Into the Wilderness

After spending the entire Summer Holidays at home and with one more week still left before the beginning of the new School Year, I decided a nice little break was in order. The Tasmanian Wilderness called so we drove 4 hours to the very west of the Island into the gorgeous World Heritage Area where peace and beauty were guaranteed and last-minute cabin accommodation would at least be a possibility.

We managed to find availability in a 6-berth Cabin in Strahan, once a sleepy fishing village but now a tourism mecca for those wanting to explore the World Heritage Area by boat, rail, plane or helicopter. We had done many of these activities before having kids and were on a strict budget so we took advantage of all the other free activities available. First up, Tobogganing and sand boarding down Hentry Dunes. It was difficult to capture the scale of the Dunes but at 30 to 40m high and with sand plains stretching as far as the eye can see you really felt like you were in the Desert.

The thing I love about living in Tasmania is that you can holiday in your own State and have all of natures delights truly to yourself. We hardly saw a soul the whole time we were away. Strahan is usually rainy but we had picture perfect weather while we were there. A fair bit of time was spent at Ocean Beach - the longest beach in Tasmania with 40km stretching out to the ocean. Rather than shells, the beach is dotted with pebbles of differing colour and size.  Eleanor loved collecting the teeny tiny pebbles while I liked the ones with the white stripes.

It was our first time away as a family of seven and since most of the focus has been on Baby Flynn these past 8 weeks I could tell the other Kids really got a lot out of the little trip and were able to see that life will go on just fine and Mummy won't be spending the rest of their life telling them to keep the noise down while the baby is sleeping. I also realised just how much time is taken up during my days at home with meal preparation, cooking, tidying up and cleaning and it was so nice to have just a few days not doing ANY of these activities and being completely focussed on having fun with the kids.

We stopped off at Lake St Claire on the way home for a play around the lake and a spot of lunch.

Sadly we didn't see any of these Giant vampire Kangaroos while we were away.

We're back home now and everything feels different. The kids are refreshed and happy and looking forward to getting ready for school to start next week. The adults are probably no more refreshed than when we left but the mental break has done wonders and I'm not looking at the Dishwasher with as much disdain as I did last week. We really had the nicest of times. Mel xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx