Is this a good camping spot?

Arriving in the dark, late last night, it did look like a good spot. The Wilsons Promontory seemed like a great place to wake up in and celebrate my birthday.

Waking up this morning all was going well, still. The children sang me a birthday song, I unwrapped gifts, listened to and read digital messages and we ate home made chocolate cake. The kind that you really only should eat once a year. Despite being far away from family and friends, I felt like a birthday girl!

Then we decided to go on a hike. There are about 20 hikes to choose from starting from or near the campsite. Since we were so close to the beach, we decided to go on a coastal hike to Squeaky Beach that started from the walking bridge on the other side of the campsite. A group of people was jumping off the bridge into the Tidal river. It was hard to get Kai away from there, but luckily the people looked cold enough not to temp Kai to jump in it as well.

The ocean and the beach quickly became visible, but our path turned the other way and went uphill. We left the track to get to a viewing point over Squeaky Beach:

 

And that was all that we got to see of Squeaky Beach. The rain that came out of these dark clouds, that were not there a couple minutes before, made us turn around. It did not take long before we saw little rivers forming everywhere. We were far enough away to get soaking wet. Returning to camp we discovered that the ground under our tent had also turned into a small river.

It could have been worse. Had we picked the spot next to ours, we would have had ankle deep water:

After we saved our sleeping bags from drowning, we took a nice hot shower to warm up again, had lunch and looked at the weather forecast. Where it had showed clouded but dry weather before, now there was continues rain and a thunderstorm for the night. Not very promising. So we decided to leave and packed up our gear.

Is this a bad way to spend your birthday?

That does not need much thought:

1. Oliver gave me a Dutch Oven with a tripod, something I really wanted!
2. The children have made me a birthday card and secretly bought me a gift from their pocket money.
3. We went camping. Well, maybe for not that long, but we did.
4. Karin had made and sent me a picture book from our goodbye party, which not only myself, but we all loved. A great way to look back on this special weekend. Nogmaals bedankt Karin!
5. I received many messages through Facebook, Skype and WhatsApp. Thanks for the nice messages!
6. I received one birthday cards by snail mail, I have heard that there is some mail on its way, so who knows how long my birthday will last this year…..
7. We got to see wombats up close. Wow, I did not realize how big they are. In the zoo they looked a lot smaller. But standing right next to one, they come up to your knees.  They look like giant blown up Guinea pigs.
8. We discovered that the Wilsons Promentory is amazing. We will be back for more!