Lovely Lakes Entrance

The Drive from Warragul to Lakes entrance was wet and windy most of the way.  We stopped at Sale for a special Lunch at McDonalds (life without the caravan is actually quite difficult, because the boot of the car is Jam Packed with all our essentials, so when we were without the van, we would occasionally do something we said we wouldn’t do on our trip – and we would get take away to eat).  When we got to Lakes Entrance on Wednesday afternoon it was still pouring, so we donned our rain jackets and setup the tent in a puddle of water.  The Caravan park we stayed at (Eastern Beach) ‘upgraded’ our site from the unpowered site which we had booked, to a site right near the jumping pillow and amenities – we were so glad about this because it would have been a real hike from the unpowered sites to the playground.

After the tent was all setup we cooked our dinner and went to bed and tried to stay warm and dry.  The next day, we woke up to a beautiful sunny day, but it was really cold and windy.  We chose the caravan park because of its facilities (compared with a few free-camps in the area) and we were so glad that we did because it was great to have the camp kitchen, the playground, the games/TV room, and the jumping pillow all at our door.  We didn’t spend any time inside the tent (except when we were sleeping) and so we spent the rest of our time at Lakes Entrance exploring the area or just playing in the playground at the park.

The Playground at Eastern Beach - Lakes Entrance

Jumping Pillows are as much fun for the parents as for the kids!

We were unsure how long we would spend at Lakes entrance, and so we started by booking 2 nights, but we ended up staying 5 nights because the caravan wouldn’t be ready until Monday of the next week and instead of moving on we just stayed put.

On Day 1 (Thursday 1^st December) we spent some time playing in the park, and then went to the lookout at the top of the hill.  It is a spectacular lookout and reminds me of a lookout at Nambucca Heads in NSW.  We then walked across the footbridge to the ocean beach and spent a bit of time playing on the beach.  By the time we left the beach, it was almost lunch, so we went back to the caravan park.  The weather then really started packing it in, and there was not much point sitting in the tent, so we decided to go to the indoor heated pool just up the road.  We were very glad we did this because it was nice and warm in the 3 pools and we all had a really great time.  We spent about 2 ½ hours at the pool, which gave Sam and Natalie their confidence back with the water, and we watched the squally weather outside beat rain against the pool’s glass windows.   By the time we left the pool, it was no longer raining (it was still windy and cold), but we managed to miss all the rain.

The Lakes Entrance Lookout

Walking back from our play at the beach

Day 2 (Friday) was a sunny day (but still really cold and windy) and all we did was stay around the park, and walk to the beach to dig holes in the sand.  We dug a hole so big that it could fit all three kids in it and you couldn’t see them from across the beach.  Overall, It was a pretty lazy day – it had a nice holiday feel to it.

On Saturday (Day 3) we thought we would make the most of the good weather and have a drive around the area.  We went to visit another historic trestle bridge – the longest in Victoria and then went to Bairnsdale to have a play on a massive slippery slide that we saw when we drove past it a few days before.

Victoria's longest Trestle Bridge

The super long bumpy slide at Bairnsdale

The weather closed in on us a bit on Sunday, but we went and walked around the seafarer’s market which was on in town.  After checking out the markets, we drove to a few sights around the area – like the earliest known oil core site in Australia and up to Lake Tyres where we had lunch, then it was back to the caravan park to play and head to bed.

One of the wood Carvings in town

 

We had heard from the Caravan Repair place on Saturday, and the Caravan was going to be ready for us on Monday, so we got up early on the Monday Morning, and headed back to Warragul to pickup our newly fixed caravan…