Well, seeing as we finished all of the posts about our trip yesterday, it seems only fitting that this week’s Friday Flashback be dedicated to a small photo montage of our adventure. Using our theme song of course, “Free” by Zac Brown Band as the background music. Man, we had a great trip! Just click play and watch the video! If you are thinking about a trip like this – JUST DO IT!!!
Zac Brown Band
Flashback Friday – “Free”
Categories: Camping, Zac Brown Band
Tags: Camping, Travel Around Australia, trip around australia
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King Ash Bay/Borroloola
I’m really eeking out the remainder of these trip posts aren’t I! Ok, so after a last swim and overnight stop at Mataranka we set our sights for a stopover at King Ash Bay in the Gulf of Carpentaria. We had the tip to camp at King Ash Bay from the resident family Grey Nomads, Aunty Nerida and Uncle Garth, and it was a great little overnight stop! King Ash Bay is all about the Barramundi fishing! The campground is huge and there are lots of lovely shady sites right on the river bank. BUT, there are saltwater crocodiles everywhere so it is very dangerous for kids to go anywhere near the water’s edge, such a bummer as it would be the perfect spot if you could only swim!
King Ash Bay
The shop at King Ash Bay fishing club where you purchase your camping permit
Our setup on the bank of the MacArthur River, King Ash Bay
King Ash Bay gets very, very heavy overnight fog and dew which doesn’t lift until nearly 9am!! Makes it very difficult to have a dry pack up and get away early!
Delicious fish and chips at ‘Gropers Bar & Beer Garden
We had a pretty slow getaway in the morning from King Ash Bay due to the heavy dew, and then after driving only 40km’s down the road we came upon the little township of Borroloola, and what do you know? The annual rodeo just happens to be on! None of us had ever been to a rodeo before so we made the unanimous and very spontaneous decision to stop and check it out. It was an awesome morning!
There was just so much action and excitement and you could tell that it was a major event for the small community! Have a look at this short video clip and you will get an idea of some of the atmosphere!
There wasn’t really a side show alley as such but the kids did talk us into letting them buy a couple of show bags to share as we realised that they hadn’t yet experienced that ‘rite of passage’. They thought their show bags were just awesome!
Kids super happy with their first ever show bags!
And we all thought the bull riding was amazing!!
You will be glad to know that the rider in the photos above managed to walk away unscathed after this – it was so hard to watch but the rodeo clown and other helpers were in there very quickly to distract the bull!
The young kids all got in on the action too, attempting to ride some super bucky little ponies!
We honestly could have stayed and watched all day, but for the fact it was stinking hot and the Savannah Way home to Far North Queensland was calling! They were playing some very fine music throughout the day too – Zac Brown Band all day long at the Borroloola Rodeo – wahooooo!!
Categories: Camping, NT Camping, Zac Brown Band
Tags: Borroloola, Borroloola Rodeo, King Ash Bay Camping, King Ash Bay Fishing Club, Zac Brown Band
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‘Toes in the Water’ in Broome
We’re jumping ahead a little with the blog posts, but we just wanted to share the fun we have been having here in Broome over the last few days, before we head out of reception tomorrow. We have loved, loved, loved our time in Broome. We will write a proper blog post about where we went, where we stayed, what we did etc when we are back in reception.
Enjoy Broome – Fealy Family style to the sounds of Zac Brown Band ‘Toes’.
We won!
We got to meet Zac Brown Band at their first ever Australian concert in Melbourne this Year!
We are sooooooo excited because we found out today that we were one of the winners of the Zac Brown Band #AYearofUncaged competition winners for the Blog post we wrote about ‘The Fealy Family Uncaged’.
Just had to share 🙂
http://zacbrownband.populr.me/ayearofuncaged
Wahoooooooo! Thank you to Zac Brown Band for the great competition and our prize – we can’t wait to get it!!
Fealy Family “Uncaged” Down Under
Most of you know that we are huge Zac Brown Band fans here. This post is a competition post dedicated to their latest album ‘Uncaged’.
We got to meet Zac Brown Band at their first ever Australian concert in Melbourne this Year!
