I have never completely warmed to the idea of camping and I don't know what possessed me to choose camping as this years birthday activity but it completely quashed all my expectations. Apart from the absolutely perfect weather and the fact that we managed to coax my mum, brother and best friend along with us (my dad, sister and boyfriend were already super keen) it was the most amazingly picturesque place I have ever and probably will ever visit.
This perfect little place is called Sandon River which is in Brooms Head NSW about 2.5 hours south of Tweed and let me just say it is quite the popular little place.
The original plan was for the boys to head down on Thursday to set up and get a good spot and the girls would head down on Friday afternoon after mum had finished work. Though true to form dad made the executive decision that they would go on Friday morning at 8am on the dot, and by 8am I mean 10:30am and by on the dot I mean somewhere in the vicinity of. Though they got there in the end with out drama and found a perfect little spot and did a fantastic job of setting up. It had just the right amount of privacy and was incredibly cosy.
Dad had gone on a ebay spree a week earlier and bought a new 12 man tent and a camp kitchen so we had the best little set up.
My mum, sister, best friend and I had to play a fun little game called human Tetris because the boys had conveniently left us with more stuff than we could fit, but we figured it out and were off on our 2 and a half hour journey to the middle of east jesus nowhere.
So 2 and a half rather cramped hours later we arrived. We expected the boys to still be setting up but much to our surprise it was all done.
We managed to get there just before sunset, and it was the most beautiful sunset I have ever witnessed. We explored the beach in the remaining light and discovered a sculpture that freaked us all out, but I aptly named Milky Joe because he had a coconut for a head (it's a Mighty Boosh reference for those of you who aren't familiar with the amazingness that is the Boosh)
By Saturday morning (our second day) there wasn't a camp site left but having said that it was by no means crowded. I mean we almost always had the beach to ourselves, our campsite was by no means isolated but it wasn't so close that the people next to us annoyed us, although on the second day the people next to us were playing the same CD on loop all day, but it was alright because we would just find some where to explore.
The beach was by far my favorite part, which is odd because I generally hate the beach.
The second morning we woke up at pretty much sunrise and explored the beach almost the entire day.
Along the shoreline was all the debris washed up from the ocean.
You know how fish and chip shops and other places with nautical themes have all the shells, seaweed, fish and what not arranged in perfect little displays, well all along this shore line were little arrangements just like it. It was as if the ocean had perfectly arranged them just for us (christ how corny was that line ^_^).
I could have walked up and down the shore line all day just looking and taking photos of it all.
Because we were up at sunrise we managed to get a lot of exploring done that day. We went into town, and when I say town I mean there is a few houses a caravan park and a general store and that's pretty much it, but there is a headland!
So we went up one of the walking tracks on the headland and I had a photographic field day. The views were stunning! Every where you looked was either ocean and beach or bush, and both were as beautiful as each other. What was even more amazing was that my brother accompanied us on our little adventure and didn't complain once! We then got ice cream and went back to the camp site by that time is was only like 2 o'clock so we went and explored the beach some more.
We managed to find a plethora of amazing things washed up on the beach. Lobster carcasses, childrens shoes and toys, a perfectly square rock (which I am in the process of turning into a companion cube), my sister found the bottom of what I'm guessing is a beer bottle that had 1953 printed on it which was an awesome find, we even found a bird skull. I also found a jar embedded in a sand bank which I wish I had taken, although if it is still there when we go back (and we are going back as soon as possible) I shall take it with me.
We ended our second and final night with an awesome steak dinner and then we were up before sunrise so I could take photos of the start of our last day.
I hadn't watched a sunrise in years and it was spectacular! My camera battery was on its last legs by that point but I managed to get some amazing shots. Including some of what we though was a suspiciously slow moving comet, but turns out is was a plane whose vapor trail was being illuminated by the rising sun. There was also a crazy guy on a paddle board, it was freezing at that time in the morning I don't know how he managed to do it but it meant I got one last amazing shot before my battery died.
We had breakfast, courtesy of Bradley, explored a little more and then packed up and were ready to go by lunch time.
I was incredibly sad to be leaving, all I wanted to do was stay and explore some more, but it's not going anywhere so we will be back. It was by far the best weekend of my life and I feel like a new person having gone there.
I almost forgot to mention the stars!!! I haven't seen them that clear god knows how long. I could have sat on the beach all night just staring at them.
Look up at the night sky and take note of the amount of stars, now multiply them by about a million and that's how many stars we could see out there. You don't realize just how much light pollution effects the amount of stars you see until you go somewhere with no light pollution.
We also had some pretty intense jenga matches during breakfast, Shannen lost every game.
My presents were also fantastic, Sare got me a bottle of long island and bedazzled the top like a pro, Bradley got me a Minecraft diamond necklace and Firefly on dvd and my parents got me a tripod, a fantasitc photography book and a bunch of clothes and panties.
Thus ends the tale of my best birthday to date. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, be awesome to each other and peace out.
I would also like to add I have never seen so many kangaroos in one place in my life.
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