St. Georges Lake...

Thursday 24th January 2019

After a very cruisy morning and afternoon, we all jumped in the car and set off on a roadtrip adventure with Mel and friends (Danielle and Chris) to St. Georges Lake in Creswick. 

It was so much fun following each other in a convoy along the back country roads.

The Lake was absolutely breathtaking!  A popular spot, but we were luckily enough to find a spot with some shade.

We all had so much fun playing in the water and hanging out together.  Mel and the kids were dare devils and even jumped off the big rock...maybe next time, I will push through my fear and give it a try too!

I am so adding a kayak to my wishlist!  So much gratitude to Mel for letting us take her awesome Christmas gift out for a spin!

Funniest moment for me was hopping in our blow up raft and going around in circles.  

Here I was thinking it was my lack of being able to row straight.  That was until Jai laughed and looked behind the raft...turns out my little shits of son's were holding onto it LOL!

We had a Picnic/BBQ dinner by the lake which was absolutely delish!  It was so awesome that everyone bought food along and shared it, such a great vibe of friendship and togetherness! 

Sadly the time came to pack up and pile back into our cars to head home (aka it got dark).

At 10.00pm when we arrived back in Bacchus Marsh, it was still hot SO we pulled in to 7-eleven for a slushie!  I love that Mel and I had the same idea without verbalising it, another tradition has been made!  I know that I've said it before, but I seriously love hanging out with Mel and the kids.  I am hoping that this year sees more memories made together.

The rest of our night was spent just relaxing at home, talking about our wonderful week of making memories!

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Lets take the scenic route...

Wednesday 23rd January 2019

Today we got up, packed up and headed towards home!

As it was a 10am check out AND we were all not really wanting our time away together to come to an end, we decided to take the long way home.  The scenic route, if you will!

From Stawell we travelled to Lake Bolac.

Whilst not free, you can camp here for $15.00 per night.  It has amenities and you can swim in the designated beaches, which are right near the camp spot.  When we drove through, there were only two lots of campers there.  Oh it also had phone reception.  Definitely a place we will be coming back to!

From Lake Bolac, we went to Mortlake. 

The kids got to release some energy on the Skate Park, I went for a little walk (admittedly, only to find a toilet) and Mark sat back and stretched his legs.

From Mortlake we went to check out Lake Colac.

Pa (Uncle Geoff) had told us about a free camping spot on the Lake and so we went to have a look. It was jam packed with caravans and tents and sadly you couldn't swim due to low water quality. The boys were interested in the endangered Water Skink, so it is somewhere that we will come back to...just not in peak season, or when its hot!

From Lake Colac to Lorne.

Whilst Mark is more of a river man (he doesn't like the sand much) he had fun exploring the rocks for sea creatures. 

The boys paddled their feet and left their marks in the sand!

 

I loved that from where we were, I could see the Airey's Inlet lighthouse.  It's where we scattered Dad's ashes and so I felt a deep connection occur, one where I found me again!

From Lorne to Torquay (with a few detours along the way).

We stopped off at the Cosy Corner, where clothes and all, I went for a dip LOL!

So, when we decided it was time to hit the road and head towards home we jumped back in the car, went to start her up AND she wouldn't start!  The immobisler on the car had decided to turn itself on AND our key wouldn't work to turn it off!  RACV to the rescue!  30 minutes later the RACV guy arrived!  We explained what the problem was, give him the keys and off he went to check it out!  It bloody started...first go, just like that!  OMG so bloody embarrassing!  The RACV bloke found it quite amusing and we all had a good laugh about it too!

Something that I believe in wholeheartedly, is that things happen for a reason.  We may not know at the time what they are, but you just have to allow it to be what is it!  For me, it was that we got to relax and enjoy the beach atmosphere for longer.  And a bonus was that there were people there drumming, so grounding!

Anyway, we eventually made it home, unpacked the car, packed everything away, put on a load of washing and then all settled down to just relax and enjoy the feeling of being home!

As much as we love going away and always wish the holiday didn't have to come to an end, being home again feels nice too!

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A relaxing day...

Tuesday 22nd January 2019

As todays forecast was a HOT one, we decided that a day of relaxing by the pool would be the order of the day.

We had a picnic lunch in the room and watched a movie, before heading back to the pool for some more fun times!

Once it cooled down a little, we decided to take the canoe out for a paddle around the Lake.

So much fun, even if I did do 'most' of the paddling!  All those years of being in Rovers definately paid off!

Then we went back to the pool again!

Once we were all waterlogged we headed back to the room for a little R'n'R.  Oh, I found a heart shaped rock on the way back to the room FTW!

R'n'R for Mark and I meant sitting lakeside sipping on a special coffee (aka one with Baileys in it) while the boys lazed on their bed in airconditioned comfort and watched some YouTube.  I was so relaxed that I didn't even get up to take a photo of them!

 

To finish off our last night of our holiyays, we all played a game of pictionary!  This saw us laughing so hard that I almost pee'd.  In the end no one won the game as we packed it in afraid we were too loud for the guests next door.  We so have to play it again soon!

Can't believe its been 3 nights already, it just flies way too fast!  Home tomorrow!

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Day Trip here and there...

Monday 21st Januaray 2019

Today we decided to head off on a day trip to explore The Grampians and the surrounding area.

First stop was McKenzies Falls. 

Whilst swimming is prohibited, we found a shady spots on the rocks to dangle our feet. Despite being quite a few people there, it was still so peaceful.

So despite not liking heights much, the steep walk down to the falls was quite pleasant. The walk back up however, not so much! 260 stairs and an uphill incline saw this little black duck needing to take way more rest breaks than I would like to admitt. 

We finally made it back up to the top and then jumped in the car and took a leisurely drive back towards base camp.

We have this thing we do when out and about with no time restrictions, where if we see a sign that interests us, we head towards it.

We stopped on the side of the road for Mark to check out an old shed.

Found ourselves at Bunjils Shelter.

And even came across a Giant Koala, where we stopped for ice cream.

Once back at the Motel we again had a dip in the pool. 

Then we took a trip into town where the boys checked out the local skate park; something that has become somewhat of a holdiay tradition.

On the way back to base, we grabbed Maccas for dinner as no one could be bothered heating up the baked beans and making toast...lazy or what!

That night Ace tried his hand at fishing with the hand reel (we were going to take the proper rods, which we had put in the shed. Unfortunately some bright spark (that would be me) put the reels in the tackle box, and then packed that in the campervan), while Jazz entertained the ducks to try and keep them away from Ace's line LOL. He didn't catch anything but it was fun all the same and ultra relaxing sitting by the waters edge.

 

Once we were all ready to settle in for the night, we popped on a movie and all just chillaxed.  Absolutely perfect way to end a perfect day!  I could get used to this kind of life!

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