Ocean Grove Trip

I hadn't done much preparation for our camping trip (we've been quite busy lately, and I'd just spent the weekend in Sydney for my sister-in-laws 40th), so we packed our clothes the night before, I put the awning canvases and the tarps back on the trailer the night before, then we did the rest on the Tuesday morning before we left and were away by 11. We got petrol and came back for a few things we'd forgotten, then were properly on the way by 11.30.

I stopped just out of Geelong because I was feeling pretty tired. I had a snack and walked around a bit, then the kids got frozen slushies from Hungry Jacks and we bought some fruit and veg from a little shop at the roadhouse. We continued on and reached Ocean Grove a bit after 2.

3 of the other homeschooling families we were camping with were already there, and another family joined us each day then went home of a night (they only live half an hour away). I set up the tent while the kids played with their friends, then the kids all did the watermelon challenge - putting rubber bands around a watermelon until it explodes. The top of the melon cracked and popped open and it felt like a bit of a let down, so the kids kept putting rubber bands on even though we thought it probably wouldn't explode now that the pressure had been let out. They put a few more on and it suddenly exploded upwards, covering one of the girls completely in watermelon and hitting everyone else, and spreading many metres out from the blast zone. It was hilarious and a lot of fun.

The kids rode their bikes and played in the playground and after a while LiAM and another boy went over to the beach (his mum and I went too). They built a big wall with a hole behind it that they tried to keep filled with water, as the tide was coming in the waves were filling the hole and knocking down the wall and things became more challenging. It was cold and windy on the beach, quite grey. The boys had a lot of fun and came home a little bit wet and very happy. The boy's family went home after we got back, they were only staying the one night as they had things on for the rest of the week, so LiAM was a little disappointed that his friend had left, although we will see them again soon.

I went to the shops to get food for dinner, we had hotdogs for tea in the camp kitchen. The others were around too, getting their own dinner and we chatted and played. After tea Caitlin went for a walk to the beach with the older girls, and the rest of us went to bed and read for a while, Caitlin came in not long afterwards.

It was sprinkling in the morning and I hadn't put the annex up because I thought it wasn't going to rain. I moved things that I didn't want to get wet and went to the camp kitchen for my cup of tea. Gradually everyone else woke up and wandered to the kitchen and we had breakfast, the kids played games and we had a nice easy morning as the weather cleared up. There was more playing in the playground and lots of bike riding, then in the late morning we all headed over to the beach. It was sunny by now, but the wind was still pretty cold. 2 of the older kids went out surfing, and I went in the water with my 3 kids and Amelie's friend. It was very cold, and the 2 younger girls soon went back to play in the shallow waves at the edge. Caitlin, LiAM and I went out a lot further - it was shallow for a very long way and the waves weren't big, it was fairly easy surf to swim in, just really really cold. The kids had wetsuits on so they coped with it a bit better than me. Eventually I felt like my reflexes were getting a bit slower because I was so cold so I went back and sat on the sand in the sun to warm up. The kids played in the sand and after a while Caitlin went back in with the older kids and was able to go out further to where the water was a bit deeper (and it wasn't as rough there as I'd feared). They had a go at boogie boarding but the waves weren't quite right.

Amelie had had enough of the sand after a while so she went back to camp with some of the others. Her friend's mum had brought kites along, and LiAM and the other younger kids flew them on the beach for a while, the wind was strong and the kites flew really well. We wandered back to camp and had some lunch, the kids played in the playground and rode their bikes and the mums sat and chatted. In the afternoon we went strawberry picking at a local farm, the strawberries were fresh and delicious and it was a lot of fun. Afterwards LiAM sat with me and the other mums and dipped all his strawberries in cream - very enjoyable.

We all had dinner together that night, a few of us went to get roast chickens and hot chips, and we had a bit of salad and stuff too and we all ate in the camp kitchen together (it was really well equipped, and had lots of little tables and a great big table which fit most of us around it (there were 13 people altogether). After dinner Millie's friends went to bed, and once it got dark the rest of us walked over to the beach to see if we could see the Aurora Australis - it was supposed to be a good night for it but it was cloudy and so not possible to see anything. The kids had a play on the sand in the dark and it was cool to be there watching the surf and the night sky. When we got back Amelie and I wandered off soon afterwards, everyone else went back to the kitchen for a games night and played cards and other games until about midnight.

It was raining again in the morning, a bit more heavily this time, so again I had my cup of tea in the kitchen and the others wandered in one by one. We had breakfast then played Racing Demons, which the kids had learnt the night before. After a while we switched to playing Burn, and some of the others joined us. Amelie went to play with her friends in the playground, and everyone else played Burn for a few rounds (9 of us) which was a lot of fun.

By now it was midday and quite sunny again. We all went over to Barwon Heads to get ice-cream - it was delicious! We wandered around the shops for a while, while Millie and her friends went to the playground, then the rest of us met them there. The playground was right on the river, overlooking the bridge between Barwon Heads and Ocean Grove, a beautiful spot to play. Caitlin and LiAM explored the sandbanks in the river then LiAM and I walked back into town so he could buy something from the bakery.

The older kids wanted to go to the lolly shop in Ocean Grove, and Amelie chose to stay with her friends on the condition we could go to the lolly shop again tomorrow. Caitlin and LiAM selected their lollies and I grabbed a few too, then we headed back to camp (with one of the other boys in our car, he'd been with us all day). The mums sat and chatted again at our campsite while the kids rode their bikes and climbed trees, and when Amelie and the others came back they played in the playground.  The others (except Amelie's friends) were leaving this afternoon so they finished packing up then we talked at the car while the big kids rode their ripsticks.

