road trippin - part 3

Our next port of call was to Nanango to meet up with Alex and Connie. They are in the process of moving house, so we were only due to spend a few hours there.

Being only a short 3 hr drive, we were all getting used to the routine. Dogs and puppies get a run around, then in the van for a few hours, and once the van is stopped, and the door opened, everyone out for the toilet, so Alex was greeted by a line of puppies relieving themselves on his front lawn.

As things turned out, it got late in the day, and with the threat of rain it was up with the tent and stay the night. Putting up the tent in daylight was far too easy!

Again the dogs had a great time, with a huge, secure paddock to roam in (and plants to eat!).

Sunday was a long drive on the New England Highway - highly recomended. Very scenic, not too busy and very well policed (well lots of police anyway - not a road to be speeding on!).

A big thanks to everyone who made this a great fun break, and hello to those we met in the car parks, rest areas and parks along the way.

Travelling with this many dogs isn't easy, but if you're not in a rush it can be great fun. When the pups go to their new homes we will still have the memories and we can reassure their owners that the dogs travel OK...

More pictures....

road trippin - part 2

The next morning was an early start, but rested, fed and watered, (well the dogs anyway!) we headed on. Not too bad a drive and we were soon heading around Brisbane and towards Michael and Sabinas new house.

They do home boarding for dogs, so we knew that there would be a few dogs there for our tribe to play with, and so it proved. The recent rains have caused havoc with the landscaping of the new place, but the dogs loved having plenty of space to run in. Jumping on the panels for the shed and eating plants were favourite games for the puppies.

All of the dogs enjoyed a feed of raw 4 paws specials. Home made dog food, made with nothing but the good stuff. After a very pleasant afternoon and restful night it was on the road again.

road trippin' - part 1

With the queens birthday long weekend, and the factory shutting for 2 days, there was an opportunity to get away....

Steve, our poodle, had a job to do near Brisbane, and if we were in the area (or within 3 hrs!) there was a chance to put a face to the name and meet up with Alex and Connie of Disability Aid Dogs .

A few phone calls and everything was on. All we needed to do was to find a tent and camping supplies, get ourselves packed and put the dogs in the van.

Normally this wouldn't be too challenging, but Molly still has her puppies for another 2 weeks, so its 2 adults, 5 adult dogs and 6 puppies on a mission to SE Queensland, a 2,000km round trip.

The first morning was spent finding a tent. Looking locally, then on ebay. It turned out that the online shop was actually in Gosford so we went to visit camping megastore and got kitted out. The staff were very helpful and wished us well on our trip.

There is plenty of accomodation on the Pacific Highway, particularly around Coffs, which is approximately half way, but with a pack of dogs on board, even those places that might allow pets might think we were having a laugh, so free camping it would have to be.

At Grafton we headed inland on the Summerland Highway, which is more scenic and runs through a variety of state forests and national parks. from looking on the internet, a place called Ellangowan State Forest seemed like a reasonable target, but with no maps... fortunately we stumbled across it (we think!).

Next challenge. putting up a 6 man tent, which we'd not seen out of the bag at 11:30pm... Apologies to the people in the caravan, but by 1am it was up, and we were all in bed. Us in one compartment of the tent, big dogs in another, and the puppies in the back of the van. A good nights sleep was had by all...