How on Earth do you catch and cook a Delicious fish??

We recently had a delicious fish dinner. Over the space of our travels, I (Joel)have  had reasonable success with fish especially over the space of the last few months. I was especially glad when I managed to catch a fish, just short of the metre mark, off the Derby Jetty. When I arrived at the jetty to a beautiful Sunset, I rigged up a whole mullet on a 5/0 hook, dropped it down near the pylons and laid back and looked at the stars and waited for a bite.

After about an hour I started getting some bites and I picked up the rod to feel the bites. All of the sudden the mullet took off at a million miles an hour and I pulled back and set the hook on the mysterious fish. After a couple minutes of playing with it he decided to rub me against some razor sharp jetty pylons, Snap! Not mucking 'round now I put the biggest of the mullet on my rod and put it back out.

About twenty minutes later out of the comer of my eyes I saw my I saw the rod bend over sharply. Quickly I ran back to my rod, I could feel the Fish and tried to strike but missed the first time. He then picked it up and hammered away with it. Setting the hooks on him I then had to weave in and out of my other line as the fish decided where he wanted to go. At one hair raising minute he tried to go under the jetty holding the drag. I skull dragged him out. The person next to me had a crab pot and pulled the 93 cm Black Jewfish up. I was absolutely stoked and it was high fives all round. Biggest and Best Fish yet!

After we had got two beautiful fillets off the mulloway, we started to plan how to cook it. We chose a tasty but simple recipe off Best Recipes, and cooked our fish. The ending result was a beautiful tasting fish, which lasted us for 2 meals.

How did we cook it? We simply wrapped it in alfoil, seasoned it with salt and pepper and lay slices of lemon on top and baked it in the oven. YUM!

Here is Josh's  favourite recipe for fish: ( we have tried this one as well)

Coriander and Burnt Butter Fish

4 large de-boned fish

1 bunch coriander

120 g butter

Olive oil

4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 lemons

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Heat up a large saucepan to medium heat.

2. Add enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan.

3. Add 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce and the juice of 1 lemon.

4. When the saucepan is hot, add the fish and cook for 3 minutes on one side.

5. Quickly flip the fish and leave to cook for about 30 seconds.

6. Place fish on a serving plate.

7. Repeat with remaining fish.

8. While the second batch of fish is cooking, melt all of the butter in a small saucepan.

9. Leave the butter to cook until light brown on top.

10. Add a few sticks of chopped coriander to the butter.

11. Stir and using a brush cover the top of the fish with the sauce.

12. Sprinkle the fish with a few leaves of whole coriander.

What about you?? How do you cook your fish??

How on Earth do you Survive While free Camping??

We all like free camping. It's just when you start to get in the extremes that a caravan park starts to look way more enjoyable. If we go to the snow again, we are staying in a caravan park!! Anyway, how do we survive while free camping. No electricity, no showers, and sometimes no toilets. Before we set off, we had planned to free camp so we equipped ourselves with a gas hot water shower, a generator, and a portable toilet.

Yes, this is our normal campsite: shower tent, camp chairs
around a fire, and a good old tavern!!

For our showers there were two main options: the Aquacube and the Coleman Hot water on demand. We went with the coleman as 1. we thought the dial would be better than the touch screen, and 2. the Coleman was cheaper. The Coleman runs on both gas and batteries. The battery must be kept charged, b

This is a proper free camp spot. Caravan Parks would
never let you get this close!!

ut we did find it useful that we could charge the colemn on both 240v and 12v. We did actually have a problem with battery, and the coleman was out of order for several months. We finally got a new battery sent down, and it has worked fine ever since.

The generator was hard to decide on actually. We couldn't figure out how big a generator we would want, but finally settled on a Tomahawk 4.4 kva generator. The generator can just run our air-conditioner while roaring out dreadfully. We have only had it break down twice, once at the snow (we all nearly froze), and once at Mendooran. The generator has been great for what we needed, and it can survive long periods of being used (read: 1 month doing full ball) and then long (read:7 months) spells of inactivity.

