We've made it all the way to....Flinders

Hi Jane here for my first blog entry. We left our home 4 weeks ago now and we have made it all the way to Flinders on our big adventurous road trip – and I don’t mean Flinders Island or Flinders rangers – just good old Flinders Victoria - 1 hour from home. After our three exciting weeks in Tasmania settling into the camper trailer way of life at some magnificent spots we then came back to Melbourne on the Spirit of Tasmania one week ago. Spent one night at Jude and Clyde’s house which meant we had a lovely breakfast party for Henry and Ella’s third birthday. Then we headed to Andy & Sarah’s beautiful property in Hoddles creek for the week while they were away at a healing retreat at the Gawler foundation. Andy & Sarah arrived home last Friday two of the healthiest & most relaxed people I’ve seen for a long time. Thanks to Harriet, Jessie and Phoebe who very generously welcomed us into their home. We enjoyed sharing in their lives for the week – finding the best coffee in Yarra Junction at the groovy café Harriet works at, seeing Jessie in her basket ball grand final, hunting tiger snakes around the pool and hanging out with many of Phoebies friends who visited after school. Thank god Andy & Sarah’s place is a natural beautiful retreat because life with 3 busy teenagers and 3 busy pre schoolers did require a lot of energy – although I did still fit in some time for Red Rascal business and managed a sale from the back of Andy’s ute at school pick at the Yarra Steiner school to see Red Rascal coming to a great shop in Yarra Junction called Under the Juniper Tree. So we have landed in Flinders with time to repack our camp gear and hopefully loose a lot of stuff – we are very comfortable campers but some what laden down – is it the multiple cooking implements? – do we need a cob oven, a camp oven, a smoker and a camp equivalent of a slow cooker, not to mention the three burner gas stove; or maybe it is my sewing machine, iron & two suitcases of red rascal T’s?; or is it the diving, fishing, kayaking gear???? Who knows – but some big questions are going to be asked this week??!!?? (The sewing machine is definitely in). Another very exciting part of Tassie was taking Red Rascal over seas and out of Victoria – we have picked up two fantastic shops to stock us in Hobart. Forget me not is a kids clothing shop and Mini store is a lovely women’s clothing shop. So another reason for a pit stop at Flinders is to sew, sew, sew and how I love it!! On Friday we just picked up a big batch of long sleeve T’s and for the first time they have the Red rascal label in them – no doubt I’m biased but they look fantastic, I almost had to sleep with a pile of them. I’d better get back to the sewing machine now. The only plan from here is to get all the way to Beechworth for Easter (it’s a very long way & I’m just not sure if we’ll make it that far!!!) Bye & Love Jane, Toby & the three feral children who have taken far too well to the unstructured outside life of playing nude most of the day.