Two little gobblers

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Day 270 - Lorne

We have a birthday shout out today to our beautiful neice Nicola who is celebrating being another year older today! We hope you have a great day lovely lady and we'll raise a glass or two in your name tonight!! Ha ha!

We woke up in plenty of time to prepare for the day ahead of us. Darryl made some sandwiches then packed the rucksacks with a few snacks, supplies and drinks, today is the day we take out the girls with Daph and David.

This morning was the first time we’d really checked out the amenities on the caravan site and they’re not too bad at all considering we are on pitch 5 out of 635! Admittedly its split over a few different camp grounds but the place is packed solid so we’re pretty lucky not to have to wait for the toilet or the shower and it’s good to find they’re both clean & tidy!

By 9.30 we were ready so sped up to the apartment. Daph was out shopping for supplies for their sandwiches which we guessed meant she’d walked all the way to the other end of town and the supermarket we were camped behind! Darn, that was bad planning on our part. While we were waiting we were treated to a new creation from David, a nit farm! While Anna was brushing Amy's hair this morning she'd managed to find a few more eggs lurking but before she could dispose of them David decided to experiment and see if they would hatch on the window sill in the sun! Anna was horrified (although giggling!) and we were laughing our head off, no pun intended.

We were ready to go so bundled the girls in our car whilst David followed behind with Daph. The girls are still pretty young and we didn’t want to scare them off by doing a huge walk so decided to visit Erskine Falls which we remember being pretty kid friendly.

It turn out to be a great choice as the girls soon announced they’d never seen a real waterfall before, well we’d better get walking then! Erskine Falls is in a beautiful setting and the girls tuck into the 250 steps you have to navigate to reach the base of the falls. They even handled jumping across the rocks above the various streams of water too which we were most impressed with. Amy took a bit of a tumble and one foot got dunked in the water but there were no complaints and she continued like a little trooper.

There were plenty of people around today and striking up conversations with other visitors was easy. I got chatting to an American couple who have relocated to Australia, how do these people manage it! Kerry & Kevin were lovely but none of us had a pen to swap details although I did manage to find one of our travel cards so hopefully we’ll hear from them before we go home so we can catch up again.

We continued our walk down to Straw Falls which had the girls hopping across more rocks and even walking along a suspended log! They seemed to love it and we were, of course, having a ball.

The girls were drinking plenty of water to keep themselves hydrated and seemed ready for the big tromp back up the 250 steps, what comes down must go up! The old Button Song got us half way up with smiles on our faces but the puffing and panting took hold from there. We made it though and the girls found a final blast of energy when they got to the top, perhaps it was the promise of a sit down in the car on the way to a picnic area for a bit of lunch!

We’d spied the picnic area on the drive in, it was only minutes away from Erskine Falls so we didn’t have to wait long before tucking into the stack of sandwiches we’d brought with us. Of course we were terribly envious of Daph and David’s gourmet ones, ha ha, they did look terrific! David and Darryl had a scramble through the woods trying to entice the girls to look for Koala’s but they were a bit reluctant. What they did both need to do was use the toilet which prompted a good discussion about the differences between the toilet at home and the drop toilet here in the park! Good on them both, they used it, questioned why there was no flush and listened intently to the serious of answers I gave them explaining how a bush loo works! Not quite the sort of lunchtime entertainment I’d anticipated but it was a new and good experience for them both nevertheless!

From here we all headed to Gentle Annie’s pick your own fruit farm. The journey wasn’t particularly straight forward as many of the roads through the Ottway Ranges are gravel tracks but we thought it would be fun to navigate our way through the woods rather than using the sealed roads. It was a beautiful drive and had us all looking up in the trees for Koalas most of the way, sadly we didn’t spot any.

We picked up a couple of Gobbler’s Passes for the girls when we got to the farm which meant they could eat as much as they wanted on the way round. David and Darryl set out in search of plums initially while Daph, myself and the girls headed for the strawberries. It was great fun and the girls really got stuck in. By the time we returned to the counter for a weigh in we’d picked Strawberries, Plums, Silvanberries, Thornless Blackberries and Blueberries! What a feast! In fact what a great day out, we’d had so much fun but decided it was time to head for home.

Anna and Grant were still out and about enjoying their day when we got back to the apartment so we took the girls to the pool for a bit of a splash about. It’s only a small pool but it’s really, really deep so the girls had a great time swimming underneath us and jumping off Darryl’s back! That’s Amy’s favourite thing to do!

By the time we wandered back to the apartment, Anna and Grant had returned so the girls filled them in on what we’d got up too.

The apartment has a spa in the bathroom which the girls are keen to try out so Grant fills it up for them and watches them for a bit through the window. The scene takes a turn for the worst when the giggles and laughs turn to high pitched screams of terror from both Amy and Charlotte. Something’s gone terribly wrong and both the girls are in a complete state of panic. Charlotte’s hair has been sucked into the spa mechanics and her head is being pulled under the water.

Anna, Grant and Darryl rush into the bathroom with Anna frantically trying to keep Charlotte’s head above the water and stop her from being scalped, Grant trying to remove the plug and Darryl finally working out how to switch the spa off. Amy is screaming in terror for her sister so I try to comfort her and keep her out of the way until it becomes apparent that everything is ok. Anna somehow managed to free Charlottes hair, none of us are quite sure how but thank goodness she did.

Everyone is extremely shaken by the incident and Grant immediately reports it to the front desk of the resort with Anna following it up in person a bit later on.

To her credit Charlotte gets over the shock very well and we try to get the situation back to normal fairly quickly by taking her mind off things with a game of Rummikub. It seems to do the trick and although the adults are silently reeling about the horror of ‘what could have been’ the two girls play happily so the discussions of what, why, how and ‘Oh my god’ are left til later.

Dinner is a runaway success, even if I do say so myself. Amy did a great job helping by grating the carrots with us, bit of a mess but very helpful! Darryl (with assistance and tips from Grant) cooked up a lamb roast in our camp oven which was heralded as delicious by all (phew!). The veg, potatoes and accompanying gravy were all very tasty leaving us stuffed full and needing some exercise if we were going to be able to fit in the fruit desert!

We decided to walk along the beach at dusk which was beautiful, a quick stop off at the wishing well gave us all a laugh but obviously we don’t know what everyone wished for … you can’t tell or it won’t come true!

Regardless of the huge dinner, everyone made room for fruit, ice cream and chocolate sauce! Messy but gorgeous!

With the girls safely tucked up in bed the conversation returned to the spa dramatics. It was a lucky escape and everyone is concerned the situation could have ended with a far uglier result. We take a look around the apartment and assess the information available for the use of the spa, there’s nothing. There are no instructions or warnings for its use, there’s no signage in the bathroom itself and frankly it’s just not on. Whatever action is taken from here will be in an attempt to ensure this scenario does not happen to anyone else.

We leave for the night and head back to the caravan park which is all in darkness by the time we arrive. We’re packing up and setting off early in the morning but yet again we’re too pooped to do anything tonight so flop into bed and sleep til tomorrow arrives.

Dar and Sar

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