We have always tried to pick free camping spots with a toilet. So far, we have always stayed where there is least a toilet. If we do stay somewhere without a toilet, we have a 20L portable toilet that we bought at Big W for $100. We also stocked up on the rinse chemicals and treatment chemicals.

One of the funnest things about free camping has most likely been the fires. At Armidale we bought ourselves 2 cast iron camp ovens. We have so far cooked lots of lovely things, including forays into puddings, casseroles and cakes. At the snow we greatly appreciated having a fire, and it was one of the only things that kept the boys warm through the night.

One of the best camp spots has most likely been Gum Bend Lake. It had toilets, hot showers, a lake for fishing and kayaking purposes and lots and lots of space. Gum Bend Lake was also where I nearly strangled myself by running into the washing line!!

Just a quick, friendly warning. If you are using pop up shower tents, they really pop up. The first time I ever got it out of the bag, I thought something had hit me as the tent exploded in my face. When I am folding it up, it is quite a hilarious spectacle. I think the whole evil purpose of the tents is not to be able to fold up. I think I have just about mastered it, and am now happy to lend a hand to other people struggling with them too. Like I said, the whole evil purpose of the tents is not to be able to fold up.

How on Earth do you Survive Without a TV?

Do you have a TV? We have been asked this question several times actually. Several people have looked shocked at the very idea of not having a TV (several kids too). In truth, we have hardly ever watched a TV in the past. We figured that 1. we didn't have enough space and 2. the fuss of tuning and all that other fiddly stuff is worth the bother. It is not actually that hard to survive without a TV.

What do we do to entertain ourselves other than TV? We play outside, read, play a boardgame, talk (a very foreign thing I know), rest, watch a DVD, and plenty of other things. Like mentioned before, we never really watched TV, so we didn't have to wean ourself off it, nor and to all of a sudden figure out a way to entertain ourselves. True, we have met some people that sit in front of a TV 24/7 that probably couldn't survive without one. But we can.

We have now survived for 1 year and a bit. We have a large cupboard with approximately 10 boardgames. Some of our favourites are Monopoly, Faces, Articulate, and Uno Attack. If we want to play individually, we have a super fun game called Traffic Rush. We also have several card games.

As you probably already know, I love reading. I have no problem entertaining myself with a good book, and Joel can sometimes entertain himself with a book, as long it is interesting. The boys are both 4WD addicts, and monthly buy a 4WD Action mag. This lasts for about a week in the entertaining.

We do actually still watch DVD's. One of our computer still plays DVD's alright, and we generally have a series on the go. Recently, at Christmas, we all got some series, and we are ever so slowly working our way through them. Our favourite series so far has been Seachange, the Sullivans, Bush tucker Man, and Upstairs Downstairs.

The girls are masters of entertaining themselves. You may think that that little kids are the hardest to entertain, but without so many toys, they have to fall back on one thing that should be exercised more often, your imagination. They like pretending that their fairies, horses, and all the other things that little girls imagine. One of their favourite games is actually pretending to ride buckjumpers.

Whats been happening?

We went into Broome again on Saturday. The drive in was lovely, and the rivers were up and flowing. It's funny how much a river rises as we haven't had any rain for a while. I suppose the low that was hanging around the Kimberly is making up for the lack of rain down here. The girls were all excited (bad of us I know) as the boys were staying at the caravan due to work. It was just a girls day except for dad.

Our first port of call at Broome was the Telstra shop to sort out our internet troubles. We have now switched to a plan as prepaid is quite expensive. We also picked up a new modem for internet, our old modem only being usable for prepaid. We then headed off toTarget (Chloe's birthday's coming up). We like shopping without the boys being there as they are always hanging over people's shoulders driving everybody crazy, refusing to leave to go see something they like.

We also went to the Red Cross shop. I love op shops, plain and simple. You can pick up some really nice clothes for cheap prices. We picked up a movie there, and we are all looking forward to watching it! There was sadly no clothes there that suited, but it was till nice to browse.

We were planning to go to a museum, but it was closed. After debating what to do, we went to the markets. The girls were fascinated by a hula hoop man, who could do a handstand and twirl a hula hoop around his leg at the same time. We also picked up a chicken satay, a lovely snack to keep us going in the heat till lunch.

