Photo a Day Starts Now...as in five days ago..but before then...

 

 So to go a little before the start of January for some perspective.  On the 30th of December we were all at home banging around the walls and wondering what to do with the rest of the day.  I piped up with "Hey, why don't we all go camping?".  To which there was a resounding chorus of "YES!" and jumping and whooping it up.  I realised the futility of trying to book into a campsite near Sydney with 24hrs notice during the summer holiday period, so I literally just typed into Google something akin to 'south coast camping', a little map popped up and a few links came up below it.  I clicked on one titled 'Tathra' without having the slightest idea on where it was.  Rang them.  One free site left.  Booked it.  Started packing.

It was seriously was easy as that.  Because we have the luxury of our attic space, it means we have all of our camping gear sorted into tubs ready to go at a moment's notice.  And this was one of those times where a moment was pretty much all we had, since it turned out that Tathra was around five hours drive from our house.  James played car Tetris, I ensured our list was ticked off, the children packed a bag for backseat entertainment and we were ready to go for a 9am start the next morning.  And can you believe it - I even found the packet of glow sticks I had bought from Aldi about a year ago and kept forgetting to use at auspicious moments.

 

The appealing thing about where we stayed was its proximity to the beach.  You literally just walked across the road and it was there.  So once we had put up the tent and unpacked the remaining accoutrement,  we headed across.  It was getting on to late and we were dramatically under-prepared (although honestly, you would think by now and after recent disasters, I would have learned that my children do not attend water without a long-term commitment).  Ted launched himself into the ocean with an unrelenting passion.  Harriet did her best Storm Boy impersonation and produced sand creations with decoration.  And so we stayed and stayed, and drank in our newly acquired liberation with gusto.  There was yelling into the ocean.  Jumping over waves.  A family who, 24hrs previous, had seen nothing ahead of them particularly out of the ordinary.   And the extended arm of sandy beach was ours alone to own.

Of course our children specialise in not knowing their own limitations. It turned cold.  And dark.  A family came down with some fireworks just as we were leaving and we stayed for the fun of airborne sparks and earthbound parachutes (after the little spark these little parachutes floated to earth with a stream of brightly coloured smoke behind each one).  Harriet and Ted went running over with the other children to grab a parachute each and were delighted to find that there was one each for them to have.

The fireworks family then headed off down the beach a little bit and we watched as they shot off some fireworks into the ocean.  I preferred the more interpretative view of them through my lens, but realised it was a little difficult to visualise without having been there, so I've placed it next to a better view of what was happening. 

At midnight we were all safely tucked up inside our sleeping bags, but I woke to the countdown by what seemed to be the chanting of the entire campsite. I poked my head out of the zipper and heard fireworks.  I jumped out, wrapping my cool arms against my body and watched as the fireworks lit up the sky behind the bushland we were camped against.  After a little while I smiled, jumped back into the tent and into my sleeping bag.  2013 was already seeming a lot better than 2012.