Nature is a playground for young kids. It's too cliche to think of theme parks as fun places that will keep our kids occupied when travelling. We certainly don't need machine operated equipment to entertain our kids when God has created such a magical wonderland for us to enjoy.
13 May Fri
I always tell my boys if they have nothing to do in the car, look out of the window. This seems to have rubbed off on Zech. On the plane, after doing his activity books and watching the same video repeatedly for at least 3 times, I noticed he had nothing to do. I suggested more videos for him. :) Zech said he just wanted to look at the clouds. That was 1 of his fav things to do on the plane. Feel very glad that Zech's starting to appreciate the natural works.
Fresh faces after an almost 8 hours flight. We were dead tired, but not these 2.
We spent a night at Ibis, one of the airport hotels. Next morn, we caught an early morning flight to Lauceston. That one hr Qantas flight was incredibly smooth and pleasant. It was a very small aircraft but much more stable than you would imagine.
After getting our groceries and having a hearty lunch at Aromas Fine Food (recommended by TripAdvisor), we drove for 2 and a half hours to Cradle Mt. It was tedious especially the last 30 min or so.
Along the way, we found a rainbow! So incredibly near, I could see the spectrum of colours clearly. Somewhere over the rainbow was Cradle Mt. What a blessing from God! It was the boys' first sight of a rainbow. It was simply amazing!
Rainbows are in fact very common in Tassie, as I realised later.
We checked in to Cradle Mt Wilderness Village. Didn't do much for the rest of the day. We tried to spot our wild friends visiting our cabin but no luck. While having dinner, we spotted 1! A possum. Then another appeared! They went away rather quickly. Maybe they were scared off by my boys' loud voices.
14 May Sat
Thank God for His protection and for sending fine weather for our trail walk! We, with 2 young boys in tow, attempted the Dove Lake circuit walk. The first half was great! As we ate lunch at the foot of Cradle Mt, I thought Nathanael was a great hiker. He had been walking non-stop for the past hour or so. Told the boys if they could complete the walk without giving up and in good spirits, they get a certificate of completion when we go back to Spore.
There were some unexpected twists in our second part of the walk. The heavy rain last night changed some of the terrain. The down hill walk on wet pebbled ground was rather challenging for a 3 yo. So his papa took out the life saviour - the baby carrier! For a short while, Nathanael became a baby again.
Just as I thought we were nearing the end and we could shout hooray, we came to a dead end juncture with no footpath. The boat shed was there but due to the heavy rain last night, the bank was flooded and the shed was partially submerged in the water. We either get ourselves wet or go through a very narrow muddy path. We chose the latter. We got our shoes muddy and Nathanael had to be carried again. This last part was quite unpleasant and unexpected. But we could still give each other a hive five and say we made it! Completed the walk in 3.5hrs!
From the hike, there are life lessons to be learnt. I can finally understand why the great outdoors is necessary for young kids. Be it hiking, mountain climbing or camping, values such as perseverance, determination, patience and problem solving skills are honed. Really glad our family went through this circuit walk. It's a fairly easy walk. I'd say it's challenging for a 3 year old and challenging for families with young kids. Unless you use a carrier all the way, which I've seen some families doing it, you need to guide the kids through the different terrains encountered during the hike.
We did the enchanted walk next. A very easy walk for families. We love the creek, the cascading water, the tunnels made for kids to play, the forest that looks straight out from a fairy tale and of course the wallaby hopping away from us.
At the end of the day, my legs were aching. My boys? They said their legs were fine.
15 May Sun
We left Cradle Mt on a rainy day. On the way back to Lauceston, we stopped by a raspberry farm cafe. Ordered scones with raspberry jam and 2 baby cones with raspberry ice cream for the boys. What a treat for them!
Headed down to Cataract Gorge after lunch. A sunny day in Lauceston. We drove up to the car park in the reserve. As we walked down the long flight of steps, there were so many maple leaves on the ground. The boys had a great time playing with the leaves, esp Nathanael. He seems to be very fascinated with leaves and twigs.
Took the chair lift across the basin and back. See the little koala strapped on to his papa?
We took a short walk to the suspension bridge. Then headed back up again on the chair lift. The boys had some time to play.
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