Easter @ Bendigo

With our departure to Oxford only 2 weeks post easter and without a car, we had pretty much decided not to take the trip down the Hume Hwy for Easter. However buying a new car, we made a snap decision  to enter with only an hour to spare!

With Andy taking the jump (some may say plunge?) to M40 and not running elites we could take advantage of driving the 7 hours to Bendigo on Good Friday. This included stopping at Holbrook and exploring the submarine (along with the hundreds of other travellers!)

With such a late decision to enter our only real option for accommodation was to camp on the cricket oval with a crowd of other families - both Andy's sisters, Jones/Walters and Candy's. A total of 10 children ranging from 1 - 8yrs in our gang. Great for keeping them all entertained! We were fortunate with the dry weather although it did get very nippy at night.

This year's easter had a fantastic string course. In fact it was so long, that we didn't feel the need to do a enter-on-the-day easy course. The string course focused on Bush Babies and was total SI. Each control had a specific character - with a representative toy too! The map was carefully and cleverly hand drawn and even had a story on the back.

And while they weren't on the string course, the kids were busy building cubby houses, climbing trees, playing in the dirt or generally soaking up the atmosphere in the assembly area.

As for the real courses, each day had different terrain to keep us on our toes - gold mining, granite and spur/gully. Andy enjoyed his battle with the other M40's and even managed to hold off the challenges!