Straddie Day 4: Blue Lake, Brown Lake, Dunwich, Amity

The last piece of the night sky was fading away as we walked out along Main Beach in search of another sunrise. The night before, we had come to the exact same spot to see the stars. It was cold and damp from the rain earlier in the day, but save for a dimly glowing light behind us, there was nothing to hinder our view of the entire Milky Way spread across the sky over us. It was magnificent. I wish I knew how to work my camera well enough to photograph it but for now, it'll just be a memory in my mind.

We walked out to the edge of the rock we stood on but just past the South Gorge, the other giant rock stood between us and the sun, blocking our view.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, it lit Main Beach up beautifully. I had to stop and take a picture before we raced off to another spot for a better view.

This time, we brought our big camera but that didn't matter because both the boys wanted a turn using it. I think this trip was Caleb's first time seeing and really understanding that it was a camera because for the first little while, he was calling it "that thing". 

After, we packed up all our gear, said bye to our cozy cabin and headed away from Point Lookout towards the lakes. We started off with a brisk 6km hike to see Blue Lake. The boys did really well and on the way back to our car, Andrew found walking sticks for them to make the long walk more enjoyable. The lake was peaceful and secluded but we didn't get to see any wildlife. 

Our next stop was Brown Lake. This time, we only had to walk across the parking lot before we reached the sandy shores of the lake. We didn't stay for too long because it was lunch time, we were hungry from our morning hike and we didn't pack a lunch. 

We had lunch in Dunwich. The boys had their third day of ice cream treats. Nathan always orders his in a cup, and Caleb always orders his with a cone.

Our last few hours on the island were spent drawing in the sand and swinging in a playground. It was nice to just hang out and have fun with the boys without worrying about what I had to do later. I loved the feeling of not having to go back to a to-do list.

We returned to Amity one last time to see if the dolphins would come back for a visit. We stayed until the sun went down and then gave up because it was getting cold and we had to drive back to Dunwich to catch our ferry back to Cleveland. I'm glad we could make the most of this short trip away. It didn't matter that our days were cold and sometimes rainy because we were all together.

Straddie Day 3: Home Beach, Kangaroos and the Heritage Trail

It rained all through the night our second night, but by the morning, most of the clouds had cleared and the weather was perfect for us to watch the sunrise from Point Lookout.

We slept in a little, but we made it there in time to find a good spot to watch the sun peek out over the horizon. Such a beautiful and peaceful way to start off the day. 

In our rush out the door, we managed to grab some cheese and crackers for the boys to munch on while we waited for the sun to come up so that kept them happy.

We walked along the trail to the North Gorge for a different view of the sunrise. I love how the sunrise coming in at an angle completely changes the look of things. The rocks were glowing in the golden light.

As we were admiring the sunrise and looking for dolphins, Caleb spotted a hole in the rocks and wanted to climb through it. Andrew went down to check it out and after he climbed up through the hole, he brought the boys down so they could try as well. 

It's hard to tell from this photo but the boys were at least 8 feet down. Andrew lifted Caleb up through the hole to me but Nathan put his rock climbing skills to use and scaled the rocks without very much help from Andrew. 

Then, we went back to the few shops in town and did a bit of window shopping. We also picked up some postcards to send home and a new hat for Andrew.

We stopped for another gelato treat with Indiana Jones. Then, we realized it was lunch time so we picked up some fish and chips takeaway from the shop next door.

Lunch with a view. Yum ;)

We spent part of the afternoon on Home Beach. It's the beach directly across from where we stayed but it's also the designated beach for dogs to run off-leash. I walked half the beach, but I felt a little creeped out by the shadowy trees, and the ones half sticking out of the sand. It reminded me a little bit of a barren wasteland and I was almost worried about animals running out of the trees to eat me. And honestly, by this point I was tired of walking the beaches so I went back to my blanket and my book.

The boys loved this half-buried tree that stuck out beside where I was sitting. Caleb decided to swing on a branch and Nathan came to hang out for a bit before it started to rain and we had to run back to the car. 

There's not a whole lot to do when it rains on Straddie. We probably should have done a bit more research before we left home. We sat in the car writing postcards as we waited for the rain to pass.

Eventually, we decided to drive along the Heritage Trail to see bits of Straddie history from the comfort of our car. As we went, we found a family of kangaroos that had come out to graze on somebody's front lawn. We circled back for a closer look, closer than I would have liked considering this dude was on my side of the car and it was my window rolled all the way down. I didn't think this kangaroo would attack, but if he did, I'd be pulverized for sure!

We ended off our day watching the sunset from the jetty in Amity before making our way back home.

Straddie Day 2: Whale Trail, Deadman’s Beach and Frenchman’s Beach

Our first morning on the island, my alarm clock went off at 5:30am. I had plans to see the sunrise but after hearing the rain outside and seeing that the sky was covered in a thick blanket of clouds, I switched off my alarm and went back to sleep. The boys were lucky - traveling with me usually means no sleeping in but today they were let off the hook.

