To be fair, the start of the trip was great - we were celebrating a birthday, and we had arrived around 2pm, a bit late, but not late enough to miss joining in the planned games. We started out a bit casual, and look at the blue sky!?!
Later in the afternoon, we played games that really tested some unused muscles groups - crab soccer
Then some volleyball.... on your knees please!
And you'd never guess what was to come at this stage, hmmmm? All good, clean, wholesome fun in the sun. And there was even a nice sunset to boot.
That's the end of the pretty picture, folks, you'll have to put your imagination into gear to picture the night that followed.
We had a nice dinner, had they birthday song, ate the birthday cake, chatted around the campfire,
paused to play some Flamin' Soccer:
Which was it's usual hilarious event.
And eventually we retired for the evening. And then it started. For those that have followed ALL the blogs, our worst night on record for our travelling was at Princetown on the south coast. I reckon, if you multiply that by about.... hmmmm........ FIVE ... it would equate to this night. Lesson one learned, is that the camper trailer is NOT really suited to camping on sand. The poles that are meant to hold it straight...... don't. So the canvas was doing it's whole slap-slap-slappin' routine against the poles.... noice. This of course resulted in, as previously, child number one waking, being scared and hopping into the big bed. Which with the winds, is rockin' and rollin' for all the WRONG reasons (those being the WIND, people!!). And I sleep in the stretcher this time.
Lying there..... not sleeping....... wondering if we'll land back in Perth...... and then notice that I can hear some other noise outside - sounds like the neighbouring tent (which is sleeping six people) is in difficulty! Pete peeks out..... said tent has collapsed. Completely. The little elastic rope thingy that holds the poles together has snapped. Turns out the poles won't hold together without it! We take in three of the occupants, the other three go and camp in our car (MISTAKE!!! Why didn't WE go and camp in our car!!!???). The tent is left to fend for itself, which, as it turns out, it does quite poorly.
I reckon we got a maximum of 2 hours sleep, and were then woken at about 5.30am with the strongest winds and rain yet. I had moved to the other side of the tent, as Miss J had woken up with a puddle on her bed, and had also moved to the big bed (now with three kids and Pete in it!). It HAD to have a "sleeper" on that side, as it was the wind side, so, after tipping out J's puddle, that was me. The winds were strong enough to be lifting ME, IN THE CAMP STRETCHER, off the ground every so often. Lesson Two learned, canvas really isn't that waterproof. On the strong gust of winds, the canvas shook a small shower of water onto us as we sat there. All awake now, mostly sat up, huddled in our sleeping bags. The regular showers started to accumulate on my bed - I noticed my feet were in a puddle. This puddle grew until I was sitting in it, but I had to stay there, as the tent was not anchored by anything apart from us in it. The weather continued this way for at least an hour, and eventually, the rain eased slightly so we decided to get up and brave a pack up.
WARNING: Scenes of general devastation to follow.....
Adventure just isn't the word.... All of our clothes were wet, so I continued the day in my jammies (no photos of that - unfortunate!!). I managed to throw some sand in my own face when folding up one of the camp tables (everything was semi-buried, so there was lots of sand to be thrown!) and then sat in the car, crying it out, for the rest of the pack up.
Eventually we were on our way.....and were kindly fed by the Ashbil's when we returned to Perth - warm food..... heater...... mmmmmmmm!
Until next camping adventure then.......
K, P, M & J
x
