Camping with Under-Fives

This post is courtesy of my friend Fiona Irvine who recently took her 4 yr old and 10 month old camping.




My 4 yr kept saying he wanted to go camping and as I am not much of a camper I tried to put it off. After many weeks of persisting I finally gave in and did some internet searching. I wanted a camp site not too far from Melbourne so if it all went horribly wrong then home wasn't too far away. I also wanted it to be family friendly with plenty of activities for my very active son. I settled on Badger Creek Big 4 caravan park in Healesville. Just over 1 hour from Melbourne.

We headed off Saturday morning and arrived in Healesville just in time to get lunch from the bakehouse and sit outside and people watch, which included seeing two ferrets being walked on leads down the main street. We then headed to the caravan park to check in and set up our tent. Being new to camping I borrowed all of the equipment from my sister so there was no big expense and the site cost us $41 per night.

The caravan park is situated beside Badger Creek which is a lovely picturesque flowing creek only ankle deep in most parts so the kids can have fun throwing in rocks or dipping in their toes. There is also a swimming pool, playground and jumping pillow for both children and adults to enjoy. My son took his scooter and had a ball scooting around the park with other children either scooting or riding bikes. For tennis players there are 2 tennis courts. For rainy days the park has a games room with pool table, football table and air hockey as well as a TV room.

I knew the park included a camp kitchen which turned out to be better than i thought. It included microwave, toaster, kettle, oven, stove and fridge as well as chairs and tables to dine at. If you prefer BBQs there are those as well.
The toilet/shower block was excellent and clean but if you don't like to share you can get a site that has its own ensuite!!!

We ended the weekend with a trip to Healesville Sanctuary which is always a fun day.

For those of you looking for a great weekend trip to try out camping, or for those who are more experienced, I thoroughly recommend Badger Creek caravan site.