Cape Otway – December 2010

Day 7 – last day – reflecting on the holiday

Monday 3rd January

OK, so we arrived home a few short hours ago and we’ve been unpacking, cleaning, washing and generally unwinding from the trip ever since. Between us, we’ve flushed half a ton of dust and dirt down the shower and bath plug-holes and all is now peaceful (at least as peaceful as a house-hold can be with two small children). For me, this has been a fantastic holiday. It isn’t just that we had a good time one and all; I actually managed to get some really consistent quality time with the kids and also with the whole family unit. On the whole, we had really good weather but it wasn’t as warm as might have been expected for the time of year and the mornings and evenings were often quite chilly. This affected Sandy’s enjoyment above all else but she, too, had a great time by and large.

As a first camping holiday with children, I think we can call this one a big success. Joey and Jennifer took to the camping lifestyle with ease and seemed to miss none of our usual mod-cons such as TV or even their own beds. I had somewhat mixed feelings about the actual camp-site itself but I think what really made the holiday for us was the fact that we met Mel, Hendrik, Matilda & Klara. Of the many dozens of potential tent sites at Bimbi Park (and they squeeze them in just about anywhere), we had the very good fortune to be placed next to Mel & Henrik’s pitch. From that point on, our holiday was pretty much made. When I was packing up the tent, I actually started to feel quite sad that we were leaving – not specifically that it was the end of our holiday but that we were leaving our new friends. We will try to keep in touch with them and may even see them again shortly, as we’re planning on visiting Werribee wildlife park in the next few days and hope to see them again there. Thanks guys for making our holiday such a success.