Our First Australian Camping Trip

Wow! Within minutes of me posting about my new life, I had quite a few hits so it's great to know you are all still out there! Thanks for sticking around.

So where have I been and what have we been up to recently? 

Well, for 5 nights over the Easter weekend we did something we haven't done as a family before. Camping. Neighbours Paul & Lisa invited us to join them and by the time Easter came around, there were 5 families in total going...to Torquay Holiday Park.

We used to go when I was little. My mom and dad have a caravan and the day before we went anywhere my dad would take the car to the garage and get it washed, fill up with petrol, pump the tyres and check the oil and water so that nothing else had to be done. In the meantime back at home, my mom would make sure the caravan was all cleaned and stocked with everything we needed. I can't remember what us 3 kids did. Probably bothered them like kids do. 

Now as you may or may not know, camping takes a lot of prep work. Especially if you don't have a single thing required for such an adventure. Actually that's not true. Before our stuff arrived from the UK, the Mr had bought a camping table and camping chairs for us to use until our kitchen table and chairs arrived. We left to go on the Thursday...the day before Good Friday...and had bought everything we needed the weekend before. How's that for being prepared?

So with a borrowed tent, 4 brand new sleeping bags, and a few other essential items we thought we might need, we packed the car boot until it was choc-a-bloc full. The kids were buckled up in the back seat and even more stuff was packed around them so that nearly every inch of available space - except the drivers area - was jam packed. We were all set and ready to go.


And the car wouldn't start.


There is absolutely nothing more deflating than things not going to plan.


The Mr and I jump out and being the non-mechanics we are have absolutely no idea what we are looking at under the bonnet. The only thing was the battery which had died on us before. So I let the car roll back while Mr moves his car so we can try and jump start it. Expect the jumper leads are in the boot. Under all the camping gear. Right at the back where we should have been able to open it from between the kids seats, but it had been locked closed from inside the boot.


Aaaaalll the camping gear had to come out again. Only to find that jump-starting the car didn't work. Aaaaalll the camping gear went back in, the kids were hoiked out of the car and back into the house so that we could charge the battery with the portable charger. Thank goodness we had one of those.


So for the next hour we sat inside the nearly dark house playing on the PS3.


Fortunately for us, the charger worked and we were soon on the road.


Only to stop at the petrol station to fill up, pump the tyres and check the oil and water.


Next time we go, I'm doing a "dad".


Robyn x