We said a big farewell to Amanda, Mark, Charlotte and Jake as we don't know when our paths will cross again. It's the worst part of the trip really. You get to know all these amazing families in the road who end up being great mates, then you have to farewell them like you did to your mates back home. You sort of have to remind yourself that this trip was started by ourselves and that we do travel alone for most of of the time.....
We arrived at Rapid Bay by early arvo and we knew as soon as we got there that we would be staying for more than four nights like we'd planned. The camping grounds are so well presented, all with lush grass, good toilet blokes and even a playground for the kids. The view of the ocean is amazing. There's drinkable water and the price per night is only $12 per night for the lot of us and if we stay 7 nights, we only pay for 6! Money is starting to get a little tight so cheap camping, although not free, is way better than paying for a site in a caravan park.
For the first few days we all just had some plan old family fun together. It was a little cool for Marty and l, but the kids enjoyed swimming at the beach and building sandcastles. The beach was nice, sand near the water then up a little it became a rocky beach. Meg loved collecting the rocks then sitting down and trying to smash them up into little pieces. Whereas Boo collected some bigger rocks and made a cool writing of "Beesons do Rapid Bay". The days went quickly and Marty and l were a little tired due to broken sleep at night due to the amount of wind blowing on the awning.
Boo started her schooling for the year. She was a little apprehensive and moody to begin with seeing she has had nearly three months off. After a couple of days l think she remembered what school was all about and the tantrums started to dwindle a little. Hopefully we can get back into routine like last year. We also started Meg on some svhooling just with the 'reading egg' books so that she would be up to scratch for when we enrolled her into school in WA when we stopped for work. She loved sitting up at the table with Boo doing school, hope it lasts and she doesn't get too bored with it.
Seeing we loved the place so much and the weather heated up, we booked in for the whole week. For the last five days we spent our mornings doing school then the after lunch we all headed down the beach and set the sun shelter up for the day. We snorkelled, kayaked and swam for hours most days. The snorkelling was fun to do but we saw little marine life. The very occasional fish, a few crabs and mostly seaweed. We did see one medium sized sting ray the whole time we where there. Pretty disappointing seeing the water is so beautiful and clear. Don't know why we tried fishing seeing we didn't see any fish when we snorkelled. But it was a way to pass he day. Girls love fishing. They both amaze me in different ways. Boo is so great and down to earth, baits her own line not caring about the stinky bait smell on her hands. Meg, on the other hand, blows me away that she can cast her line out at a decent way. Marty and l are so lucky to have such amazing girls...
One morning Meg and l decided to tackle the hill lookout walk together. Boo states very adamantly that she did not want to go for a walk, especially up a hill, and Marty is just not into it. So Meg and l headed off, l was a little scares that she wouldn't be able to finish it, but in any case we were going to give it a crack. We climbed over the gate and then over a fence, arriving in the middle of a paddock. Meg then started to panic as she was frightened of the cows. After calming her down and showing her that they were running away from us because they were scared, she continued on a little braver than a second ago. We started the steep walk up the hill, stopping several times, more for me to get my breath than from Meg whinging. Three quarters of the way up Meg started her "l can't do this" talk, so then every ten steps she sat for a few seconds, then we walked backwards, anything to get to the top. Eventually we made it and it was such a special moment for me to share with Meg, she was so proud of herself that when we reached the top she stated "and l didn't even whinge mummy"!! The view was amazing, the campground looked like a tiny ant village. We soaked it all up, took some photos to remember the moment and then started on our way back down the hill. God my quads hurt by the end, Meg and l both had beetroot coloured faces by the end of it, but it was well worth it!
On one of the days we headed to Victor Harbour for the day to meet up with a family we meet up at Townsville. We had kept in contact with Carol, Craig, Mahalia and Laylia via emails and l can't believe that they still remember us and wanted to catch up. It was only half an hours drive to get there and the country side was beautiful with rolling hills and farms. When we got into Victor Harbour it was as if nothing had changes since we had been there years ago. It was still a very cleaned kept seaside town with a friendly feel. We had decided to check out a few touristy things in the morning and then meet up with the others at Port Elliot in late arvo. We walked over the famous jetty to Granite Island. It was a great walk, only taking 20mins and the surrounding ocean was brilliant to view, clear as anything. On Granite Island we took the girls to see the penguins, which ended being a little bit if a rip off. There were about ten penguins, all there due to being injured or unable to be released into the wild due to being in captivity too long. We watched the volunteer feed them and talk about penguins. It cost $20 for the family entrance and the girls were a little bored after ten minutes. The place would be great if you'd never seen a penguin because you do have a close view of them, but l thought for what it was it was a bit over priced. Anyway, l rushed up the stairs to the scenic view, took a few happy snaps then we went and boarded the horse tram to take us back over the jetty. Our visit to Granite Island was pretty rushed but it wasn't too exciting and didn't feel like we missed much. The girls had a fantastic time on the horse tram and the girl who drove the tram was so good with the girls. She got the girls to sit up front with her and she explained what the horse eats and why they have bags near the bumbs (to catch the poop), which the girls laughed silly. She also gave a good history of the tram, she knew a lot due to her grandfather and father having had done her job years ago. Was great to learn that the horses don't actually have to pull the load of the tram too much seeing the tramline is slightly downhill so the team just rolls. After this we went and had lunch at a nearby cafe for a treat. Treat being the word as it was so overpriced, $42 for fish and bloody chips! Anyway, we then took a stroll around town and window shopped and ended with an ice cream, seeing it was treat day. We made our way to Port Elliot, ending up at a park by the ocean. The ocean was so much more swimmable than at Victor Harbour where it is full of seaweed. Carol, Craig and the girls arrived and although it felt a little awkward at the start, we all sat down on the picnic blanket and chatted easily. They were so curious of our travels since we saw them last, so nice to be around people that are interested about our life. We caught up on there news and plans, which are hopefully to travel in the caravan some day. I think we gave them some inspiration. Boo, Meg, Mahalia and Laylia played in the park and climbed trees whilst giggling like they had over twelve months ago when we saw them last. They especially enjoyed some chocolates which was good as it gave us some bargaining power to get them to do a lookout walk. We went up to the lookout, small puffing noises coming from us all! The view was spectacular, on the left you could see all of Port Elliot and on the right, Victor Harbour. We had a great catchup and after a few hours it was time to head back to Rapid Bay.
