The weekend before Valentine's Day, saw Jake and I camping with friends at a gorgeous spot, called Trout Haven.  You all know, by now, how I feel about camping, but I'm trying really hard to overcome my issues for Jake's sake.  He really loves being outside and it does today's kids the world of good to get some fresh air!  The group of friends we have started camping with are really great.  All super down to earth and happy to share tents with Jake and I - it's always a bonus when I don't have to put up a tent on my own.

Trout Haven is in Rawsonville and one of the most interesting camp sites I ever seen.  It's a working farm and there are only 8 camping sites on the farm.  Each of the large sites are about half a kilometer away from the next, which gives your group some privacy.  Each site has their own ablution facilities, which means that you only share with your friends/family and that's a HUGE plus in my books.  Sadly, the weather was grim and it rained for a large portion of stay.  It was still quite warm though and it never rains continually, so we all managed to have tons of fun regardless.  I managed to get a couple of kids together in my corner of the tent one afternoon and we played Uno and 30 seconds for chocolate - it was heaps of fun! I don't think I'll ever be a winter camper though...

 The campsites are all along the river, which is supposed to have trout in it, but Jake didn't have any luck catching them.  The kids had great fun exploring the river and looking for interesting things to bring back to camp (check out those muscles!)...

 Like this heart(ish) shaped rock, that Jake lugged back for me...

 In between, the kids played cricket...

 Jake is super chuffed with his new tackle box and goodies for fly fishing, but tells me that he needs a cork rod, with some tubing, to help him fly fish better...

 A loo with a view...and not a single spider...

 Knowing that there was rain on the way, I tried to snap some pictures of the surrounding scenery while I could.  I know most people don't like sun spots on photos, but I do...

 Jake got me to go exploring the river with him in between the showers too.  I'm glad I did, we had lots of fun and it was super pretty.  This is looking downstream...

 Upstream...

 A sweet smile from a grubby, but happy boy...

 One of the families brought this huge blow up pillow with and the kids had lots of fun on it...

 Being on my own with Jake also means that he'll actually pose for photos for me.  I love you, Jake, and I love your happy smile.  It melts my heart a thousand times over...

 And I'll always be jealous of your super long eyelashes.  Why is it that boys always have super long eyelashes?  Not fair...

 OK, you'll have to use your imagination a little, but that's Jake and my shadows, side-by-side in the river...

By night the kids played with fire.  Jake is still a pyromaniac and they actually spent quite a lot of time during the day collecting "dry" wood to build smokey fires.  They did pretty well, even if the grown ups were left spluttering for fresh air from time to time...

 Burning previously burnt proteas first thing in the morning...

There were plenty of kids to play with.  This is Jake helping Ray to find his pocket knife that he dropped into the river.  Ray is 10 and  the younger kids thought he was the man, Jake included.  Ray's Afrikaans, by the way and even that didn't stand in their way...

 This is standing alongside our campsite looking down at the river and up the mountains - so beautiful...

 We all had big plans for swimming, but the weather wasn't fantastic and the fresh mountain water was icy...

 More exploring for the kids...

 I like being a fly on the wall and watching Jake when he doesn't know I'm there.  These are Ray's younger twin sisters.  Jake was showing them a bug in the water...

 Teeny tiny spiders living between the rocks, waiting for water bugs...

 They had a little boat too, which was heaps of fun...

More smokey fire making...

 And picture drawing with burnt sticks...

 Sitting by the fire, sharpening sticks with his fishing knife...

Exploring...

I had a bit of time to take some scenic shots too.  Flowers, some dead, some in fresh bloom...

 Tall grasses blowing in the winds...

  I found a few bugs, but really had to look hard.  This tiny butterfly was smaller than my thumb nail and the brightest blue on the other side of it's wings...

 A camouflaged hopper...

 that Jake thought was super cool and wanted to take home with us...

 More flowers - wish I had PhotoShop to fix this up, I like it...

 A last dead tree... 

 I know I'm revoltingly behind on my blogging, but I have been super busy.  Promise to try to be better!!

Lots of love,

Sue XXX