Camping for the Non-Camper - Amazement, Yarramalong

Who doesn't want to stay in a teepee?

Please note this camping experience is now closed but you can stay in the farmstay cottage

I'm not a camper. I'm not outdoorsy and I don't like roughing it. I also know my limitations. I believe you are either a camper, generally from a long line of campers (and went as a child), or you didn't. What I really don't understand about the mythical camping experience, is that people go to camping grounds were they are packed in tooth by jowl with a hundred other campers. My idea of the appeal of camping is the remoteness of it all, the splendid isolation.

However, I'm not the type of person to pass my shortcomings on to my kids, and when I saw this, I thought it would be the perfect was for them to have the camping experience, without me having to suffer too much.

At Amazement in Yarramalong, on the Central Coast, you can stay in a tipi (not a misspelling by the way, who knew?!). It is $125 a night and includes entrance into Amazement. This means the cost of staying overnight is only $70 more that what we would have paid for a day visit. It sleeps 4 but I actually think it would sleep 5 comfortably or 6 if you stepped over people on the way out.

We have no camping gear except the sleeping bags. Fortunately, other than torches, that is all you need! The floor is covered in big cushions and there is one camp bed.

We arrived around two pm (but you can arrive anytime) and spent the afternoon playing in the mazes and patting the animals. As the park emptied, the kids lingered on the trampoline while I played pool nearby. As the balls cracked the silence, and I admired the flowers around me, I thought "This is my sort of camping!"

Around 6, we headed back to the tipi to set up camp and cook dinner. The tipi is located at the other end of Amazement, in a back field, surrounded by bush on one side and the Christmas Tree farming on the other. So the sense of remoteness is complete. To get there, we had use of a tri-cycle, once I'd parked up near the tipi (so no lugging bags or eskys).

There is a BBQ (don't forget matches), with a burner so you can make coffee, though knowing my limitations, we just did sausages in a roll, with a punnet of blueberries each, so I didn't have to worry about plates. There is a funny sink and a bag of solar water you could use to wash up (water draining straight onto the ground).

There is a dining table and chairs and even a cute little covered wagon that my 4 year old insisted on eating her dinner in.

There is a M*A*S*H style bathroom, which includes a Solar shower and an actual camp toilet - thankfully, for an innercity dweller like me! Don't forget toilet paper and hand sanitizer - and those torches for the night. It gets dark!

We ate under the stars, enjoying the commune with nature and the serenity, then retired early. The kids woke very early the next day, and I chickened out of using the solar shower - I'd exhausted my enthusiasm for outdoor adventure, and I used the far simpler modern shower in the disabled bathroom back at the main barn.

Again in the morning we played on the entertainments of the park before the crowds arrived. Had we stayed over the weekend, the cafe would have been open for breakfast, but as we were midweek, we headed off for breakfast at a nearby hotel before setting out for the Australian Reptile Park - though realistically, we probably could have spent the day at Amazement. It's a very pretty combination of bush, farm and fun. Perfect camping ground for the non-camper.

We've been to Amazement a lot over the years, but for a child going for the first time, it is a truly magical experience. I loved the feeling as the park emptied out and we had the place to ourselves.

There are plenty of sheep, chickens and ducks just roaming the grounds, as well as a peacock and of course, dogs. The rabbits and guinea pigs are fenced off, but at certain times you can go in and hold them.

You can feed the bigger animals - donkey and alpacas. In the past we've even been treated to sheep racing.

It's nice for my kids to get a certain degree of freedom to roam around in bushland unsupervised, exploring the tracks by themselves.

I was also pleased that they got to experience camping, even though for me, a remote cabin will always win out. Proving the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, my eldest woke in the morning and said "That was really lovely, sitting outside last night, but really, I don't get why everyone goes on about it". And with that, I breathed a quiet sigh of relief!

Alas the camping is no longer available but there is a farmstay.

Practicalities: Amazement http://www.amazement.com.au/
See more on activities at Amazement here.

Linking with #AwwMondays because the sight of those little kids makes me go Awww, now that 2 of them are adults!!