Paradise!

After a sad farewell to Julie, Rasmus and the kids we headed to a beautiful little campground at Paradise Beach. Paradise Beach is about 30 mins from Sale and on the famous Ninety Mile Beach.

The campground is really nice. It is free camping where you can pull in anywhere, so first in best dressed. We had hoped that by arriving in the afternoon of the public holiday, there would be lots of people leaving to go back to work on Tuesday (poor suckers!). Unfortunately there were a few other nomads who had the same thought as us. It was quite busy when we got there and we had trouble finding a spot where we could fit, without camping on top of someone else.

There was a really nice couple who said they would be more than happy to move their car so we could pull up next to them. It turned out to be a wonderful spot in the shade surrounded by trees for the boys to climb.

One of the requirements we have for a campground is that it has good mobile phone and internet coverage. Dan needs to be contactable for work and must be able to email his clients. However, on Monday we were too busy worrying about a good spot, and we didn’t give a thought to the phone service.

Once we had set up everything (and we do have a really good set-up but it does take a lot of effort to sort it out) I decided to give mum and dad a ring and check in. The only place I could get service anywhere near our caravan, was standing on a tree stump over near the road.  Dan really couldn’t work from there could he?

The thought of packing everything and moving was a horrible one. But we needed to sort something out.  So the next day I set off with the kids to find somewhere better. There are over 20 free campgrounds between Paradise Beach and Seaspray (so about 100 or more sites), but not one of them was both big enough for us to get in and had phone service.

I then spent the next hour or so looking like a fool by walking around our campground, waving the phone in the air and freezing every now and then to see if I had service. I found a place about 30 meters from where we were so moved the car over there, set up the tent that attaches to the back of the 4wd and set up a mobile office. It worked really well, Dan had a bit of peace and quiet away from the kids and ran all of his equipment off the car’s second battery. I was secretly relieved that we didn’t have to move and I think Dan likes working in his ‘secret base’!

As we were setting up, we got chatting to our new neighbours. Rhonda and Ron are a lovely couple and the boys instantly fell in love with their beautiful, big, black, curly poodle named Louis. Sam and Louis spent all afternoon playing catch while Zac happily watched and laughed (made me miss my Marvel - who we saddly have left at home). Rhonda also made a new best friend when she let Will have a go of her electric scooter. I nearly had a heart attack thinking he was going to crash it, but Rhonda was so relaxed about him riding it.

Rhonda and Ron were camping with another couple Bev and John. They were all heading in the opposite direction to us so could tell us the good places to stay (and the ones to avoid). They also gave us their address and told us we are welcome to pull into their drive when we get further north. 

Tuesday afternoon my Mum and Dad arrived. It was so good to see them again and the boys were all very excited. We spent the next few days going for walks, playing on the beach and sitting around chatting and drinking lots of tea!

Thursday was my 33^rd birthday so Dad made pancakes for breakfast, then Mum, Sam and Will made me a surprise birthday cake. Remember it is quite a challenge to make a cake when you are camping so it was even more appreciated. We had fish and chips for dinner and I hardly had to lift a finger all day. It was great!

My Uncle and his wife, Clive and Maggie arrived in Sydney from England last week and are travelling down to Melbourne by car. So on Friday we all drove into Sale to meet up with them.

I had been quite upset when I realised that we would be away when Clive and Maggie were visiting Melbourne, so I am really pleased that we managed to cross paths. I hadn’t seen them since I was in England when I was pregnant with Sam (he is now 8!) and Dan hadn’t seen them since our wedding. It was also really nice for Sam and Will to be able to put a face to the names they knew so well.

After a delicious morning tea and a walk around the lake we said goodbye to both Clive and Maggie and Mum and Dad. Then we went home to catch up on work and school.

On Saturday I was feeling like I needed a bit of ‘me time’. So Dan dropped me off in Sale for some retail therapy while he took the three boys to the Air Force Museum. They all (especially Dan) had a great time and were very excited to be allowed to go into the cockpit of a plane.

 

 

On the way home we stopped off to watch the historic Swing Bridge close. It is located where the Thomson and the Latrobe rivers meet, and is a spectacular, nineteenth century iron Swing Bridge.  It was designed to swing open for shipping to and from the Port of Sale. It was very slow but fascinating to watch.

The following day we once again packed up and moved on. This time back to the High Country where we will be meeting up with Dan’s family.