Today, we are just coming back from our Australian Easter camping trip. After careful planning, we were supposed to have an Outback Adventure by train from Brisbane to Charleville with the kids, and off to the open opal mining areas for some fossicking, etc... Well, I don’t know how this happened - marriage compromise, I believe it’s called – we ended up in a camping trip on the Beach.
We headed up North towards Bundaberg on a 4 ½ car journey to Turtle Sand Campsite in Mon Repos National Park where we spent two beautiful days with our friends Emil & Cristina and their two children Manu (7) & Nadja (9).
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| Mon Repos Turtle Migration National Park |
The Surf Life Savers organised for the children to dig their Easter Eggs in the sand. We lined up our camping table (with a table cloth!) for nice evening meals of cooked prawn and 6.00 AUD Australian Seaview champagne under the stars. The children took the inflatable boat to the local creek adjacent to the surf beach behind which dunes we had set up our two tents.
Since we were surrounded by sugar cane fields, we decided to take the kids to the local sugar cane factory, and the children had a tasting of multi-flavoured ginger beers. We did well to skip the adults Bundaberg Rum tasting round because we found ourselves in a crisis situation very shortly after: Josie’s ears were hurting, and a STORM, a capital letter Storm, I mean Tropical Storm, ... a No Joke Storm was lurking in the horizon.
After a trip to the local doctor & pharmacy, we packed up the tent in 45 mins and took off on the highway to hell back to Brisbane. I put lots of pillows and blankets in the back to absorb the chocks on the back seats. Oscar fell asleep immediately. The rain was pouring very hard and it was dark. I drove the first part and it was high concentration driving: the rain was filling up the holes, so you could not avoid them.
After a while, the car ride had a ‘video game’ feel as we passed a few cars stranded on the side of the road, and even one in the water with ambulance lights flashing. he end game was 'keep moving'. After a few reasonably controlled aqua planning, the engine began playing up.
We decided to stop in Gympie at a 24h open Mac Donald – Josie was happy with that – and waited for RACQ to check the engine: well it was flooded, so the RACQ guy sprayed something in it and dried up the sparkplugs, and we managed to get back to Brisbane quite well under the circumstances. We put Oscar to bed while still asleep and in the morning he asked:
‘Did it rain last night? ‘
We had two good nights at home, drying up the equipment and made a lucky phone call to Clarkes Beach Campsite in our favourite destination, Byron Bay, two hours drive down South, and got lucky someone had cancelled their site, or else it would have been fully booked. There, camping is much easier, since although the campsite is right on the beach, you can walk to town easily if you don’t feel like cooking or else...
We signed ourselves up for a Kayak with the Dolphins Tour for the following morning. I always wanted to see what was THERE behind the great big Pacific Ocean waves, from a Canoe. I had been frightened for years to do that.
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| 'there' it was :) |
I did not make it at first. I was paired up with Josie and our Sea Kayak did not take us out there. We passed the first breakers line, but we did not make it through the big waves and capsized three times. After the third attempt, we gave up. Paul and Oscar made it through the waves. The instructor offered for us two to come back in the afternoon in his canoe, as they would be two instructors.
Josie declined ... well, I took the chance.
Second time lucky? I was on the instructor’s canoe, so he was up there to rescue everyone and got the ride of my life as well, as we demonstrated Kayak Surfing and I had to lean backward as the canoe was going down a huge ocean wave, and the canoe was accelerating and I was in a cloud of glittering droplets! When things went back to normal, he asked:
Was this the biggest swell YOU EVER HAD EVER !
Hum... I did not dare to reply, just smiled mildly. I see I could easily get lost in OZ humour.
Now, the second instructor (you have got to be an OZ to do that) did much worse: he took a huge wave, and as he was inside, he stood up on the canoe, using it as a surf board! unreal.
As Oscar would say: he wanted to be the King of the Sea!
Eventually the dolphins showed up. The glittering silvery shapes were springing out of the big swells at random and jumped around the canoes. We could even hear them blowing through their nose.
The instructor explained how a Great White Pointer swam under his canoe on a previous trip. The truth was finally coming out. Then, a couple capsized, and it was funny to see them get back on it
SO DAMN QUICK
So how is it OUT THERE: well, it is beautifully calm. Although there are still big waves, they don’t break unless they are huge, so the sound of the waves is more muffled, so much quieter than on the beach. The danger is still there, you are in Great Whites territory, but it is worthwhile. As Oscar puts it: I knew there would be sharks there, but I thought there would be more turtles and dolphins to watch... quite right !
As we felt so happy we had such a great Ocean experience, we decided to enrol in a surfing class the following day. Last time, I surfed, I was 23. I always wanted to introduce my children to the Kings’ Sports (as they say in Hawaii), which in my opinion is some of the best of what Australian culture has to offer. The kids would learn to enjoy and respect the elements at the same time.
Josie and Oscar stood up on the board much quicker than Paul and I, and had a lavish time, paddling nonstop and trying to find their balance. The water was very inviting, green transparent.
This was such a change from the daily computer world: I felt I was completely dis-connected from that world, while at the same time I was HARD WIRED to nature. It seemed much more like me!
