Elanda Point

200 photos, 50 mosquito bites, 7 animals, 6 trips to the lake, 3 days, 1 memorable trip

We had our first extended family camping trip. It was so much fun. I recommend having 5 adults around to wrangle a baby. Not to mention take turns cooking, cleaning, canoeing, swimming with the kids and trips to the showers and bathrooms. I even read a book! (Harry Potter and the Philosphers Stone - finally got around to it - slow I know!)

Our little shanty town

As my brother and I were watching the kids play at the lake I said Good behaviour in children is directly linked to all distractions being removed from parents. It's surprising how good kids are when you have no housework, no washing, no chores (apart from eating and washing dishes) no computer, no paperwork, no craft etc. This was another aha parenting moment for me. It will be good for the family and for the soul to retreat from hectic life more often.

We found a clay pit. A favourite activity was to cover themselves and their uncle in clay

Stalking Kangaroos, Goanna's, ducks, kookaburra's were other favourite activities.

Getting up for the sunrise was mine. I love to do that atleast one day while on holiday. It is just so peaceful at sunrise. There are no words to describe the beauty of the earth at that time. I snuck away and Miss A woke up in the tent alone with the baby and worried where I was.

The thing the older girls were most excited about was adult propelled surfing! Miss A discovered it first and Miss K would not rest until she had learnt. Who wants to be showed up by their younger sister! The only problem was they never wanted to stop - but these poor adult bodies could only do it for so long. My legs felt like jelly afterwards! Maybe I need to do it more often! lol lol! We wisened up and hired a canoe and pulled them around on the back of that too.

And what did baby think of it? I think she gave it a thumbs up! She loved all the attention showered on her by the adults and she loved swimming in the lake. She slept pretty good too so she must have liked sleeping in the tent too.

I totally recommend Elanda Point for camping with families. The lake is only about 50cms deep for a few kms. The deepest it gets is 1.5 m. The kids entertained themselves in the shallow water. The only downside was absolutely no fires in the park. The girls had been looking forward to roasting marshmallows. They love campfires so were very sad about there being no fire allowed. They made several 'fake' fires with sticks they collected.

 

We even saw a beautiful rainbow while we were there! Luck must have been smiling upon us.

I survived my first camping trip in quite a few years. I might go again :)