From Little Things Big Things Grow

The Mawson Trail is a 900km Mountain Bike Track in South Australia. It starts in Adelaide and finishes in the small outback town of Blinman. Our plan is to ride the northern half: from Melrose to Blinman. We'd love to do the whole trail but we will probably only have a two week window and so have opted for the most remote and scenic section. 

It seems as if there is so much research and preparation needing to be done in order for this journey to eventuate. It's a little daunting......so we have decided to split up the workload. Amanda is in charge of the route, food and transportation while Marty is in charge of equipment, bike maintenance and risk management. Being part of the adventure, the kids also have contributions and sacrifices to make. Tahlia WILL be toilet trained by next year and it would certainly be convenient if Zephyr made the effort to learn how to walk by April. It is not surprising that a good friend recently mentioned that we seem to run our family like an Outdoor Education Company!

I wish we could say that we are always this organised..... but in actual fact it may just be that a few recent experiences have led us to take a more structured approach in preparing for this adventure. There will be a few people who know that we recently took a trip to Sydney for the day and entirely forgot to bring shoes for Tahlia and nappies for Zephyr. We've since been told that you clearly can't rely on a two year old to remember their own shoes? Needless to say she is very adaptable and managed quite well wandering around The Rocks and Pyrmont Bay in a thick pair of wooly pink socks. Luckily, nappies for Zephyr were more readily purchased.

But from little things big things grow and if we can survive a family outing in the big city, then surely with a little more planning, we can survive a journey through Outback South Australia.

Still working on taking a decent one handed self portrait
while riding and towing the chariot.....

Adventure Interruptus

Some adventures take months of planning and others just seem to appear out of nowhere and surprise us.

Being a self confessed slight 'control freak' there's no guessing which type of adventure I prefer! Marty, on the other hand, being much more laid back (and can I say mildly disorganised in general), quite enjoys having his otherwise perfectly planned day turn completely upside down.

We had one of those little 'surprise adventures' the other day. The last few Wednesdays Marty has managed to take the afternoon off work in an attempt to provide me with a much needed midweek break. We usually head out to explore some local mountain bike trails, but this week we decided to take the  kids on an off road run through Morton National Park. There is a 10km Fun Run coming up and I thought it would be a good chance to get a bit of training in.....I love it when Marty's there to push the Chariot.

All was well.....until 1km into our run, when our nice smooth walking trail turned quite suddenly into a steep, rocky, rough track and started heading into what appeared to be a small gorge. We continued on; I was determined to get some training in and somehow I convinced Marty that the trail would return to normal just around that next corner. Many corners later, and well after the point of no return, I realised that my planned run had turned into an extremely slow plod, precariously lifting what now seemed like a very heavy wheelbarrow with two kids in it, over mossy boulders and small creeks.

Marty says a fun family adventure...... I say an inconvenient interruption to my well thought out training plan!

The Point of No Return

What's an Adventure Anyway?

The term 'adventure' means different things to different people.

For us, right now, at this stage of our life, an adventure is usually synonymous with a journey. A journey that takes us somewhere new, somewhere outdoors, somewhere remote. An extended journey, long enough that we can sink slowly into the natural rhythm of the environment we are exploring. The journey needs to challenges us and inspire us. It needs to 'take us away from everything' or maybe it would be more appropriate to say 'take us back to everything'.

There are many mediums through which to journey and many journeys to take. The age of our kids at any given time will ultimately dictate which journeys are achievable and when. Canoeing the length of the Murray next year with a one year old is probably a little ambitious! It seems as though cycling is probably an ideal medium with a 1 and 3 year old. They comfortably fit in a bike trailer and they don't really need to contribute much in the way of energy expenditure.

So....after much deliberating (and map reading) it seems as though we have finally decided upon where we are heading for our first family adventure. A mountain biking adventure it will be. A journey through the Flinders Ranges in South Australia with two mountain bikes, one double chariot, a tent, a stove, two kids and probably the kitchen sink!

We've told the kids, and as you can see in the photo....they're pretty excited and clearly have no idea what they're in for.....

Have Maps......Will Travel

One of the best things about having a two year old is learning to see the fun in everyday tasks. The daily adventure to the letter box is one of Tahlia's most exciting activities. Leading up to the arrival of a much anticipated package this week, we both shared in her excitement more than usual.

