Camping hijinks

This weekend just gone we went camping with some friends and their two kids. We decided to head over to The Bedrooms campgrounds on South Straddie as the guys had camped there before with the kids on a Father/Son (Father/Daughter in Steve's case) weekend with their surf club mates. It was the first time our friends had gone camping as a whole family, since their kids were born.

Since it was only going to be an overnighter, and we were going by boat, we had to pack light to fit it all in. That meant just the bare essentials - one small tent for each family, the small 2m tarp (no poles), airbed and sleeping bags rather than the mattress and bedding, one small folding table, folding chairs, the single burner butane stove, frypan and esky.
(Longer trips or when we go by road and can take the trailer, we'd take our big tent, the large tarp, with all its poles, our camp kitchen and our camping box which contains all our camping necessities.)

So, with the tide times and BOM online weather report double-checked (fine weather, with 5/10 knot winds), we loaded the gear, four adults and three kids into our 5m tinnie and set off early from Jacob's Well boat ramp. We found a great shady spot, a little north of The Bedrooms, away from the other campers, where the boat was still close enough to shore at low tide, and set up camp.

Around 10am, while we were kicking back relaxing and the kids were digging in the sand, we noticed the clouds building and the sky getting dark. So much for the fine weather report! Then again, when has the Bureau ever been known to get it right? Steve was sure it was headed out to sea and would miss us, but that was not the case!

11.30am saw us all huddled in our tent, since it was the slightly larger of the two, waiting to see whether the expanding puddle of water at our tent entrance was going to make it all the way to the inner door, and trying to stop the kids from touching the sides of the tent - a little difficult when the wind is flattening the dome of the tent down on top of us! Naturally, curious little people are going to want to touch. "Look Mummy, the water's getting in. See? Right here!"
Yep, thanks. How about you make it leak on your own side of the tent, LOL.

Steve noticed that one of his anchor ropes was slipping and ventured out to make sure the boat didn't float away...round about the time the hail started. Yes folks, hail. That was definitely a first...for all of us! I've been camping in the rain before - who hasn't? But hail is a little less tent-friendly. Luckily they weren't golf ball sized or anything, so the tents weren't damaged. The storm and accompanying rains blew over after a while and the sun came out again after lunch.

I really wish I'd taken photos of how close the water came to getting into our tent. The "puddle" expanded far enough that it reached into the front vestibule area, which has no built in floor and is where we store our gear.

By the time I thought to dig out the camera (after it was all over), the water had soaked into the sand and most of the hail had melted.

Since the storm hit so early in the day, there was plenty of time for everything to dry out during the rest of the afternoon.

We even managed to find enough dry branches to have a small campfire to sit around, after our sausage sizzle dinner.

Of the two queen size airbeds we own, one has a hole, so we'd planned to inflate both during the week before the trip, to make sure we took the good one. Great idea, except that when it came time to test them out, we discovered that we could only locate one. Naturally, we figured this meant that we'd decided against repairing the one with the hole and had simply thrown it away, leaving us with one good one. Right? Err... no!

After sitting on the sagging airbed whilst sheltering from the storm, we decided that it would need serious re-inflating before bedtime. We re-inflated it at about 9.30pm, just before turning in, but by 11pm we were pretty much lying on the ground. Even so, I could probably have slept on regardless, if not for rustling of plastic less than a metre from my head! Possums (or some other small nocturnal thieving beasties) had snuck under the fly, into the front vestibule of our tent, and were snacking on my cheese and bacon rolls! So, with the remainder of my rolls rescued and relocated to inside the tent, and the call of nature answered (as you know, once you're well and truly awake, there's just no ignoring your bladder), I lay back down - on the ground - and dozed off... only to be woken once again at 3am by the beasties raiding our rubbish bag!


Sunday dawned gloriously bright and sunny and stayed that way for the entire day. We went for a ride in the boat down to Couran Cove to see how the other half lives, passing a pod of dolphins on the way. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and splashing in the water, until it was time for us to reluctantly pack up and head for home.




It really was a fantastic spot and, despite the storm and the airbed (which we dumped in the bin on the island, where it quite rightly belonged), I could have easily stayed a few more days. Maybe next time Steve will take a few days off work so that we can stay a little longer than overnight.