Our first week of the April school holidays saw us taking our first ever camping trip together as a family. We left Tuesday, returned Saturday, and finished off the week celebrating Munchkin turning 11 years old so it was a busy and exciting week. This is a MASSIVE blog post full of way too many photos but I just couldn't help myself...
Getting ready to play a bit of Tetris fitting all the equipment in the back of the car and still leave room for the humans that were going as well. Thankfully (as you'll see in later photos) we had a pod for the roof of the car.
We arrived at our camp site late in the afternoon on Tuesday which meant the race was on to get the tent up before dark...
Munchkin reading with our little camp light before bed Tuesday night.
There are lots and LOTS of sunrise photos... it has been 18+ years since I've had an opportunity to watch a sunrise on the beach. Therefore I took FULL advantage of the fact that my body clock is set to start waking me up at about 6am, and that I had no pressing jobs keeping me from enjoying the beauty of God's creation.
Munchkin enjoying the beautiful view...
The other reasons there are SO many photos in this blog post is because I was using both my cameras during the trip - my big DSLR camera as well as the camera on my phone. I found (once I viewed all the photos on my computer) that I liked various aspects of both cameras so I decided to keep (include) photos from both of them. This of course means more photos to scroll through, but I hope you will agree with me that it is worth the viewing. Sometimes my favourite photos are those taken on my standard handheld camera and other times I absolutely love and prefer the photos taken on my phone.
I love taking silhouette photos on the beach
The clouds were just amazing with the various levels of sunlight...
Early morning selfies with my sunrise beach buddies...
We found some fun critters in our campsite... this moth "lived" under one of our camp chairs for our entire visit. Sometimes (as shown here) it was on the ground and other times it clung to the cloth of the chair.
We also had a resident Orb Weaver spider. Sadly I was not able to get any better photos than these two (though I definitely tried). Her web was MASSIVE and you had to stand on a bit of a hill to get close enough for photography. I did NOT want to get tangled up in her web so I had trouble finding a vantage point that gave adequate light.
A rather random photo of our campsite...
Munchkin reading and enjoying his "breakfast" of a peanut butter and jam sandwich!!
The boys and I took another walk to the beach later in the day when Monster was awake and ready to explore. The beach was almost always deserted.
While exploring the lake (we had the beach on one side of the campground and the lake on the other side) we discovered these huge jellyfish.
Munchkin found a jellyfish free zone to swim and snorkel in. He was super excited to discover how well he could see the fish in the water when he looked at them through his snorkel mask.
There were people fishing in the lake, so there were pelicans about...
More photos of Munchkin in the lake - he didn't mind the rain at all.
This is my favourite (and best) photo that I took of the pelicans throughout the week.
More photos of the pelicans... I'm slightly obsessed with pelicans!
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The beautiful sky....
We actually "glamped" a bit... yes we stayed in a traditional tent (though hubby and I slept on a thick inflatable air mattress) but the campground itself was fully equipped. We had a powered campsite so could use our devices and also had electric light as well. Then the campground had a full kitchen, large BBQ area, toilets and showers with hot water, and even a laundry room and lines to hang clothes on. You aren't allowed to have fires in your campsite that use solid fuel (so no charcoal and no wood)... but with a full kitchen and BBQ we just cooked and ate our meals there.
This was one of the beach access paths and the gate was directly behind our campsite. However, the gate didn't unlock untl 8am (I think) and since I was down on the beach just after 6am each morning I had to use a different entrance point. But this path was really beautiful so we used it one afternoon and I made a point to photograph it from both directions - looking towards the beach on the left, and looking back towards the campground on the right.
There was a ping pong table next to the kitchen (with paddles and balls kept in a basket in the kitchen) and the boys made frequent use of it. This was a new addition to the campground as it wasn't there when the boys camped there in 2021.
Some lovely photos of the lake that I took while monitoring Munchkin's afternoon swimming.
I walked a LOT... because you had to. In order to go to the toilet, or get rid of any rubbish, or cook and eat your meals, you had to walk somewhere. Then add that we walked around to enjoy the beach and the lake, and it added up quickly. I didn't always have my phone (and thus my walking app) available for use so I relied on my fit band to give and indication of how much more walking I was doing... it was a LOT!! On this particular day it was nearly triple the amount of walking I would normally do in a day.
