Glamping in the Bellarine

Hey all!  We just got back from a weekend trip to the Bellarine Peninsula.  Melbourne sits on Port Philip Bay.  The bay is surrounded by two peninsulas - the Bellarine on the west, and the Mornington on the east.  The two peninsulas almost touch on one end - they have a ferry that goes back and forth - and enclose the bay.



The Bellarine is a popular tourist spot.  There's ocean all over, and from what others have told me, some decent surfing.  We stayed at a place called Big 4 Bellarine, a camp site with powered tent sites and cabins.  We drove about 90 minutes out of the city to get there.  There are dozens of Big 4 camp sites all over Australia.  I think you can become a Big 4 member and get discounted rates at all the campsites.

We went camping with the kids' school - they called it a "Family Camp."  About 50 families rented cabins or tent sites to hang out together all weekend.

Most of our school group, if not all of them, had rented cabins instead of tenting or caravaning  Caravaning is very popular in Australia - they are either full-on mobile homes or pop-up mobile homes.



The caravan option, or even the tent option, didn't look too bad at this campsite.  There was a building for campers that had a full kitchen, including a fridge, for them to use.  Bathrooms had showers and were very clean and spacious, and each site had a gas and water hook-up.  Nevertheless - the cabin was the way to go for us.

Huge campsites and really nice tents and caravans abounded.

The beds looked better before they were jumped on.

Parts of the cabins were nicer than our regular house.

The whole thing was much more civilized than I expected.  The place was spotless and had towels and soap and even milk in the fridge for our instant coffee we could make with the provided kettle.   Each front porch had a table with chairs to have others join you for wine, and wine glasses were provided.  More on that later.

Our weekend got off to a rough start, because I felt like garbage Friday afternoon, and Joel had a terribly hard day at work and couldn't get home until 5:30.  We checked the traffic report, and there were many accidents as well as peak-hour traffic out of the city that would make our journey almost 3 hours by car.  Normally it would be 90 minutes.  We decided to bag it for the evening, and headed out early the next morning.

Once we got to camp it was full-on from go.  We hadn't even checked in yet before Isaac was off running around with his mates who saw our car pull in.  The rest of the afternoon was a lot of following the kids around - to their friends' houses, to the pool, to the jumping bag, to the flying fox, to the go-carts.  We didn't take advantage of the other opportunities, but there were also basketballs and soccer balls to borrow, and tennis equipment for the tennis court.

Three huge jumping bags for hours of fun guaranteed to make kids sleep at night.

The kids had a great time doing all the activities.  Ruth and Isaac rented a pedal-powered go-cart for an hour, but tired of it after 45 minutes.  We all went swimming and jumping and walking around the park, hanging out at other people's houses.  Isaac was invited to a friend's house party after dinner where they had disco lights and more candy than I've ever seen in one place.  Yes, the parents brought disco lights from the city so their 9 year old could have a disco party.   Ruth went to a friend's house to make s'mores, which is very special because there are no Australian graham crackers in existence, as far as we can tell.  So these were *imported* s'mores!  Another mum brought her own frying pan so she could be sure to make her usual Shabbat morning challah French toast. Clearly we were not roughing it; all the comforts of home came with us.

What do parents do, might you ask?  The parents hang out on each others' front porches and drink a lot of wine.  Really delicious wine.  I had more to drink that Saturday than I've probably had in the past three months.  It's a great way to get to know other parents, which was great for me because I hadn't met many of the mums and dads in Isaac's class before.   Parents of smaller kids, who had to keep a closer eye on the young ones, brought their wine and wine glasses to the playground and sat at the picnic tables to have their wine there.  They also, perhaps understandably, took naps.  Joel conked out for three hours.  If you weren't offered wine as you passed by a friend's cabin, you were offered something else.  Brownies?  check.  Imported cheese and crackers?  check again.  This was very, very comfortable camping.

Please don't judge us - we all work very hard in the city.  PS - I would be right there with them, but I left to take the photo.

For dinner we headed into town of Barwon Heads for dinner.  We were with a group of 34, and I really thought we were in for a night of slow service, but the restaurant was super quick, got the kids fed first, and we were all fed and out within 90 minutes.  An excellent choice!

King prawn curry indeed. 

 After dinner we walked across the bridge over the Barwon River, just to burn off some of the dinner.  The kids played on the beach for a bit, but it looked like a huge storm was brewing so we headed back rather quickly.

Once we got back, Isaac had to go to his party.  I walked him to the party cabin.  As we were walking, the sky darkened and the temperature dropped 15 degrees (that's C) in about 10 minutes.  Rain started hurtling down on us, lightning flashed rapidly.  Isaac and I made a run for it, and got to the cabin to find a bunch of kids cowering in the cabin, scared out of their wits.  Granted, the rain was very sudden and dramatic, but we were in a house, not a tent, and were perfectly safe.  Nevertheless, kids wanted to call their parents and go home, and parents started coming to the door to usher their kids to safety.  I couldn't understand it.  Aussies think NOTHING of big scary spiders and snakes and crocs, but this rainstorm had them really nervous.

I left the party once the rain had slowed; Joel picked Isaac up about 45 minutes later.  Isaac came home all excited, saying "It was the best party ever!  Spiders (ice cream sodas), chocolate, lollies!  I am so full of sugar!"  Bless his heart, I hope this is always how he judges the refreshments at parties, although I fear his likes will change as he gets older.

We headed back the next morning, and it was a lovely drive.  We'd like to go back to the Bellarine and stay longer for a proper holiday.  There's a lot to do there - a big amusement park, a water park, mini-golf, wineries, and water sports.  There are many festivals going on, and there was an air show near Geelong as well.  We kept hearing sonic booms on Saturday from the show.  See you soon, Bellarine.

I like this photo because it shows the dramatic weather changes Melbourne often experiences.