On the weekend our time at Rapid Bay became a little exciting, both bad and good. The bad was that our girls had to witness some very poor behaved human beings doing bad things. These two couples had pulled up and set up a tent, with four kids. The two woman were already drunk by mid morning and were loudly cursing for all children to hear, including their own. They also were violent towards the men, punching and threatening to kill them. By late arvo the two women were getting worse and the couple next to us had had enough and reported it to the groundsman. Long story short, they called the police and they came by night fall and arrested them, taking the chasten to a safe house. Pretty horrible to see how some children are neglected and forced to grow up above their years. Saddens me really. Also irritates me that our girls witnessed it and we had to explain why the police were there and why all the shouting was going on. They were upset for the kids having to miss out on camping, if only that's all they were missing out on hey, as well as love and affection and he ability to be a kid......
After that night Rapid Bay returned to the glorious and peaceful place it was. We had made friends with a few more travelling couples and another family who had just started out from WA. We got some good tips for when we get there, the beauty of meeting new travellers, word of mouth is the best way to find things out. Anyway, l had heard that there were some type of sea horses that you could see if you snorkelled at the jetty. So l decided to walk over and give it a burl. Martin refused to kayak over to the jetty to get my things and sunnies. So after snorkelling for a while and not seeing anythings but coral and an occasional fish l went up on the jetty and stunk the things under the back of my swimming shorts and my sunnies in under my top and decided to swim back to the beach. After a bit l looked up to see that l hadn't conquered much distance swimming across the bay so decided to swim towards the shore. Thank god l made some progress there and it worked out better. As l swam above the rocks and sea weed with my snorkel still on l saw some cool big crabs and schools of fish, more stuff than I'd seen in the week. I must admit that by the time l got back to the beach l was knackered! But seeing this was our last day here, after lunch l took the kayak out to explore some caves around the shore line on the west side of the bay. I should've put on my swimming shoes because when l pulled up at the first set of caves l reckon l got second degree burns on the bottom of my feet from walking on the rocky beach. If people were watching me they would've pissed themselves laughing. I started off running so fast to get to the caves but my feet were burning so much. I then decided to find a piece of sea weed to stand on, oh the relief. After burning my feet and seeing a less than impressive cave l went to get back into the kayak but the waves rolling in then made me fall out. Again, if people were watching they would have tears falling down now!! Anyway, l eventually got back into the kayak and explored a few more caves, this time not burning my feet so much. On the way back l was paddling and enjoying the freedom and quietness when l saw some dolphins in the horizon. At first there were three and by the time l got over my excitement and caught my breath, l paddled over toward them more and was greeted with about ten dolphins!! I was so excited! They swam around and under the kayak, l never dreamed something so wonderful like this would happen to me. It was magic! I had he video rolling and tried to capture the moment, which lasted for minutes before they swam away. On looking back at the footage, l probably should have put it under water a bit more as this showed the dolphins swimming about. Instead all l got was me sounding like l was hyperventilating excitedly, a few dolphin fins above the water, my legs and then a great few seconds of them swimming under water! Next time l will be able to control myself, if anything like this ever happens to me again... Anyway, l paddled quickly back to shore and met Marty, told him what happened and then we swapped and he went put to try and experience the magic. Sadly, they had gone. Also l was left with Boo crying loudly as she wanted to go and see and Meg was also upset because she wanted to go back to the caravan.. From heaven to hell in a minute!! Lol..
So to sum up Rapid Bay, this is by far the best cheap camp spot we have stayed at so far on the trip. We had a brilliant week having great family fun in the sun together. Definitely recommend this place to everyone. Now that we are all relaxed, it's time to pack up and head off again........
Bell Xxx