Thursday morning was much more cloudy and wet than Wednesday and Monkey and I didn't get down to the beach until after the sun had officially risen. But it was still a beautiful morning on the beach and we enjoyed our time there together.
Once we got back to the campsite we gathered up everything we needed for breakfast, headed up to the kitchen, and spent a bit of time up there together eating, chatting, and messaging friends and family.
The view of the BBQ area from the kitchen.
We discovered that the fly awning of our tent leaked. After some late afternoon/early evening showers on Tuesday afternoon we thought it was fixed. But we were all woken at 4:45am Wednesday morning to rain hitting Monster on the face. Hubby and the two older boys braved the rain and the dark and quickly and efficiently covered our tent with this massive tarp. Meanwhile I mopped up all the water that I could find inside the tent and we all got a few more hours of sleep. In the morning they better secured the tarp and we continued to camp through some VERY wet weather without too much mishap.
A wet and grey day on the beach, but the lifeguard was on duty and the flags were up, so the boys could swim.
The boys were not particularly phased by the clouds, cool weather, or rain and just enjoyed playing in the waves.
In between keeping a close eye on them, I took the opportunity to experiment with my photography as I haven't had much chance to work on my skills lately.
Fun in the waves... one wave caught Munchkin off guard and dumped him on his bum, but I missed it.
My favourite things to photograph on the beach (besides my children) are waves crashing and seaweed. I was pleased to have both at my disposal this particular day.
After the beach they moved to the lake for some more swimming.
While they enjoyed the lake, I enjoyed the scenery.
This camping trip was not without incident. Munchkin cut himself again. This time it was the bottom of his foot, cut on a rock or piece of coral. For my regular viewers, you may remember that when they camped here with their father, uncle, and two cousins, Munchkin fell on some rocks and scraped his leg up badly. That scrape ended up infected and launched the later dramas with eczema on his foot. Ever since that event, we take cuts super seriously, even though Munchkin hasn't had any major infections since having his appendix removed last year.
Left Photo: One of the highlights of my camping experience and it has nothing to do with camping. There is a HUGE Salvation Army store about a 15 minute drive from the campground and we planned to spend some time shopping there. I had nothing specific planned to buy there EXCEPT this book. It is the first book in a triology and I have book two and book three and desperately needed book one. Lo and behold, as I carefully browsed their large and well organised book section, I found it. Even better was the fact that it was in near new condition AND only $3!! I was super excited. As an extra bonus I found two Harry Potter books for one of my friends as well.
Right Photo: My walking for the day. Not as much as the first day (primarily because we spent some time in the car) but still more than double my normal steps for the day.
Thursday night was NOT my favourite night. I got caught walking from the kitchen to our campsite in a downpour and ended up quite wet. Interestingly, I somehow forgot to pack spare socks, so was furious about my soaked socks until Monster gave me a pair of his. I was wet and frustrated so opted to go to bed REALLY early (like before 9pm) and just give up on the day all together.
Friday morning during our sunrise visit to the beach I discovered this MASSIVE double rainbow, and it was JUST the reminder I needed after my foul mood the night before.
God is good - that is all.
Friday morning was very wet, but the weather report kept promising that it was going to clear off and be sunny so Monkey got the fantastic idea to walk to Windang Island... We had to wait until nearly 1pm for the showers to finally stop but we refused to give up hope...
More pelicans as we headed out of the campground and on our walking adventure to Windang Island.
We could see this huge playground from our vantage point at the lake so we wanted to see if we could find it as we walked to the island...
There were jellyfish in the lake again...
I tried to take an "artistic" photo of the benches that lined the lake as we walked towards the main road. I'm pretty pleased with how this photo turned out actually.
We found Windang Island!
You CAN walk out to the island across that sand bar but we opted not to do that since the tide was coming in and we didn't want to get stranded out there and have to wait until the tide went out again. It led to a long discussion about a day trip to the area.
Bonus note that Monkey reminded me to add... we had MUCH excitement when we saw a small black snake while wading through sand and grass to get to this view of the island. We have no idea what kind of snake it was (it dashed across our path and disappeared into the grass) but it made for an exciting few minutes and lots of discussion.