For lunch, we went to Matso's and had a delicious lunch. The cheapest way for us all to eat out is to but bowls of chips for us kids, and then the adults get a meal. Kids meals are now too small for us, and generally too expensive. The restaurant overlooked the beach, and it was beautiful. It was a bit hot, but the sea breeze saved us from all melting.

After lunch, we decided to go to the beach to see the water park. Instead of swimming at the beach, the girls had some great fun at the water park. It was real fun to watch them play, and they certainly enjoyed it.

Washing, Washing on the line, Mrs Wishy-Washy

Ah...., washing. Such a delight to do while traveling. If you can't fit a washing machine in a caravan (we can't) how do you do your washing? Where do you hang it while free camping?

We use laundromats. Most towns generally have a laundromat and they are not too expensive per load. It may feel a little weird, lugging (for us) 3 or 4 tubs up the main street to get to the laundromat, but we're a spectacle anyway with our Transit. I think Mum and Dad like people staring at us!!

If you do do your washing in town, explore the local attractions while waiting for the washing. At Armidale, we actually went on the heritage tour while waiting for the washing, then picked it up and drove home to hang it out. Just remember as you’re lugging the washing down the street, you're entertaining people in a sometimes monotonous world.

To hang out our washing (another entertaining activity) we strung our washing line between trees. You want trees growing nice and close together, otherwise the lines sag. We have actual washing line, borrowed from a broken washing line at our home. When we need more lines (frequenter than you think) we use strong rope, hoping it won't break.

Entertaining people with our washing is quite easy. At Gum Bend Lake, all the grey nomads were camping there, and a group camping near us proceeded to get out there camp chairs and sat down and enjoyed the spectacle. We were happy to oblige, showing how a large family hangs out their washing. When Dad came back from the toilet, several grey nomads congratulated him on having such good children (as we were all hanging out the washing), with grins all through the group.

If you don't want to make a spectacle of yourselves, you can get a washing machine in your caravan. For small families with a bit of arm power, you can get 20L portable washing machine. You can also use a dryer for your clothes if you don't fancy entertaining other people with your washing.

A quick warning, take your clothes line down afterwards. They are a danger to people!! I nearly got strangled by running into one at full speed on a bike. With washing on them, hopefully they're visible, but when empty, they are basically impossible to see. If you're wondering why I was going so fast, I had “borrowed” a bike from Joel and he didn't like my “borrowing”.

What about you? How do you do washing on the road? Do you like entertaining people by hanging out your washing?

My Curriculum

We all do schoolwork while on the road. There are various ways that we can do schooling on the road. Distance Education, Homeschooling, sheets from schools are some of them. So what do I do for schoolwork?

Maths: I use Maths Online for my maths. It is a great site, that basically cover every topic. If I struggle with the worksheet, I watch the video, and that generally helps me.

Natural Science, fun and informative!!

Science: Exploring Creation with Biology is the book that I use for my science. I have already done Physical Science and General Science through this course, and they are very interesting. My favourite subject at school is Science, so it helps to have an informative and interesting course to follow. At the moment I am learning about Kingdom Monera and all the organisms contained within that kingdom.

English: My English program is Institute for Excellence in Writing. It is a good program, and has improved my writing, making it more interesting. Dad is currently doing his Masters, and he believes it makes his writing better too. I am also reading and then retelling Bible as One Story, a book on my kindle.

Australian History- Easy to learn while travelling

History: For history I am doing Mystery of History. I am currently learning about the renaissance, reformation, and Growth of Nations. I simply take notes, then write a short paragraph about the lesson. They are just MP3 files on the computer that we can play.

Computer: As I am currently working on a website and blog, Mum found a computer programming course that focus on Web design. It teaches Basic Html, coding and other similar things. As it was ordered from America, it will take a while to get here, but I am already excited.

Catechism: We do catechism as part of our copywork. Catechism is a series of questions and answers about what we believe, based on the bible, and why. It has bible verses which I copy an memorize for each question.

