Christmas 2019 Trip: Home -> Lakes Entrance

After a busy morning at home packing the car (I'd finished the trailer packing the night before)  and making sure the house was ok to leave, we were on the road around 12.45pm. Pretty impressive since we hadn't really done any preparation until the day before and we were also out half of that day. Luna was very excited to be coming with us - although it will take a bit of time for us to adjust to having her as I had to pack the car really differently. She was happily set up between the girls and can see out the front window and get lots of pats.

We drove through the hills down towards Pakenham, stopping at a rest stop (near Gumbuyah World) to retie the shovel which had worked it's way loose from the side of the trailer. I was feeling very excited and relaxed (a nice combination) - great to finally be on the road and loving being somewhere new even if it was just a roadside rest stop. Luna had a bit of a walk and then we kept going, this time listening to Superpowereds rather than music.

We'd looked at some free camping options close to Lakes Entrance - the one we liked was almost another hour past the town, and didn't have toilets, so we decided to stay in a caravan park in town instead. I found a basic park with good rates and booked in as we drove.

Everyone was excited as we started to glimpse the ocean, and even more so when we had a good view of the entrance to the lakes as we drove down the hill. Tony and I stopped here for lunch on our honeymoon 17 years ago, otherwise none of us have ever been here.

At the caravan park the guy helped us get the trailer in the best position - he opened gates behind our site so that we could drive through without having to reverse. All the sites have their own ensuite shower and toilet which is a nice touch. As Tony and I set up the kids took Luna for a walk down to the beach. Set up was quick and fairly easy, although when we put the annex up I realised I'd left a bunch of the poles at home (some of them were damaged at our last camp when the annex got hit by a big wind gust and I'd put them aside to fix them and then forgotten about them). I was missing a couple of poles that I needed but I managed to make do with what I had.

Once set up we went and joined the kids - a lovely walk along one arm of the lake then across the footbridge to the ocean beach. There were lots of swans in the lake. Luna was a bit scared of the waves but happy to sit on the sand and watch the kids play. Caitlin buried her paws in the sand which confused her at first then she figured she could just stand up and get out of the sand. Tony went and ordered fish and chips and the kids built tunnels and dug holes and did handstands, then we joined him back near the lake to eat. We watched the sunset over the lake and Tony walked back to the beach to watch it set over the ocean. We had a bit of a play on the exercise equipment near the lake then wandered back to the tent, set up the beds and went to bed as soon as we could.