Dipping Our Toes In

Nabeela can sing The Wheels on The Bus now- granted it’s a little disjointed and out of tune, but I love hearing her anyway! She likes to make up different things that people do on the bus, for example ‘Reuben on the bus...jumps around’ or as she randomly uttered today ‘Dani on the bus...makes hot chocolate!’ And we have added in actions too.

She is really involved in her imaginative play now and loves involving us in it too. We can often be found sitting on the floor with her, making pretending porridge or soup or coffees, using the ‘big kitchen’ utensils. Its either that or running around the play park just next to us- zooming down the slide, climbing ladders, but always avoiding the swing for some reason (we haven’t figured out why she is frightened of them yet).

Swimming was on the agenda today and we drove to Aldinga beach for this. Aldinga beach is one of the few in the state that you can drive on, which everyone raves about. I am less impressed with this- it feels like sacrilege to bring such man-made beasts onto something so unspoilt and lovely. Plus I don’t see how parking in a carpark just next to the beach and walking a few metres makes that much of a difference really.

The water was gorgeous though! The sand slopes ever so gently to meet the ocean waves and this seemed to have the effect of warmer water than our previous dip at Christies Beach. Furthermore the water was so clear. I could see to the sandy sea bed and managed to spot a tiny fish dart away, which my gigantic feet had disturbed.

Nabeela was vey excited by our little swim. Her innocent face was wide-eyed and a massive grin spread across it for the entire time. She splashed and dove into the water and didn’t once seem overwhelmed, even when we waded in quite deep. In fact she was asking for ‘more swims’ and that initial wave of shock running down her body from the cool water, then the squeal of delight afterwards was something I will treasure. 

Before our little dip at the beach we picnicked in Willunga. I had bussed it over with Nabeela early in the morning to go to a natural parenting group, only to find out that it wasn’t in Willunga but a town 30 odd kilometres away!

I was having a terrible morning without this added to the list too. On the journey over I’d been sick in the wet bag, for an inexplicable reason. So glad we use cloth nappies or it could have been a messy ordeal- how many people carry around a water-proof bag on the off chance they’ll spew?! After fleeing the bus and still feeling rather grim, I stumbled into the nearest cafe (to empty out the sick!) On leaving Nabeela decide to pee all over the floor. As it was running towards the counter I was silently cursing and feeling the glares of the shop assistant on my back. I had asked Beela if she needed a wee in the toilets- apparently she didn’t, until we left them!

A friendly lady in the vegetarian cafe I stopped in at told me about a library sing and rhyme time session, so I went to this instead. Nabeela enjoyed it and i was slightly perplexed by the number of songs I didn’t know or that had a slightly different tune to what I sang as a child. I loved how they began by singing a song about a koala and kangaroos though! Just in case I’d forgotten I was at the other side of the world!

We also browsed in an organic co-op store, which sold nearly everything I could have wanted for a weekly shop, at reasonable prices. We are thinking about joining it and maybe volunteering, to get an extra discount on our weekly shop. It’s run by volunteers after all and they always need new people to help out. It helped that they were all very smiley and friendly too!

Folking Around

Nabeela and I headed to Willunga in the early morning sun. We caught a bus straight through, which was good to find as I think we will be making this trip often from now on. I was all eyes during the journey, because everything is so new I like to take notice of my surroundings.

We drove through some truly terrible areas. One in particular that still strikes me cold was this huge (to me) housing estate, done up with identical houses, show homes, adverts, a shopping complex right next door, manicured gardens and to top it all off- fake grass squares positioned outside each house!

Since coming over to Australia I have been feeling some extremely strong emotions- one moment I will be floating in the clouds with happiness, knowing that we have made such a wonderful decision coming here, the next, I’ll be in a black hole of misery, almost crying out to click my fingers and be back at home, nestled in that familiar nest of family and friends.

The bus journey to Willunga was one full of those negative emotions. After being astonished and shamed by the plastic grass we drove through a hideous shopping complex and onwards towards a wine growing region, brimming with row upon row of neatly ordered vines, desolate from lack of trees and Mother-natures beautiful chaos.

