Hello from Griffith, which is known as the heart of the Wiradjuri nation, on our last night of our big trip. The kids are watching the Pink Panther 2 (god help me!) and I'm trying to get up to date on this before we get home. I'm tossing up between heading out to try some of the many Italian restaurants in walking distance of our apartment, or getting take away so we can get into pjs and stay warm. IT'S COLD! And rainy. This is a very wet end to what has been a lovely dry and warm trip ☔☔.

Following on from the previous post, we completed our trip from the Flinders Ranges to Streaky Bay on Sunday 24 September. It was a decent drive to the lovely coastal town on the western coast of the Eyre Peninsula, on the traditional lands of the Wirangu people. We stayed in yet another Discovery park, this time in a 3 bedroom cabin right on the bay. It was delightful!

On Monday our lovely Nora turned 8! She was very excited to get her (long requested 😂) 3D pen - and almost as excited to get her next bit! We got to have birthday waffles, but then unfortunately about some sad news that our planned activity for the morning had been cancelled due to bad weather. That kinda set the tone for the rest of the day - she was really keen for a swim but the tide was so low it was still only up to her knees after walking a solid 500 metres from the water's edge, then the 3D pen was a bit trickier to work than she'd hoped. It was definitely not the best birthday ever.... I tried to tell myself that given it was the 23rd birthday I have organised for my kids, I shouldn't feel too bad about the fail. But as we all know, the parental guilt is hard to shake!

Thankfully, the day after her birthday was a smash hit! The planned event was able to take place the next morning, so we jumped in the car and drove to Baird Bay to have an experience with some local wildlife.

The bay is home to a pod of bottle-nosed dolphins as well as a colony of sea lions. The owners of the tour company, Allan and Trish, have lived in area for 30 year and set up the company to allow other people to experience the amazing connection with the wild animals. We were on a boat with around 9 other people, mostly older folks, who were also very happy and excited to be heading out to see the critters. Allan was a boat driver (is he a pilot if it's a smallish boat with an outboard motor?!?!) and his offsider, Brendan, who is actually lining up to take over the business so Allan and Trish can retire. They know the bay and the animals well enough to be able to take us to a few different spots to maximise our chances of getting to see and swim with the dolphins and sea lion.

So when we spotted a few dolphins surfing and playing in the boat's wake, they stop and let us jump in, where we got to swim with around 8 dolphins, including a particularly friendly young female, Firefox, who we saw several times on the tour. The water was very brisk (around 14 degrees) and even with the wetsuits it was a bit too cold for Josie, who asked to get back on the boat within about 3 minutes. Thankfully she was comfortable enough with Allan to stay on the boat, so both Bob and I were able to stay in the water.

Toby also found the cold very challenging - he jumped in and the shock of the water really stunned him, leaving him struggling to catch his breath for a solid 5 minutes. He worked with me to settle down a bit, and was also given a floating ring to help him feel more comfortable, and was able to stay in the water with the dolphins for about 15 minutes, and did get to see a sea lion underwater as well. Then he headed back on the boat with Josie and Allan.

Nora, however, LOVED it!! She was in the WHOLE time at each stop, long after the majority of the adults had called it as too cold and stayed on the boat. It got to the point where her face was going purple and she was spending more time on Bob's back than not on his back, so we had to call it and get her back on the boat.

Once we were out Allan made the day even more special by handing out some hot milo and biscuits, which made me very happy, especially given that the milo was made with lots of milo and even more sugar. Just how I like it!

After an amazing morning we had yummy pies from the local bakery for lunch, then did some more practice with the 3D pen and watched some telly as the rain was keeping us indoors. Thankfully the next day was clear and sunny, so we tried again for a swim, this time at high tide. But the water really was still too cold (almost like it was the Great Australian Bight or the Southern Ocean or something!!) so instead she and Josie had a great play on the very shelly beach.

Then we wandered on up to the shops for lunch which was very lovely - Josie got to try out her scooter and Nora and Toby rode their bikes, for like the 5th time on this trip. I was about to write that it was still worth bringing them along (the ride around Uluru was amazing) but the return trip was where Nora took on a speed hump in the caravan park and came a-cropper, which is where she got her green stick fracture, so if we had our time over maybe we would have left them at home.... still, a lovely day!