Like two impatient toddlers we ripped open our package to find that the Maps we have been waiting for had indeed arrived. That night was spent carefully laying them out, analysing terrain, calculating distances, identifying potential campsites and in between all that; ferociously protecting them from the destructive tendencies of Tahlia.

Our sheer delight over a few maps arriving in the mail may seem like a bit of an overreaction. But the significance lies in the fact that the maps mark our first real step to committing to a journey that we aim to complete next year.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words....well our maps wont keep quiet. It's all we have been able to talk about over the last couple of days. How steep is the route? What if we don't make it to this campsite? Has anyone actually done this with kids before? And most importantly.....where can we buy more nappies along the way?

You Can't Drag Your Kids Around in a Cardboard Box

You can't just drag your kids around in a cardboard box; despite the fact that they would probably, in all reality, quite enjoy the novelty.

For a start, it is actually highly illegal in many situations and at the very least probably irresponsible and impractical in others. Despite this being a well known fact to parents everywhere, before you have kids you just don't think about these things, or should I say we didn't.

After you've ruled out the cardboard box option once and for all (a wise but more expensive decision) the next step is to investigate what might be a more suitable option. For our lifestyle we're not really talking about the typical, everyday, baby/toddler accessories like strollers, capsules and car seats. We're thinking more about the type of specialized equipment you might use to take your kids camping, cycle touring, ski touring or hiking.

Once you delve into the world of baby carriers, trailers and sleds you realise that there's just not going to be anymore surprises on Birthdays or Christmas' and that you can probably rule out all Mothers and Fathers Day gifts for the next five years as well. In fact, Marty has just come to the realisation that he won't be receiving a Fathers Day present at all this year as Tahlia and Zephyr have given it to him early....a 'Double Chariot'..... our most recent purchase justified as an 'early present to daddy'. It conveniently converts from a jogging pram, to a bike trailer, to a ski sled and last but not least a hiking wheel barrow type thing.

It is a huge and slightly ridiculous looking contraption, especially if you're using it to merely duck out to the local shops and comparing it to the latest and greatest Mountain Buggy, which by the name sounds like it would be perfect, but is actually best suited to city dwellers on concrete paths. The Chariot I would say is absolutely essential for our purposes and we're already getting used to the odd stare from the old ladies in the supermarket! One friend recently told me that she attributes her sanity with two kids to owning a double chariot. I have to admit they work much better than a cardboard box ever could. You can check them out here: http://www.infantfreedom.com.au/collections/types?q=Chariot+Carriers

As soon as we unpacked ours from the box we loaded up the kids and headed off on the Bong Bong cycle trail; from our home in Moss Vale to the nearby town of Bowral. All up a 15km round trip and with the amount of flooding over the pathway the kids got to experience somewhat of a river crossing!  Zephyr slept the entire way and Tahlia thought all her dreams had come true! So we can safely tick the 'Kids like the Chariot too' box and believe it or not, that box, is probably the most important one!

Kids Will Change Your Life

They say your life will never be the same after having kids. And 'they' were right!

We remember many pre-kid weekends and holidays filled with climbing, hiking, mountain biking, diving, kayaking, kite surfing, skiing and the list goes on. We also remember the moment when we finally decided that it was time to have a family. We knew that this decision would have some kind of an effect on our lifestyle, we knew that it may become more difficult  to get out and about; but somewhere in our blissful ignorance we assumed that ultimately it was up to us and if we really wanted to, we would still be able to do all the things we loved, and the kids would just have to "come along for the ride".

When Tahlia arrived we slowly started to realise that although our assumptions were correct, we may have slightly underestimated the effort and expense involved in such dream!

When Zephyr came along we almost threw in the towel. He was a real game changer! For the first time we joked about the possibility of adoption.

Zephyr is now four and half months old and Tahlia recently turned two. It seems like a good time to get back on track, to get back on the bike, to get those tents out of the basement and see if we've still got what it takes. Is it silly to think that blogging our trials and tribulations will somehow help to motivate  and inspire us to get out of bed, to dress and feed the kids, to gather nappies, snacks, toys, dummy's, wipes, all in the hope of finding the ultimate family adventure? We hope not.......