The boys were moaning about the rain and kept suggesting we go back home, but I wasn't about to let a little rain stop us from exploring the island. So we grabbed our big umbrellas and set out along the Whale Trail, stopping at elevated lookout points to see if we could spot a whale or two. We managed to catch a few blows before we kept walking. 

By the time we made it down to the beach, the rain had stopped so we decided to stay and play. The boys got right into writing and drawing in the sand, and running around with Andrew. 

I took a walk to the closer end of the beach. How is it that I'm the one who's fascinated by finding trash on the beach and they like to just enjoy being there. I think if I had the guts, or even the same curiosity as a child, I would have picked that can up to bring it back and show the boys. But my adult brain saw rust and the potential for so many injuries and diseases. So instead, I snapped a picture and continued walking until I reached the end where a large rock forced me to choose between climbing over the rocks in my bare feet, being soaked by giant waves, or turning back. I climbed for a bit but I really didn't know where I was going to end up, so I turned around.

When I got back to the boys, I convinced them to explore the other end of the beach with me. We walked and walked over the half-sandy, half-rocky terrain. The boys would stop occasionally to play in pools of water, asking when we'd go back to the "fun part" of the beach where they slipped down mini sand dunes.

One of the best things about visiting Straddie in the winter was that there was hardly anyone else there. We basically had the beaches all to ourselves and we could walk for miles and miles without running into anyone else. 

By lunchtime, we had walked a few kilometers and it was time to make a decision. We could keep going, past a huge wall of rocks, but we didn't know where we'd end up and how far we would be from the car. We could walk up a giant mountain of sand and see where that would take us - we had seen people standing at the top so it must have lead to the trail somehow. Or we could retrace our steps for a few kilometers and go back the way we had come. 

We decided to climb the giant hill. This picture does not accurately show how far up we had to climb. It would have been an awesome hill to sand-tobaggan down, but really, who would go more than once? It's a killer hike up!

Eventually, we found our way through a steep and winding narrow path through the trees, back to the trail that led to our car. 

I turned around to take some pictures in case the path we chose didn't actually lead anywhere and we had to find our way back to the beach. That was the extent of my survival skills. 

We got back to the car for a quick lunch, changed into our swimming gear then headed down to another beach. This time, we went to Frenchman's Beach. The path down was listed as "difficult" but even Caleb did the walk without too much issue.

Again, we did the same routine of the boys hanging out with Andrew, digging and playing soccer while I walked the length of the beach, twice this time. 

Isn't this spot gorgeous? I was expecting Ariel to pop up at any moment to say "hi"!

Nothing popped up at me, but I did get scared by this beached fish. I'm going to assume he's a pufferfish of some sort. I almost wanted to bring him home, too. 

The boys were perfectly happy burying themselves in the sand. 

We thought about staying on the beach for sunset again but remembering it took us a good 10-20 minutes to walk down the winding boardwalk/stairs, we decided it might be best not to attempt that in the dark with two boys. Plus, we saw a little snake on the way down and we definitely did not want to run into more snakes on the way up, especially around their dinner time.

So we traded the beach for gelati and enjoyed it as the sun went down from our spot overlooking the ocean. 

As we finished up our gelati, it started to rain so we took this as our cue to head home. I turned around for one last glimpse of Point Lookout and saw the entire rainbow spread across the sky; I had to take a picture, it was amazing!

Straddie Day 1: The Gorge and Cylinder Beach

Andrew and Nathan's holidays have never matched up over the past three and a half years, but since this is one of Andrew's last breaks, we took Nathan out of school for a couple days for a short getaway to Straddie. After Nathan and Andrew returned from watching the World Cup finals, we packed the car and drove to Cleveland to board the Big Red Cat (ferry) heading towards the island. 

It was a quick 45 minute trip, and once we arrived on the island, we drove straight to Point Lookout. We had some time to spare before we could check into our accommodations so we walked along the North and South Gorges. It was windy and cold but the views were spectacular.

By the time we got back to the car, it was time to check in. We rented a cozy little shack for the three nights we were there. It was a small space but it had everything we needed. The boys loved having a TV again, and I loved having hot water and heating through the night. I'm pretty easy to please. 

After our late lunch, we went straight back to the beach again. This time, we went to check out Cylinder Beach. This was one of the more accessible beaches and the boys loved it. They got out of the car and ran straight for the sand.

While the boys kicked the soccer ball around, I went exploring. I just kept walking, climbing over massive rocks and then along the water. Eventually, when the sun started to set, I turned around to go back to the boys.

Before we came on this trip, I had these romantic ideas of us sitting on the beach, watching the sun set and maybe even laying down under the stars, admiring them for a little while. This was before I realized how windy and cold it would get as the sun went down. So I scratched that idea, though we did manage to stick around and stay warm for a little bit as the sun dipped into the ocean. 

Andrew and Nathan managed to take a few updated silhouette pictures. I loved the poses they came up with, and look at how straight Nathan's lines are!

Andrew was going for an Air Jordan pose in this shot. Nathan's silhouette looks more graceful, like a dancer leaping into the air. 

After a few more photos, we decided to head back to the car before it got too dark for us to find our way to the parking lot.