Lorne Homeschool Camp 2016 - Day 1

I didn't sleep well the night before we left - I went to bed later than I'd like, and then as often happens I dreamt all night about getting ready and driving there and wondered how it was all going to work out. Once I was up in the morning though everything went smoothly. We didn't rush, all stayed calm and packed our clothes and the food and put it all in the trailer and car. The kids tried out their new camp beds in the lounge room before we packed them, everyone was quite excited about that!

We left around 12.40, a bit later than I'd hoped, still with plenty of time to get there and have a good afternoon. The trip down was quite uneventful, we counted horses and other animals and listened to music and chatted. The drive along the Great Ocean Road to Lorne was spectacular as always - and the kids had only seen it once before (4 1/2 years ago) on a cold, grey, rainy winters afternoon. This day the sea was a brilliant aqua, an incredible colour, and so so beautiful.

We arrived at the caravan park at 3.30 and went to set up our camper trailer. As we arrived we saw LiAM's friend K and were shown where his tent was, and as we drove to our site we saw some friends who we hadn't been sure were coming, so Caitlin was very excited. We could see other homeschoolers we vaguely knew, and other families who we assumed were also homeschoolers. As we were setting up, Caitlin's friend M arrived at our site. The girls helped for a little while and then I said they could go for a walk and see the beach etc. LiAM went with K to see his tent again. I finished setting up and M helped us with the camp beds (one of them takes a bit of strength to click into place) and then we all got into our swimmers and headed for the beach - just across the field from us.

The water was beautiful, not cold at all. Amelie mainly stayed on the sand and ran around for a while and started building a sand castle. Caitlin went in the water with M, and LiAM went in with K. They took their boogie boards in for a while, and then just swam without them.

The waves were only small (although slightly bigger than the previous 2 beaches we'd been to) and LiAM was quite comfortable with them. I had a bit of a swim then helped Amelie with her sand castle. Another little girl who we'd met once before came and helped us as well.

Amelie working on her sandcastle

I chatted to some of the other mums while the kids swam and eventually I left Caitlin with M and the rest of us went back up to the tent. When Caitlin had finished all the girls went and had a shower (LiAM was already changed). We played near the tent for a while and once everyone was ready we walked over to the shops - there was a Foodworks across the road from the caravan park. On the way we discovered an ice dispenser which turned out to be much handier than having to buy bags of ice from the supermarket. We got milk and a few other supplies and more snacks, then back to the tent where I cooked pasta and cabana and a tomato/silverbeet sauce. LiAM grated some cheese for me, and then everyone was able to eat whichever bits they liked, and everyone ate a lot. M came and joined us after tea, and helped us eat the Chocolate Bavarian we'd bought - I hadn't had one since I was a kid, and had been meaning to introduce it to mine for a while - I was quite happy when LiAM spotted it in the freezer. After dessert Caitlin went for a walk with M (who is 16 so I was happy for Caitlin to be with her even when I wasn't around) and we got ready for bed. It took us a little while to get settled, lots of excitement with sleeping in new beds, then finally all into bed and crashed pretty quickly.

Our campsite faced the Erskine River - this is the view from our site