Camping Weekend

Over Easter weekend, I took Josh on his first ever father-son only camping trip. We drove up to Wagga Wagga in New South Wales and attended the Oz Mega Wagga Wagga geocaching event.

The 6 hour drive (which became a 7 hour drive thanks to toilet breaks and breakfast and morning tea) wasn’t actually too bad. Josh had a couple of naps on the way up but mostly he entertained himself with his portable DVD player while I listened to the likes of Jack Johnson and Violent Femmes.

After a 6am start and a 7.15am departure, we arrived in Wagga Wagga (it’s Aboriginal and means “Place of many crows”) around 2pm. I set up the tent with no help from Josh as he had already made friends with 4 year old Toby from the campsite across the dirt track from us! Toby was a blessing in disguise as they entertained each other for most of the weekend, playing cars in the dust, having sword fights with sticks and digging holes around the tent. I wish you could see the dust on Joshua’s clothing!

Friday night after dinner there was a huge bonfire which everyone enjoyed. I think it was a little bigger than the organisers had planned, but it went down a treat with the campers!

Saturday morning started around 8am after eleven hours of sleep. We spent most of the day out geocaching. The evening saw a magnificent fireworks display, live music and another bonifre. Unfortunately, the bonfire was quite late and Josh passed out as soon as it was lit.

Sunday morning was a very early start thanks to Daylight Savings coming to an end! Up at 6.30am, we had breakfast and hung around the campsite until lunch. Josh and Toby played in the dust, I read my book. There was also a huge Mega Easter Egg hunt for the kids – 1500 easter eggs placed on a field half the size of a rugby pitch! The kids went wild!

Sunday afternoon was more geocaching until our dinnertime BBQ followed by more live music, prize presentations and another huge bonfire and bed around 11pm.

Monday morning was pack-up and clean-up time. Again, no help was forthcoming from the four year olds as they played in the dust and the parents did all the work.

The drive home was only 6 hours, despite the in-car navigator taking us on a really interesting journey via some back roads!

For more geocaching goodness, read “It’s not about the numbers“, my geocaching blog.

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