We're away!!

A quick post proving that we've made it to Alice Springs and have had our first lessons in all things Prado and Jayco. This all thanks to some great tuition from Richard and Annie who are recklessly lending their "rig" for this adventure.

Approaching Alice

Well into the demo out at Tony & Libby's place (friend's of Richard & Annie's a little out of Alice)

Our illustrious teacher

The fly demonstration begins

A job for every kid

The road to Santa Theresa - ideal for a bit of bulldust! (outback road experience)

Travel Itinerary

Sunday, 22nd July 2012:

Fly from Melbourne to Alice Springs

23 July - 25 August:

Somewhere between Alice Springs and Broome

Saturday 26 August:

Fly from Broome to Melbourne

Farewell wintery waters!

We hope that the next beach we see will be quite a different experience!

Today we had a day trip to Silverleaves to ready the house for our absence. Granddad provided a lift in the new Kluger, a trailer load of wood on the back.

Witness also the latest innovation in Harry's Hangar!

All photos and blog itself posted from the iphone in the back seat of the Kluger (practicing for the big trip!).

Coober Pedy 1996

The Shanavan blog posts of recent days has rekindled memories of a June 1996 roadtrip Kath & I made to Alice Springs. Like Ben & Ves we drove up the middle to Alice. Unlike Ben & Ves we were in a camira and accommodation was either in tent or motel for the trip up. The camira was put on the Ghan for the trip back and we trained it!

This trip pre-dates digital photography and kids. So there are few photos by comparison to today's efforts and even less featuring our good selves!

Here are a few scanned images of our younger versions in a largely unchanged old landscape!

Lake Hart

Whoever took this photo clearly needs better equipment. I wonder if he'll ever get any!

The Breakaways

Adding 6 years!

We added 6 cumulative years to the ages of family members at our July birthdays get-together today! Sorry Kell, no photo - I know you'll be disappointed!!

We also farewelled the Rowville mob who are about to start their road trip - they'll be back in October!!

New Beanies!

Grandma and Granddad returned recently from a laid back week or two with the Alice Springs connection in Central Australia. The annual Alice Springs Beanie Festival was on and we have been gifted with gorgeous new beanies. They were made all over Australia. We all laughed out loud when we found that the "Place of Origin" of Hannah's beanie was our very own suburb in Melbourne! Read about this beanie's birth at Nicole's Blog Dabbling All Day.

The pictures above show the beanies colours as photographed. A bit of photo shoot / filtering fun follow!

Mum & dad weren't forgotten ...

This was quite hard to do (I know you're surprised I don't have webcam experience)! Beanie Wonder Stripe by Shirley Jones in Elizabeth, SA.

Mum's apron featuring slogan "old stories, new yarns"

Easter Island

Hmmm, the first post since 2010!

Why the new interest? Methinks a planned winter holiday through the Kimberley means that a blog may have some use for a while. So the blog gets a facelift and possibly a few posts in the lead-up.

This post is titled Easter Island or more accurately "Easter at Phillip Island". Here are some pictures (thanks Micky J for several) from our few days at Phillip Island this Easter.

Is it really "A dog's life"?

Pasta from scratch

Kitty Miller Bay and the Wreck of the Speke walk