Considering we are all living in an 18ft caravan, we get quite crowded. Josh and Chloe take up the table, with Joel managing to have a bit on the table. I do my schoolwork on my bed, and I probably get the biggest “school desk” of all. If it was cooler, some of us would probably go outside, but the heat and flies make the caravan the better option.

As we have less distractions than school, we can generally get our schoolwork done before lunch. This is very good as we then have the afternoon free to do our own thing, which in my case involves working on my blog, while Joel works at Home Timber and Hardware in the afternoon.

What about you? What do you do for schoolowork? How do you do school on the road? Which option did you take (distance education, homeschooling, natural learning)?

Is Prayer your Steering Wheel or Spare tyre?

We have had a lot of tyre changes, all on the caravan. Our caravan was not really designed for travel, and the wheels are quite small. The wheels get quite hot and then they pop. We luckily lasted until Cloncurry until we had a tyre pop. We had a slow leak at Cloncurry, which we didn't notice until some kind person left a note on our windscreen. We were not properly equipped to change the tyre, but another traveller kindly lent us their tools. The drive in to Cloncurry after Cubbaroo, we shredded a tyre. 


We again didn't have the proper tyres, and had to flag down a truck. As soon as we went into Cloncurry, we picked up the proper tools, and luckily too. We then had 2 slow leaks at Mt Isa and Mataranka. We again shredded the tyre in between Victoria River Roadhouse and Kununurra. Altogether, we have popped 6 tyres, our most recent one in between Fitzroy Crossing and Derby.

So that brings me to the real point of this post: Is prayer your steering wheel or spare tyre? We always use the steering wheel in the car, it directs our travels. The spare tyre is simply a crutch, something to be used when it all goes wrong. Prayer should be your steering wheel, not your spare tyre. It should direct us where we are going, not something we turn to as a last resort because we can't do anything else. It should be natural to us to pray instead of when it all goes wrong.

1 Chronicles 16: 11- Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always

Psalm 145: 18- The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.

Camping in the wet-season

Now we have a realy bad habit of being in the wrong place in the wrong time. We were down in Victoria in the middle of winter, the coldest time, and we were up top in the hottest time of year. It does save us from getting all the tourists, a big pain for us, as we are noisy, spread out and like space. So here we are, mid-February and in Derby, catching the wet season. So how do we survive the rain?



We have a good awning, and the boys put a tarp over the stretcher tents. To combat the mud on the ground, we have several black foam mats that we put down. You want to pick a good place that is well grassed, or even better, on gravel.

Luckily, we waterproofed the caravan before we left (God Bless Don). Since then, we haven't had a leak in the caravan, which we where very grateful for. We waterproofed the caravan with some help from a friend that ran a waterproofing business.


We sort of wished we could of waterproof the boys tents!! Both boys sleep in their stretcher tents, and the rain seeps through quite quickly. We think we have found the solution but- Scotch guard!!. Joel can now let water sit on top of his tent, and none soaks through. A top thing to do to waterproof leaking tents!!

Pegs also pull out quite easily when the ground is soft and they are under pressure. I suggest trying out longer pegs, and seeing how that works. We ran an ocky strap around something solid, and attached the awning ropes to the ocky strap.





What about you? Do you always end up in the wrong place at the wrong time? Have you ever survived a top end wet season?

Bereft of Beaches

Now I'm telling the truth when I write this, we have done approximately 6729km of driving (approx.) before again swimming at a beach. Look at it this way, we haven't swam at a beach for 9 months. Now we brought 5 surboards on this trip, 4 boogyboards, and a big container filled with watersport gear. Considering we have brought so much beach stuff, it's a shame we haven't used it more often.

After not swimming at a a beach for 9 months, you can imagine how nice it would be to go to Broome and swim at the beach. Cable Beach is beautiful, and the water is crystal clear. The Visitor Information Centre doesn't say you should swim, nor does it say shouldn't. When we saw the beach we were excited and decided to go for a swim.






Broome is home to some humongous tides, and it was quite a walk to the beach. We greatly enjoyed splashing around in the rock pools. Joel also caught some bush tucker, as he has been watching Bush Tucker Man lately. It was nice to walk in the sand.







What about you? Where was the last beach you went to? What's your favorite beach?