It’s hard to believe that this Wednesday 10th July marks 1 year since the release of the Zac Brown Band’s Album, “Uncaged”. As most long time ZBB fans will know, “Uncaged” was a bold move away from their mostly Country style, hence the Album title.
To celebrate Uncaged 1st birthday, ZBB are asking fans to describe what “Uncaged” means to them, how they have become Uncaged. #AYearofUncaged
Well we decided to get Uncaged from the daily grind and Jump Right In to living the dream by tossing in our secure well paid jobs, rent out our beautiful family home, pull the kids out of school, load our entire material possessions into a shipping container and head off like The Wind into the unknown in our camper around this beautiful country. Hopefully avoiding any Natural Disaster, it won’t bring me to the Day that I Die!
Jess had Goodbye In Her Eyes for the city life we had been living and was looking forward to making the big move back to the country life we both yearned for.
Although it took a year of planning, it now seems like it was an Overnight decision. Sitting out here in the wide wide expanse of the Australian Outback I’m as relaxed as Bob Marley singing an Island Song! Whether it’s a song for you, me, Sweet Annie or Last But Not Least, it could be Lance’s Song, either way, ZBB are with us the whole way!
Most of y’all (That one is for you T-Bird!) know that we made “Free” our trip theme song long before we left, this was before we met Zac and the boys and learned that Zac actually wrote “Free” when he was travelling in a van though Australia. How appropriate! Here’s us belting it out on the first day of the trip:
Not a day goes by where ZBB doesn’t get a play either in the car, the camper, or even the kids pop on ZBB when they are just chilling out playing lego (Thank you Sheil family for the little iPhone Stand!)
So this is the Fealy Family “Uncaged” down under, enjoying the ZBB soundtrack the whole time – make sure you hit play on the soundtrack!
A Trip to Melbourne
We arrived home this afternoon from a very cheeky extra long weekend away in Melbourne, so while I am fresh and still on my post holiday high, I thought I’d share some photos from our trip.
Matt travels to Melbourne every couple of months for work and when he booked this trip in about a month ago, we decided to see if we could convince Grandma to come down and look after the kids so I could go with Matt this time and make a little holiday out of it!
We figured that it would probably be the last city trip we would get to do for a long time due to our Around Oz trip, and the fact that we are pretty sure we won’t be returning to Brisbane at the end (so time to use up all the frequent flyer points!). Added to that it was a month out from our 10 year wedding anniversary and Zac Brown Band (yeah – if you hadn’t noticed already – we are big fans!!) happened to be doing their first ever Australian concert on that weekend. Plus – Melbourne has a little bit of sentimental value for us as it was the first ever holiday Matt and I took together as a couple way back when we were 19!!!
Our first ever holiday together – Melbourne January 2000
Yeah, yeah – you can stop laughing now! We were young and skinny and had hair!!
Me at Luna Park – January 2000
Anyway, some photos of our time away. A big thank you to Grandma Gayel for babysitting for us – we are very lucky!!!
Revisiting St Kilda which was where we stayed 13 years ago! Luna Park’s still there!
We stayed at the ‘Blackman Hotel’ St Kilda – really lovely, but the service wasn’t the best (I know, I know – such hardships we have!) Huge step up from the dodgy, dodgy apartment we stayed in when we first visited Melbourne!
Beautiful, Beautiful view from our room!
I’m a sucker for the hotel beds and bathrobes!
The band at ‘The Local Taphouse’. We really enjoyed them and had such a fun night we didn’t get home until 1am! Such party animals we are!
Matt’s Beer paddle – five different craft beers for tasting including the green one made using squid ink! It was refreshing apparently!
We borrowed bikes from the hotel and went for a ride to Brighton along the water from St Kilda.
Just thought I’d squeeze in an IronMan while I was down there hehehe! Apparently the Melbourne Ironman had just finished when we went for our bike ride!
I needed a rest – it was a beautiful ride until we had to ride home into the headwind!
A stroll along the Yarra River
Federation Square – bit different but I liked it!
I loved all the beautiful old buildings and churches in Melbourne – really pretty!
