Around Camp

We might have been up at the crack of Dawn blending in with the bird life catching all those 'early worms' but there was much more to do than just blunder bleary eyed about camp in our PJs! Yes sirree, as the sun climbed the sky we'd head out into the big world of ... Our Campsite!

The perfect pitch site with front flap access to the beach!

...at least that's what we thought until Cyclone Ralph hit (or a pretty closely related relative of his!) BUT more about that later!

Exhausting being up at Dawn isn't it?!

A rare moment of mid-morning 'nap' captured on pixel!

Jo Jo gets his very own tent within a tent!

(probably why he survived the Cyclone!)

This one's for Lara, the wonderful lady who introduced us to homestarrunner for many fun times on long rainy British afternoons!!

The Standoff!

(Which parent is protecting which child?! )

March is still a warm month in Sydney but technically it's the first month of Autumn so we're not taking any chances with the chilly, early morning air!

Jo modelling the latest in baby polar wear!

Isobel keeps warm starjump fashion!

Which works up a hearty appetite (for when it's finally breakfast time!) !

And ofcourse for second breakfast!!

This is Paul's innovation - BBQ pancakes! Works just like a frying pan but takes five times as long! So we got in the habit of all sharing one big pancake, putting it on on the Barbie before we headed down to the shower block and picking it up on our way back! Perfectly done!

And now breakfast (AND second breakfast!) is finally out of the way time for some mid-morning camp fun!

Like running through the sprinkler (clearly campsites are exempt from any 'pesky' central coast water restrictions!)

Common Mum! Let's run!

again ...

AND again!

Lunch time and the tent is still there ... so are those 'nasty geese'!

Shooo!

Afternoon quiet time ... Bell kicks back with her golden books before nap time.

Bell's afternoon nap routine ever since she was about 18mths was to take a stack of books to bed with her and 'read herself' to sleep. Works like a treat! Some days she'll read for an hour or even two before finally tucking down which means with her standard two hour nap I don't get to see her all afternoon!! I have to say I do actually really miss her on those occasions! No such luck when camping in the great outdoors though! Jo has some quiet 'tummy time' too!

Afternoon ...

Yes tent! Yes geese !!

Jo Jo gets banished to a picturesque picnic spot to await sleeping beauty's revival!
... and still waiting! She sure does need a lot of that beauty sleep!
Afternoons were definitely the best time to lay back and be lazy ... Jo the supreme 'chiller' shows us how to do it like a pro!


Nicely rested and ready for a spot of fishing!

Bell sails Eucaluptus boats on stormy adventures as the mellow afternoon draws to a close!

And speaking of 'stormy adventures' this unfortunately is the best pic I have to prove there was a storm ... not much good hey! But it was gigantic! And a funny story!

We once went camping many years ago with our friend Lara in St Ives England, the evening was a blustery one and Lara already not sold on the whole camping deal spent a sleepless night expecting the tent to fall down on her any moment and trying to hatch escape route plans, the next morning found a very tired Lara who vowed never to go camping with us again!

However time the great healer worked it's magic charm on Lara's anti-camping-with-the-Smith's sentiments and five years down the track she's happy to let sleeping dogs lie and give it another go! And two weeks of beautiful balmy warm evenings and we think there's no chance she won't love it! Just as her car pulls into our site I hear the threatening sound of thunder rumbling around the horizon and the next thing you know it's pelting down with blinding torrents of water, lighting is flashing all around and the wind is howling like a lost soul in torment!!!

Eleven pm found Lara and I desperately trying to keep the tent canvas from blowing horizontal on my sleeping children while Paul had conveniently nipped to the bathroom! Only to return to screams from fellow campers, flattened tents and mayhem!

Twelve pm finds us sitting in the cars, Me and Jo with Lara and Paul with Bell, watching lighting strike the horizon, rain blind our windscreens and fellow campers packing up and leaving or abandoning their sodden tents and taking off themselves!

One am finds us picking our way cautiously into our flattened tent, with all the furniture blown to one side, Lara's bed floating in a good few inches of water and every item of bedding wet and cold AND Lara (who heroically climbed out of the car mid storm to check on a possible fire caused by the lightening in some nearby trees (turned out to be flood lights reflecting on the rain drops!!) slipped in a massive puddle and ripped her leg up (a tetanus injection and stitches later...)

Needless to say Lara does not intend to come camping with us ever again!

So... early mornings, energetic after breakfasts, lazy afternoons ... and the odd gigantic freak storms when friends come to visit...

yup, that's about sums up our two weeks camping and we loved it (well maybe not the early mornings or feak storms! But good to be optimistic!)