Lach was still unwell today, so after a slower than normal start we left Fortescue Bay saying goodbye to the Chippers (hopefully we don’t encounter more over the next few days as it really did spoil our stay at Fortescue) and headed for Swansea. The girls were very upset as they couldn’t find Trixie in the caravan this morning, so started wondering whether he had started working with Santa already and had left them a few days early – but as soon as they got in the car, they saw that Trixie had planted himself right between them so he could keep an eye on them in the car. We could have done the main road up the coast, but decided that 1 side of a triangle of unsealed road through the Three Thumbs State Reserve sounded more fun than 2 sides of highway. It sure was stunning  – we had dust flying everywhere and plenty of bumps. The scenery was rugged with views out to Maria Island National Park.

We arrived in Swansea and literally unhitched the van (we are probably 10m to the waters edge) took in the fantastic view and headed to Bicheno to get some lunch at the Lobster Shack, and then hopefully do Wineglass Bay as the weather is stunning and due to change over the next couple of days. We met the parents of the girl who owns the Lobster Shack on our first night in Stanley. I had a lobster roll which was amazing and the girls and Lach all had fish and chips. The fish was caught between 3-4hours beforehand – even Lach said it tasted really good. Lach unfortunately still wasn’t feeling well, so we decided that we would not do Wineglass Bay today and he wasn’t really up for many wineries either, so we ticked two wineries off our list – Freycinet and Gala, as they were both closer to Bicheno than Swansea. Freycinet has always been one of my favourites but it disappointed me today, however Lach liked their cold climate Shiraz, but we didn’t purchase anything. We then stopped at Gala, which is a new vineyard – recommended to us by a few locals over the past couple of weeks – fantastic wines. They have their white labels (every day wines at $30 a bottle) and ten their black labels which are premium for cellaring. We tried the Rose, and Pinot from the white label and the Chardonnay and the Pinot from the black label – they were all exceptional. We wanted to try their sparkling, but due to the shortage of bubbles as ‘Sapphire Freycinet’ (a luxury hotel) is the main customer and so we were only allowed to buy a bottle. The black label Chardonnay we tried is the first year they have produced a pure Chardonnay as normally all of the grapes are used in the bubbles. We purchased 3 Rose, 2 white label pinot and a bottle of bubbles (cant wait to try it on Christmas Day).

We came back to the van with a double mission – girls for a swim, whilst I make the van ready for christmas. Within an hour the van was all set up and the girls had their swim (this time in a pool which was significantly warmer than the sea apparently). Before walking up to the pool Lach captured a moment between the girls where they were hugging and looking out to sea – it reminded me of our first ever campsite night in Cape Paterson, where the girls took themselves off with a travel rug and looked out to sea. The girls were so excited about the decorations and Santa coming so soon, that they wrote him a letter to go with his Santa biscuits (courtesy of Nanna), their elf hats were on and didn’t leave their heads for the rest of the afternoon. I asked the girls whether they enjoyed being away for Christmas and they both said they loved being in the caravan for Christmas and loved being at home for Christmas and loved that we did both – I couldn’t have asked for a better answer.

Lach went back to bed and i entertained the girls by playing UNO with them whilst cooking their dinner and then we FaceTimed Nonna and Gramps in the UK to say hi and show them our fantastic location.

All in all we have had a relaxing day and hopefully given Lach time to fully recover to be back on form tomorrow.

Writing the blog last night i was inside wrapped up warm and venturing to the bathrooms meant a puffa jacket, tonight i am sitting outside in shorts and singlet overlooking Great Oyster Bay at Freycinet National Park and Promise Bay. Fingers crossed the weather holds for the at least the next 2 days, however the weatherman has forecast sun tomorrow then wind and rain for the rest of our stay….maybe the puzzle will be completed before we arrive back in Sydney…