Beach, at last

We have a rule in our house that we attempt to get to the beach at least twice per summer, but so far we haven't even managed one. So we took the plunge, packed the tent and headed down to Lake Tabourie caravan park for the Australia Day long weekend,  joining Susie, Patrick, Josh & Mia for the last couple of days of their week-long holiday.

We arrived late on Friday night, so the first order of business on Saturday morning was to head to the beach. The main feature of this beach is an island, connected by a sandbar to the main beach, meaning one can find a beach facing almost any direction. We started on the most sheltered option, but soon graduated to the medium-sized waves.

Ella joined Josh in the surf to reacquaint herself with her boogie board, while Katy (no longer scared by waves) swam in the shallows and played in the sand. The highlight of the morning was finding waves that suited both parents and kids, meaning that we could catch waves side-by-side (see photo of Ella racing Nat to the shore).

This caravan park was pretty well-endowed with kids facilities. (It was, by the way, crammed full of family campers -- many of whom had tents larger than our house; some included microwaves, fridges or TVs in their repertoire of furnishings.) But on the plus side we discovered a BMX track (again, mainly an Ella+ aged activity):

 

There were multiple playgrounds, tennis, art & crafts and not one but two jumping pillows -- fun for the whole family:

 

Both families were pretty exhausted by the end of Saturday but, undeterred, we headed out for more of the same on Sunday. This time, the waves had picked up enough that boogie boarding wasn't an option, but we still spent a good few hours at the beach before Susie & family headed home.

We stayed an extra night, giving us the chance for a proper fish'n'chips at Ulladulla, give our tent a thorough rain-test in some fairly solid storms on Sunday night and a final Monday morning swim at Merry Beach (surf even higher this time) on the way home.