Eli obviously loves the great outdoors, so when the chance to go camping with our friends Jeff and Addie arose, we jumped at the chance. We ventured south to Flat Rock Tent Park, which is a quiet beachfront camping spot just north of Ballina, in northern New South Wales. Neither Eli nor Addie (who is 7 days his junior) had been camping before and they were both very excited about the prospect of sleeping in a tent at the beach.
As soon as we arrived we pitched our tents. Although Jeff and I tried hard to document the assistance that Eli and Addie gave us, the best I could come up with was some hasty shots of two little monkeys running in and out of incomplete dome tents. To their credit they did stop still and 'help' for a little while and Eli was particularly keen on hammering tent pegs into the ground (irrespective of their position or proximity to the tents). We managed to get the tents up just as a shower of rain swept through...Jeff and I were hoping that it wasn't an omen.
After establishing our campsite and escaping the rain, we headed down the road to Ballina for a spot of river fishing. Eli quickly got into the swing of things and was intrigued with how the bait (green prawns) goes on the hook and how to cast the line and then reel it in again. Before long he was doing it all pretty much by himself (but don't believe him when he tells you that he also put the bait on the hook - I wouldn't let him do that!). Unfortunately, we only had one really big bite (the one that got away) and didn't pull in any fish, but even as we left the fishing spot Eli was proclaiming that "maybe we'll catch a big one next time".
Our next adventure was to explore the beach at Flat Rock. In fact, Eli and Addie dragged us absolutely everywhere, from the top of the dunes to the beach and the waves and then to the rock pools (and yes, this text is only here to provide an excuse for me to post my 'arty' shots of the dunes and rock pools).
Inspired by the winter olympics, Eli enjoyed climbing the dunes and then 'skiing' back down them.
Eli and Addie quickly got wet in the rock pools thanks to Eli's tendency to run, jump, splash and dive whenever he's in the proximity of water (no matter how shallow it is).
Our fun at the rock pools was suddenly interrupted by another heavy downpour. Eli's response was to run off down the beach (back towards camp) and Addie, Jeff and I followed after him. He ended up so far in front of us that he ran past the exit from the beach, so he then had to do some backtracking.
Even after getting soaked through, the kids kept their spirits up, although Eli and Addie both look a little bit unsure as to whether they should smile or shiver in this photo.
After a nice warm shower and an early dinner, we had two knackered little campers on our hands. So we read some stories and then retreated to our tents for bedtime. Addie was out like a light and Eli seemed tired and restful, so I tucked him in and then left the tent, because going to bed at 7:30pm is just a little bit early for me. All was going well until I walked past our tent about 15 minutes later and there, sitting on the grass under the fly but outside of the tent, was an innocent looking Eli. He wasn't scared or upset or anything like that, I guess he was just expressing his capacity to unzip tents and sit listening to the conversation that Jeff and I had been having. Once I bustled him back into the tent he claimed that he wasn't tired, but once he lay his head down it wasn't long before he was asleep.
Thankfully, after Eli's false start, both he and Addie slept well and woke bright and happy on Sunday morning. After a quick breakfast we headed back to the beach and rock pools, where Eli and Addie enjoyed some more splashing and the added excitement of an incoming tide. In these next photos they are waiting for a wave to come into their pool...
We had a good chance to have an even better look around the rock pools in the sunlight (thankfully the rainy weather had moved on) and we spotted snails, limpets, crabs, sea anemones (red and white ones), sea squirts, starfish, sea cucumbers and lots of small fish...
As always, Eli was pretty gung-ho when it came to interacting with all of the critters. He started the morning off by picking snails off the rocks and dropping them into the sea anemones (to watch the tentacles close), before very enthusiastically embracing (quite literally) the sea cucumber I spotted. Addie watched on from a safe distance while Eli got the sea cucumber to squirt water and then I brought an end to the game by moving Eli along before he squeezed too hard (nobody wants to be covered in cuvierian tubules). Eli also enjoyed holding a small starfish we found.
All in all, it was a great camping trip and we had two very happy campers by the end of the weekend. Eli put in one last leap on the sand dunes before we packed up our tents and headed home (via another beach where we had good fun getting knocked over by the waves). I don't think it will be too long before we head off for another camping adventure...
