Paradise Valley 2019

Easter for another year. Maggie is now a bit over 2, so we were a bit uncertain how camping would go. Once again, the hardest part is to get a decent nap given the temperature on a mild day is blazing hot inside a tent.

However, we went down for two nights which proved to be a great success. It wasn’t long enough for her to get too tired, but it was long enough that she really had a good time.

She played really well with Olive and Paddy, she loved driving Pa’s truck, loved the river, loved sleeping in the tent… loved it all, but especially the Easter Bunny came and gave her some chocolate, which she thought was the best thing ever.


The Campsite
 


The best part of camping

Lorne for Maggie’s Birthday

We are very close at getting back into the camping lifestyle, at least with Maggie, however this was another outdoorsy holiday on the luxurious side of things. We stayed at the nicest house I’ve been in, certainly the most expensive. Maggie was completely in her element, with all the grandparents there, and her two favourite things in the world: a swimming pool and the beach. We even made it to a waterfall but she wasn’t that fussed as she couldn’t swim in it.

 

Cape Schanck

For my birthday Claire and I went down to Cape Schanck. It is a new resort and I think the RACV have done a great job with it. I hadn’t been to Point Nepean either, so that was a nice walk, not overly rustic though. That was a bit of a theme of the holiday. We went to some natural hot springs. Unlike what you might find up north, they had been completely tiled and resembled more of a swimming pool. They were very hot though. We went to Bushrangers Bay, again a very nice place. It’s not exactly the true outdoors that I had in mind, but things have changed quite a bit now we are parents. It was a great escape for a night though, and I guess I am now 36!

Fun in the Sun over the break

Over the summer we had a lot of fun in the outdoors. We went the beach a few times, Seaspray and Golden Beach. We went to the Blue Pools and also to Marlay Point. Although this wasn’t a true outdoors holiday, Maggie really loved the day trips. She especially loves the water. It will be great to see her adapt to these things as she grows older. She is getting close to the age where camping will be a lot easier.

 

Jungle Perch

Was in Innisfail for a long weekend visiting friend’s of Claire’s. I got a chance to go fishing, unfortunately I had crippled my back and the idea of jumping into a boat and hunting for some massive barra was out the window. However we did some shore fishing and the target was jungle perch.

I had never really heard of jungle perch before, but apparently it’s quite a popular sportfish. It’s small and very hard to find. So we hit the light gear and went for a bit of a bushwalk. The first cast of the day netted my my first jungle perch.

Got three sooty grunter to back it up too. Aaron (from ACM Custom Rods) also got one, and three sooty grunter to back it up.

Was a bit of a shame to miss out on the planned session, but I got a few fish, remained uninjured and ready to fish another day.