After our eventful beginnings in our new venture as "campers", we arrived without any further problems to our final destination, Torquay Holiday Park.
This wasn't anywhere near the type of outback camping...in fact as someone put it, this was more like "glam-ping". But not in the full sense of the word. We still had shared ablutions, shared kicthen, shared outdoor theatre, shared swimming pool and spa, shared mini-golf and shared playing area. Shared tennis courts and shared jumping pillow.
So not outback camping, but not quite "glam-ping" either. It was actually a great place especially for the kids with so much to do. It isn't a big place so the kids can go off and do their own thing and find their way back to base easily enough. Which they often did. A couple of the families had been before so once we'd arrived the other kids soon took it upon themselves to show our 2 everywhere. Which was good because we had a tent to put up and some unpacking to do. Again.
By the time we were done we made our way over to the others tents. Three of the families were side-by-side so with the tents set up to allow a large area we could all congregate at one time and drink and be merry together.
We spent the first day practically solely at the pool because the weather was a-may-zing and we knew it wasn't going to last.
The jumping pillow that even I had a go on. How kids do it for hours on end, I have no idea. Within minutes my legs were killing me! And then I still had that jelly leg feeling once I was back on terra firma.
This was the play area that was between the shower block and the camp kitchen.
The kitchen itself was kitted out really well. There was a very large catering style fridge where campers could keep their food as well as a microwave, toaster, hot plates, kitchen bbq's, grill oven and even a tap that gave you instant 98* water for hot drinks. We have those at work too and is on my wish-list one day when I have a dream kitchen.
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| Mel and the mister doing the bbq on a rainy night - we always do things with a glass of wine! |
Next to the kitchen was the outdoor theatre where movies were shown most nights for the kids. There was also a games and tv room near the entrance but because there was a large flat screen tv in the kitchen that had picnic style benches, that was usually on one or other channel. And those fancy-shmancy caravaners had their own tv's anyway, putting us novices to shame.
On Easter Sunday, the campsite organised an Easter Egg hunt, but to make it fair to all the kids instead of hiding eggs in a designated area, the kids were each given a slip of paper with 3 rabbits on it. The idea was to go to three spots throughout the site and get a rabbit crossed off. Once this was done, they returned to the kitchen and were given an egg each. As long as all 3 rabbits had been crossed off.
But before all that even began, all the kids that belonged to our group gathered around Mel's tent for a tonful of homemade pancakes!
This is the man collecting his egg after all 3 of his rabbits were crossed off. The kids started at the reception area and first stop was the swimming pool. Next was the mini golf area and finally the jumping pillow. This took then from one side of the campsite to the other and ended in the kitchen that's at about the halfway mark.
When all the kids had collected their eggs, they were asked to gather at the play area where 2 staff members climbed to the top of the slides and then threw all the remaining eggs into the crowd. I helped the little man pick some up...he tends to wait until they fall in his hands rather than push and shove to collect fallen ones. But his mom doesn't!
I helped him collect 7 more eggs. He'd already eaten his "hunted" one. Sunshine helped Mel's 3-year old get from place to place so I wasn't around to get her in action, but they both proudly showed their winnings!
Not only did we have some very happy kids, but suddenly very energetic too!
Robyn x