LiAM wasn't feeling well and had a nap and Caitlin crashed on the couch in the kitchen once everyone else had left. I cooked some dinner and the kids played, LiAM had a shower and then joined us as well. We had a relatively early night and read Harry Potter for a while.

It was sunny on our last morning so I went for a quick walk near the edge of the river then had my cup of tea at the tent. As the kids woke up they had breakfast then they went down to the kitchen to play cards while I packed up. Amelie's friend's Mum packed up as well, then she took all the kids down to the other playground while I finished off. We all met in the kitchen for lunch and then headed off. We drove over to Portarlington to the lolly shop there and met up with the family who'd been coming over each day. We bought our lollies then sat outside at a cafe with them in the warm sun and had the most magnificent milkshakes we've ever tasted. I reversed the trailer out of the tricky spot that I had parked in (feeling much more confident about my reversing now) and we headed to Geelong where we called in to see Amelie's friends again. The kids all had a wonderful afternoon playing with all their games and activities and I had more time to chat to their mum. We left around 6.30 which meant we missed the traffic on the Ring Road and had an easy trip home, arriving just after 8.30.

Half-Lap Day 72: Broome

It was my friend’s birthday, so she and I were up early and went into the beach together, leaving the guys to look after the kids when they all woke up. We walked north along Cable Beach for ages, talking about all sorts of things and really rejuvenating ourselves. We saw lots of amazing shells (including one that was so orange, it looked like it had been painted), and crabs, and lots of changing light patterns on the water. It was cloudy when we got there and the ocean was a deep grey, then it lightened as the sun got higher and was sparkly at times when the sun broke through the clouds. It was a little windy and the sand was swirling around but it wasn’t too uncomfortable.

View over the rocks (low tide) towards Gantheaume Point

Eventually we turned around and walked back, seeing 2 of the camel trains on the way, and had great views across the rocks and now blue water towards Gantheaume Point. We walked up to the Sunset Bar and Grill and sat outside overlooking the ocean, and had a coffee (my first real (well, de-caf) coffee in many many years – it was delicious!). All around us people were eating a yummy looking buffet breakfast – my friend’s mum had given her some money to spend on something frivolous on her trip, so we splashed out and bought breakfast. It was quite magnificent, bacon and eggs and sausages and mushrooms and tomatoes and potatoes, which we followed up with pastries and yoghurt and fruit and muesli. It was so wonderful to have a long uninterrupted stretch of time with a good friend, and to add great food and a magnificent view into it – it was a great morning.

Our view while we ate breakfast

We went back to the caravan park and hung out with everyone else for the rest of the morning. We prepared some food for dinner (actually I didn’t help, the other 3 adults did the preparation, I was pottering around at our tent) and the kids played on their ipads, played with their toys, and rode their bikes around. LiAM borrowed one of the other girl’s bikes and had a practice on something bigger than Millie’s, and liked it, so we’re on the lookout for a bike that size for him.

After lunch the others went in to Broome to have a bit of a look around, and we stayed at the tent for a bit longer. Tony took the girls for a swim in the pool, then we got ready and went to Cable Beach for one last high tide swim. We got there just after high tide, and it hadn’t been a huge one (around 7 metres, the first day we were there the tide was 9m). We hired a boogie board and headed out into the water (Tony and Millie stayed in the car for a while reading Millie’s new Barbie book, Millie wasn’t keen on swimming in the ocean). The waves were quite gentle today, more like the first day we swam at Cable Beach. Every now and then though there was a bigger one, and Caitlin rode the first wave she attempted all the way in to the shore. She had a few goes then handed over to LiAM, who also caught a few waves. Caitlin had another go and didn’t get many waves, then gave the board to me – I didn’t catch anything. The one wave that might have been big enough, I got scared at the last minute and didn’t commit fully, so I missed it, and everything else wasn’t quite strong enough. Caitlin got out to check the time and found our friends from Kings Canyon. The boy grabbed his board and came out to join us, and Millie’s friend wasn’t using hers so said Caitlin could borrow it, which meant LiAM could hang on to the one we’d hired. The three of them happily caught waves for a while, then our friends from home arrived and hired boards as well, and joined my kids in the waves. Millie was at the beach by now, and played with her friend on the sand.

It was still quite windy and nowhere near as warm as it had been – the water was cold when we first got in then lovely once we were wet, but the breeze when we were out of the water was very chilly. We stayed in the water as long as we could – until the beach hut was packing up and we needed to return the boogie boards. The kids had a great time with the boards and I enjoyed being in the water one last time here, especially as sunset approached. Millie got into her swim

mers and jumped over the waves at the shore, but didn’t come all the way in. We returned the boards then popped back in for a little bit more of a swim, then got out to shower and get changed. The kids played on the sand for a while, we chatted to both sets of friends, then once the sun had set we left the beach and went back to camp.

We joined our friends at their van for a birthday dinner – slow cooked potatoes with bacon, onion and coleslaw, really delicious. We provided the wine. It was a lovely relaxing evening with great company. The evening was definitely the coolest we’ve had in a long time, we all got our jackets out and the wind made things a little uncomfortable. We were laughing though as it was barely under 20 degrees and at home it’s barely making it over 10 degrees in the daytime – will be a bit of a shock for us as we head south into colder weather!

We had cheesecake and chocolate Bavarian for dessert, then spent more time looking at maps and comparing notes on where we’d been and where we want to go, giving each other tips on campsites and activities. Everyone was really tired so after a cup of tea we headed back to our own tent and all got ready for bed. Caitlin got in her tent but it was too windy so moved her bed back into our tent and we read a chapter of Inheritance.