Boxing Day

Boxing Day.  We slept in, ate ham and cheese toasted sandwiches for lunch, and explored the park this afternoon.  It was overcast and cold again today, not the best weather for swimming!  I assure everyone, Grant has been here the whole time and hasn't ducked off to Darwin to make any trouble.

All the children are desperate to get home.  For them, Christmas has always been playing with cousins and visiting friends, so they are missing everyone.

The other side of the bay we’re camped on  has lovely beaches, then the eastern side of that cape has Donnington Lighthouse, September Beach and other rocky outcrops.   We camped where we are to be more sheltered from the wind, and I think it's one of the nicer spots, with a small shady beach as well.

It was around this peninsula in about 1806 that Matthew Flinders mapped the coast in a rotting, leaking boat called the Investigator.  He sent eight men to look for water, two officers and six crew, in a little cutter, and bad weather blew up and killed them all.  Eight islands off the coast are named after them.

Joseph had post-Christmas-itis today, with some up and down moments  ...later this afternoon he came out with his yo-yo, throwing it out straight in front of him, then catching it as it spun back towards him.  "I always try to throw it towards Dad," he said "in case the string breaks...".  We all thought that was pretty funny.

Tony and Val came down after tea and we swapped Banjo Paterson poems.  We told him 'the man from Ironbark', and he told us 'Mulga Bill's Bicycle', and  'We'll all be roon'd said Hanrahan'.  We had a great time.

I'm finding it tricky being light so late.  I don't really watch the clock, but before I know it it's 9pm and still light, and we have a mad rush to get everyone into bed.  Then they all sleep in the next morning because I pull all the curtains in the van closed, so it's dark inside while outside the sun is up and shining - we're not really taking advantage of daylight saving at all!

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Vicki