"My Holiday" by Swellbelle

We have just returned from a week of camping at the beach. Four families, nine teenagers and the best coastline in the world. The views of the ocean from our camp ground was unbeatable.

The Lovely Husband and I had our campsite among the other families and our teens shared their own campsite with a number of their friends. The girls catered for themselves and the boys catered for themselves. The Lovely Husband and I enjoyed suiting ourselves with our menu and observed from a distance the interesting way in which the teens dealt with independence. The girls were organised and in control. They did come to us for the occasional piece of equipment or food item and in the end, money. The boys were more independent and only communicated when forced to by friendly adults. Their diet seemed to consist mainly of meat, meat, potato, meat, noodles, meat and pizza.

The caravan park has a curfew and the girls broke that on one occasion with lots of squeals, laughter and you know, that terrible thing, fun! But we adults stamped down on that kind of nonsense. The boys kept their campsite much the same way as my son keeps his room, like it was ravaged by a wounded bull. Unfortunately it attracted the brush turkeys and caused havoc so they too were set upon by the surrounding adults to clean up their act.

We adults had cocktail hour(s) with way too much snack food, we talked incessantly and drank plenty. On the other hand the nearest shop was a good 20-30 minute walk along the beach so unless we wanted to fire up a car we walked a lot. pSychotic sister was there as was Soul Sister and my real sister too.

The water temperature was fantastic and the surf was not too rough. The days were warm and the nights cool. Perfect camping weather.

The only problem with camping is that you come home with a sandy tent and equipment, 47kg of washing (you know I don't exaggerate) and for those of us with curly hair, near dreadlocks. But it is worth it. It is nice to get back into your own bed, and for those trips to the loo, it is just down the hall not the hill.