Monthly Archives: December 2013

Our Trip Time Capsule – 100th Blog Post

See you in 25 years or so time capsule!!

See you in 25 years or so time capsule!!

This is our 100th Blog Post!  I can’t believe we have written that many posts or even more amazing that you are all still reading our rubbish hehehehe!

I really enjoy writing our blog and even though I am so far behind I intend to keep going and finish the adventures of our trip off and then hopefully share our camping escapades up here in Far North Queensland, when mango/avocado packing season finishes and life settles down a little again!  We will definitely be well and truly ready for a short camping break away from the farm by then!

To mark our 100th Blog Post, I thought it would be appropriate to use this entry to tell you about our Trip Time Capsule.  We decided early on in our trip that before we finished, we would like to bury a time capsule somewhere in the great blue yonder of Oz.  There was no set plan for where it should be buried, or when, just that we wanted to plant a treasure box filled with some memories of our trip which had been so long in the planning and would hopefully be a great snapshot of a significant event in the lives of the Fealy Family in 2013.  This is how it went down ……………….

The contents of our time capsule.

The contents of our time capsule – pictures and drawings from the kid’s journals, a ‘Fealy Family Adventure’ t-shirt, a letter to Fealy Bub No 4, shells, small toys the kids enjoyed, a newspaper clipping about the farm we have now moved on to, a fuel receipt, letters from the cousies before we left on our trip, a map

All packed up - I sacrificed one of my very handy plastic kitchen containers for the cause!

All packed up – I sacrificed one of my very handy plastic kitchen containers for the cause!

There was quite a lot of discussion about where the best place to bury the time capsule would be!

There was quite a lot of discussion about where the best place to bury the time capsule would be!

Dig, Dig!

Dig, Dig!

Watching Dad do the hard work, Matt was cursing that we hadn't chosen somewhere sandy to bury our loot!

Watching Dad do the hard work, Matt was cursing that we hadn’t chosen somewhere sandy to bury our loot!

Fealy Family Adventure 2013 Time Capsule

Fealy Family Adventure 2013 Time Capsule

We're hoping that if somebody other than our family find our capsule that they will contact us to let us know!

We’re hoping that if somebody other than our family find our capsule that they will contact us to let us know!

Ok - in it goes

Ok – in it goes

Who wants to put it in?

Who wants to put it in?

Toby did!

Toby did!

Tobes having a go with the shovel to bury it!

Tobes having a go with the shovel to bury it!

It was very hot and hard work in the sun - Dad took over to finish it off!

It was very hot and hard work in the sun – Dad took over to finish it off!

We used the tape measure to help record exactly where we had buried our box!

We used the tape measure to help record exactly where we had buried our box!  That along with the GPS co-ordinates, some spray paint and a detailed note with a description has all been saved in the Fealy Family vault to help locate our capsule somewhere in the future!!

We’ve written a post in the past about ‘Why we go camping’ and we hope that even with our change to farm life, we will still continue to get away on some great family camping trips in the coming years – as you know from our previous post, camping is something that is very important to us.

So, the hope then is, that maybe in 25 years time, one of the kids might take their own family away on a camping adventure, or their boyfriend or girlfriend, a sibling adventure, or even just a solo break away, and head off towards where we buried our time capsule.  We hope they will remember that we buried it around that area somewhere and ring mum and dad and say “hey Dad, remember that time capsule we buried on our trip around Australia in 2013?  What is the exact location for it?  We want to have a go at finding it and digging it up!”.  Or it may even be that in 10 years time we get a chance to head away and do another big Fealy Family Adventure again and we go searching for it!  Or maybe Matt and I will head off as grey nomads in 25 years time when all our babies have left the nest and we will dig it up ourselves!!  Who knows, but it is something to look forward to, a little bit of a treaure hunt down the track to locate a small piece of Fealy Family history.

This is the image on one of the shirt's Matt's workmate, Hayley, made for us!  We loved the shirts Hayley - I'm bummed we never got a photo of all of us wearing them!

This is the image on one of the shirt’s Matt’s workmate, Hayley, made for us! We loved the shirts Hayley – I’m bummed we never got a photo of all of us wearing them!

Categories: About Us, Camping | 4 Comments

Gibb River Road

DSC_0201From Manning Gorge we decided to push for El Questro Station to spend the final two nights of our travels along the Gibb River Road.  That turned out to be a very long day on the road!  This section of road was the worst stretch we travelled on the Gibb.  We blew a tyre on the camper and pretty much averaged between 20 to 60km’s per hour for the whole day.  A few photos of this stretch of the road to begin; Continue reading

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | Tags: , , , , | 5 Comments

Manning Gorge

DSC_0006So, getting back to the Gibb River Road now – we are only about half way along it and there are some beautiful places we still want to share with you!  After stopping at Bell Gorge, we set up camp for two nights at Manning Gorge.  This was a really nice place to camp with heaps of campsites and the campground was quite big so if you didn’t mind a walk to the amenities you could find a campsite away from everybody else. The amenities were generator operated hot water showers – so you could only get hot showers for an hour or so in the morning and two hours at night.  The generator was a little noisy but the toilets and showers were nice and clean.  It was a little smelly though so I was glad we didn’t camp near the amenities.  Most of the sites were quite shady which was nice but they were all very dry and dusty when we were there.

The best thing about the manning gorge campground was the river and sandy river bed right near the campsite which you could swim in – it was lovely!   Continue reading

Categories: Camping, WA Camping | Tags: , | 3 Comments

Jack Turns Eight!

DSC_0057I don’t know how it has happened, but I am behind on the blog posts again!  Anyway – just doing a quick post today to share some photos of Jack’s 8th Birthday.  How it is possible that we can have an eight year old boy already is beyond us!!  We had a birthday party last weekend for Jack, his great grandma and his cousin Nick, who all have birthdays within a few days of each other in November.  It was a really nice afternoon, with lots of yummy afternoon tea treats and most of the extended family on both sides who we now live nice and close to!  Jack choose the theme of a ‘lego birthday party’ this year, so his birthday cake and some treats were created to look like lego as best we could!

The lego birthday cake - baked by me and decorated by Matt as per usual!

The lego birthday cake – baked by me and decorated by Matt as per usual!

Lego block biscuits, guess the lego in the jar game created by Jack, lego teaspoon holder made by Toby and Jack, and Lego '8 year old' board created by Jack and Toby

Lego block biscuits, guess the lego in the jar game created by Jack, lego teaspoon holder made by Toby and Jack, and Lego ‘8 year old’ board created by Jack and Toby

I made a frangipani pie for Jack’s great grandma (Matt’s grandma) as I thought she had grown out of her ‘lego faze’!  I did actually make two pies but proceeded to drop one on the floor while getting it out of the oven – I was sooooooo cranky!

Frangipani Pie - so yum!

Frangipani Pie – so yum!

Jack with his three great grandparents - a lucky kid to have them here to celebrate with him!

Jack with his three great grandparents – a lucky kid to have them here to celebrate with him!

It was a really nice afternoon with all the family and the rain even held off until after everybody had left in the evening.  Jack was spoilt with some great gifts; a remote controlled helicopter, some gemstones from Pa’s collection, the boxed set of the Narnia books, a lego pen case, some lego, a kite, some money and some ‘how to draw’ books.

So spoilt!  Opening his presses with the Johnson cousins.

So spoilt! Opening his presses with the Johnson cousins.

We had lots of birthday cake and even a special surprise for Matt & Ross with a bottle of home-brewed passionfruit wine from Glynis’s dad, Les.  Les had brewed the wine with some of the first passionfruit picked from the vines here at Blue Sky and Glynis’s mum was very clever and wrote a poem to go with it!  We opened the bottle so everybody could have a taste and it was quite good!!!  We’re looking forward to the mango wine next!!

Birthday cake time

Birthday cake time

Happy Birthday Jack

Happy Birthday Jack

The 8 year olds!  Jack and Nick!

The 8 year olds! Jack and Nick!

Homebrewed Passionfruit Wine from the first of the Blue Sky passionfruit

Home-brewed Passionfruit Wine from the first of the Blue Sky passionfruit

The german backpackers tasting the passion fruit wine!

The german backpackers tasting the passion fruit wine!

our new dog Patches got into the birthday party spirit!

Our new dog Patches got into the birthday party spirit!

Jerry loves this farm life stuff!

Jerry loves this farm life stuff!

We finished off the afternoon with a wander around Blue Sky to check out the hard work Glynis and Ross had done on the backpackers dorm accommodation.  Thanks to all the family that came over to help us celebrate – we felt so lucky to be home!!

Having an afternoon wander around Blue Sky.

Having an afternoon wander around Blue Sky.

Jack’s actual birthday was a couple of days later so we saved our present for him until then.  He was very surprised and excited when he unwrapped some new undies (essential hehehehe), the first book in the Harry Potter series and his very own archery set.  I know, I know – we may live to regret giving him that gift but for now he is being very safe and none of the ducks are yet to be targets!!

Having a go out in the front yard before breakfast and school

Having a go out in the front yard before breakfast and school

All the family had to go and watch!

All the family had to go and watch!

An archery set for his 8th birthday!

An archery set for his 8th birthday!

Happy 8th Birthday Jacko!  We love you lots kid and are very proud of the serious, responsible, sometimes quite funny joker that you are!!

Categories: About Us | 4 Comments