On Thursday we said goodbye to Streaky Bay and headed to Adelaide on the traditional lands of the Kaurna people. I again succumbed to the convenience of AirBnB so we stayed in a lovely 3 bed cottage in Hyde Park, which was a great spot with lots of great food options in walking distance. We went to Sushi Train for dinner, and while we couldn't get a spot at the train itself, we did get served by a sushi robot!

The next morning we decided to get Nora's arm checked out, as it will still so swollen. With help from our local friends Ben and Georgy we got into a GP, then a primary care hub where she was able to get seen by a doctor, get an X-ray and get a temporary cast within about an hour - a dream! We also got to try out a local cafe, that just happened to be a dessert cafe, where we had all sorts of yummy things dipped in melted chocolate. Delish! I may have gone back the other 3 days we were in town.... 😋

In the evening we had dinner with Ben, Georgy and Ellie, in their gorgeous house in Urrbrae. It was such a lovely time - Ellie, Josie and Nora became firm friends in an instant, and spent the whole evening playing beautifully. Toby floated between the girls, reading and chatting with the grown ups, who were having a great catch up chat over some delicious chilli and a lot of wine. Ben, Georgy and I hadn't quite gotten through all of our public service gossiping / ranting, so Bob earned some major brownie points by taking the kids home and get them to bed so I could stay to drink more wine and have more chats. And chat we did, over wine, tea and some truly horrific chocolate (a cross branding effort between darrell lea and the cheesecake shop - what were you thinking BK?!?!?!?!) until 1 AM in the morning!! So late for this old lady! Unfortunately we didn't take any photos to mark the occasion, so we'll just have to do it again the next time we're in town.

Saturday morning saw us heading to the north of the city to check out a possible new toy for Bob. In a sign of how much Bob has been enjoying this trip he's been doing a lot of research on camper trailers, and not at all surprisingly he's keen on one that's particularly fancy / techie, the pole free Opus. So we went to see a demo and get a feel for how it works in real life. It was pretty impressive, and seemingly relatively easy to set up and pull down. I'm still not 100% on board with the whole / camper trailer, and am particularly nervous about the lack of space in the case of a rainy weekend, but I have agreed to give it a try with a hired version to see how we go!

On Sunday we jumped on a bus to head into the city to go to the art gallery for a special event as part of Nature Festival called Nest. After wandering through the gallery the kids got to take part in some great hands on activities. Me and Josie joined Tanya who helped the group of kids engage with the art works through music, movement and dance, which Josie loved. We also to experience some great story telling inside an inflatable creature, and make our own nest and bird out of paper and leaves (and a stapler!). At the same time the big kids went to a music and art session, where they got to work with a group to make some music to accompany a lovely picture book about birds. In pants. I didn't love the illustration style of the book. But the music was great!

We also stopped in at the SA museum and went to an exhibition of the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2023, which was very cool! The photos can be seen at this link, but this one is my favourite

We had intended to leave Adelaide on Monday and spend 2 nights in an old Shearer's quarters in Mungo Lakes National Park, but the park was closed due to anticipated poor weather that was likely to wash out the dirt road into the park. This actually worked out quite well for us, as we were worried about how our girl with a broken arm would cope in a sandy desert area. So we were happy to get the refund, but sad to miss out on experiencing a visit with Mungo Man and Mungo Lady. Maybe a destination for our future camper trailer selves?!?!

Instead we stayed an extra day in Adelaide and booked in for a caravan park in Mildura, to break up the big drive home into 3 days. We had a pretty quiet day on our last day in Adelaide, with Bob and Toby partaking in a major dumpling expedition and me and the girls making another visit to the dessert cafe (they twisted my arm, I swear!). I also dropped into the Frankie4 shop, as the kids are not the only ones with a retail addiction.

We celebrated our last night in Adelaide with some quality food and entertainment - we had Dominos pizza while watching the 3 Amigos. We're on a bit of a Steve Martin Short kick at the moment - they do make me giggle, and Toby loves like the physical comedy bits in particular.

On Tuesday we head out on the final leg home, and at this point we're really just pushing through, stopping at Mildura last night and Griffith today. We're hoping to get home by tomorrow evening (fuel filter maintenance required light permitting!) which is both exciting but also very, very weird. If you're interested, check back for my final post to wrap up and give thanks. It's been quite the adventure!