The Queensland Government graciously gave all students two pupil free days at the end of the final term for 2020. I decided to use this extra time to the best advantage and take the girls camping for a night. Solo. No other adults, no extra family with kids to entertain each other. Just the girls and I.
They are just so into camping and I want to make the most of the time we have together. So I booked a night at Springbrook for us. I figured one night would be pretty easy, and Springbrook has a BBQ facility, so I didn't need to pack as much kitchen stuff. The weather was absolutely against us though. So much rain.
I still feel like we made the most of it, and had a great time. As is usual for a camping trip, I've come home with more good things that outweigh the bad on my list, and I'd be happy to go again.
We got up to the mountain about 10:30, and set up a very basic camp. I had just brought the two man tent - which the girls kept insisting was actually a "three girl tent" for us. It's a very simple pop up tent, which was fine for a night, but I wouldn't want to do any longer in it. We also popped up the gazebo, which I was very thankful for in all the rain.
Two years ago, when we took the girls to Ceader Creek with our friends the Pans, it was rainy and wet. The red dirt there turned to mud very quickly, and the five kids had no trouble forgetting about it and tramping it all over our picnic mats and into our tents. Despite our best efforts to remind them to take their shoes off at the door, or on the designated towels, the red mud was everywhere.
This time, I saw the same red mud situation about to happen, but it seems the girls have levelled up. I only had to explain once, and every time they remembered to use the towel and take their shoes off. It's a small victory, but it made a significant difference. I feel we can camp so much more now, just because of this tiny step.
Anyway, the rain was clearing, so we took off for the Purling Brook Falls walk.
Again, my memory of doing this walk six years ago, when Sophie wasn't even two and Rachel was only four months old, is very different to how it played out now. We had a great walk. Sophie kept saying: "This feels so enchanted, Mum!" and Rachel was super at spotting small things.
We went all the way down to the falls and had lunch and a paddle before starting back up again.
We were right at the top and the girls asked for another paddle when the rain started up again. I called the girls over to hurry them back to the campsite and unfortunately slipped on a rock. I was mostly fine, but both of my shoes were completely submerged in the water. So annoying. Still, we made it back to camp and played some games under the gazebo together while we dried off.
Given that I was going solo with the girls, I had planned the most basic and easy meals for the trip. Dinner that night was two minute noodles, which the girls loved. In the morning we had shaker pancakes on the bbq. Too easy and still delicious.
Given the rain, after our dinner, we just crawled into the tent together. I had packed a chapter book to read to the girls called My Side of the Mountain. It's about a boy who runs away from home in New York to the mountains to live. Perfect for our camping trip. We cuddled in and read until bed and when we woke up in the morning, we read some more. In fact, thanks to the rain, we read about two thirds of that book.
I say, "when we woke up in the morning we kept reading" like it was a great 8 hour sleep for us all. It was mostly a good sleep for the girls, but I had the worst time of it and it felt like the longest night ever for me. We all fell asleep about 8, but then I woke up at 9, and 10, and 11. It was the wake up at midnight that convinced me to pack up all the outside things (picnic mat, food box, stove) into the car and shift the gazebo so we were more directly under it. The rain wasn't getting in, but it was still directly on our tent.
Also, because the tent was so toasty warm inside, and the rain was so cold outside, there was a lot of condensation happening on the sides of our very small tent. The girls were on the edges, so I kept pulling them in towards me whenever I woke up, but Rachel woke up at about 11 completely saturated despite my efforts.
I gave her my sleeping bag and tried to get back to sleep sharing with her, but it was very squishy. At 2am I gave up, and moved to the car with Rachel's wet sleeping bag. Compared with the tent, the car was absolutely freezing, and the wet sleeping bag I had with me didn't really help much. I slept there rather brokenly for an hour and a half before returning to the tent.
Good thing Rachel's sleeping bag had dried out in that time, because Sophie woke up on my return and discovered she was wet. The three of us cuddled back in together under the two sleeping bags that were still dry and slept until 6, so not too bad at the end there.
We crawled out for breakfast at 7, and then back to the tent for more reading. There was a break in the rain shortly after, so I figured that was as good a time as any to pack up. It was a bit of a shame to have to leave so soon in the morning (we had been hoping to do another hike that second day), but the rain had really set it and there was no chance of it clearing.
We took the long way home, with a stop at the Gold Coast for a play in the park and a walk on the beach. Even in the terrible weather, the girls still had fun running around on the sand and chasing waves.
I just loved the time I had with the girls for this short camping trip, and I'm feeling pretty confident that I could do another, longer one, with them again soon.
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