I was having another I-must-go-back-home moment. This country is too Americanised for me. What’s going to happen to the wild bush and scrubland of the real Australia? Why did the English have to come here and rape the land of all its magic and wonder, the land that the Original peoples revered so much?

I feel ashamed of the British for marching in, reducing Aboriginals numbers so drastically and declaring the land theirs, whilst conveniently ignoring the real people who managed quite well before they came along.

All of these questions, emotions and conundrums pop up and swirl around my head frequently at the moment. They strike in particular during moments where I witness capitalism in all its neon glory. For some reason it hits me so much harder in Australia than it did in the UK- maybe because I feel that we robbed this land from people who deserve it so much more. It may also be because all of the issues between Brits and Aboriginals are so new and fresh- like a barely healed wound, I can’t help but see its mark.

Although I won’t forget these things that disgust me about Australia- from its plastic, sickly shopping centres, to the way it ignores its true history, I also realise that it’s not my worry to take on as my own. I can’t up and leave because I feel like the land isn’t mine- we are all just borrowing the land from the Earth and Mother-nature after all. However, I will never forget or ignore these things- they come with the whole package of immigrating to Australia: along with its beautiful face it also has an ugly side, no matter how Australians try to overlook it.  

Bobbing along on the bus all of the above was whirring behind my eyes and tears welled up before I could stop them. But then we arrived...

And I found my Saltburn! Although it is inland, I immediately felt in tune with the place. The busy, little market was brimming with an array of locally grown, organic and healthful food. As I wandered from stall to stall, beneath the glare of the sun I surreptitiously watched others and appraised the little villages ‘feel’. By the time I had scanned through all of the stalls and slowly filled my wheelie-bag with groceries I had decided that I liked being here and around the people that call it home.

Later, waiting for Ryan to join us (after finishing his cleaning), I found an organic, fair-trade vegetarian cafe; noticed an organic cooperative grocers and discovered a natural parenting group! If only it was next to the beach too! Well you can’t have everything, and it is only a ten minute drive away!

Once Ryan arrived with our house-on-wheels we made directly for the Fleurieu Folk Festival. Set within a playing field (or oval, as a true Aussie would say) the festival was a few marquees- ranging in size from small and intimate to large enough to hold a big crowd and keep them warm at night- with a few stalls dotted around and contained within a fringe of temporary homes. We set up camp and left Brucey van to stay cool beneath a stand of shading trees, while we ventured out into the sunlight for a bit of laid back music and tasty veggie fast food.

For the last several days Nabeela has been ill with a ‘green snot cold’ and hand in hand with this has been a developmental milestone and apparently teething. It’s taken us a while to realise, but she seems to get all of these things together every few months (to coincide with growth spurts I’m presuming). So our little girl has been showing a range of overt and difficult emotions recently- from teeth gnashing temper tantrums, to clinging to Mammies legs, to jealous scowls, all the way to ‘running and flying’ joy!

Obviously the confusion of moving and its entailing emotions are affecting these things further, so on the whole, we have been having a very challenging time with Nabeela recently. There always seems to be a delay with Nabeela’s behaviour and challenging times. It happened when we moved in with friends and it’s happened this time around- she seems to be handling the change supremely well and then a few days/weeks later we run into the problems. It’s almost like she’s running on adrenaline at first and when that runs out, then she starts feeling upset by it all. Which I think makes sense- it’s not evolutionarily very intelligent to freak out during the crisis, but you can do so once you’re out of danger!

Needless to say, we had a few challenges during the festival with Nabeela, although mostly we had a wonderful time.

On the positive though, developmentally Nabeela is flying along. She is now singing the songs that we have been repeating over and overt to her. So ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ and ‘Peter Hammers’ are now being echoed back to us several times daily in a cute, half-formed Nabeela voice. She is also getting involved with the actions to songs, particularly ‘Peter Hammers’ at the moment. It still feels weird hearing her little voice, from a distance, forming sentences!

