Igor's beautiful parents, Jack and Dianne, let us stay at their propery in Ballarat for two nights.  As we were in gold mining country we headed to Sovereign Hill for the day.  One of Adam's passions is to make a lot of money so he decided that panning for Gold was first on the list.  As he got a better understanding of gold panning there was no stopping him. He found quite a few specks of gold in the pan and it made his day!


 




Afterwards the boys went on an underground mine tour and learnt all about how the miners of old mined their gold.  The first gold was found in the area in 1851.

Sam and I took a tour around the old town and even had a lesson at the old school.  After that we were a bit exhausted, but stumbled across the old pub and had to stop in for a pint of course.

That night we had a BBQ and Craig entertained the troops with a few tunes while we all enjoyed a few shots of Jack's special brew.  The next day we took a look at Sam and Igor's spectacular property where they are planning on building their future home.  Thanks guys, we had a great time.

After a fairly bad sleep we woke to a beautiful sunrise.  About 10.00ish we set off to meet the Rippons at Mansfield. The kids were sooooooo excited to see each other and it was a great reunion.  We got some supplies and headed to our camp spot, Tunnel Bend.   As we were staying there for 6 nights we set up all our new gear including our screen tent, solar panel, tent for the kids and solar shower.  Afterwards we had a very simple dinner of burgers and sat up and had a couple of beers.

As this camp site is in "Man from Snowy River country" it was well set up for people to bring out their horses and  ride along the many horse riding tracks,  some with amazing views.  One morning Lachlan, Kai and I went for a walk along one of these tracks and Lachlan found a horse shoe which he thought was a fantastic find.  It is now his good luck charm for the next 12 months.

The kids and adults alike enjoyed games such as street tennis, horse shoes, poison ball and learning how to shoot the bow and arrow.

 

 

We had a four wheel driving day trip where we visited Bluff's Hut and walked up Bluff's track to 1680 meters above sea level. We ended up at the edge of a cliff where we encountered some amazing views.  We headed to Pikes Flat where we found a shady spot to have lunch and then I did a bit of 4 wheel driving to Bindaree hut, where the kids had a splash around in the cool clear rapids.  We then headed to Craig’s hut which was built for the movie  "The man from Snowy river” .  The original hut has been burnt down and rebuilt twice.  After that we went to the Hunt Club which is where the cast and crew of the man Snowy River had beers during the making of the film.   We were all exhausted when we got back to camp and had an early night.

 

 

One morning we found a very sick koala. We looked after it until the rural fire guys took it to the vet in Mansfield. The ranger came in the next day and told us that the Koala was doing well and they had called a carer in to look after it.  That was great news. 

The same night another Koala came down from its tree and walked through our camp site to it's next destination.  We thought that was pretty amazing to see.
 

 

 

We also took a walk to Tunnel bend where there is a very narrow and dark tunnel that you can walk through.  I didn’t walk through but the kids did and they had a great time. Apparently it is a bit of an illusion as the light at the other end seems a lot closer than it actually is. 

As we were eventually heading to South Australia the kids came up with a grand plan to collect cans from other campers and recycle them for 10 cents a can.  What a great way to make some money.

 

We headed out of Tunnel Band on Friday and made our way to Ballarat where we were to stay with our great friends Sam and Igor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Our adventure started Friday 11 January......

Well we wanted to leave around 10.00ish but of course as normal with all these trips there is always last minute things to do.  All you girls will be proud of me that I actually got 12 months worth of clothes in one plastic draw, wow, it is going to be an interesting year.  So eventually by 1.00ish we left Mawson and hit the road.  This is really when it all sunk in that we were doing this for a year, were we crazy, no what an adventure we were in for. 

 

 Our First stop was Gundagai, then we headed  through Tarcutta where we saw the burnt out scrub land from the recent fires.  We stopped at Holbrook were we got 2 coffees a muffin and a lemonade for $20, thankyou very much, wow, we won’t be doing too many of those.   We headed through Albury and then Yackandandah, which was a really nice little town and eventually found a rest stop at Barwidgee Creek.  We set up and then went for a swim to cool down.  The kids got to bed pretty early and I sat up to do my diary but eventually the bugs got too much and I joined the rest of them in the trailer.