A quick look back as we head down the home straight of the year. Despite my weariness, I only took one day off during these recent school holidays, but we made good use of it with another camping trip, this time to Mystery Bay just outside of Narooma, recommended by friends.
We borrowed a lot of the gear from these same friends, including a two-gas cooker which felt decadent after my university camping trip days travelling with one lightweight one. There was also a self-inflating double mattress, how standards have increased!
Our campsite overlooked the beach through some spotted gum trees, a lovely spot, prompting Rhea to remark ‘I like this place, apart from the dirt.’ Sharing it with us was Kelly in a converted, purple-bedecked, fairy-themed small bus; and a couple who disappeared by car both mornings all day, returning at night. All three of them were from the local area. Kelly extracted a bamboo splinter from Rhea’s hand one day. We didn’t chat much to the couple.
It was deeply restorative being beside the sea and hearing the rhythmic rush of the waves day and night. We gazed at the stars and then read and played Uno and checkers in our tent in the nights after our easy-cook dinners of pesto; ravioli and spaghetti bolognaise. I was pleased that the bolognaise had functioned as a freezing block during the first day in the esky as I had packed it straight from our freezer at home. It also kept the chocolate cool, and the milk that accompanied the variety packs of cereal that the girls happily ate each morning for breakfast.
The sea was cold, but the girls have neck-to-knee wetsuits, and when I went in on the warmest day I found the numbness refreshing and delightful after a while. Lara built a large sand fortress one evening, and they both restored one that they found with extra tunnels, decorative greenery and reinforced walls. There was a deep rock pool a few beaches along in one direction from the main beach that we lingered at for a few hours one day, and two caves accessible only by swimming ten metres across from a rocky outcrop in the other direction. The girls swam over and explored the caves, prompting a nearby father to laugh ’I wish your girls hadn’t done that, now he’s persuaded me to go too’ about his six-year old son.
We only brought enough food for three days and nights, so on the last day and night we went out to a pub for both lunch and dinner. That was one of the highlights for the girls, including meeting a friendly dog and its owner there during dinner in the old outside barn.
I woke up in the middle of the last night in the light drizzle to some thumping and rummaging around inside the tent. It was Steve, and he was trying to scare away the wildlife which was moving underneath his pillow. I wasn’t bothered by a possum digging itself in on his side, but Steve was getting increasingly forceful and woke all of us up with his frustration. He punched the ground with his hand and got spiked: it wasn’t a possum but an echidna, seeking shelter from the rain.
Steve got up and unpegged his side of the tent to swivel it around while we stayed in the dry vestibule. I made a shelter for Echy under a spare foam mattress and the girls came to have a look too. In the morning Lara and I built a replacement structure out of bark and leaves to protect her/him from the light rain.
Things are still up and down, including when we spend 24 hours a day together. But the girls loved camping this time too, including their nocturnal adventure, and we went to a large camping store last weekend to check out some gear. We are thinking about investing.
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