Category Archives: Family Life

February 12 of 12 …

February 12, 2012 Scott Leave a comment

One would be forgiven to think that it either spring or autumn but we are in the middle of summer. Today was another day of mid 20’s weather but at least it was sunny.

This morning we celebrated the 2nd birthday of my nephew, Angus. He is a cheeky little kid and is going to cause issues for my brother as he grows up. The bouncy castle was the big winner at the party.

This afternoon, it was still sunny but not too warm so perfect to take Molly on a walk at Brown Hill Creek to grab a couple of geocaches.

Brown Hill Creek is one of the creeks that flows out of the Mt Lofty Ranges and through Mitcham ending up at Glenelg. It is also is said to have caused flooding through the suburbs in the past but you would think that the normal drainage of the suburbs would be more of an issue. There is a proposal of putting up a flood control dam in the area and understandably there is a lot of public backlash over the proposal.

Found a couple of caches, one a puzzle cache, More @#$%&, found in an old quarry and I managed to get some battle scars on this one. The second was a traditional, “Dam” Stupid Idea, involved a walk along the Wirraparinga Walking Trail and then some hill climbing to the final location.

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Family Life, Geocaching

Its Summer time – finally …

January 22, 2012 Scott Leave a comment

We have been waiting for a while but it looks like summer has finally arrived with a week ahead with 35 degree plus temperatures.

We were going to head up to Roonka for a couple of days but Jenny and Rachael weren’t up to it after a day in the sun yesterday playing softball.

As I had planned to hide a geocache on the way to Roonka at Sedan which was to be published tonight, I still needed to head that way.

Jenny and I headed to Sedan, hid the geocache – Mosaic Sedan, checked up on my others hidden there and then it was off to Mannum to Jenny’s parents.

I took the chance to find the new geocaches around town, which included at the lookout, riverfront, oval and cemetery. It is amazing the change in the River Murray now that there is water flowing in it.

Time to bundle some dogs into the car including Jenny’s sisters dog that had been boarding for a week and head home stopping at Pallamana for a couple of other geocaches.

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Family Life, Geocaching, Holidays, Out and About

Melbourne here we come …

December 28, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

With a few days of leave available for both Jenny and I, we decided to take the kids to Melbourne. They have not been there and both Jenny and I have been there numerous times for work.

After an early morning dental appointment, we hit the road at 10:00 am. Luckily we were pretty well packed last night.

Weather was fine and warm but it was really only me getting out of the air-conditioned car to grab some geocaches along the way.

Lunch was at Keith, bought some almonds at the Victorian Border then a brief stop at the Giant Koala at Dadswell Bridge.

A few more caches then finally made it to Ballarat for the night on sunset.

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4WDing, Family Life, Holidays, Out and About

6 km in 6 hours – Little Dip Conservation Park …

September 18, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

Well what a day – we didn’t achieve a whole lot of distance but we had some fun in 6 hours.

It started well with the group letting the tyres down before heading out in the dunes and it wasn’t long before the Trip Leader Brenton was bogged just heading out onto the beach at the start. The sand was very soft and he managed to get out on his own.

It was then decided that we would do the dune track. Again we didn’t progress too far when some of the smaller vehicles struggled over one of the rutted dunes. They were bellying out on the high centre of the track. A few backs and forwards and there was only one to pull over.

Around the next corner and there was a call from the Tour Leader – help. Brenton had headed up a dune but managed to slip off to the side – a change clothes moment. With the placement of a strap onto another vehicle and some reversing and the group was on the way again. This is all in the first kilometre of the trek.

We had spent a bit of time by now and we had found ourselves back on the beach and a good spot for some lunch.

Geoff was having some issues putting up his bat wing shelter (it was its second time up). Our shade was a little easier to put up.

After lunch we trekked back into the dunes and again the smaller vehicles had a little trouble getting over the soft dunes. We were starting to get some distance now but this was soon to change.

We again heard the Trip Leader on the radio asking for some help. The beach was again soft and he was bogged 2/3 up the beach with John also bogged.

The next hour and a half was spent getting 2 vehicles out of the sand using digging, shade cloth (failed), pushing and finally an eight strap and nine strap pull with my Patrol for Brenton and Geoff’s Cruiser for John.

After an afternoon drink, it was back out onto the road, tyres up and head back to Robe – we had only got 6 kilometres south but had a good time.

Time for an icecream in Robe before heading home after 10 days away.

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Final Day

September 16, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

The weather this morning was a little overcast and threatened to be a bit wet with some light rain as we headed up the lift.

Rather than get stuck in bad weather over on Ruined Castle, we stuck around Main Street, Highway 83 and Drovers Dream.

It was then time for some family racing. I set the time to beat at 27.77 seconds and I let both the kids beat it with Rachael 0.5 seconds quicker and Bradley 1.5 seconds quicker. 😉

I called it a day at lunchtime and headed down to get the car ready and packed for the journey home. Jenny and the kids kept skiing for another hour but soon found it tiring and headed down.