The festival was such fun and we became acquainted with several talented artists- Richard Perso, Daniel Champagne, Lucy Wise and the B’Gollies and the Self Preservation Society. Check them out- they’re all quite different but equally talented musicians/ singers/ songwriters.

We spent far too much money on vego junk food and far too long playing in the kids play park (as Nabeela insisted!) But we did manage to witness some inspiring music, have a little boogie and sing along to songs we came to recognise. My favourite tent above all others was the small intimate young artist’s tent. Most of the musicians were 22 and under and many looked like typical student types, but they all had plenty of fun and played exceptional music. Both Ryan and I were shocked by the talent on display, from people so young and what made it even more exciting was that the festival was so small and un-crowded- all the better to see the musicians personality and energy on stage.

For the first time, Ryan and I also saw a tarot card reader together. She had never done a family reading before, but was up for the challenge (who wouldn’t be if they were getting paid!) Surprisingly she was quite accurate with the things she mentioned and had some interesting and likely pertinent advice for us too! It mainly surrounded the problem of taking on too much at once and not rushing things- which is great really; because it is something we had promised ourselves we wouldn’t do. So the track were tramping at the moment seems to be the right way to go- letting opportunities slowly present themselves, not forcing anything and staying positive to what we want in life.

We ran into some of the same people we had met previously and made an acquaintance with some more people who lived nearby and we would likely meet again. It is odd, but exhilarating to have people we can say hi to by name after only being here for a few weeks. I don’t know if it is the people, place or just our different outlook on life and socialising that has meant we are meeting people much quicker than we did in the UK. I only hope some of them may become as enduring friends as the people back in the UK are!

Living on the Cheap

We spent the day walking, walking, walking- from the van to the other end of town, from shop to shop and then back again. It’s not the most pleasant of walks, there’s no coastline or scenic parklands to linger your eyes over, just roads, vehicles of all permutations and ugly brickwork. The smell is little better- car fumes and occasionally the smell of deep fried foods.

However we ticked some more chores off our list and Ryan now has more of an idea what he can do with his work experience in the UK.

Better still was having confirmation of our free accommodation! For one and a half hours of cleaning the toilet block each day we get to stay in the caravan park for free! We also made a deal with the park owners that we will keep the camp kitchen clean and close it down each night in exchange for free internet. So all we need to pay out at the moment is our groceries each week and any little extras. Hopefully this will see us right for the next several months, while we get on our feet here and find a more permanent home. I think Aldinga is calling!

Pass Me a Fan

Today can be summed up in one word- HOT! I promised I wouldn’t complain about the weather over here- what can get worse than feet deep snow and below freezing temperatures? Apparently the opposite! It reached around 34 degrees Celsius, which once would have been nothing to me, but for some reason my body couldn’t function properly because of it today!

We woke up with the whisper of a warm breeze upon our skin and I thought, ‘Great, a hot day for us to enjoy!’ Then I began to sweat.

We got a bus then a train into Adelaide city centre, which was not uncomfortable, but that may have been because these modes of transport all have air-conditioning! Once we were in the city we ducked under the shade of a tree beside the river Torrens and ate the first part of the picnic we had prepared the previous day.

The day was just beginning to heat up properly and we stupidly began to walk around the town at this very time. Sun high in the sky, hats on and skin covered we began our walk along the river and towards the botanical gardens. It would have been a lovely walk if I hadn’t been so warm! The parks around Adelaide are well manicured (as seems to be the habit in Oz) and the botanical gardens were lush and expertly looked after. I wasn’t necessarily thinking about these things on this walk, however, and as soon as chance allowed I rushed indoors to escape the heat- blissful air-conditioning!

I’m slightly embarrassed by my typically English reaction to some slightly warmer than usual weather. All I can think is that I have acclimatised so well to the UK and its cooler climate that my body has forgotten what its like to live somewhere warm! My only hope is that it will quickly get used to it again and soon 34 degrees will, once again, be the norm and I will actually enjoy it!

