Thinking Allowed: Holiday park living

Everybody loves camping. I think. Ok not everybody, but definitely our children, and much of Australia. It is nice to live in a country where a higher percentage of everybody loves camping because camping is a national pastime. It is part of school curriculum. And while it is true that there is a strong culture of caravan camping there is an equally strong culture of tent camping. But it is a unique camping culture involving words like swag and esky and billy. Camping here is not a means to get out into nature or sleep a night en route it is an end in itself. It is perfectly normal to camp for two weeks with the whole family. It is more than normal to camp over Christmas break and the ballots to secure a camping spot in prime locations open months before the holiday season begins. When we booked a camping trip on the coast we had no idea we would be joining a community.

Mallacoota is a coastal town sandwiched between two national parks, situated right where a river meets the sea in a spectacular arrangement of sand bars and flocks of coastal birds. The holiday park hugged the coastline, affording campers direct access to the watery splendour. It must be a good spot because the regulars book their sites a year in advance. Our camping neighbors to the left were a large three-generation family who had been celebrating Christmas at the same campsite for seventeen years. Our neighbors to the right have been coming nearly as many years and stay three weeks every year. This means that the children have spent a thirteenth of their lives at the campsite. You can imagine that this is an art that has been perfected. As we cooked our oats over a backpacking stove we watched others blend tropical smoothies. As we fiddled with headlamps we watched others unfolding solar panels to power their strings of Christmas lights. While we fed our children sandy sandwiches at the beach other parents pulled out icy poles from coolers. When Sophia got hurt a kind camper lent us some frozen food from their camping freezer to ice her swelling forehead. This was camping at its unimagined pinnacle. This was a magical place for our children and they wandered off to join troops of other kids in the playground. Aurora would disappear for hours to play with the group of similar aged girls she befriended. Koalas roamed around festively and though it felt nothing like how a Canadian would imagine Christmas it felt convivial and quintessentially Australian. Our children are already plotting our return next year!