Banksia Camp (Tuesday 14th May – Thursday 16th May)

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As we continue to head west we drive to the “Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk”. An amazing 70m high steel walk way that sways with the wind along with the huge Tingle Trees, whilst taking you on a loop walk through this majestic forest. The girls enjoyed swaying and jumping on the board walk just to scare the poor Mum even more! An awesome feeling being around these massive and historical trees, many of which have been here for at least 400 years.

Time to find a camp, we head into D’Entrecasteaux National Park and to the 4WD track leading into Banksia Camp. Once again we have the place all to ourselves which means we have the pick of the camp sites and choose one with a beautiful view over the bay. The beach is beautiful with giant granite boulders sheltering us from the force of the waves and creating swimming pools and spas for us to enjoy. After frolicking in these pools, Matt heads out for a surf and the girls and I for a walk that turned into quite an adventure. Here is Ella’s story to describe our amazing adventure.

Journey to Odyssey Rock

It was a calm and balmy day as the wavy and clear water went over the rock pools, a family was swimming and playing. The Dad set off to go surfing while the Mum and two sisters decided to go on an adventure. They walked on a dusty path leading around the point, there they saw a cool rock pool so they decided to climb down the steep path to the beach below. As they were climbing down SLIP Ella went and grabbed onto the Mum at the front, “Phew!”, Ella Said. They kept walking down until they reached the beach. Ella and Mum went to climb onto a rock to see the rest of the beach while Kianna sat in the rock pools. When Ella and Mum reached the top of the rock, a huge squeal came from Kianna and we clambered back to her. Kianna said in a scared way, “I saw something, it went under that rock”. I said we should get back to see Dad. We decided to walk along the rock pools to the other side where Dad was, but when we were half way there we saw a deep rock pool where the water was swirling around with the current. We tried to swim across it, but it tried to drag us out, I held on to a rock with all of my might. We couldn’t get past the whirlpool so we swam back carefully. At the end of the rock pools I saw a pile of rocks up the steep hill, so we decided to climb them hoping that they would lead us to the dirt path at the top. We were excited, we thought that we were home free and on our way back, but when we got to the top there was no path only thick bushland and sharp reeds. I was too tired to walk all of the way back down so I told Mum, “Just do it”. Mum lead the way, then it was my turn, as I was walking through the reeds a sharp pain went through my foot, but I ignored it and just said to myself to keep going. Finally we got to the end of the reeds, but across our path was a shimmery spiders web with a very large spider resting right in the middle. My Mum decided to cut it down with a long reed so that we could pass. Once past this last obstacle, I ran to Dad down by the rock pools, he said “Where were you?” I smiled, but then Dad noticed blood running down my foot, I had cut myself on the reeds. I washed it in the rock pools and so that it would stay clean I was lucky to have Dad piggy back me to the caravan. We were all glad to be back with Dad. What an amazing adventure we had! The End.

We spend the afternoon exploring the 4WD tracks and in particular seeing the beautiful vista from Longcliff lookout and the idyllic beach of Bottleneck Bay. Ella was our co-driver for this adventure and we think Mario Cart has certainly provided some good pre driving training for her!

We coked a delicious pizza for dinner, kneading our own dough and again the Weber Q cooks up a storm, yum!

Another pack up, another 4WD track and we pull into Mandalay Beach where Matt finds some waves and the girls and I relax on our picnic rug in the sand hills.

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