My Broulee Adventure - Day 2

WooHoo I'm finally here. I headed off from Lakes Entrance around 7.30am and was welcomed by a very humid, very foggy morning, which lasted most of the trip. 

I was treated to a very humid foggy morning

An eerie morning in Lake Tyres State Forest

From the road everything looked fairly normal until I got to Orbost. The SES and the army are still stationed there making sure all the fires are totally out and clearing up the surrounding roads. All of a sudden you could smell the smoky smell. It was the smell of when a campfire has been put out with water and the lingering smoke smell fill the air. Also, the trees were starting to show where the flames had licked them and either been extinguished or changed direction. Then the devastating sight hit me. Both sides of the road and as far as I could see was black tree trunks, burnt leaves and ash on the ground. 

As far as I could see there were dead trees

This tiny fern bought a smile to my face

So Sad !

There was the occasional group of trees that were missed but this terribly depressing sight continued for at least 40 kilometres. After a bit I was back to the normal bushland I am used to and then I hit the Cobargo area and township. 

 

It's beautiful to see some of the tree sprouting greenery already

There was a lot of damage on the roads due to trees falling

That's when I saw the devastation of houses and buildings laying on the ground in a crumpled mess. It was about at this point I just needed to stop the car and let the tears fall. How could this possibly happen? How can we as a nation make sure nothing like this ever happens again?  

Two things along my journey today did bring a smile to my face. Seeing the greenery sprouting from some of the trees and the small ferns emerging out of the blackness. Also. luckily I was driving slowly as out of the blackness on one side of the road a small kangaroo hopped out onto the road. I stopped and we looked at each other and off he hopped to the other side of the road disappearing into more blackness. 

I'm now in Broulee and totally loving spending time with these three little guys. No there were no tears just lots of big hugs. 

It certainly was hard to negotiate Louis, O'Shea and Finn into three smiling faces. 

But oh how I love these faces. 

Goodbye January

Well here we are at the end of our first month of 2017 and hasn't it gone fast? How was your January, hopefully it's been all you could wish for. My January has been filled with family, love and FUN. Those who know me well know my life word is FUN and I try and it is included in each and every day. My January started off looking after my two granddaughters Clare (5) and Mikayla (3) while their Mum and Dad holidayed in Vietnam. With help from their Nana and their Papa we all survived. We didn't head out too much as the weather was extremely hot, but we certainly were very creative while we were indoors.

Clare and Mikayla did have a lot of FUN creating their very own Fairy Garden

Beautiful Clare

Beautiful Mikayla

 Anyone that follows my blog also knows I am a Gypsy, with my regular travels throughout Australia. But for 2017 we have decided not to do a big trip where we will be away for months at a time. Instead the plan is to travel to a different location for about a week or so each month. So January's Aussie Adventure was spent a place called Broulee on the mid New South Wales Coast. It is also just happens to be where my son Shane lives and the beach is at the end of their street.

Off we head to the beach

Family FUN at the beach

Handy for Shane who has just started surfing

O'Shea seems to be getting the hang of it too

I travelled up there with my daughter Rachel and her daughters Clare and Mikayla to spend a wonderful family beach holiday with my son Shane, his wife Stacey and my two adorable grandsons O'Shea (5) and Finn (3). We visited Mogo zoo which is a fantastic privately owned zoo, lots of time at the beach and having lots and lots of FUN.

Mogo Zoo is certainly somewhere I would recommend everyone visit. 

Icypole time at Mogo Zoo

The last week of my January has been spent doing some home maintenance, setting and keeping my 2017 goals and planning where we will head for our February Aussie Adventure.

OK we're off.

Well we have hit the road on our Aussie Adventure Part 2. It's amazing no matter how organised you are on the morning you are leaving there still seems to be a million things to do and this morning was no exception. But we did still get away in the morning - albeit 11.57am. Even though my house isn't in the city it was nice to get out of the traffic and onto the open road. Driving up through the Shepparton area the beautiful yellow glow of the canola growing in all the paddocks was like we were swimming through a sea of yellow. We hadn't really planned on where we would stay for the night. So when we reached the little township of Finley we decided to check in at the Finley Lakeside Caravan Park. It's a really nice little park, really clean amenities and situated right on Lake Finley. For only $20 for a powered site we are happy.  We met some lovely people around the campfire and are now sitting cosy and warm in Myrtle. 

Fields of Canola

Myrtle all set up

Lake Finley

Nothing better than sitting by a fire

Busy

Today my word for the day is BUSY and yes I have been busy with lots of preparations for our Aussie Adventure. One of my jobs today was to sort through the pantry to work out which foods are to come along, which foods are to be left for Rachel and which ones are out of date and need to be tossed. It made me feel good to find I only had a couple that had to be thrown out. I would really love to hear what's kept you busy today.