Flinders Street Station
I couldn’t convince Matt to take me for a spin around Melbourne in a horse and carriage – maybe for our 20 year anniversary!
Ok – so I may now have a Gelato addiction – sooooo yum! This was dessert after dinner on Lygon Street
We took a walk home through China Town.
While Matt was working on the Monday, I spent the day tripping around on the Trams with a stop at DFO at Dockside – soooooo fun!
Zac Brown Band Concert = Awesome – we even managed to go backstage and meet the band and have our photo taken with them! Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take our own photos so will have to wait for the official photo to be emailed to us! Absolutely a highlight!
So, back to work and reality tomorrow. It is definitely time to knuckle down and start packing up/de-cluttering the house and finalising the equipment for our trip!!!
PS. Apologies for the quality of the photos on the post – they were all taken on our Iphone 4’s as we forgot to take the camera with us – no kids = don’t even think about the camera hehehehe!
Categories: Travel, Zac Brown Band
Tags: Melbourne, St Kilda, The Blackman Hotel, The Local Taphouse, Zac Brown Band
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For Rent – Our Home
Yesterday the real estate agent came and took photos of our house to email on to a prospective tenant and then advertise on the Web if needed. I am a little surprised to find myself quite a bit sad to be saying goodbye to this house – I’m not really the emotional type for ‘things’ and our house is by no means modern or flash or fancy – in fact I’d pretty much describe it as a ‘do-er upper’, but it has been Our Home. We have been here in this house for nearly five years now, which is the longest time Matt and I have ever stayed put in one place (we have lived in 8 different homes in our 11 years of living together in Brisbane!). Our kids have all been babies in this house ………….
We’ve actually made a few changes to this house to make it our own, with the help of our parent’s manual labour!
Gayel & Mum cleared out the overgrown gardens
Dad helped rip up the old deck
Dad, Matt’s brothers and Luke from next door helped build the kids fort
We are not renovators by any stretch of the imagination, but we have enjoyed doing a few things to the house. We have added a deck on, put in a laundry, fitted out an office, convinced the council to bitumen the road to our house and got them to sort out the drainage problem that was causing major erosion down the side of our block, put new front doors on, along with a few other little ‘tidy’ up bits and pieces.
We have really loved living here. The space has been great for the kids, we have the BEST neighbours (we’ll really miss you Seaborns and Sheils!), we have a great little Village with shops and school only 2minutes away as well as the train station 5 minutes away, and we are only 25minutes from the Brisbane CBD. As far as city living goes – this is as good as it gets – we think.
So – thank you to ‘Our House’ for the great memories – we hope a nice family will move in and enjoy it as we have (and if not – the neighbours will be keeping a close eye on them hehehehe). We know that the heart of the house, our little family, is still here and moving on, but it is a bit sad all the same.
So, a little photo gallery to share some memories of our house ‘before and after’. If anyone is interested in renting our house please contact us! It will be available in May 2013.
Hit the ‘play’ button below while you are watching the slideshow 🙂
Zac Brown Band ‘Goodbye in Her Eyes’
Our Theme Song
So there’s been a few references to this song in the comments already on here – it’s a bit of a family anthem since my Mum & Dad did their trip in 2011. When played by Grunda on the guitar, all family members must join in – we love Zac Brown Band!!
‘Free’
(Violin playing)
So we live out of our old van
Travel all across this land
Me and you (we add in, & you, & you, & you for the kids!)
We’ll end up hand in hand
Somewhere down on the sand
Just Me and you
Just as free
Free as we’ll ever be
Just as free
Free as we’ll ever be
Drive until the city lights
Dissolve into a country sky
Just Me and you
Lay underneath the HARVEST moon
Do all the things that lovers do
Just me and you
Just as free
Free as we’ll ever be
Just as free
Free as we’ll ever be
And Ever be
No we don’t have a lot of money
No we don’t have a lot of money
No we don’t have a lot of money
No we don’t have a lot of money
No we don’t have a lot of money
No we don’t have a lot of money
No we don’t have a lot of money
All we need is love
Were Free as we’ll ever be
Just as free
Free as we’ll ever be
Ever be
So we live in our old van
Travel all across this land
Me and you
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