Needless to say I spent most of the day fatigued by heat and trying to escape from the sun every chance I got! It didn’t help that Nabeela was insisting on clinging to me for the entire day. Poor bairns still poorly and daddy just wasn’t good enough for her, so sweaty mammy had to manage with a toddler strapped to her back or front for most of the day.

We briefly visited the Art gallery of South Australia (mainly to cool down), but I did receive the spine-tingling thrill of seeing a wondrous work of art for the first time. I’m sad to say that this has never really happened for me before, I can appreciate art and enjoy looking at pretty paintings etc, but I had never really seen a piece that made me stop in my tracks, tears spring into my eyes and a shiver run along my spine. Until now. I don’t even remember who painted it, but it was a large painting and quite old. The artist had captured the ambience of a forest in South Australia, with a mother carrying her child upon her back returning to her tiny camp. The lighting was magical and the glint of a stream peaking between the undergrowth looked alive and dancing. I took a snapshot of the woman with babe on her back to keep in my head.

When we returned to Christies beach, the earth had cooled enough for me to enjoy the delights of the dusk hour- that time between day and night, where families are together, laughter and quiet chatter fills the air and everything is slowing down and feeling lazy. We skipped around barefoot in the sand and sea; skin exposed and breathing freely.

With hindsight, Ryan and I realised that this was where we should have spent the entire day. The beach is much more appropriate for a hot day. Rather than stomping the concrete during the midday sun, we should have been shading beneath a tree beside the beach. Mental note- chill out when it’s hot!

Here We Stay?

After two nights at Moana Beach we idled up to Christie’s Beach, after visiting it the other day when it was too late to go into any shops or do anything worthwhile.

At the Caravan Park here we found out that we can do long term stays for ridiculously cheap, all it means is leaving every six months for a month and then coming back again. So we are considering staying here, in Brucey van, for an extended period while Ryan gets a job to save up for some land or even to travel further and longer. All we will have to do is cruise over to Moana Beach Caravan Park after 6 months and come back again.

We are enjoying it here- the beach is gorgeous, ditto the promenade, and the town has some interesting shops to browse in. Looking at the coast and promenade it appears to be an affluent and modern place, but it’s a township of contrasts and the main shopping street looks quite the opposite- careworn and out-dated. We walked along its entire length, up to the obligatory shopping complex and found several interesting places. There are several charity shops (or Op shops as they call them here), a new-age crystal shop (closed Mondays), an Asian vegan cafe/ grocery shop and a lovely little health food shop. At least we may be able to start eating healthily again- Our diet has been awful since we got here and we have spent so much money eating out. My body is crying out for some real food, that hasn’t been adulterated with excess fats and overcooking.

Food is so expensive here and good food i.e. organic whole foods are ridiculous when compared to the UK. I never expected the price difference of organic foods or the difficulty in finding it. Fruit and vegetables taste so much nicer however. I’m presuming this is because most are from Australia and are much fresher because they haven’t come as far. We have also speculated that organic is so hard to come by, not because farmers don’t farm organically, but because they can’t afford the labelling.

We spent a few hours in the health food shop talking to the lady behind the counter. After getting a coconut creamy tropical smoothie and some raw sweet treats to nibble, we sat down and got talking to her. It was an informative and enjoyable chat spanning a range of topics, from birth to rock bands. It helped us feel more at peace with staying here long term and we also got a contact for Ryan at the nearby hospital – a job may be on the cards there. The more people we connect with the more this place feels ‘right’ for us. Although I still keep getting that itch to explore Australia’s coastline further. I keep getting that little voice in my head saying, ‘Is there somewhere better for us?’ But is that just the human affliction of wanting more, more, more?

Shiny Bright Beach Towns

It was a lovely still morning when we awoke in Aldinga. Ryan drove us over to a reserve, with a community centre, public toilets, children’s play park and fields and we had a nose around it.

