2021 Best of Travel Review

Here is our review of our travelling adventures from the last year. In 2020 we wrote our first blog reviewing our year of travel. The worldwide coronavirus pandemic continues to create many challenges to travel. In Australia, the international borders were mostly closed, so no trips to other countries were feasible. Our home state of …

Having Fun in 21 – the Wood Annual EOY letter 2021

Having survived Perth's hottest Christmas period on record, in a house without aircon, we know we can survive anything. It was a crazy end to another crazy year. Who would have thought we would still be wearing masks, though we have missed most of the lockdowns being protected by the WA border wall. You can …

Where We Popped Up The Pop-Top In 2021

All Places We Stayed in Our Van in 2021 Last year, our first year with our Jayco Hawk caravan, we stayed at 25 different campsites. It was such a fun activity to look back at every place we stayed, we have decided to continue recording each of our campsites (except for one we missed!). This …

Wildflowers of WA

Western Australia is renowned for its abundance of spectacular wildflower displays during Spring. If you know where to go, there are some amazing tours of surrounding WA areas, that you can go to see them covering fields in amazing colours. Different regions of WA have a different range of wildflower types, and the best time to see …

A Scouting Family Holiday – Manjedal Activity Centre

As our children are active members of scouts, we are able to stay cheaply at a great camp spot just out of Perth in the hills, the Manjedal Activity Centre (MAC). Non-scouting families can also stay here too, at a very reasonable price. Even though it was the school holidays, it seemed very quiet, nestled …

Lord Howe Island – Australia’s Hidden Gem

Back in January 2014, to celebrate our ten-year wedding anniversary we visited an Australian hidden gem, Lord Howe Island. It is a place we have wanted to visit for a long time, we even considered going here for our honeymoon, but unfortunately, the plan fell through and we went elsewhere. Since our first child was …

Would You Rather? Travel Edition

Have you ever played the 'would you rather' game? It is a popular activity for our family when travelling, particularly on a long journey. We have created a travel version with 25 stimulating questions. The would you rather game is a great conversation starter, that can potentially go on for a long time, ideal for …

Big Things of South Australia

Australia is well known for its big things, larger than life objects scattered across the country, and South Australia has its fair share of them. Here are images of those that we have visited. You gotta collect them all! Also, check out our full list of Australian Big Things. [updated in September 2021 with the addition …

Topend Tour – A Split Down the Middle in 2021

In 2021 we embarked on an ambitious caravan trip from Darwin in the far central north of Australia to the Great Australian Bight in the south. We call it an ambitious trip because we had attempted the same thing a year earlier which had to be aborted, and still similar conditions remained as there was …