The kids, Melinda and me all love camping. Nothing beats getting out out of wifi range, unplugging from all the distractions of the day and setting up the tent. Unfortunately, this year has been too busy for us to get out camping as much as we would have liked. Up until a few weeks ago we had not been out camping this summer at all. I have been travelling with work, the kids have been busy with various school schedules and Melinda is always running around working with some group or association.
A few weeks ago summer gave us one last weekend of sunshine before giving into autumn. With this, we took the opportunity to take advantage of the weekend and packed the tent and the kids into car on Friday night and headed to Upper Yarra Reservoir for 2 nights of camping.
Getting away even for 2 nights, was great for all of us. If you are wondering why I have put a picture of a tree in the gallery above, this is because this is the tree where both Melinda and I found Marissa on Sunday morning after breakfast. All weekend the kids were trying to climb this tree and on Sunday, Marissa finally figured it out. We were a bit panicked as Marissa was high up in the tree and had a fair way to get herself back down, but she was at the top of this tree and couldn’t have been happier. This is what I love about camping. Kids don’t need an ‘application’ or a tablet to enjoy themselves. This may be sound crazy but kids knew how to have fun before the infiltration of media devices came into our daily lives and the crazier thing is they still know how to fun without having to open an app, be online or be connected to some media device.
I am hoping next summer we get more opportunities to go camping and spend time offline and ‘off the grid’ so to speak so we can remember the simple things in life are often the best. No application or mobile device needed (although I shouldn’t speak I did check my email on Saturday from my phone).
