Last month we spent the Labour Day weekend in Lorne. Lorne is about a two hour drive southwest of Melbourne, along the Great Ocean Road. The last time we came here was way back in 2017, when my friend Cheryl had come to visit and I was pregnant with Ollie. (I've searched really hard and I can't find a blog post about this visit...I can't believe I didn't write one!)
We ended up staying in the same place that we stayed on the visit with Cheryl, at The Cumberland Resort, which is right on the main street and across the street from the beach. The resort is made up of apartments, some that can be rented and some that people own. It's an older style hotel, but the location plus the facilities (pool, gym, spa, tennis and basketball courts, BBQs, use of paddle boards, etc.) can't be beat. We had a small balcony from which you could see the ocean which added to the appeal as well.
We headed down to Lorne on Friday afternoon, all of us minus Andy who had a meeting after school so couldn't leave until a bit later. On the way we stopped for a break and a snack and happened to come across Bellbrae Estate winery just off the Great Ocean Road... perfect for a Friday afternoon wine flight and cheeseboard and a great way to kick off that long weekend feeling!
Once we arrived and were settled in I took the kids to the pool. There was a warm (not quite hot) spa tub, and a sauna, so needless to say we spent a lot of time here over the long weekend. There was also a small kids wading pool where Ollie could play safely - he's not quite as confident in deep water as Ella is yet.
Ollie is just like his mum (and Nannie!) and prefers warm water, so he was pretty happy in the warm/hot tub rather than the big pool anyway.
On our first day Andy got up nice and early and took Ella on a walk to see the sunrise from Teddy's Lookout, a lovely spot to take in the view of the bay and also the mountains surrounding the beaches.
The rest of us had a more relaxed start to the morning, but we eventually got out to go for a morning visit to Erskine Falls. From the carpark there is a 1km trail through lush rainforest, down to the bottom of the falls where you get a stunning view of the water and surrounds. We spent a good amount of time exploring the bottom of the falls, climbing over and under rocks and streams to get closer to the falls.
Next we headed to the Swinging Bridge Café, and as the name says you can access it by crossing over... a swinging bridge. On the way there we had fun running through the shallow pools of water along the beach. It wasn't the hottest weekend, but it was warm enough to be running through shallow water.
We spent the rest of that afternoon at the beach, although only Ella was brave enough to get in the water fully. The rest of us were content just splashing in the waves... although Ollie was pretty much soaking wet after all his splashing so he might as well have just gone swimming!
There is nothing like having a race on a big stretch of sand... kids can run forever when they are on the beach!
The next day we all got up early to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately it was a much cloudier morning so there wasn't much to see. We still had a good time looking at the view and walking some of the trails nearby. And it always feels great to get up early on holiday and get outside in the morning light.
We headed to Kennett River after that, a spot about half an hour from Lorne and a well known koala bear hangout. When we first arrived there were no koalas to be seen, so we got some coffees from the local café and headed across the street to the beach. We were super lucky to catch a glimpse of some dolphins splashing about in the bay just as we got there! We then spent ages playing on this beach again, which had lots of rocks, rock pools and streams for us to explore.
Once we were done on the beach we went back to the trees where you usually see koalas and finally spotted one sleeping way up high. We must have missed it on our first look! I'm clearly not super excited by the sight of koalas anymore as I don't have any pictures... I've been living in Australia too long!
That afternoon we relaxed on the balcony back at our apartment with a cheese plate and a superb bottle of wine. Andy and I won this bottle at a raffle at Ollie's daycare a few weeks ago, and it apparently retails for $130. I don't think I've ever had such an expensive bottle of wine and I was prepared to be underwhelmed... but oh how wrong I was! The wine was just sublime... so smooth with no hint of acidity or tannins. This was a Shiraz which I would normally want to drink wth food as it's a pretty heavy red, but this particular bottle could easily be drunk on its own. And I had no headache at all, which generally occurs for me now after even one glass of red wine. I'm totally converted... though let's be honest, I won't be dropping $130 on a bottle of wine anytime soon. Oh well, it was nice to have the experience at least once in my life!
I can't remember when this was, but I love this picture of Nannie and Ollie playing a game on the sofa:
Our last major attraction was the Lorne Pier, where we watched giant stingrays swimming below us in the shallow water.
As always, the weekend went by way too quickly. This was our last weekend before we had to say goodbye to Nannie and Grampy, who left a few days after this in mid-March. As always it was a very sad goodbye and we all miss having them in our lives everyday.
We are lucky that they are planning on coming back next January and we are hoping that we can make it back to Canada for Christmas this year. And currently we have Grandma and Grandad visiting us from England, I'll catch up on what we've been up to with them in my next blog post!
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