Beach camping

Last weekend we went "beach camping" with some friends and their 6 kids. Now, to me, the worst thing about the beach is having sand everywhere. So the idea of camping there is like "why would anyone do that?" No running water, sand in my swim suit, sand all over my tent? Are you crazy? But it's very popular here in Australia, so I figured we ought to give it a go. Maybe it's not as bad as I expected.
We hopped on a ferry and took a 40 minute ride off the coast of a Australia to Stradbroke Island.


Well, it was just as bad as I expected. And it was hot! Somehow we managed to schedule our trip on the two hottest days Australia has had in the last 20 years. Ha! (Yes, I can laugh about this now as I sit on our back porch feeding Bridget, enjoying beautiful weather and the children are splashing in our sand free pool.) It was an extra challenge having a baby there. All these tiny, sand encrusted hands wanting to touch her. And I worried about her getting a mouthful of sand every time she nursed. And what about all the sun on her delicate skin? We were sunscreen dependent. Here's Evelyn doing her part.


And there were horseflies at camp. Big ones! And, we won't even talk about the composting toilets (that Evelyn was scared to use).
But it wasn't all bad. I was grateful for the trees for shade. And we had these awesome visitors at camp! Small dinosaurs, if you will. These goannas were about two to three feet long. Sweet!





And camping food is pretty good. Especially bacon and eggs in the morning! Well done, Love!


I have to admit the beaches were fantastic. The first one we stopped at was a nice calm one, almost like a large roped off swimming pool (and they had real toilets!).


Mike got to try his hand at kayaking.


And the kids really enjoyed using our friends' boogie boards.





Bridget was content in the shelter.


Then we did a little beach driving...


and found some incredible beaches! InCREDible!! This is called Deadman's Beach and it was glorious!






It was at this point that I turned to my friend, in sheer amazement, and said "this is like a tropical island." Then I realized "Oh, yeah! It IS!"


(Yes, parents, Bridget is wearing a hat. It's just pink. I did end up hanging out with her a lot in the tide under an umbrella.)


Unfortunately, I didn't bring the camera to the last beach we went to, but it was unreal. UnREAL! Southern Gorge is a narrow little beach tucked in between two cliffs. Like nothing I'd seen before! An extra bonus was getting to sit in the shade of the cliffs.
The beaches were absolutely to die for! Or in this case... to camp for. Maybe the misery at camp was worth it. That's debatable. I'd much rather have a real toilet and a shower. But, I did it! And we survived! With no major sunburns (thank goodness for swim shirts) or injuries and now that it's over we can chalk it up to one more Australian adventure!