We have been on the road for over 5 weeks now and we are now around 2500km into our journey from Elanora Heights (add in all the day trips and car is telling me we have done 4000km). We have been moving at quite a pace and mostly staying 2 nights in places. To give ourselves time to slow down and enjoy the Yorke Peninsula, I have booked 4 nights at the Marion Bay campsite – an awesome little spot towards the foot of the peninsula and close to the National Park. The campsite has a lovely feel to it – privately owned and great facilities (including music in the bathrooms which I didn’t really think about before but it’s actually nice to have a shower with some music other than Kiera singing!)

Yesterday we took a drive through the National park and explored some of the amazing headlands. Once again the scenery of the SA coastline is stunning but the waters are still so calm. I feel like we have hardly seen a ripple in the water since arriving in SA and feels like we are looking at a lake rather than an ocean.

Whilst our quest to find a decent snorkelling spot for the kids failed, we did spot our first real live actual snake – a baby one at that but still a snake. It has only taken 17 years of living in Australia to see one in the wild! SA National Parks have kindly built a really cool boardwalk through the sand dunes at one of the coastal look outs and it was from this boardwalk that we spotted the snake quite happily chilling out in the sunshine on the sand.

We are set for some rain over the next few days as a large we are front moves across the peninsula but to be honest, I think we are all ready for a day of movies, reading our books and updating travel journals. The news that WA are keeping their borders closed indefinitely also means we have some new plans to make. Thankfully, there is so much of this amazing country to explore that we are still pretty spoiled for choice (though our window for a kite surfing summer in WA looks to be closing).

A few things I have realised so far…

1. We don’t need as much stuff as we thought we did. I read this little gem several times before we left and thought we have packed pretty light but there are still things which are packed away under our bed or in the back of cupboards which I suspect will stay there until we get back to Narrabeen.

2. Our days are really busy even when we don’t go anywhere! I think about days at home and some days I would struggle to clock up even 3000 steps when I was working at home and the only outing would be pick kids up from school. Even on travel days where we have 6+ hours in the car I still manage a good 7000 steps a day and my daily average is around 12,000 steps. There is always something to do when you are moving quickly. Maybe that’s why I am enjoying this down time in Marion Bay?!

3. Kids are being awesome at travelling. We always knew Fin was a good little traveller but Kiera was the unknown factor. After moving her seat to the middle of the car (good too Leanne, thank you!) she has been amazing and hardly complained of feeling car sick. They are a good little team and getting on well to say they spend 24/7 together and both miss their friends.

4. I still need more practice reversing the van! Clearly this is a given but I will get there 😂