We sold up, packed up and decided to embark on the adventure of our lives. Follow us as we travel around Australia in a caravan.

Our departure from Alice Springs was supposed to be today but after the beautiful afternoon spent by our resort style pool(s) yesterday, Vicki and I twisted the arms of the men into staying another night for the sole purpose of doing it again, but we were hoping for an all day laze about instead of an afternoon. Our plan was to food shop in the morning while they minded the kids (much easier to achieve without the men in tow but they think we were doing them a favour) and then we could all spend a leisurely day cooling off. A top of 39 degrees was predicted again today. They bought our plan, and we were happy.

We whiled away the afternoon by the pool with a magazine. Now, that is what holidays are made of. The most effort we exerted was getting up to move our loungers as the sun moved behind us. The boys went into town, Ray searching for my favourite beer and Chris to get a haircut. It was a very pleasant afternoon.

We got dinner organised early as we have realised that it works much better if we can sit outside altogether and actually see what we are eating instead of eating in the dark. It also adds to the holiday vibe of eating in the great outdoors, the crumbs on the floor don’t matter and helps with the cleaning up and is such a contrast to living in Melbourne where you can only eat outside for a few months of the year without the chill in the air joining you for dinner.

We thought it would be a treat to get an ice cream after dinner so we walked to the local store with the kids in their pyjamas. That was quite an event. Exciting!

Another instalment of Uncle Ray’s story time rounded off the evening beautifully and the kids went to bed happy. (See our post in Tips and Tricks: “What do you do for fun?”)

Tomorrow it’s “up North” as Harry has been suggesting.