JANUARY 2019

G'Day again,

Well Christmas is over and it is now January 2019 and what lays ahead? Nobody knows but even though all is uncertain it wont be for a lack of planning on our part.

We are off to do a short trip in January from home in SA through NSW to attend my sister's 80th birthday in Sydney and then off to North Queensland and across the top end to Mt Isa and then onto Alice Springs and back home again.

We have to be back by around the 22nd of February for appointments as I will be going into hospital in March to have a knee replacement and that will sideline me for a number of weeks.

I will post more on the trip as it happens and let you know what we are doing and where we are at during the trip itself.

I hope all had a nice Christmas and got what they wanted from the Jolly Old Man and not have to return stuff to the shops.

Our Christmas was reasonably quite as we had to go to Ceduna just prior to Christmas to complete a commitment and we spent a few days getting there and back. After we had finished at Ceduna we drove back and stayed at Port Pirie for a night and then headed down to Gawler and stayed in the Caravan Park there.

We had previously organised to spend four days over Christmas at the park and then spend Christmas Day at one of Maree's nephews place for Christmas day. We arrived at Gawler on the Sunday before Christmas Day.

The day itself was terrific despite the temperature being unbearable for most of the day in Adelaide and we spent the day outside with the kids who swam and jumped in the jumping castle and then cooled off in the pool and generally had a ball.

 

THE JUMPING CASTLE AND THE POOL WHICH THEY SPENT MOST OF THE TIME IN

Three of Maree's nephew's children are foster kids and their grand kids and are aged under 4 and have had a terrible life with their parents and as such are now with their grand parents and this was the first Christmas that they have ever had and as such had a ball.

Of course the lounge room was full of presents mostly for them and they were spoiled rotten which was absolutely brilliant to see as their eyes lit up with each present opening.

SOME OF THE PRESENTS

They served up the traditional weber roasts Turkey, Pork and Chicken with a multitude of side dishes including roasted vegetables and salads and everything that goes with Christmas lunch.

Suffice to say it was a lunch to experience and of course too much to consume in one sitting so we stayed for dinner and got stuck into it again and there was so much left over we were invited back the next day to finish it off.

However despite all of the goings on the day was about the kids and although this may have been the first Christmas that they have experienced in their short lives it will be one that they will never forget as they had the most attention from everyone there so that they could not forget it. 

On boxing day we just vegetated around the caravan as we did not get home until after 11:00pm on Christmas Day and did not get out of bed until around 10:00am. The day was mostly hot again and there was not much sense in spending time outside as the hangover was subsiding and slowly drifting away so the day became an alcohol free day.

We headed home the day after boxing day and spent the next few days tidying up inside and outside our onsite caravan (home) and starting to get the travelling caravan in order for our next trip which will commence on the 9th January and head East, North, West and then South back to SA.

It is a trip that we are looking forward to to test out some additional gear that I installed in the car so that we can free camp more often and save site costs. It should be good.

I will update everyone on the trip and see you all soon.