Coonalpyn to Clare

A lovely easy day today! Thank goodness cos tomorrow is going to be a big one (more about that later!) After the usual early rising that comes with having two small children accompany you on your travels, we hit the road fairly early.

Excitement over the speed sign

For some strange reason I was put of charge of navigation. (Those who know me well will be gasping in horror, I have zero sense of direction and still can get lost in the town I've lived in my entire 28 years. There's a play centre that we've been to a couple of times just up the road in Ocean Grove - each and every time I get lost and have to ring friends swearing with frustration to help me!)

Anyway, there I was in charge. Google Maps on the iPhone in one hand, in-built car navigation in the other. I took us on a lovely scenic, countryside tour (in Leon's words "bloody goat tracks). I'm sure he enjoyed navigating the caravan around the narrow corners and hilly climbs!

But we reached beautiful Clare at a decent hour. After setting up the van we drove about 15 minutes down the road to a historic town called Mintaro, home to a living hedge maze. The kids had lots of fun racing around, finding clues to help us through and checking out the gnome village and giant chess set. There were heaps of old fashioned cottage style houses and the oldest Jesuit church in Australia to have a peek at as well.

Immie thinks the gnomes are a bit cheeky!

We made it to the centre!

"I'm the Grumpy Old Troll, who lives under the bridge!"

Tomorrow we set our sights on Glendambo. As mentioned it will be a huge day. Google Maps suggest 5 hours, 19 minutes. But with a heavy caravan and two kids food and toilet needs it will probably be a fair bit longer! So if you don't hear from us tomorrow night, hopefully it just means we are tucked up in bed fast asleep!