Stockton fun

I've just returned from a very wet (and wild) weekend on Stockton Beach. Despite the forecast of rain and the onset of a sore throat and head cold on Saturday, I braved the elements and NSW rail and pitched up at Newcastle with Ric and Helen where we were kindly driven to the camp site by our friend's friend (one of many RAF engineers in the group), via a quick stop off at the bottleshop of course.

The beach, which is only accessible via a bumpy dirt track, is un-patrolled, long, wide and dotted with huge sand dunes, thus lending itself perfectly to quad-bikers and 4x4 drivers and all-weather campers like us.

We arrived to find the Hungi pit already being dug out, the shelter erected and yes, the rain drizzling down. But at least it wasn't cold.

One of the party had brought their 12 month old Labradoodle Charlie (see pictures) who was an adorable wool-bag who just wanted to run, dig holes, fetch things and lick everyone. Helen wasn't thrilled about his slobbery attention but I relished the canine love. Ric and I are always talking about getting a dog eventually and this cross-breed is rather special and, it seems, very popular over here.

After a few hours and with the aid of a boot-full of wood fire, the sand in the pit was hot enough to bury our dinner in so the two large and carefully wrapped foil parcels went in to the pit, were buried with sand and then covered with more burning wood where it was left to cook for the next four hours.

Meanwhile, the rain had mercifully abated, allowing us to put up the tents, crack open the beers and commence the games. We played Frisbee for a while (Charlie rather got in the way though) and then cricket on the top of the large sand ridge over looking our campsite. Forgetting that I was once quite a good batswoman, I played a few great hits notching up plenty of runs. It's hard work running in sand though and my thighs are throbbing today after all the balls I had to retrieve, oh, and after long jumping repeatedly off the edge of the dune!

The sunset was truly one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. All we could see for miles and miles was sky, rippled purple clouds, sand and the sea in the distant horizon which was dotted with almost spooky looking enormous cargo ships. The sky became variously red, pink, orange and then purple as the sun went down and every one of us watched in amazement as we were painted pink by its radiant glow.

The rain held off for the rest of the evening and we enjoyed great food (the chicken, pork and lamb all came out of the Hungi cooked to perfection, as did the pumpkin), games, music courtesy of Ric's new speakers and impeccable music collection, dancing and 10 litres of Very Fruity Port beside the camp fire which led to yet more frolics involving running up sand dunes with no clothes on.

Ric escaped that game by virtue of not wanting to stand up by that stage, but he somehow managed to roll in to the fire at about 1.30am at which point I decided it was time to drag him off to bed where we found Helen already curled up in the middle of our three man tent. We unrolled a few borrowed sleeping bags, huddled together and then passed out til 7am when nature called with great urgency and the rain drops started tapping furiously on our tent. In the five and a half hours sleep I had, I managed to strain my neck, wrist and left shoulder - or was that a result of yanking Ric out of the fire?

We dosed for a while longer listening to the patter on the plastic shell (how this reminded me of mornings at Glastonbury), some of us in a worse state than others, none of us fancying facing the bright daylight or rain again. But there was breakfast to be had, mess to be cleared up and tents to be packed up so we clambered out, sand falling off us as we walked.

We were given a lift back to Newcastle and caught the 12.30pm train back to Central so were home by 3.10pm. Ric was a little worse for wear though and had to run back and forth to the on-board loos all the way back to Central. Not so immune to the effects of alcohol perhaps...w

We had a lot of fun though and didn't even dip a toe in to the sea!