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| Our camping trip |
  | As some of you know it was the school holidays in my part of the world for the past two weeks. Last week I decided to take my twins, Creek and Trinity, on their first camping trip with me... (they went camping on my uncle's farm in the wheat-belt two Easters ago with my sister and extended family, but I was sick with the flu -- it was actually the long weekend when I became addicted to the net big time!! LOL)
I decided that since it's been 6 years since I was last camping, and since I've never taken the kids with me before (they were 2 that time, and it was a break for me), that we'd just do the 2 nights... I wasn't sure where to go as didn't want to go too far from Perth (home) for such a short time, nor be too far away in case the whole thing was a disaster (they ARE only 8 years old, after all)!! It was also imperative that it be in the bush, not a caravan park, as that's the kind of girl I am, and also I wanted to take the first-born, too (ie Cleo, the dog).
Some of you already know that I lived out bush for quite a long time (months and months) before the kids came along, but that was in Far North Queensland, and I was with their father back then... Anyway, I basically know what I'm doing, but it has been a long while...
I had an old edition of a local book (fantastic, if you're in the area) called "Free Camping in the South-West, and your four-legged friend can come too!!" There's a lot of great sites listed, but many were too far away for our purposes this trip, and ones close to Perth were in an area where the government authorities have baited with poison for foxes and other feral animals -- you're allowed to take your dog there, but they have to be on a lead the whole time, and I wouldn't be able to relax at all as I'd be way too worried about my dog. Then I found this one site that sounded ok, it was described as a beach camp, and it was about 2 hours south of Perth. This camp site ended up being a fantastic decision!!
The other challenge that I was facing is that I've just recently sold my people-mover (Tarago) and bought the tiniest, cutest little car called a Daihatsu Sirion (there's pics in my pics section if you're interested, it's very girly!!) The problem was I wasn't sure how much I could cram in there!! LOL I ended up making the decision to forgo the air mattresses and take a VERY thick doona instead (this was a bad decision!! LOL)
We headed off on Thursday morning, with the exhaust pipe just about scraping on the road. Unfortunately, I forgot the most basic principle of camping and scouting (did I mention I'm a Cub Scout leader??), that is, Be Prepared... I was not, at all. No excuses, just hoping to fate and optimism that all would be well. I won't tell you all the twists and turns of that first night, except to say that we ended up having take-away for dinner in Bunbury (a nearby city, in fact the only other city in Western Australia besides Perth) cos the camp stove wasn't working, I got about 4 hours sleep (in 15-30 minute intervals because the ground was so hard -- the kids were fine, though).
We went for a lovely long (1.5 hours) walk along the beach to the nearest town in the morning, and the kids had fun walking up and then running down a huge sand-dune, as well as looking for shells. I'd bought a new camp stove in Bunbury the previous night, but then I discovered that the gas bottle was also empty, so no coffee in morning, and another trip back to Bunbury (luckily only 20-30 minutes drive away) to fill up the bottle, and then discovering that the gas bottle was out of date (only last 10 years) and I had to buy another one!! LOL
At least we are set up for the next trip!!
After we got the gas bottle filled, I figured that we might as well go down to one of the Bunbury beaches. We found a nice picnic shelter and I cooked up pancakes for the kids and scrambled eggs and toast for me (a very belated breakfast -- much more like lunch!!) After we'd eaten, and while I was cleaning up, the kids made friends (as kids do), begged some cardboard off me (I had the camp stove box still) and went off sliding down this great grassy slope. I had to eventually drag them away.
On the way back we did a couple of touristy things, including taking a scenic drive which took us through a town called Australind, which is on the shore of a beautiful estuary. There was a great board-walk that we stopped off at, and Trinity got to see her first ever dolphin (a lifelong dream, she assures me -- which sounds pretty funny coming from an 8 yo, but I know that she's serious)
Back at the camp site (which we had to ourselves), we went for a little walk and disturbed some kangaroos nearby which was very exciting. Luckily Cleo is a very obedient dog and did not give chase (roos can kill dogs by ripping their bellies open with their sharp back claw). It ws getting late and we still needed to get organised for dinner, make the fire, etc, so we decided to do some more exploring the next morning. We made a small fire both nights, toasted marshmallows, and then when I went to bed I put it out by shovelling sand onto it.
We packed up the car in the morning, and then had another great walk, this time throught the bush, saw a heap more roos, and quite a few beautiful little fairy wrens (bright blue the males are, but too quick for my camera). Then it was time to go. The kids were both filthy dirty, tired and happy. I count it as one of our best family holidays and know that we are going to be doing a lot more camping in the future -- especially at our new fave spot!! It really was a lovely camping area, easy to get to, shady, and beautiful, and best of all, we had it to ourselves and the roos!! The beach is only 300 metres away over a sand-dune, but it is a bit rough for the kids to be swimming there. We had some fun watching some guys surfing off the local town beach, though.
| | Posted: 10/13/2008 at 04:03 | Read 106 times | 6 comments | Leave Comment |
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| Sandra | ""Happiness is a decision.""
43 years old
Female
Perth, Australia
Last Login: 6/1/2009
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