I packed the car with our beach and camping gear and off we went. I was a little nervous, I hadn't gone camping on my own, just me and my Cub. I had to pitch a tent and set up camp all my own, well with the "help" of a 4 year old. But guess what? I did it. I surprised myself. I learned later that the hard part was to come, and that was packing up the camp. I sweated, oh boy did I sweat. Other campers were watching and when I had finished they came and gave me a cold drink and told me they were in ore. ( They could have come and helped!) They said they could never do what I did on their own. Well I didn't think I could either, but if you don't give it a go you wont know. You can really do anything if you put your mind and sweat into it. When you are a single mum, you just can't rely on others. If you want to do something then go for it.
I hadn't been to Kiama for years, in fact I was probably in my late twenties. We stopped off at the Nan Tien Temple on the way down, I have always wanted to go there and it was all that I had expected. Serene and beautiful, I felt like I was back in Thailand.
The Holidaypark was great. It had lots to entertain my Cub, a playground, a pool including a toddler pool, and jumping pillow and we even had our own private beach. The water was still too cold to swim but we had loads of fun building sand sculptures on the beach.
We ventured to Kangaroo Valley one day as far as the Hampden Bridge. We went down under the bridge and had a swim in the Kangaroo Valley River, it is so pretty down there. It's defiantly worth a visit. The Cub had a lot of fun, learning to flick stones in the river and playing with other children who were spending the day down there. We even saw an Echidna in the wild, that was certainly the highlight of the trip. The Cub also loved seeing the cows and horses in the the picturesque farms on the drive there.
Of course we visited the the Kiama Light house and the Blowhole, my cub loved watching it and waited with anticipation for the next big blast.
The Cub got to see lots of animal on this trip, he loves seeing animals and especially in the wild as he says. We saw a Black Cockatoo, Eels, Stingray, Echidna, Pelicans, Cows, horses and there were plenty of ducks to feed around our campsite every day.
Overall we had a great time, the hardest part of the holiday for me was controlling my Cub, he met lots of little friends at the park who he wanted to run off and play with. At the age of 4 I was not comfortable with it, nor did I allow it. Which meant I didn't really get to relax too much., but it was lots of fun!
Would you take your kids camping on your own? Have you? I would love to hear about your experience.
