If you live in Sydney and fancy a spot of camping you don’t need to travel far. Lane Cove River Tourist Park is part of Lane Cove National Park, just 10km from the Opera House, on Sydney’s Lower North Shore.

Aussies love their camping, and roughing it in a National Park is the ultimate camping experience, but everyone’s got to start somewhere, right? Today we’re sharing a few photos of our last (and first) family camping adventure.

Ready and waiting

Last summer, Family Mum’s gone 2 Aus enjoyed a ‘First Time Camping’ experience at Lane Cove Tourist Park. Mum isn’t a camper; we stayed in hotels and caravans when I was growing up. Mr Mum’s gone 2 Aus and the kids would like to convince me that camping is the way forward. The First Time Camping adventure was our first tentative step towards family camping bliss.

The “My First Time Camping” season started again on 12th September, in time for the school holidays. If you have children begging you to go camping, or just want to spend a night under canvas without buying all the kit yourselves, you’ll enjoy the experience.

Tents are designed for families of four. When you arrive the tent is up and linen provided; all you have to do is make the beds. You will also be given vouchers for a pizza supper and bacon butty breakfast.

Lane Cove Tourist Park has plenty of BBQ facilities, a playground, outdoor swimming pool and TV \ games room. We had the kids’ bikes and scooters and all they wanted to do was whizz around the site. Traffic speeds are kept low and we were based on a dead-end track so it was a safe environment.

Included in our camping package was a night wildlife talk and tour. As the Kookaburra’s bid us goodnight (around 8pm) we grabbed our torches and went hunting for possums and bandicoots. By around 9:30pm we’d seen them all, were tucked up in bed, and had a restful night.

Bliss for kids

Our boys LOVED the First Time Camping experience at Lane Cover River Tourist Park. I will never forget the smiles on their faces waking up to our sun filled tent. They didn’t care about putting the tent up or cooking dinner ourselves. Local traffic noise reminded Mum and Dad that we were hardly roughing it, but it never crossed their minds. They slept under canvas, rode their bikes and caught bugs during the day, and tracked down wildlife at night. That’s what camping is all about, isn’t it?

We recommend this experience to all novice or part-time campers. The price this season is $165 per night for a family of four. Read more here.

We’ve linked this post to other travel and destination Photo Friday articles at www.deliciousbaby.com: http://www.deliciousbaby.com/journal/2011/sep/15/photo-friday-aloha-sunshine/.

If you’d like to share your tips for school holiday or family activities in Australia, please add a comment below. Thank you.

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