Our neighbours had invited us every year for the last 5 years and there was always some reason or another that prevented us from going.... well now I wish we had mustered the money/motivation/time to go on those other years as we had the BEST time.
We took along an extra member to our family. Our 'surrogate son' and fellow homeschooler Calen. All together we ended up with 6 adults and 7 kids, boys outnumbering girls for the first time in about 5 years and Buddy the dog!
After setting up our temporary yet significant accomodation at the bush camp site, it was time to go off exploring. We were camped in the bush behind a large sand dune that led us right to the shore of an aqua blue beach. We climbed the dunes with the kids to take a look and didn't see them again until dinner time.... In fact, that became a theme at this camp. The children were always dune jumping or on walks through the bush to the store to pick up the all important lolly stash to last them the next day or so, or they were sitting by the fire or on their bikes somewhere lost in the trees. The only time we saw them is when they came back like baby birds, cheeping, because they were hungry.
Day two we headed away from camp to look at a wind farm. Our neighbour was sure we could enter the wind farm and stand at the very base of the windmill. Well she was right, but I'm not exactly sure that it was legal for us to be there. LOL. It wasn't exactly sign posted. It is a freaky thing to stand under a large swishing, vibrating, wind turbine! We parked our cars right under the blades and everyone got out to take a look. I jumped out briefly but just as quickly hopped back in the car, like that was going to save me if the blades went flying off!!
Day Three, we headed down to Millicent to go op-shopping. Millicent has some of the best second hand stuff around and our friends are die hard bargain hunters like us, so there was no rush. We went into one store that had EVERYTHING labelled as $1. We bought a brand new netball (and the boys used it to play soccor for the rest of the camp), David got a long sleeve shirt, as he hadn't expected it to be so cold (unlike me who packed everything except the snow gear!), I bought some kitchen gadgets, a few pairs of pants and some pretty shirts - including a Country Road label and a Colorado label and it cost us a grand total of $6. I was so chuffed.
As I mentioned the weather was rather cold but the kids were keen to go swimming at the Millicent spring fed pool regardless of the temperature. They had seen video footage of last years escapades (It has a pontoon in the centre that you can swim out to) and had been planning their own mischief and dare-devil stunts, all week.In the first photo you can see Luke explaining a back flip while Jordan and Rebecca shiver. Calen is already in the water having just executed the said backflip.
The water at the pool of Siloam or Salt Lake is 7 times as salty as the sea, so it was a blast for the kids to experience the extra boyancy that comes with such salty water. Of course we took the time to include a science lesson about why we float more in salty water!!
Kathee, Louise, Mal and Robbie all braved the cold water to join the kids on the pontoon - Sensible David and I stayed warm and dry.
The it was off to the Salmon hole.
I assume it is called the Salmon Hole because it is a great place to catch salmon but we went because the sand dunes are great for sliding down on your boogie board!!
Luke gives David a push Is this really a sport for the over 40?
Jordan and David go for a tandem slide and end up in the water.
I also have a short (eleven seconds) video on youtube so you can really get a feel for how fast the slide down was. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGKqeu2XCQw
The final day we headed home, vowing to stay longer next year, and take more of our friends. We only saw a few of the things that South End has to offer so next year should be a real blast!
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