Camping - Making Memories

I told a friend we were going camping and I think she laughed for a week. I don't know if it is was picturing us sleeping in a tent or the idea of us cooking over a camp stove. It really was a new experience for us. Okay, I admit I camped when I was a kid. That was at least last century.

A friend had an extra tent and most of the equipment and asked us to join her family. We decided that camping might be a cheaper way to see things here. This would be a good way to try it with someone who is experienced.

Here is my husband putting up the tent. I have to say this is a much bigger tent than we had when we tented a few times growing up. It had four bedrooms and a large space in the middle.

We learned the advantage of going before school holidays. The campground is not that crowded. We had a nice quiet corner and not a long walk to the bath house.

Stuart and the kids were learning to play cricket. I think they tried to use some baseball rules as well but were corrected.

Even Miss K got into the action. It wasn't really that cold for long sleeves but she had picked that out herself.

Miss K going to sleep. I think she did manage to stay in her sleeping bag. Sleeping in the dark is a challenge for her and one we are trying to break. She did a great job while we were camping. She was very excited to camp as her brother has been to camp and has been camping and this was her first time.

We were not far from the coast and we went to the sea on two different days. The beaches here are pebble beaches not the sandy beaches we are used to. The pebbles were a bit hard to walk on.

Miss K loves to just sit and dig though she did get in the water a bit. The water wasn't as cold as we thought. We had some warm days and so it had warmed up.

Bob is the bowler. I think he was learning but he did have some good form.

One of the things that you check when camping especially tent camping is the weather. The weather was great for the most part. We got a bit of rain on Thursday evening but last night we watched these clouds roll in around 8:30. We had already quickly cleaned up things that were outside and done a trip to the bath house. We got thunder and lightening and it rained for quite a while. It was windy and I was hoping that the tent would not blow down. It stayed up and stayed dry.

The days are long here at this time of the year. The sun comes up around 5:00 in the morning and goes down around 9:00 so we really didn't need flashlights or torches as they are called here.

It was a great first camping experience. We were told that this campground is one of the nicer ones. We might try it again.


Beth