Lennox Heads camping trip

Right-o, what is the last thing you want to happen just before you are heading for a long drive in the scorching Queensland sun?

The damn air-con. It's been randomly squealing for the last few months, but true to my procrastinating personality, I've been putting it off and just ignoring the high pitched noises it makes every time I temp got high. Last week, I mentioned to hubby that the car was smelling like burnt rubber, but him having absolutely no clue, passed the smell buck to all the other cars on the road. It's not us hunny, its that car over there.

Well, we were both happy in our procrastinating and deflecting worlds, until the CLUNK and then the SQUEAL, that could not be ignored or blamed. A few calls later, it seems the whole air-con unit has gone ca put and the $$ value is about $1200. A lot of money for cold air hey!

So, the trip down south was in good old fashioned comfort. Windows down and breeze blowing through our hair - which in turn blew everything light out the window, much to the kids amusement. Grace, the whole trip down and back, made a game out of throwing wipes over the front of the car, only to have them blow straight back to her. See, who needs those fancy in-car dvd's?

We arrived at our home for the next 3 nights, set up the tent and filled up the inside with 80% of unnecessary items.

~~The Penney Tenthouse~~

Jen and the kids were joining us for 2 nights, so the kids all had a ball running around whilst we adults slaved in the hot sun getting the Penthouse all cozy.

~~Grace and her 2nd best friend Cass (Lily was top dog for that nano-second!)~~

A quick look at the Lake, that we had excitedly booked our site near, we were slightly disappointed. It was a murky colour that resembled a blood bath - Yuck! Of course, I scouted the area hoping to catch sight of some hot blood-suckers, feeling slightly disappointed when I couldn't spot any.

After chatting with a few locals, our minds were put to rest. Seems the lake is stained by all the tee-trees surrounding it. Once working out that the water wasn't festy and going to kill us, we eagerly shoved the kids in first to test the waters - so to speak. It was actually surprisingly warm, and soon enough we were all happily going in and having a great time.

~~The murky tee-stained water~~

The beach was also about 80mtrs from our tent site, so we spent a fair bit of time over there too. Except, the wind was up a bit, so getting whipped by sand particles at the beach, made the lake look way more enticing.

~~Xav chasing Grace, Grace chasing Duane and Duane chasing his hat~~

The kids all had a great time running amok in the caravan park, enjoying one of the best bits of camping - making friends. Grace, Xav and Cassie all decided one girl they met was their best friend. The never called her by the name (which was Lily), instead all three of them called her My best friend.

~~Oh, to be young and have instant best friends!~~

Lily was high on the popularity and sat on her pedestal bossing them around. Most of the time she made them sit quietly on the side of the path, watching her as she scooted up and down - and they obliged. I didn't care, it just meant the adults could sit down and relax whilst some random 4 y/o minded our children - bad?

On Sunday we excitedly headed up to Bangalow with all good intentions of going to the famous markets. I'd checked and re-checked the market schedule, and booked our camping trip around the weekend that the markets would be on. Well, seems they are on every other 4th weekend, except the one I went out of my way to go too. No, this weekend it was all about the Bangalow show. Ok, we will just go to the show, no biggie. Except, Sunday is pack up day - so NO SHOW either. With my bottom lip heading south, we decided to head to the local park and let the kids loose with the locals. It turned out to be a lovely morning with some nice photo opportunities, so I was happy in the end.
Most of the holiday was spent frolicking around in the lake, playing at the beach, exploring the local area and generally relaxing and having a great time!

~~Stunning, early (6am) light - just beautiful~~

Food also played a big part in the experience with bbq's every night, fish and chips on the grass beside the lake, lots of refreshing lemonade icy-poles, yummy summer fruit and a beautiful breakfast on the beach at the surf club on our last morning. I tried very, very hard to eat sensibly, even forgoing yummy pancakes:

For a big bowl of fruit and yoghurt. It was lovely, but damn the banana pancakes with maple syrup and ice-cream looked delicious.


It was a perfect holiday, well except for the lack of comfortable cool air whilst driving and the cyclonic winds that whipped us overnight. Our ten held up beautifully though, not buckling at all under the pressure.

We can't wait for the next long weekend, to be able to head off again!