After showers and lunch, we hit the road at 3:00 pm – an hour ahead of schedule with the sun shining on our exit.

The plan today was to head through to Bendigo and we arrived at 7:30 pm. Our accommodation for the night was Bendigo Bush Cabins. They provided a bed for the night but were a little on the basic side.

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Day 4

September 15, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

Another great start to the day with sunshine and cool conditions ans some wispy cloud over the snowfields. It was cold overnight so there was some snow making and we headed over to Ruined Castle in the morning to take advantage of the good runs.

Bradley and Rachael took lessons again this morning with Rachael in lessons again in the afternoon. She was going to do snowboard but decided to leave it for another time.

There was more racing for Rachael however here time was a little slower than yesterday.

In the afternoon Bradley took me across to Ruined Castle to try and wear me out by going over the steepest slopes and moguls. For the most I kept up. 🙂

Rachael had her presentation and was awarded fastest girl on the mountain.

A bit more time at the Terrain Park for some air photos and it was back to the Schuss Lodge to get ready for a night with the Neumans.

GPS track for today was 48 kms.

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Day 3

September 14, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

The sun was shining but the wind was brutal this morning. I found out later in the day that if the wind speed was 1 kph faster then the lifts would have been shut down.

Despite the wind we spent the morning over on Ruined Castle on some pretty good snow but it started to soften around lunchtime.

Rachael managed a private lesson in the morning as her other class mates didn’t turn up, then did some racing in the afternoon with a 26 second run. 🙂

Jenny went for a lesson after lunch and also did some racing and got fastest adult female but didn’t beat Rachael with 27 seconds. It did get her a voucher and a couple of free wines at the presentation in Cloud Nine.

The plan was for us to catch the Falls Creek Express back to the top at the end of the day, drop our skis in the locker and bring Jenny back down.

The plan soon changed with some weather coming in and the lifts being closed due to the chance of lightning.

So we couldn’t get up and Jenny had to ski down after a couple of wines. Luckily she had to bring a 5 year down on Wombats Ramble so it was a very slow sobering ski. 😉

I guess we will be taking our skis and stuff up in the morning.

We didn’t see much lightning but it did rain tonight – hope it doesn’t wash any of the snow away. 🙁

The GPS track today was 45 kms.

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Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Day 2

September 13, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday the sun was out, it was warm and the snow remained icy. Today it was overcast, windy and cold and the snow turned mushy – go figure.

As we headed up the mountain, we knew it was going to be cold, the trees were all covered by a thick covering of frost.

The morning skiing was good with the overcast conditions and the runs were great.

Around lunchtime, the wind picked up, the wind chill dropped dramatically and the snow conditions went downhill. We still persevered until 5:00 pm though.

We were cold and it was good to get back to the Schuss Lodge and thaw out.

Even with the conditions, the GPS track for the day was 48 kms. 🙂

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12 of 12, Family Life, Holidays, Skiing

September 12 of 12 – Skiing Falls Creek …

September 12, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

Well there was no shortage of photos today – in fact it was hard to choose 12 from the 54 I took.

We are on Day 1 of our annual snow trip to Falls Creek.

Even though there isn’t a lot of snow coverage, there is enough to make it enjoyable and to make the muscles and joints tired and sore.

A couple of the runs were icy in the morning but softened a little mid afternoon before re-freezing late in the afternoon.

Bradley reckons he has what it takes to beat me in a race but a couple of races down Wombats Ramble proved otherwise 🙂

Even with only a few runs running, still managed 53 kms on the GPS track which is about normal.

You can check out all the photos at In the Snow 2011 – Day 1 on Facebook.

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Family Life, Holidays, Out and About, Skiing

Hurray – it is snowing …

September 11, 2011 Scott Leave a comment

Today, it was an earlier start to the day but only by an hour. We hit the road by 9:30 am.

It was a leisurely drive following the Murray Valley Highway grabbing a few geocaches and munzees along the way.

When the kids were little, we took a photo of them in the mouth of the “Big Murray Cod” at Swan Hill, so we relived it today.

It was fitting today to find a geocache involving a Firefighter Memorial – Wooden Captains.

Stopped for lunch at Echuca with almost a traditional stop at the Beechworth Bakery.

Around Benalla we were encountering heavy rain and by the time we got to Myrtleford it became hail and as we hit Falls Creek it started snowing 🙂

We checked into our home at Schuss Lodge, grabbed our skis from Viking Ski Hire and settled in for the night, taking in the various 9/11 programs.

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Thompson Life & Travels – Never @ Home

Category Archives: Family Life

February 12 of 12 …

Its Summer time – finally …

Melbourne here we come …

6 km in 6 hours – Little Dip Conservation Park …

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Final Day

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Day 4

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Day 3

In the Snow 2011 – Falls Creek Day 2

September 12 of 12 – Skiing Falls Creek …

Hurray – it is snowing …

Follow the Life and Times of the Thompson Family ….