A quick look around.

It's late afternoon/early evening here in Darwin town. It's that funny piece of time after swimming at the pool and before dinner. Everyone seems to be doing their own thing. I've had a little afternoon cocktail and am feeling a bit merry and thought I might show you around.

Just a quick tour. No cleaning up or styling. This is how it is right here and right now.

This is the spot in our caravan where I have been checking my emails and am about to sit down and write this blog. We have wireless internet so a few of us can be online at once which is great.

That bit of white tape on the far left is double sided velcro tape. Farmer Bren is obsessed with it. Everything is tidied and rolled and secured with the stuff.

Straight in front of me is the map of Australia with our route so far drawn up the middle. We've come a long way in five weeks. Is that Miss Jazzy eating Vegemite crackers outside the door? Why I think it is.

And there is Miss Indi. At last count she had 57 mosquito bites covering her and is incredible itchy. Hello Indi!!

There's my bunch of flower squares sitting waiting for me on the table. It's too hot here to think of making woolly clothing so I'm making granny squares instead.

The washing line. How cute is the caravan peg bag Miss Michelle made for me! Thanks for making it and sending it to me Michelle! Doing the laundry is so much more fun now.

Getting mail on the road has been such a thrill.

Oh and there's Farmer Bren giving our neighbour a lesson on how to set up her ipad.

A quick peek inside her van and look who we've found. Miss Pepper and her friend Christian. The truth is I heard these guys long before I saw them. They are a noisy bunch.

Twenty minutes after I wrote this, I was about to press publish, when I looked out the window and saw this. The start of a neighbourhood game of hide and seek.

Ready or not here I come...

Ok, time to put the barbecue on now. Tofu and salad wraps for dinner here. Indi and I have a date to play bingo at the bar later on.

I hope your week has started happily.

See ya!

The secret life of caravaners.

Three and a half weeks into this trip I would have to say that for me the strangest part of caravan living is the intimacy you share with your neighbours.

On our farm in Daylesford, if I were to go outside and scream as loudly as I could, no one would hear me. Yet here we are usually a couple of meters away from another van, sharing bathrooms, and washing machines and outdoor living spaces with perfect strangers.

In my real life my best friends have never seen me first thing in the morning before I have had a chance to look in the mirror, or last thing at night brushing my teeth and washing my face. Yet my caravan neighbours have had the pleasure of witnessing these things as well as my dash to the toilet in my jammy pants first thing in the morning, they have heard me discipline my kids, they have seen us cook and eat our meals and hang out our washing. If they cared these neighbours could see from our laundry what colour knickers I wear.

I am sure most caravaners don't care or notice. They go about the details of their own lives and leave others to do the same.

I notice though.

I see the woman in the kitchen area with her pin curlers in. I see that most people hang their washing in an orderly manner, socks in pairs, tops with tops, pants with pants. I see that most people don't care about being seen in their hot pink elephant jammies or dying their hair in the sink. I hear people planning their trips and menus and dividing up the chores. I see the old man waiting patiently for his wife ouside the ladies toilets very late at night.

I love these details of other people's caravan lives.

My family voted me craziest in the family for taking these pics, but truthfully this aspect is as important to me as the tourist sights. This is caravan living.

Over time I might care less and notice less. It might feel normal when the guy next door interrupts my bowl of cereal to ask if we think the petrol will be cheaper in Mataranka or Katherine. It might not feel like an invasion when I return to the communal laundry to find mine out of the washer and dumped on the nearest table. It might feel regular to hear other people's kids crying well into the night.

In the meantime I guess the saving grace is that within a few days we will all be moving on and be strangers all over again.

This is such fun!

Happy travels.

xx

My Friday.

Isn't it funny how some days it takes all day to wash the breakfast dishes, when other days you can achieve so much? Maybe the fact that it was a gorgeous Spring day here in Daylesford today had something to do with it being one of the latter. Or maybe it was the panic of trying to get some things done before the school holidays start.

First up after dropping the girls at school was a garage sale at a local church. I came away with some lovely sheets and pillow cases, some old knitting and crochet pattern books and a bag full of bias binding, zips and knitting needles. I was so excited with my loot that I skipped down the hill to my car.

Three loads of washing went in and came out of the machine. I didn't abide by the off the line by 4 o'clock rule, so most of it is damp and still on the line to hopefully dry tomorrow. (Bren just told me there is rain predicted.)

A fair bit of time was spent with our new friends, twenty five 3 day old Khaki Cambell ducklings. They really are the cutest things ever.

I baked a batch of meringues to take to lunch tomorrow. They are going to be served with cream, ice cream and berries. Mmmmmmmmmm

A bit of sewing.

And an early dinner at A Perfect Drop wine bar in town. It was great that we delivered the beetroots this afternoon and were served them an hour later. It is also great that we can have a bit of a social life again with the girls now they are getting a bit older. It doesn't matter that we were home by 6.30.

I hope you have a great weekend relaxing, or getting lots done, or a bit of both.