I noticed some interesting things (to us anyway), such as some sewing and craft groups and a community veggie garden group that meets regularly. The community centre had a clean and neat looking cafe that sold cheap food and the reserve was lovely- neat and well looked after. If we were to choose to live somewhere a community centre with these types of things would definitely be important to us. Here it seemed obvious from the start that people cared about their area, had a sense of community and have similar interests to us! Great start.

We had already got a sense of the coastline around here driving down to Aldinga. Everything was well maintained with plenty of picnic areas. How I love Australians for their respect of their environment! It is so unlike in the UK, where anything new seems to be graffitied or vandalised before it has been used properly! I am astounded by the number of BBQ’s and picnic benches sprinkled along the coastline- all in pristine condition. So we new the beach was lovely- wide sweeping arcs of white/gold sand and the ocean a fresh blue, rather than the murky blue/black of the typical beaches back home.

After breakfast we took Brucey for a mini tour of the area to find a place to stay the night. We landed on a Caravan Park’s doorstep in the heart of Aldinga and had a friendly chat with the lady there. She gave us a little more information on the area, a handy map and directions for the nearest shopping complex, so that we could do a much needed stock up of essentials. The complex was just another capitalism centre, all concrete, over-seized shops with gaudy advertisements. When we toured around Oz the first time I do not remember these places, but there appears (so far) to be at least one on the fringes of every township. I find them hideous, dead places, but the unfortunate thing is they are often the only place you can go for food or other supplies.

Good did come of the mall however! A troop of friendly faces carrying kids toys and other toddler group staples came in not long after we had arrived. The lady running the place got chatting to us and invited us to stay with Nabeela (although Nabeela didn’t need the invitation!) for a free play and craft session. As Nabeela loves this kind of thing we decided to stay and try to learn more about the area. We eventually got talking to another woman who had joined in later and she knew about the eco-village in Aldinga. Although she didn’t live there herself, she knew people who did. And oddly enough some of those people appeared soon afterwards! We had a good chat with all of them and it gave us such a sense of belonging and happiness. Here were more people with similar ideals and ways of life, right in the middle of a gaudy shopping centre of all places!

We left with a much better sense of what it would be like to live in the area and a strange sense of fitting in. I could see ourselves living here.

Armed with some new found knowledge and some dates for markets, festivals and an open-day at the eco village at the end of the month, we drove back up the coastline to see what else we could find. Without saying it, I think, Ryan and I both knew we could leave Aldinga for later- if we settle there it’d make more sense not to discover everything there is to know about it straight away!

It was late when we finally realised we should find a place to stay, so we pulled into the nearest caravan park- Moana Beach.

Get Us To The Beach

So after spending far too long in the hills, for such beach-dwelling young folk, we decided to get straight on the road, once we had loaded Brucey up and had a last hot drink in the pub. I simplify this- really it took us hours to sort out the van and all of our gear, but when it was finally finished we wasted no more time and left the caravan park to begin our driving adventures.

We couldn’t leave the hills without visiting ‘the big rocking horse’ (apparently the biggest in the world- Australians are so competitive). This rocking horse is the centrepiece to a wooden toy factory, which was what originally caught my eye. There were some beautifully crafted toys and we would have bought some if we had the space or could afford to get them shipped for family and friends. The rocking horse was frighteningly tall and I was stupid enough to climb to the top, alone. After nearly having a heart attack we walked through to a random petting zoo and we all had fun feeding the kangaroos, wallabies, sheep, goats, alpacas and various parrots.

We have realised that Nabeela is another birdy person (like my Ma). She is constantly telling us about birds that she spots and I think she realises now that birds have different names and often looks at us and asks ‘wha’s that?’ It will be lovely for her to have a common interest with her Nanny on the other side of the world.

