The idea for this blog came to me on a recent trip to Apollo Bay that I shared with my siblings and their partners to attend a funeral of a treasured friend of our parents. Pat and Jim raised 9 children and whenever they visited our quiet dairy farm in the Yarra Valley they brought heaps of colour, fun and laughter. Jim died while we were in Singapore and now Pat has joined him along with my mum and dad so they will all be upstairs sharing a toast together by now; the boys on the beer and the women with a sherry. Apollo Bay is situated on the Great Ocean Road and as we drove west I noticed the great number of caravans on the road, in the townships and every camping ground. The travelers were making the most of a long weekend in the great outdoors and my enthusiasm to join them escalated. A few months back we bought a caravan and a car big enough to pull it, but up until now the van hasn't ventured out of our backyard. The wet season in the Top End is probably not the best seas