camping with kids

This is part two of our school holiday-extravaganza!  Yes, after a trip to Bali, my darling husband decided to spend his two weeks off bonding with his lovely sons and gorgeous wife.  He opted for road trip to down south.  As much as I would love to stay under the five star hotel or resort I was presented with camping at the caravan park under the blue sky or dark actually at night time, with a star :)

 

After we had organized who was going to look after all our animals, got stock up on food etc, checked the engine and tires of our Ute, as early as 5.30 am we were all up and off we went! It took about 5 hours or more to Bremer Bay.  Stopped at Williams for fuel and yummy pies, then Kataning to let the snot-gobblers ran wild at the cool park!

eat often travel well

My husband and I are pretty much love traveling.  Interstate and international we love to explore and experience new places.  It's easier when it's only two of us, but it doesn't hold us back now that we have children.  My twins are good traveler since they were babies.  Maybe because they were exposed to it since they were 3 weeks old!

Traveling with toddler/baby is bit tricky than now that they are 8 years old.  At least no more nappy changing in every stop, mind you I have double of everything :) My T1 is very observant  in the surrounding when we travel by car. He can occupy himself by reading or drawing, while the other one sometimes can be a lit bit handful.  All he wants to do either playing games on his DS or Ipad, or watching movie.  Which is alright, but as parents we would love to encourage him to look out of the window not only buried his head on games for hours.  I prefer him reading than playing on his games, which of course have to begin with argument and sulk.

Couple months ago, we traveled by car interstates for 5 weeks full.  Took us three nights 4 day from Western Australia to South Australia.  For those three nights we camped.  The Boys entertained themselves pretty good, from reading, playing on their games and watching movies then counting how many cows on the farm that we passed,  how many trucks, and singing.  We stayed one night in Victoria at our relative's place on our way to Tasmania.  Left Port Melbourne around 6 in the evening the next day on the Spirit of Tasmania to be arrived in Davenport at 7am in the morning, rain, dark, and very cold!

I can say that we covered almost 80% of Tasmania, from East to West, North to South.  Our accommodation varied from rented house, B & B, caravan park, and out in the bush!  Not to mention camping on Bruny Island and got beaten by heavy pouring rain and thunderstorm and gusty wind.  I was amazed that our tents were still intact and we didn't get wet at all! My T2 didn't even noticed all the drama, as when we talked about it he was confused and said he didn't hear anything.  Almighty!

Bruny Island Cruise

We cook most of the time while we're traveling around Tasmania.  Except at the wedding reception and twice dinner out, for those 5 weeks I cooked more often than when we were at home! Food wise, we tried to cook simple thing such as pasta, rice, curry and BBQ. I am not big on camping but I have to admit that I enjoyed it.  

The caravan parks and/or camping grounds are pretty good, the showers and toilets are clean and we didn't even have to queue, the kitchen is also useable and has everything you need mostly.

My survival kits for traveling with children are:

• Food including healthy snacks and bad snacks (lollies, when you have no other choice and/or run out of patience and entertainment)

• Books

• Travel diary, my kids love to write what's on during our travel.

• Games, such as card games or any other board games that easy to pack/bring.

• Crayons, drawing books/coloring books.

• And my last survival kit is the DVD. ( especially if you just longing for some peace and quite or adult conversations! )

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer

a journey on roads

It's March already, autumn should approach this part of the world. But guess what? It's freaking HOT! You won't believe that today the temperature is 40C....yeah, and it's autumn!

Anyhow I have an exciting road trip to look forward to. It will be my third road trip and the second for my twin boys. We are going to drive to Victoria from Western Australia then continue to Tasmania. Of course, we need to cross the sea to Tasmania by ferry. For that matter we have booked our seats on Spirit of Tasmania. Another thing to look forward and get excited as I've never been on the big ship before :) We will spend most of the time traveling and exploring Tasmania.

We always long to do this road trip. Originally we planned to do a round trip all over Australia and it would probably take about three to six  months. But for school and work reasons we decided to postpone that idea and do this mini five weeks road trip first. Then see how it goes!

My hubby gets most of car and camping stuff sorted and organized. Food, kids' entertainment and clothes wise is my part. It's a bit chaos and stressed at the moment as we are leaving next Saturday, only 6 days to go!  Meanwhile lots of things to do, what to bring / to pack,  what to prepare, and on top of that we still have to pack up the house and sort out the water system in the garden area and of course not to mention the animals. In this case, the fish and the big hairy sulky four legs Sammy. Lucky, our neighbors offered to look after the garden, fish and the dog :)

Speaking about clothes, I am a bit in dilemma on what to wear and to pack! Around Western Australia and Victoria the weather probably will be hot to mild while in Tasmania will be cold. So, to me looks like I have to pack both summer and winter clothes. Plus we also have a wedding to attend in Tasmania. Now, what about the footwear? Should I bring flip-flop, flats, boots, walking shoes, oh and a high heel for the wedding?? Ohhh....headache :))

These are ready to go, folding tables, couple containers for food, swags, our tent, but not the lawn-mower though :|

Here are couple great reasons why we want to drive:

1. No hire -car fees. Don't need to pay for airport parking, bus, rail, or taxi fares.
2. Freedom to explore.
3. Make our own time-table.
4. Family essential on hand. For family with children taking your own car is so much convenient.
5. Taking our own kit. There's nothing like having your own fishing rod on hand!
6. Take our own accommodation. Bring the caravan or tent and stay at holiday parks, saving on accommodation cost.
7. Bring back souvenirs, without have to worry about the extra luggage :)
8. Drive on, drive off.

Above all of those reasons, I think it would be a great experience for the children and sure we would have lots of fun traveling around the states.  We also are  prepared ourselves for the tantrums and fights between the kids,  and bickering between my hubby and myself :)

Last but not least, I am obsessed with color jeans at the moment. They are so cute and I love all the vibrant and gorgeous shades. Perfect company for my road trip , they can cheer me up for when we get bogged in the sand dune or lost in the middle of the desert!