We packed up the grandma apartment and got on the road just after 10. Leaving here was the first step towards our epic outback adventure, where we’ll be driving from the Southern tip of Australia right through the middle of the continent to the north. We packed up a big cooler of snacks and got the car all organized. I made Millie a “control center” in the back, with snacks, water, chargers, etc. Locked n’ loaded.

Our first stop was only about an hour away, Gorge Wildlife Park. We arrived just before 11:30 since we had read that you could hold a koala at that time. We were disappointed to be greeted with this sign saying they were sold out.

But, as you can see in the smaller text, the woman selling tickets told us we could go and meet a koala, free of charge. We just couldn’t hold it. We waited in a line and then got to say hello to Bert, an 8 year old Koala. It was even cuter than I predicted.

From here we saw every other Aussie animal you can imagine. Wallabies, Tasmanian Devil, Serval, quokka, wombats, camels, emus, etc.

The highlight, by far, for Millie was the Kangaroos. Since the start of this trip every time someone asked her “what are you most excited for?” She has answered “going to Australia because kangaroos are my favorite animal.” For the last week she has been disappointed that we are finally here and there haven’t been any Roos for her to meet. Today was her day.

She and Nick calmly walked around and fed any that seemed interested. She talked to them as if she was their mother.

I mostly marveled at their insane anatomy, like their big heavy tails, enormous middle toe, and cartoonish nutsacks.

David Attenborough I am not.

When we were done here we ate a picnic lunch from the cooler. Hard boiled eggs, cheese, crackers, and yesterday’s strawberry cake. Is there anything better than a little of this and a little of that?

Then we set off on the long drive North. We drove 3.5 hours straight through to Port Augusta. Nick and I have some audiobooks queued up for our journey, and we started with Bill Bryson’s In a Sunburned Country. Millie watched her iPad.

The drive was boring nothingness, which I’m sure is just a taste of what’s to come. We passed some of these huge “road trains” which are 2 or 3 trailers long.

We arrived at our lodging, which is an RV park with cabins. We drove a couple of blocks to one of the only restaurants in town. It is a pub slash hotel slash casino slash members only club. We had just heard about these in the Bill Bryson book so it felt fun to already be making connections between what we just listened to and where we were.

Millie was the only kid, and I was one of maybe 3 women excluding the staff. It was a very local scene. The food was slightly better than you’d expect. Millie insisted on ordering at the bar by herself and when I looked up to see her in line at this small town pub surrounded by burly Australian men in flip flops, it made me smile.

When we got back to the caravan park we killed an hour attempting their scavenger hunt, where we had to walk around and find items that they had pictured. Millie looooves these things, and is beside herself with excitement for what the prize might be. She has guessed “a lollipop, a trophy, or maybe something else wrapped in gold.” Pure joy that only a child can have.

Nick and I were exhausted so we’re all having an early night. I’m still fighting the cold I got a few days ago. It’s mostly gone but now popping up as weird symptoms, like ear pressure and I think… pink eye… which apparently can happen following a cold. Hoping a good night’s sleep does us all well.