Recently we got a book out from the library called “Perfect” by Danny Parker (here’s a link to a Book Week review). It’s all about the simple things that make up a perfect day. The one that I liked was “some shoes and some places to walk to”.

We’ve been trying to evaluate recently what makes a good place for us to get away to – after every camping trip we ask what made this a good trip? What would have made it better?

For me, it is “some shoes and some places to walk to” because I like going for a wander to explore new places.

The answer to that for our kids is “Some water and rocks to throw in”. They like slowly moving creeks, and throwing rocks in. They like faster moving creeks, and throwing rocks in. They like gentle shallow soft sand beach waters and throwing rocks in. And they like rocky beaches, and yes, throwing rocks in.

Because I can let no experience go without explaining everything, we do talk about how some creatures lives underneath rocks, and we need to leave some rocks alone because of that. But the beaches at Hervey Bay provided us with all kinds of rocks, some big rock pools to look at, some big rocks too heavy to move, some little tiny rocks and shell that will some day be sand, and some rocks tumbled by the waves up to the high tide line.

We looked for round smooth rocks to try to skim across the water, but the most fun seemed to be just throwing rocks into the water and watching to see how big the splash would be. A jump, a throw, a splash. A way to amuse kids and wear them out at the same time. It’s on our list as a must for future trips – some water and rocks to throw in.