Upper Yarra Reservoir: Day 2

LiAM had trouble sleeping and Millie woke up and joined us at one point so Caitlin was the only one who spent the whole night on the floor. It was crowded with 4 of us on the mattress but there was enough room. I extricated myself once it was light and sat outside and had a cup of tea and read my book for ages by myself, it was lovely - an overcast morning with the mountain looming above me, very quiet and very peaceful. It did start to get cold so eventually I needed to find more clothes from the spare bag in the car (I didn't want to wake anyone else up so didn't go back in the tent). Caitlin joined me after a while, we went and cooked some porridge and sat undercover to eat it - it was raining a bit by this stage. After breakfast we played cards until the others emerged one by one from the tent.

Once the kids were all up they wandered over to see their friends from the glowstick party the night before. LiAM's friend from yesterday had left, but there was an 8 year old boy in the other group, so he quickly made a new friend. All the kids (ours and theirs) spent the morning running back and forth between the 2 campsites, exploring the area, playing the camper trailer, climbing trees and so on. Tony and took our time to pack up and chat and have a cup of tea and then some lunch. The trailer was much easier to pack up than I'd thought it might be, which was a relief.

Once everything was packed and the other families had left, we went for a walk on the Fern Gully Track. I'd forgotten how beautiful the river was until we were crossing the bridge over it. We walked on the loop track and the kids found a very long fallen tree which they played on for a while, then we completed the loop and had a paddle in the extremely cold river. Even Millie came a little way in. The kids then wanted to show us a place they'd found with their friends that morning, so we headed up the path to come back to the river further up - there was a little weir, and a picnic table was sitting in the corner of the river and the weir wall, which was a very exciting place to sit... We played on the weir for a while, surrounded by tall trees and ferns and the beautiful clear, freezing water. Eventually we extricated ourselves and got back in the car. I had a bit of reversing practice with the trailer on and then we headed home.

LiAM and Caitlin at the end of a fallen tree (they are there in amongst the ferns)

Paddling in the river

'Picnic' in the river

The Yarra River looks very different here compared to near our place near Yarra Glen, or once it gets all the way into the city

About 15 minutes down the road the car started overheating. We refilled the water but the engine heated up again straight away so we stopped and called the RACV. Turns out the water pump had seized (I'd been told last week I needed a new one and was booked in to get one in about 10 days....). Tony took the kids into Warburton for fish and chips while I waited for the tow truck. They brought a replacement car for us - but it had mechanical problems too and after I had all our stuff in it the guy decided we couldn't take it after all... So he towed the car and trailer to the depot in Yarra Junction, we drove the dodgy loan car to the depot and transferred all our stuff (again) to a tiny little hatchback and we finally drove home. The guy took the trailer (and our car) to the depot in Healesville and Tony went down and got the trailer with his car, and hopefully my car will be fixed sometime very soon!

Despite the frustrating ending of our trip though everyone was still in good spirits (although very tired) and had an enjoyable time camping - all looking forward to doing it again!

Upper Yarra Reservoir - Day 1

On Friday I realised that we had a free weekend, and that this might be the last one for some time. In January Tony often works a day on the weekend, and sometime in February Vintage will start and he will be working at least one day each weekend, and once Vintage is over baseball will have started and he'll be away all day Saturday. So we thought perhaps it was a good (and possibly the best) chance to try out our new camper trailer. Getting ready to go on Friday seemed too hard - Caitlin and I were going shopping for boots and pants as she has horse camp this week, and I wanted to enjoy that and not be rushed, so we decided to see how we felt on Saturday morning and head off if we felt like it.

Saturday morning was very relaxed, Tony and some of the kids had a sleep in, we played games, LiAM plants Plants v Zombies Garden Warfare, Caitlin started packing for horse camp, eventually we talked about camping and decided that we would go, to Upper Yarra Reservoir Park (C and L and I had been there about 15 months ago on Scout Camp and I loved the location. It's only about an hours drive from us so felt like an easy quick trip). We packed the car and the trailer - it was exciting being able to put most of the camping stuff in the trailer, so the car just had our food and clothes and wasn't jammed full at all - and set off in the early afternoon, stopping at Coles in Healesville for food and a couple of other supplies. On the way we listened to 'The Longest Whale Song' by Jacqueline Wilson (this is the 2nd of her books we've listened to on Audio CD. Even though the main character was a girl in both books, all the kids were very engaged in the story. Tony and I too.)

When we arrived the kids got out to run around and Tony and I scouted around for the best place to camp. Caitlin and I had a go at doing most of the setting up ourselves, as I want to take the kids camping on my own during Vintage this year, and wanted to see if we'll be able to set up the tent - we didn't do it all without Tony helping, but did enough for me to be sure that we'll be able to when he's not there. While we were setting up LiAM met a boy from one of the other tents, and they ran around together for a while then the kids from both families had a water bomb fight. We spent a very pleasant afternoon pottering around getting set up, sitting down and having a cuppa, checking out the view - I love the mountain that is right next to the park - while the kids played with their new friends. They found a rope swing tied to a tree and then met a group of families camping nearby who also had lots of kids to play with.

I love sitting and looking at this mountain (although it doesn't look as impressive in this photo as in real life)

Almost set up

We had an early dinner (the kids ate as they came back to tell us things, then were off again playing) and afterwards went for a walk up to the reservoir. We walked through a fairly overgrown path to get to the first lookout (the kids pretended they were lost in the woods), which only showed us the outlet from the dam into the aqueduct, not particularly exciting - although we could see the dam wall from there and it was rather impressive. From there we walked up the road, which switchbacked up the hill to get to the height of the dam wall. It was a bit tiring for the kids (and Tony who had Millie in the sling) but the view at the top was quite spectacular. The sun was setting behind us as we looked over the reservoir, lots of pink clouds reflected in the water and the mountains showing ridge after ridge beyond the dam. The kids discovered that there was a significant echo if they shouted, so they had fun experimenting with that. There was also a monument to the men who had built the dam which provided a fun climbing spot and an even higher view of the dam for Caitlin and LiAM. We walked back down to our camp in the fading light, everyone was pretty tired when we got back - then picked up again when their friends invited them to join in around their fire and play with glow sticks. The kids played there while I set up the beds, then came back and went to bed fairly easily. I sat outside and read my book for a while (I'm finally reading The Time Traveller's Wife and am completely enthralled by it.) then joined the others in the tent. Tony and I slept up on the mattress above the trailer and the kids had their own camping mattresses on the floor.

Stopping for some mango

The dam wall

Sunset over the reservoir