Our last memorable, cherished family holiday was back in September 2005 ~ Casey, Caleb and myself packed our car and travelled a trio of nomads soaking up the sun, beach and water experiences. Lakes Entrance, to Mallacoota staying at the Adobe Mudbrick Holiday Flats
where each flat was hand crafted from the earth, wildlife met you at your full length windows dawn and dusk and where the pace slows to a relaxing lull. We set stakes in Merimbula for a week, enjoying ourselves so much, we had an extended stay with the Merimbula Beach Cabins, pentagonal style, and easy stroll to Short Point Beach. I was quite pregnant and laden with Jaida at the time, but still managed daily rides amongst the undulating landscape, although didn't quite hold up while whale watching (one of those cruises that guarantee's a whale sighting no matter how far you have to travel on those rolling and rollicking waves.) ... In my mind, it seems like yesterday still, one of those fond memories that will remain with me forever!
How quickly the years roll by, our family growing, and once again, with eager anticipation, the Bourke family embarked on their first big family adventure as a family of "five." The car packed to the hilt, the bikes cleverly crafted onto the back of the car, we were so excited that we actually left a day early *hehehe* ... Both Casey and I like children at heart, unable to sleep, raring to go!
A long awaited holiday break, a time to recharge worn out minds, spend quality time together as a family unit and just travel in nomadic style to Queensland and back in Bourke style! It was an exciting adventure, filled with changing landscapes, in car entertainment of mind activities (no fancy dvd players here, just a good old fashioned tape deck and one play school favourites tape (laughs)) ...
Our family game is "windmill" .. Caleb joining in and scanning the countryside for his chance to nudge on point ahead! Eye Spy reduced us to laughter with colourful descriptions of travel from a child's perspective! Inquisitive minds put to work "Mum why are those clouds travelling so fast in that direction?" "Dad, what is that over there? what do you think it does?" "WOW, look at that big truck going past us!" ...
Our children have absorbed so much in a short space of time, geography, history, literature, climatology (caleb become renound for giving us a daily weather report based on cloud movements (lol)), geology (revisiting the rocky past of my geology days, inactive volcanoes and rock formations) astronomy (when we to see the BIG DISH at Parkes, and lots of towns along the way boasted large planetary models), crop care (there's been sugar cane, canola and others along the way, including sea crops like oysters!), construction (Caleb was in tonka heaven with the amount of roadside construction we witnessed, alternate power sources (wind turbine farms) (lol)) music encompassed so much of our trip, along with creative story telling ..
It warms my heart to think of the great adventure the kids have had, and hopefully one of many more to come!
An overnight stay in Dubbo on the first night, enabled a great adventure around the Dubbo Zoo on our bikes. Caleb's extreme riding had him entangled in my handlebars not long after the start, so a quick first aid trip back and an ice-cream later, we were once again able to embark on our zoo safari! Jaida and Jaxon travelling in style via pedal power of Casey and Myself :) If you get a chance, check out the Dubbo Zoo! Its' a Safari worth the travel!
Jaxon enjoying his pedal power
Then onto Moree, staying at a traditional motor lodge with hot artesian pool (38 to 40 degrees) a wonderful way to relax and unwind after a day on the road! We all slept very well that night!
The road less travelled took us to the border of goondiwindi, crossing into QLD and onto our homeward destination of Burleigh Heads and the Le Beach Apartments, filled with many memories from a stay there back in my teenage years! I tell you I wasn't disappointed, Le Beach was just as I remembered, truly beautiful, I was just feeling warm fuzzies! We had been graced with a ground floor (at my request) in this low rise apartment block, right across the road from the beach! Its' changed greatly with the addition of more parks, this is family paradise and I would recommend it highly to any families travelling to QLD looking for a laid back holiday appeal! As a family we settled in and made ourselves at home, and we were very tempted to extend our stay there after our week had finished!
Days were spent with cycling, there was a fantastic track (especially for exercise fanatics with specialised equipment scattered along the way to stop and work out), morning cappacino's at surf side clubs, lazy walks, long soaking spa's and just relaxing and enjoying the slow pace that comes with our holidays! I even managed an afternoon of escape to walk down to the local shopping precint, browse and then walk back along an uninterrupted sand scape of paradise!
I've always had a luring towards a sea change, something since I was a child, a feeling of peace, calm and contentment, I'm always drawn there time and time again :)
Caleb feeling very at home
Daddy B and Jaida having fun
Sea World was our big theme park adventure, its' changed so much since I was there in the early 1990's! Definitely a great place for the family, young or old alike! With our pram, we were granted middle, front row viewing of the dolphins at dolphin cove, a beautiful, luring calm creature of the deep. I've always had an affinity for marine wildlife! Caleb's humour evident with the seal detective show, a little boy in hysterics of laughter and the crooked crooks tried to outwit the detectives time and time again, but no one could evade the clever seal! Sesame Street was the place for family rides and the very entertaining Sesame Street Show, Jaida was in awe of her ZOE (we had front row seating) and Caleb tried a mad dash across the stage for back pass entrance only to be tackled (met) by a security guard! I could only laugh at his attempt! Weary, but happy, we had a wonderful day there :)
We all came home feeling revived and ready to take on the remainder of the year. I'm so proud of my children and how well they travelled, how they presented themselves in public, how friendly, yet innocent they were around others, and how they were able to open not only my heart, but my mind to remembering how much fun a child has in the great wilderness that is out there!
So thanks for sharing in our great family adventure, I look forward to another holiday chapter to come once more!
Special thanks to the family and friends that made time to come and visit while we were in QLD and Sydney, its' always lovely to catch up with those special people in our lives :)
Mel ~ September 2008 Bourke Family Adventure
2 comments:
Oh Mel, you have certainly given me itchy feet! What a fun adventure for the kids, with so many things to see and learn about on the way! I could imagine Caleb and Jaida re-living memories of their trip in years to come.
Sounds like you guys had a fantastic time.. Love all the happy snaps..lol..
P.s Jack said I saw all that stuff today when Caleb did show n tell..
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