The River of Life

As I sat on the lounge today scrolling through all the photos taken over this wonderful trip, I came upon a set of waterfalls and rapids that Josh had taken. It reminded me of life. Here are my thoughts on the river of life.

There is clear still water everywhere. We are all just smoothly floating along, content and our life is going fine. Then we come to the rapids, where we are swirled round and round and start to feel a bit knocked around and wondering where the still water that we were once on is now.

Then we come to the waterfalls, and we sink to our lowest yet. We can feel abandoned, depressed and confused. What's going on we all wonder? Why is my life seemingly crumbling? But the best is still to come. Like the water purifies from all it's racing over rapids and waterfalls, we are made stronger. God place trials in front of all of us to test us, and strengthen us. He will never test us beyond our endurance.

James 1:2-4 "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

We will be tested in life, but it will refine us. We will go over rapids and waterfalls, but we will eventually reach the still, slow waters after the waterfalls and rapids.




What are your thoughts on the river of life?

Misadventures in the Snow

I wrote about all our adventures in the snow, so today I'll write about our not-so-exciting adventures in the snow. Dad (a teacher) had work at the Cabrummura school and we were all excited to have another day at the snow. We were going to drive over to Adaminaby in the afternoon to pick up our snow chains, as our tyres were bigger than most and Adaminaby was the only place to get them.

Halfway through the day,
 it started snowing. As Dad went out from school, one of the teachers assured him that the road was clear and free of snow. As he headed up the mountain, there started to be snow on the road. As he headed up a hill, the car lost traction and the back slid into a ditch filled with snow. Unable to get the car out, he started the long walk to Selwyn Snowfields. About halfway there, he was picked up by a Snowy Hydro worker and driven the rest of the way.



We were all relieved to see Dad, although the car was still stuck. We rang the NRMA and they came up form Adaminaby to pull us out. We heard from some other people that 4 4WD's were on their roof on the road. We were lucky to be able to get out and got safely home. As we headed out to the car, we were all almost blown away by the wind. It was really strong!!

Needless to say, we got snow chains. The NRMA drove them up to us, and we were all safe. Now we have snow chains stored in the back, and might not ever use them. We won't have to worry about snow on the road again but!!




What about you? Did you have any misadventures at the snow? What's your worst experience at the snow?

Adventures in the Snow

Yesterday, I talked about the great experiences we had at Cubbaroo. It was really hot at Cubbaroo, which was sort of a relief as we had spent a month free-camping at the snow. I thought I would tell you about or adventures (and misadventures) at the snow.

We were originally staying in a caravan park, but we took the plunge, and decided to free camp, saving money and a bit of driving time in the process. Our chosen camp was Paddy's River Flat, where there was a toilet block and hot water at the kitchen sink. There was a little stream, that just added to the picturesqueness. To survive through the cold temperatures, we had a fire going most of the time, and we also run a fan heater through our generator. As our generator broke down, we also purchased a LPG heater (simply sits on top of the gas bottle).

An unexpected Visitor!!

We had a pig pay us a visit one day. Joel first noticed it and couldn't resist the photo opportunity. I came from across the road, and disappeared into the forest. Mystery still unsolved.

Lovely Fire!

We had to get quiet a lot of wood for this fire. It was all simply dead wood, and luckily there was plenty of it around. We simply made a bundle of sticks and dragged it home with a rope.

Joel, as he was the only skier, took it upon himself to teach the girls to ski. He was a good ski instructor, and the girls are still calling him ski-instructor today. It's apparently a very hard job, as when Tahlia is full and can't eat her desert all he has to do is call out "ski-instructor" and the desert now belongs to him. We all are naturally jealous of the privileges of his job. 

 1 lesson, a good big brother, and perseverance (as well as a mum that gives out good cuddles when she falls over and hurts herself) is all Tahlia needed to be able to ski the slopes like a pro. She was only 3 years old, but picked up on it really quickly and was amazing by the end!!

 Joel really enjoyed free-camping at the snow, especially when we got him a good sleeping bag!! If we go again he wants to free-camp, opposite to the girls in the family!!

What about you? Where are your favorite snowfields?

