Day 1: April 12
About 530kms
As far as road trips go, Day 1 of this current adventure is not overly exciting. It was a travel day. A day of trying to get as far south as we could manage in a day, without pushing the limits too far.
We were late getting away from Newcastle due to a certain Under9's soccer game being scheduled for as late a start as it could possibly get. We were super organised, and packed so that we could leave straight from the game.
Despite Chris and I both having heavy colds, we had a dream run and got to Gundagai right on 6pm, after hitting the road at 12.30pm. We had a quick comfort stop on the outskirts of Sydney, a change of drivers at Marulan, a slight detour off the highway to see the Dog on the Tuckerbox, and into Gundagai in time for a chicken snitzel dinner at the pub.

It's been years since we've been down this way - but it struck us how green everything was. We also pointed out to the kids the tell tale granite boulders sitting on tops of hills that tell you you're not that far from the snowy mountains.

The kids travelled amazingly well today. They did have the distractions of DVDs and snacks to graze on, and also a rejigged version of "road trip bingo" which worked well for them for the Outback Qld road trip 18 months ago. I really need to find out how to write apps - maybe it's my "fortune" waiting to happen if I can convert my big idea into iRoadTripBingo :-)
Sleeping motel style (ie open plan) can make for a few antics getting the kids settled for the night, but they are finally off and I won't be far behind them.
Tomorrow we have probably a similar distance to drive as today, but an earlier start will let us travel at a bit more leisurely pace.
Fingers crossed the paper thin walls of the motel don't prevent a good nights sleep.