Monkey admiring his island - he was a bit disappointed that we couldn't actually explore the island - but was content with the plan to return at a different time.
The area around the island was just gorgeous.
This is a beautiful sculpture that is being put up in the area, though we couldn't get close to it yet because it is still under construction.
We found the playground and it was AMAZING...
Munchkin loved the inground trampoline area
Pelicans were EVERYWHERE and we quickly noticed that the park itself is called Pelican Park!
There was a Ninja Warrior obstacle course...
A large bank of swings...
The boys were fascinated with this swing set up that allows baby and parent to swing together.
More pelicans resting in the sunshine...
The best view of the sculptures I could get...
A view of the campground from the playground side of the lake.
We even found exercise equipment - which would have thrilled Monster.
We are DEFINITELY making a Saturday day trip down to this area and spending the whole day on this side of the lake enjoying this exercise equipment, Pelican Park Playground, the beach area and the island. There are BBQs to use as well - it would be a PERFECT family day out.
Another cool sculpture I found during this outing...
Another photo of Munchkin's foot as I was keeping a very close eye on it. So far it looks good.
Left Photo: For our walk to and from Windang Island I used the pedometer app on my phone so we would know exactly how long that walk was. An excellent walk for the two boys at just over 6 kilometers/3.95 miles and 10,000 steps for me.
Right Photo: My total steps for the day - another huge number with the addition of the walk to the island and back.
A gorgeous view of the lifeguard lookout (building on the left) and the hills as we headed towards the beach.
Our last day (and thus last sunrise) on the beach. I snapped this photo of hubby and Monkey walking towards the beach...
Seagulls on the beach...
The birthday boy (Munchkin) on the beach at sunrise...
I could not stop taking photos, the sunrise was just glorious.
If you look closely you can JUST see a sliver of the moon at the top centre of this photo. I tried to get a photo of the moon AND the sunrise (as it was amazing to see both at once) but my camera skills just weren't up for the challenge that early in the morning. Probably if I had thought to walk up the beach, back towards the campground, I probably could have got it, but I just didn't think of that.
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This set of photos (marked off by the asterisks) were taken on my phone camera by Monkey. For whatever reason his phone didn't charge overnight and he was really disappointed about not being able to take his own photos, so I loaned him my phone while I concentrated on photographing the sunrise with my hand held DSLR camera.
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More beautiful silhouette photos of the boys on the beach.
After watching the sunrise and eating a quick breakfast it was time to pack everything up, load the car, and head for home. Check out time was at 10am and we just about made it.
Right Photo: A funny photo of my birthday boy. I'm not quite sure how it is possible that he is eleven years old now - where has the time gone???
More adventures on the drive home. We stopped at Hungry Jack's for lunch as Munchkin had his heart set on eating there for his birthday. This is a throw back from when the boys were younger and we used to hold their birthday parties there.
Left Photo: Monkey had raspberry Fanta to drink with his lunch and it turned his tongue (and actually his entire mouth) bright pink.
Right Photo: Munchkin got a Super Stunner meal so he could have a birthday treat of ice cream with his lunch.
The photographic proof that the younger brother (13 years old) is now visibly taller than the older brother (17 years old)!! Not by much mind you, but enough to be noticeable and enough to count!!
When we got home and were unpacking the car and chatting with the couple who house sat for us, we discovered this beautiful spider hanging out on the power pole in our front yard.
Let the birthday celebrations begin...
Left Photo: Munchkin was gifted this hand made (crochet) beanie by our Pastor's wife and he absolutely LOVES it.
Right Photo: He immediately got busy preparing cupcakes for dessert.
After some coaching from daddy, he was able to light his own birthday candle and he was pretty pleased with himself!!
We ended our Saturday evening and our week with a family card game. Munchkin has been wanting to play this game for AGES and we promised him we would do it on his birthday no matter how late it got. The game is tricky and we were all tired, so we only played a couple of rounds, but it looks like it is going to be a good addition to our games collection.
Last, but not least, the books that Munchkin read during the week - and yes - he took two books on the camping trip with him, reading and re-reading them for the entire four days we were gone.
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