An Experience of a Lifetime

After the snow, we headed up to a cattle station. Dad had previously arranged this, and he was working as a home tutor for a term. The three older kids, also got the extremely exciting opportunity to work on the station with the station owner!! We were all thrilled to get such an opportunity, as it would most likely be once in a lifetime opportunity.




What we did at Cloncurry:
-Mustering the cattle- on horses, quads and motorbikes
-Working them in the yards- branding, sorting cattle, castrating, vaccinating, preg-testing.
-Moving cattle between different paddocks
-Maintenance work- fences, troughs
-Rounding up wild cattle from paddocks
- Working horses- saddling and bridling
 -Loading cattle on trucks
 -Feeding animals- pigs, chickens and a poddy calf


While at Cubbaroo, we went to the Curry Merry Muster. On Friday night, we went for the taster, and we all saw our first Rodeo!! The boys were excited, and the little girls were talking about bucking bulls for the next month.It was great!!

All our favourite bits of the station:
Josh- I greatly enjoyed the mustering and yardwork
Joel: Mustering on both horses and motorbikes
Bethany: Mustering the cattle, as well as practicing my horseriding and motorbike skills
Chloe and Tahlia: Riding on Shammy and playing with the kids, as well as the pool. Tahlia had a hate/love relationship with the pool as she learned to swim without a bubble here.




I turned 13 at Cubarroo. After recieving my presents, the boys and I headed out to the yards near the horse to watch the yardwork. All of a sudden, the question was popped at us kids about whether or not we wanted to preg test some cows aoming through. The boys both declined, but I took the chance. If you don't know what preg testing a cow involves, I'll give you a brief description. After donning a shoulder length glove, you stick your hand up the cows bottom, and if it is pregnant, you will feel a hard rock shape thing. That is the calf's head. I can now officially brag that I stuck my hand up a cows bottom for my 13th birthday!!

What about you? Whats your experience of a lifetime?

Good Reading in the Caravan

I read a lot of books so it's quite hard to narrow down to a few favorites. Here are some anyway:

-Silver Brumby Books
 Personally, the first 4 books are the best. Several questions were raised in my mind:
1. How disastrous are our results when we disturb and destroy nature?
2. What should happen with the brumbies that are still roaming today? Should they be culled, caught, or left alone?

Silver Brumby on Amazon

-Sword and Staff Series

My brother (a very particular reader) really liked this book. I also greatly enjoyed it. I am waiting eagerly for the next book to come out.

Sword and Staff on Amazon. 

-Descendants Saga
I like fiction, especially christian fiction, and this book was a thriller to read.

Descendants Saga on Amazon

-Harvest of Rubies/Harvest of Gold
The story of a senior scribe in Persia, Sarah serves in the queens household in the time of Nehemiah. She struggles with her worth and who God really is. She believes her worth is more in her work than herself. This a struggle many people have.

Harvest of Rubies on Amazon

-The Anne Stories
I love Anne. She is such a great talker, and the books have a simple sweetness in them. I have read all the books of Anne, and they were lovely.

Anne of Green Gable on Amazon

- Elsie Dinsmore Series
I like Elsie's pure faith, shining through the book. She always turns to God for help.When I'm feeling down, sometimes it helps just to read a little.  She does seem a little too good sometimes. There is also the Millie Keith and Voilet Travilla. I have read the new versions of Violet and Millie, but I read the original version of Elsie.

Elsie Dismore on Amazon- Original

-When Jesus Wept
The story of Lazurus, and the tears that Jesus shed for him.

When Jesus Wept on Amazon

- Before Bethlehem
The story of why Joseph and Mary came to be married, and the pressures that they faced at that time from the Romans.

Before Bethlehem on Amazon

- Little Woman/ Little Men/ Jo's Boys
I like Jo. I can sort of relate to her in her adventurous spirit, hot temper, and boyishness.

Little Woman on Amazon

You might wonder how I store all theses books. All our family has kindles, and we have found them extremely useful for travel purposes. You can share books between kindles, and they are extremely compact. At the moment I have 250 books on my kindle. If you are travelling, I highly recommend them.

What about you? What have you been reading? What's your favourite book?