Fuel problem solved, we make it to the boat in good time. already I want SPACE!!!!!! With 5 males in various stages of excitement and neediness, they all hover and cling to me like flies. I know at this stage we need to stay close. The boat is big, we can't let Hayden wander, Keygan...well, he just likes his mum, Scott is lost anyway, Mark likes our company and Nevil? Well, he's my husband and we want to be together. We are each others' sanity.
So the obligatory exploration of the ship is done altogether. Hayden is loud and excited, bouncing off the sides of the ship (thankfully in an inward direction).

We really should have gone for a cabin, like Mark. At least one of us will get a good night's sleep. The lounge chairs are uncomfortable and almost discourage sleep. At 2.30am I am still trying to get Scott to get himself to bed, as we're due to be called at 5.30am to disembark. I watch him from my chair, tossing and turning, thinking, thinking, thinking. What great weight holds him down tonight? Finally (and illegally) I bed him down on the floor between other passengers, in one of the swags we have brought with us but are not allowed to use.

Predictably, he is almost impossible to wake at 5.30. The run to our car when he's finally up and ready is panicked and stressful.
It seems Mark has fared no better than the rest of us, sleep-wise. He, too, is grumpy and tired from a bad night's sleep. What a great start....!

We truly and honestly have no idea where we are heading, other than to say on this first morning that we need to stop for breakfast and that we're heading roughly
towards the Grampians.
Strangely for Melbourne, it's a beautiful clear Winter's morning, with a good white frost revealing itself as we head into daylight and the fruit growing town of Bacchus Marsh. There, almost before the sun is up, we stock up on some fresh fruit and vegetables to get us through to the fruit fly exclusion zone.
We pull off the highway near Pykes Creek Reserve and find what looks like a large vehicle parking area. With the frost only slowly lifting, we park in the full sun
and set to work preparing our first breakfast from the back of the ute. Hayden pulls out his scooter and releases some energy in the loose gravel.
This is my first opportunity to sit and relax in many days. Maybe, now we're on the road, it will all settle down and be okay...


Our first breakfast, off the road near Pykes Creek Reserve (Mark)

With breakfast over and mental notes made on fine tuning needed in the packing department, we set our course for Ballarat.
We stop to have a look at Kryall Castle. Wow! What a feat in bricklaying! I recall my sister once came here for a wedding and got all dressed up for the occasion in period costume. We can't afford to pay to look around but we do get a couple of photos.

PHOTO:
Nevil and the boys standing on the drawbridge over the moat, just outside the castle. ("THERE'S ACTUALLY A MOAT, MUM!")

PHOTO:
Inside the castle, up to the right, is a knight, dressed in chain maille, if my memory serves me correctly. I get the photo from an interesting angle, but I don't remember what the angle is.

We head into Ballarat, where we spend the rest of the morning at the Eureka Stockade Information Centre. We have a battle on our hands with Scott. His tendency is to compare everything to home, and nothing really measures up. We have to work hard to get him out of the car just to come and look, to experience something new. He hasn't even heard of the Eureka Stockade, so to impress upon him the significance of this place and its moment in our history is no easy feat. But we do succeed. He comes with us, he looks and he learns.

PHOTO: We sneak into the court room and get a photo of Hayden playing judge.

It's clear we haven't researched this trip. We are surprised on arriving at the admission desk at sovereign Hill that, not only can we not afford the $103 family ticket, but we also would be wasting our money to try and do it justice in the two hours we have left. Deciding to maybe come back this way, we leave Sovereign Hill and Ballarat, heading for our first campsite, Langi Ghiran State Park, about 80km west of Ballarat.
We gather some wood for a campfire before we reach the Park. This will be a regular activity. Just as we pull in, the four other vehicles that have been there for the weekend, are heading out, leaving the entire site to us. The fire is still hot and within minutes it is freshly ablaze.
Also within minutes, Hayden has found something very interesting. He comes running to me with a small container of bits and pieces, saying "Mum, look what I found in that tree stump." Inside is a note, explaining that the finder is welcome to play with or use the contents but could they then please put them back for someone else to find. The finder is also welcome to keep one item, providing they replace it with something of their own. I have just the thing. Hayden chooses the tiny torch, which I replace with a Tassie Tiger hatpin.
There is wildlife all around us, also keeping Hayden occupied.
I hope it's just tiredness from a bad night's sleep all round that's making us all so niggly and snappy and Scott so hopelessly helpless. Mark and I spend the evening snapping at each other (as only siblings can) and we all work out that we just have to work around Scott, because he ain't moving anywhere! Hayden can't sit still and won't leave the fire alone. It's cold and we all have to find our place within this mottly, ragtag crew.
We don't need it but we light another fire in one of the barbecues. This becomes our kitchen and after tea I'll seek the refuge of the other fire for peace and quiet.
This is a beautiful spot. Straight up the gully (to the north I think) is an interesting area to explore, with large flat rocks forming much of the ground's surface. But it's getting dark and I have to get some tea on. In the morning I intend to get up early and climb the small mountain that towers over (But back a little from)our campsite.
The rule is, I tell them, that everyone takes a turn at cooking each night. I will help them, or they will help me, but they will take a turn. Scott says he will just buy us a counter meal from time to time.
"That's fine with me," I say. If you want to do it that way, go ahead. Then I can have a night off completely."
Tonight, being our first, four of us pitch in with set-up and meal preparation. Hayden is mostly off exploring or under my feet demanding to eat. Through it all we have him do his few basic jobs; unpack the chairs, set up the table, put his bag in the tent, unroll his swag.
I need peace, I crave peace. I want quiet. There is none with this group. Some never stop talking. Others always have to be spoken to. One never stops pushing. Another needs pushing all the time. At last, with the washing up over, Hayden is in bed by 8.

I call the girls. Katie tells me she was on tv tonight doing her trapeze act at the Derwent Entertainment Centre in Hobart. It wasn't quite what she'd hoped. They only took her up 5 metres and in her wheelchair too. "I thought they'd strap me into a harness on my own!" Still, it was fun, she made the news and got to show off her basketball skills.
I chase Scott into his swag, before finally climbing into my own.
I suppose things could have been worse.