By the time we had finished at the big rocking horse, it was getting on for dusk, so we piled into Brucey van and drove on, out to the coast. Our first sense of the beach was when I caught a long whiff of it on the breeze- that tangy, fresh smell only found along the coast. The next clue was that ever present sound- the gentle ‘husssshhhh’ of the waves lapping at the shore. It was dark by this time, so we could only make out a hazy grey shadow of the ocean and a lighter shadow of the sand beneath. But it was still the beach, and we had missed it, so we whooped for joy! I’ve only recently realised how much the ocean and coastline means to me, I like the hills and countryside...for a visit, but I could never stay there for good.

We drove around, hugging the coastline, to find a spot to camp the night. It was too late to find a ‘proper’ place, so we settled with a side road and lay down to rest for the night, with the intermittent sound of cars shuttling past to remind us where we were. We were in Aldinga, the place we had found in our research before we left- what would we wake up to find?

Here's Bruce

We decided today would be the day that we would own a campervan and it was...

Introducing...’Brucey Van-ee’- as Nabeela has hilariously named him- a dashing, if a tad greying, old banger, of the 1985 variety. His top pops and he is quite a long fella with lots of mod-cons including a CD player and Air Con! His parents were Mr and Mrs Toyota Hiace and we decided to name him Bruce, being the typical Aussies that we are!

Brucey came from a car yard and cost us 6000 dollars, with 2 months Rego (like Tax and 3^rd party insurance in one) thrown in. We had looked at another van earlier in the day, being sold by a lovely old couple who- in their own words- were ‘just too old for it now’. That van had quite a few issues and didn’t come with the extras that Brucey came with, so we decided to skip making an offer and hopped on a bus back into Adelaide, to look at our- soon to be new- van. 

From the first glimpse of his shiny exterior and neat interior we knew he was the van for us and trying to contain our excitement we quickly whizzed through the rigmarole of bartering, paying and signing all the paperwork. Soon we were driving out of the car yard and our first stop was... a huge baby shop. We needed a car seat of course!

The annoying sales woman informed us that you now need to have car seats bolted to a special metal loop in the floor of the vehicle or nearby and that children under 4 (or 7 she wasn’t sure) must be seated in the back seat of the vehicle. She couldn’t advise us if the seat she recommended would actually fit into the campervan or if it would have a hole for the metal loop to attach, so we just had to pay for it and hope it would work out. Thankfully, after spending hours combing through the van ad reading various instructions we have got it sorted and Nabeela is fine sat in it. It does shatter our dream of all three of us sat in the front singing silly songs and looking ahead, towards the open road and our new life. Instead Nabeela and I are sat apart from each other, and even further from Ryan, with a side-view of everything.

By the time we got back to the caravan park we were exhausted and didn’t have the energy to organise ourselves for our departure the following day.

Bad Mouth Baby

I was transported back to our old life on the road today, when we took a look at a van. The couple who were selling it drove it out to us, which was helpful, but their kindness was unrequited as the van wasn’t any good for our needs. It was the same van that we had used to travel around Australia in all those years ago, which would have been perfect, except they were asking far too much, there was less storage space and there were a few mechanical issues. Anyway, I wasn’t looking forward to driving the beast again!

Now jetlag is but a memory we have been spending our time playing- in one of the two nearby parks, on the grass outside the cabin or inside the pub. The pub has an old set of duplo blocks, still shiny (or is that just because they’re plastic!) and some grubby, synthetic stuffed toys, which Nabeela adores.

We walk into the pub of a morning, first customers of the day (as we are up by 6) and order two hot soy milk drinks, soon after, Nabeela will be pulling on me and demanding that I ‘come mammy’ and ‘play with toys’. So we all sit on the floor of the pub, making daft animals or objects out of blocks and cuddling smelly teddies!

If she isn’t playing, Nabeela will be giving us a running commentary of our day or pointing out various things, such as ‘magpie birdie’ or ‘aireeplane’ or even ‘f**k’ or ‘facker’! No, we haven’t been teaching our daughter to swear, Nabeela just can’t say her ‘trs’ just yet! Even so it is quite funny seeing the looks on nearby strangers faces, when she points and shouts ‘f**k’ in her ringing voice.

