice cream shop and felt we should sample their wares. After visiting Woolworths to get supplies we went down to Valley Lake and visited the conservation area. We saw koalas, geese, kangaroos and wallabies to name a few. We headed home for dinner and some Uno fun before hitting the hay. See more
08.01.2022 We better fix this problem.
05.01.2022 I’m not sure who was happier that we are home Grace or Chewie. Grace was very emotional as we were getting close to home. Everyone enjoyed sleeping in their own beds last night and the kids have spent the day rediscovering their toys. I have done 8 loads of washing (still at least 6 to go). We have emptied most of the caravan. It is amazing how much stuff we had in there. Matt mowed the jungle that was the backyard and I cleaned up 3 months worth of chicken poo. Back to reality on Monday, work and school, I’m not looking forward to it but the kids are excited to see their friends again.
04.01.2022 We have had a busy few days. We spent one day couped up inside the air conditioned caravan after a morning walk to the information centre and ice cream shop. The next day we went to the Halls Gap zoo. They have a wide range of animals and you can feed deer, sheep, goats, kangaroos, wallabies, ducks etc. the kids had a ball. In the afternoon, we did the walk to the pinnacle. It was very hot and humid but worth the effort to see the amazing views. We had dinner at the Halls Gap hotel. Today we slept in before heading to the Pomonal market. We went for lunch at Pomonal Estate before a walk at Tunnel Creek. When we got back to the van we played card games with the kids followed by a swim before dinner. The boys played cricket with lots of kids before bed.
02.01.2022 Today was a massive day. We left our caravan park at 6.30am to have breakfast with Claire and Noel. Sally went to university with Claire and we haven’t seen them since they moved to Adelaide about 15 years ago. It was great to catch up and we enjoyed a lovely breakfast. We left at 9.15 and were on a mission to get home. We stopped for a quick run around at Keith. The kids enjoyed the monorail. We then filled up at Border town. We had a quick pitstop and play at the playground in Beaufort before surging for Home. We pulled in the driveway at 7.10pm with 695 kilometres under our belt for the day. We came inside to a spotlessly clean house and a very excited fluffy dog. (Thanks Emily) we grabbed a few things from the van, had something to eat, a shower and then off to bed. Hopefully i can sleep past 3am tonight.
