For the kids 16th birthdays, Ben and I decided it would be good to take them on an adventure holiday. Something that will push the limits of their comfort zones, test their endurance and help them to develop in to responsible, focused and well adjusted adults. I seriously could not think of anything worse. Not wanting to be left out of anything, I decided that when they are 18, I will take them on a drinking/shopping holiday. So far Jazzy and Kylah have indicated that they would rather do a repeat adventure holiday when they are 18 with daddy. I was slightly miffed but decided that I was still going on the drinking/shopping holiday when they turn 18, even if I go by myself. Their birthdays are my mummiversary – so I should celebrate.
It has been decided that Rohan should accompany every kid on their 16th Birthday Adventure holiday as I could not stand two weeks of him being miserable because he is missing out on something he was born to do. Rough it.
Kylah, Ben and Rohan set off last weekend, in Frankencruiser (who has been further Fogan-ised so much so that 4WD fans everywhere froth at the mouth with jealousy upon sighting her). Frankencruiser was loaded up to the brim with swags, blankets, food and enough tools so that Ben would be able to completely rebuild Frankencruiser, erect scaffolding around Uluru, or rebuild a small town – should the need arise. Despite having packed every tool known to man, Ben deemed the tiny first aide kit that I slipped in ‘overkill’ and said that he can fix almost any injury with superglue.
Waving them off I was overcome with a range of emotions. “Make sure you bring back BOTH kids!” I warned Ben. “I’m kind of fond of them and find they are mostly very useful.” Useful they definitely are. I blinked back tears thinking about what I would do should a chicken, fish or duck die whilst they are gone. Jasmine and Isabelle are as useless as I am at dealing with those things and it’s usually left to Kylah or Rohan to bury the poor deceased animal.
I am mostly working this week so nothing much is happening at home but I feel the need to blog because some of the Nobel Acre’s residents are adventuring and it seems wrong not to. So I’ve asked Kylah and Rohan to send through their diaries. I will put their words in black and any of my edits will appear in red. I will do my best not to edit their words too much.
Day 1 – Rohan
We left at about 8:30 am. We went to visit Nan she is doing good. I played on my Nintendo switch then went to sleep. We stopped near Goondiwindi for lunch. We had sandwiches and there were a lot of flys (flies!!) dad said there’s hardly any flies then he he pulls out fly spray (geez it must have been bad for Ben to use fly spray!). We were back on the road where we just entered New South Whales. Kylah had a sleep while me and dad listened to some boring Harry Potter podcast. We arrived at Walgett at about 5:20 and we set up our tents and swags. We kicked the footy for a bit then dad told me and Kylah to go find some water for washing up while he cooked pork and peas and corn. On the way to find some water this lady started a conversation with me and Kylah. She wouldn’t stop asking questions and talking she was nice. We ate dinner and me and dad watched GWS Giants vs Collingwood gws won by 4 points. We then checked our red claw trap and the red claw trap was a quarter of the way full we left it in there. We then had to go to bed.
Day 1 – Kylah
Day one, 21/9/19 We left home around 8am and I sadly said goodbye to Lennon, Mum, Isabelle and Jazzy. Jasmine seemed pretty eager all week for us to go so when we left I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t take her time saying goodbye, she probably was looking forward to the peace and quiet after we left. Isabelle on the other hand, for the past few days had been hugging me all the time and saying how much she was going to miss me. The morning we left she clung onto me and I hugged her, I was going to miss her nearly as much as I was going to miss Lennon. We went to see Nan and had a small chat with her before we hit the road. We drove for an hour or so before putting on Harry Potter the audio book. It was the best idea in the world, while listening to the amazing story, I was happily looking outside the car window, taking in all of the amazing view of the contrary (country!!) (except for the unsettling sight of road kill that was in every direction) Rohan quickly fell asleep and after 2 chapters, I fell asleep as well. We made our first stop around lunch and there were flies everywhere! I instantly wished I could thank mum for packing me her fly net (you are most welcome. I knew it would come in handy!!). We walked around for 10 or so minutes, eating our sandwiches in our hands (I was trying to eat it under my fly net as to not eat any flies) After lunch we set off for the next part of our drive. The next part of the drive was good. We had to go back and re-listen to one of the chapters in Harry Potter because Rohan fell asleep and didn’t hear it. I also started reading my comics and realised I had forgotten my glasses. That sure as heck did not stop me. I read for a while before I tried to fell asleep again and woke up when we were only 45 minutes away from our first camp site. We pulled up in our campsite and set up quick enough (except for the fact that me and Rohan forgot to pack pegs and Dad had to give us some) then Rohan and I went to look for a tap to fill up a pot to cook in. We walked past this lady who was also camping in the same area and she would not shut up. She was nice but she really REALLY liked to talk and it was getting dark so after Rohan and I finally left, we looked for a tap. We quickly realised that there wasn’t a tap so we had to use the water from the public bathroom. Rohan wasn’t too happy with the idea (I wouldn’t be happy either Rohan) but I kept reminding him that the water was going to be boiled and that will get the germs out. Turns out that the water wasn’t going to be used for cooking, instead Dad said that he was using it to clean up after dinner. We had dinner and talked a bit, then we rang home to say hi to everyone. After we said goodbye and hung up, Rohan looked at his phone and, with a shocked voice, told dad “The games about to finish!!” Rohan and dad quickly set up the iPad so they could watch the rest of the football game (or something). It was only around 6:00pm but I decided I would rather go to bed than stare and Rohan and Dad while they ramble on about football (I disagree, watching Rohan watch football is almost a sport in itself! It’s like a live version of Gogglebox). But my plans changed when Dad told me to stay up so we could talk about what the plan was for the next day. I sat down in a camping chair and looked at my phone for a bit, as the next 2 days we were going to be in the middle of no where with no reception. After talking with Rohan and Dad (after the footy finished) and trying to dress in a swag, we all went to bed, well we tried to. I had slept in the car and wasn’t very sleepy, Dad and Rohan must’ve not been sleepy either because at 8:30pm we all got out of our swags/tent and Rohan went to check his Yabbie trap, which was FULL of stuff. The trap had so many Yabbies and prawns in it! Dad decided to throw it back in and see how much he would havein the morning. After that, we all finally fell asleep.
I will add their diaries from day 2 to a blog a little later.
Nobel Adventures 