Camping at Mt. Tamborine

We survived our first camping trip and had a great time. I just posted all the photos (and there are many - from the incredible bird life, the beautiful setting, the sometimes cute family, the amazing adventure park, the new friends and the pony ride - could they have picked an uglier horse for her?)). Overall it was a great time. The boys quickly found their new freedom of being turned loose on a campground with creeks and waterfalls very much to their liking. They made friends with Luke from Brisbane (9 years old) within an hour of arrival and found it very hard to say goodbye. Luke was there with his father Steve and 12 year old sister, Ileah - a really, really nice (and fun loving) family. The boys had a secret place by the creek where they would hang out and eat their breakfasts together - so secret I have no photos. We arrived on Wednesday and on Thursday morning decided to let the boys do the adventure park with Luke and his family. We had no idea what a treat that would turn out to be. After crossing seemingly endless suspended wood bridges, we followed along on the ground (both wishing we could be up in the trees with the rest of them) as the group did some amazing physical challenges. They all had major equipment hanging from their harnesses and had to be clipped in to two places at all times. They watched a video before they were allowed into the park and then a guide followed along on the ground in case they needed him. Once starting there was no way down until finishing a course. There were three courses. David had no problems with the first two courses and sailed through finishing before the rest. Colin had some real challenges with his clips (he has some grip issues and this was a grueling task at times for him - the clips are pretty much adult size and took some real repetitive efforts) but with some help from Steve finished his two courses. Colin and Luke were allowed to do the first two courses and David (who was just tall enough), Ileah and Steve set out to do the most challenging black course. Luke and Colin got to finish with a long romp in the Sensory area where you ditch your gear - except for the jumpsuit and gloves and get to do some neat challenges without clips but over nets, all high above the ground. Truly amazing! The adventure park took most of Thursday then we finished with dinner and marshmallows by the fire. It rained on Thursday night creating quite a muddy mess for Friday morning. The boys played in the creek and had breakfast with Luke before we packed up and headed home. We traded emails with Luke's family and hope to cross camping paths with them sometime in the future. Make sure to visit our photo site to see all the fun captured digitally. (There should be a link to picasa from blogspot - just look around. I'm new here!)

http://picasaweb.google.com.au/bigfluffyhead

Another bit of news from the tent....Elyssa composed her first song on this trip. She woke up Friday morning with an unknown inspiration to sing the original "Sunscreen and Boogers" - she is still singing it and I am still laughing.