– – – and other things I learnt on our camping holiday

Well you may say that the words camping and holiday have no business being in the same sentence together  and you may say there’s nothing at all funny about camping  . Mostly  I’d agree – – the 50 metre round trip to the “amenities” isn’t particularly funny, the  slow and illusive leak or I should say leaks in our air bed so frustratingly not funny (three patches and still we were slowly sinking each night) and flying bugs that land in your hair are also not funny.

So what was funny – – – Daddy hitting is head on the lantern hanging from the middle of the tent at least three times every night very funny, my boy tripping and doing a spectacular nosedive into the tent also very funny  – and my kids think that Daddy creeping around outside the tent at night making snarly scary monsterish noises is hilariously ear piercingly funny.

— and the four of us being together when we are so often apart – – – well thats luxury.

So to what I learnt – different can be good and “not what you expected” can turn out better than expected.

See we usually do our christmas holiday camping at a really beautiful on the ocean  park with oodles of organised activities for the kids, space aplenty and views that you could stare at forever. Thing is I forgot to book this year – not sure what happened – I think most likely I spent too much time staring out my kitchen window dreaming about this blog – and by the time I rang she was all booked out and as expected so were most other places. My only requirements – green grass and a nice pool and BBQ area – everything else was optional – so I finally found us what may have been the last remaining camping spot on the NSW south coast that fit the bill. I knew it would be no match to what we were used too, I knew it wouldn’t be as picturesque, I knew it wouldn’t have all the usual kids activities – – – but what I didn’t know was that it would be better – that in fact it might be our best camping holiday yet. Amazing.

Still we had our Griswold type moments – when the directions to the camp site led us directly up the hill and away – – – miles away from the beach and again when we drove slowly around the park and realised that the small patch of grass wedged between two caravans on our right was actually our camping space. There was a collective cry of “is this it? ” and everyone looked at me. Olivia almost immediately swung into holiday mode and went to play on the swings. Ethan not so resliant – he’d been saying for days how much he hated camping (in fact it was the first thing he said to me every morning). He was horrified, refused to get out of the car and then being older and wiser than all of us asked “Mum did you ever think there might be a reason why this place wasn’t booked out” He had a point. But there was nothing else for it, we were there, we were paid up for a week and we were gonna make the best of it and have some fun whether we liked it or not – so we told Ethan to get over himself and we set up the tent.

On the plus side the spot was lush and green and flat – last year I slept downhill for a week – so I was ahead already but the really nice thing we discovered was this – without all the organised kids activities to distract us we ended up spending a whole lot more time together – you know – sitting, talking, laughing time – together. Again amazing. We ended up going to the beach more, we discovered a beautiful rock pool area where we played and snorkelled all day and then all the next day too and Ethan told me it was the best and loveliest time he and I had ever had together –  worth it – I think so.

We played Rummikub, (now that was funny) made pizzas that we cooked in the outdoor pizza oven (I told you it was a good BBQ area) and we each came up with names A – Z for a pet pig which Ethan in his dreams thinks we should have. Thats 104 names we now have to choose from.

So it was no five star Hawaian holiday resort (which is what Ethans tastes seem to run to these days).

The accommodation was definitely “cosy”

the meals though were not award winning

and the dining experience not fine

but the sun was warm and the sky blue

the water cold

the coffee hot and the mornings soft and quiet

the ocean relentlessly beautiful

not having to watch the clock or divide time –  divine

and us being all together – a sheer luxury.

God Bless and Happy New Year

Tracey xx

Some thoughts on the new year in my next post.