After much packing and excitement, we left Melbourne at 7.30am on April 3rd 2013 and headed north. We stopped in Shepparton for some already forgotten items then continued north and crossed the border into New South Wales. After a very uneventful long day of traveling, we pulled into a surprisingly pleasant road side stop just south of Forbes and set up for the night. Neve and Lachie discovered a pair of emus wandering along the fence line and I spent the evening googling how to break into Lachie's iPod - couldn't believe he managed to a) set a password then b) have no idea what it might be! Looks like we're spending 8 weeks in the car with no electronic entertainment for our screen obsessed son!

Our seemingly fine camp spot turned into a very poor night's sleep when we were woken every hour or so by a large truck pulling up beside us, the driver presumably having a rest then starting the truck up again!

The next day we went to Parkes, saw the giant satellite dish then travelled onto Dubbo. We found a lovely caravan park beside the river and the kids had a great afternoon playing in the pool, jumping on the giant pillow and making new friends. I went for a walk along the river and Toby fixed the leaking tap.

On Friday we packed a picnic lunch and the kids' bikes and spent the day at Dubbo Zoo. Toby and I hired bikes and we all rode the 5ish kms around the zoo. Gem has only just learnt to ride without training wheels so did amazingly well. The animals were a little sparse but the weather was perfect, the riding was fun and we all had a great day.