Lakes Entrance 24/11/15
After another free camp at Rosedale we set off towards Lakes Entrance. It's one of those little coastal towns, who mainly live off tourists. There are about 10 caravan parks with the remainder of the town motels, backpacker hostels and hotels. We had no problem finding a caravan park and to our surprise it was reasonable priced as well.
Despite the clouds there was no wind and the temperature was just right. We spent a lot of time on the beach building sand castles. (It was still to cold to swim for us). In the evening we treated ourselves to a night out with dinner. Most of the restaurants were closed, but we got some nice pizza at the Pinnocio pizzeria and showed Sarah the collection of Pinnocio puppets.
Garden of 'Eden' 26/11/15
Overnight the weather changed. It rained and was windy and cold. It reminded me of one of those November days back in Switzerland, when you expect the first snow to fall any moment. We stopped at Orbost for morning tea at the local organic shop. After coffee Regine got a massage and I played with Sarah inside the shop (they had a toy corner). Once Regine came back relaxed we faced the cold wind outside and had a look at the 'sensory garden'. A nice little garden with different patches, some plants are to look at, some to smell, some to taste and some to feel. We free-camped at Alfred National Park where we had a nice little walk along a creek and through dense forest.
We drove further through hilly countryside with a lot of forests and the occasional paddock on the side. Our stop was just outside of Eden, another coastal holiday destination. We chose the campground mainly on the recommendation from someone else, but were surprised to find a jumping pillow (and residential 5 year old boy) there as well. It was still early morning, so we went to the Marine Discovery Centre next. It's a hands-on centre with lots of shells and sea creatures to see, touch and feel. Alan, one of the volunteers there, spent a long, long time showing us and Sarah around. They also had a microscope where we could magnify lots of things, including plankton, shells, sands, our skin and donkeys fur. We treated ourselves to some fish and chips - the worst we ever had. Fish and chips were oily and fried to death. It was windy again and so we had a drive along the beaches and then drove back to the caravan park where Sarah disappeared again with her new friend onto the play ground.
Sarah and the girl next door became good playmates and so next morning we booked in for another day, just to find out moments later that our neighbours changed their plans and moved on that morning :-(
It was a lovely day, and so we spent the morning watching Sarah and Phenix on the playground before she drove off with her parent and most of the day on the caravan park's beach. In the afternoon we had a little hike to the beach of the Ben Boyed National Park where we found lots of interesting shells. Later on when Sarah went to bed we discovered that we had lost donkey. He wasn't in the car, not in the bed, not on the playground... where could he be?
Donkeys Adventures
Next day we searched again: the whole caravan, in the car, on the campground. We asked the little boy and at the reception if they could call Phenix... no donkey. After retracing our steps there were only two options left. The lookout where we had Fish&Chips and the Discovery Centre. Martin and Sarah drove to the lookout while I was getting the caravan ready to start traveling again. No donkey. Astonishingly, Sarah took it quite calmly and relaxed. Of course, the discovery Centre is closed on the weekend and Monday so we had to wait until Tuesday to give them a call and figure out if donkey was there. Finally, Tuesday 10 am, in the middle of Canberra, Martin called -but had to leave a message on the answering machine. The liberating phone call came: donkey is still in the Discovery Centre and had a very interesting and happy holiday there! He looked at the crabs and anemones in the touch tank and used the magnifying glasses to check out the shells, sea urchin and sea horses at the discovery table. He had a ball with his new friends, the whales, dolphin and turtle and he even got to ride the pelican. What a great holiday!
We were so happy to hear the donkey was alright and enjoying himself. Karen from the Discovery Centre promised to send Donkey back home to Brisbane once he had seen all the exciting things there. And Sarah had a big smile on her face when she saw what donkey had been up to...