The Beginning...

This day arrived faster than I could ever imagine- suddenly it was our last morning in the UK (for a long time), ‘snap’ our last hour, ‘snap’ we were saying those tearful goodbyes and Emily was here to take us to Newcastle airport, ‘snap’ we were on the first plane!

Nabeela was excited about it and also confused, which I was expecting. She has had some unusual few weeks- saying bye to many different people, having a party, meeting new people and then saying bye to them, living in different houses and with several different people and picking up on the stresses and strains that we were feeling. She has held up amazingly well when I think about it.

By the time our first plane touched down in Heathrow Nabeela was shouting ‘fun!’ and bouncing around happily. Initially getting up to board the plane I had let her see and feel my fear and she had reacted vocally to this saying, ‘frightened’, but I quickly pushed those feelings deep down (who says bottling it up is bad!?) and Nabeela relaxed instantly and with wide-eyed excitement she boarded the plane happily, with just a tinge of apprehension, when I let my fears bubble up.

The flights all went as smoothly as could be expected, except for the airline mucking up our meals repeatedly. For one of my vegetarian meals I was served chicken, another we were given cheese and another only one of us was allowed to eat! Malaysia airlines are not acceptable and I would prefer not to fly with them again!

Nabeela slept for the longest flight and was only awake during take-off and landing which she seemed to be quite excited about. The flight to Adelaide was a little more stressful and Nabeela would not sleep, despite it being dark. By the time we came to land she was very agitated from being made to sit still on my knee and became quite vocal about it! The combined mixture of exhaustion and being cooped up in a tin box made her an unhappy little girl and by the time we debarked she was tearful and vibrating with stressed energy. The queue for passports was ridiculous and we wouldn’t have got through it if a staff member hadn’t allowed us to go through early. We were very grateful for this and thought our troubles were over until it came time for picking up our bags!

The carousel happily spat out Nabeela’s bag and my own, and we waited patiently for Ryan’s to meander around. By the time there were just two lonely looking bags left, riding aimlessly around and around we had a feeling that Ryan’s probably wasn’t coming out too.

This meant we were standing around for another couple hours waiting for a staff member to be ready to see to us and sort out the problem. Thankfully Nabeela had finally fallen into an exhausted sleep in the sling, so at least we didn’t have to worry about her! Ryan’s bag was still in London according to the woman he spoke to, who helpfully gave us some money for our troubles and promised the bag would be with us by the following day (which it was!)

Our problems weren’t over yet, despite being so fatigued we could barely stand we had to find our way into the city centre and back out again, on our way to Cudlee Creek. We paid the exorbitant price for a taxi into the CBD and had a relaxed, but expensive breakfast. Our next hurdle was to find a bus (or several) to Cudlee Creek.

After numerous conflicting directions and a several hour wait we found ourselves on a bus to Tea Tree Plaza, where we had to get another bus on to our accommodation. This bus was a little local one and my travel sickness has popped its ugly head up again since getting on it a few times!

Cudlee Creek is a rustic and somewhat aging park, with large gum trees interspersed between pretty bush-land and open grassy areas. There is a slow moving river running through the park on its way to Adelaide city and the buildings have all seen better days. It seems to be the height of country-quaint and most people we have met so far have been friendly, if a little stressed.

We have spent the last few days trying to keep up with the jetlag. Many days have been interspersed with random naps, extra long sleeps, 4am wake-ups and 5pm night-times. But we are slowly getting there!

The weather is freezing! Mornings (particularly at 4am when it’s still dark, the birds haven’t even awoken!) are the worst and I have been wearing more than I usually do in the UK. Typical really, I was expecting lovely spring weather and have, instead, been confronted with drizzle, icy-cold nights and frozen toes! We are in the hills, so a move to the coast is in order- when we finally get this van we’re looking for!

So it’s just a van on the cards now. We’re looking at one tomorrow and hopefully we will find ourselves the proud owners of a lovely set of wheels and house combined, soon!