camping addict

I can’t wait to go camping in June!

The quiet before the big Wake UP!

Yes, we will be camping during the first week of the June holidays. And, to the children’s delight, we will be at Goudini Spa where there are hot pools, games rooms and a water slide. This is heaven for Sasha and Christo who have missed these campsites with the trinkets of comfort and familiar computer games.

My family loves camping and for the past 3 years, we have camped at Soetwater, a camping site close to Cape Point where our tourists enjoy seeing both the Atlantic and Indian Ocean romancing each other.

View from campsite a few metres away

Although our teens, Christo and Sasha, will disagree, there is really no camping site like the Soetwater resort where you co-exist with nature.


Our campsite in the caravan park, Medusa, is snuggled between fynbos-covered sand dunes and mountain views to the west and an unspoilt shell-cobbled sand and boulder-strewn shoreline and ocean to the east. Sheer bliss and a delight for all the senses!

Potjiekos - the traditional fare

Our children spend their days turning beach sand into massive art galleries filled with sculptures of cars and caricatures of themselves. And we have our own Bikini Bottom right on our doorstep! The kids would find Spongebob’s real bossman, Mr Crab and his best friend, Patrick’s extended family in the tons of rock pools that dot the area. Instead of the minute fish being the diners at Crusty Crab sea world restaurant, they become our dinner at the traditional campfire.

Joel, Christo and Nazeer strutting their stuff

All this entertainment and adventure for a mere R500,00 for a family of six per week.  A visit to the Spur Restaurant with that amount will just about cover a family meal and the experience lasts no longer than 2 hours at a push. Or, that amount can cover the cost of one visit to the cinema. See the point?

Clockwise: Nazeer, Sasha, Riko, Christo and Brandon

I believe there are certain activities like camping that we have to expose our children to. We fear the youth’s obsession with technology and their growing alienation,yet we do not expose them sufficiently to other possibilities of entertainment. 


Family holidays and family outings are also threatened by our rushed lives and the obsession to equate a holiday with an hotel or a self-catering facility.  And, if there is no money to pay for such experiences, we tend to choose the ‘stay-at-home’ route, pretending to enjoy the same old, same old... 

Sunrise 

  Even if there is an economic crunch, camping is not only affordable and family- ( and friends if you have kids like ours) -friendly. Camping allows us to promote eco-tourism in our own cities and we give our children a balanced menu of ‘mall-rat frenzy’, computer-mania and a respect for the environment.

Time to create magic : cuzzies galore...

So, to all the campers out there: continue roughing it while you can because life is too short and nature is too beautiful to only view from a cabin or an hotel room.That's right, Pitch a tent or pack your caravan and go with the flow...