BIG4 Sydney Lakeside Holiday Park

Every photo below was taken inside twenty-five minutes on one morning, 7 March 2021, walking from the ocean pool at the southern end of the beach up onto the headland.

The pool sits at the foot of North Narrabeen Headland, and at high tide with any swell running the sea comes straight over the wall — which is what the first frame is. Sunrise that morning was around twenty to seven; the light in these was gone by quarter past.

The track up the headland is part of the Bicentennial Coastal Walkway, the continuous path that runs between Palm Beach and Manly. Ten minutes up it and you're looking back down over Narrabeen Lagoon, the sandbar, and the holiday park along the lagoon's edge — the view in the second photo.

March 2021 · one night

Eight families, and a cabin because of the baby

BIG4 Sydney Lakeside — a group trip from work

Twenty-four of us, eight families, all from work. About half took tents and pitched on the sites; the rest of us booked cabins. We took a cabin for a specific reason — the youngest was sixteen months, and we did not want a crying child at two in the morning to be everybody else's problem in a row of tents. It was the right call, and it is the one piece of advice we would give anyone travelling at that stage.

The cabin itself was small: bunk beds for the four of us, its own toilet and bathroom, no kitchen. Enough for a night, and no more than that.

The afternoon went to the lagoon, which starts at the edge of the park. A colleague had brought an inflatable kayak from home, mainly for his own child, and then let every other child have a turn. Where we were, the water was not up to a small child's knee. We do not know how much that changes through the day, so treat it as what we saw rather than a promise. Some of the older children spent the afternoon riding bikes around the park instead.

The cooking happened at the tent sites rather than in the camp kitchen, which is what a group that size ends up doing. The barbecues were free and there were several, so nobody queued. Everyone in the group was Indian, so the food sorted itself out without anyone having to negotiate.

Then the part that was actually the point: everyone in a circle after dark, eating, talking, going nowhere. We sat late enough that the staff on patrol came by and reminded us. Twice.

The next morning

Out before six

Which is why these photographs exist

We had slept well, and I was awake around half past five. The colleague with the kayak turned out to be a morning person too, and we walked down to the water together while the park was still asleep. The swell was up and the sun was coming out of the horizon behind it, and everything above was taken in the twenty-five minutes that followed.

Back for breakfast with the group afterwards, omelettes and eggs and the usual. What we remember is not really the park. It is eight families in a circle, away from work, talking until someone in a uniform asked us to stop.

What we have learned here

With a baby or a toddler, book a cabin. Not for your own comfort so much as everyone else's. A child who wakes at two in the morning is a private problem in a cabin and a shared one in a row of tents.

Check what is actually in the cabin. Ours had bunk beds for four, a toilet and a bathroom, and no kitchen at all. That is fine for one night with a group who are cooking outside, and not fine if you were counting on making breakfast indoors.

Quiet hours are ten at night to eight in the morning, and they are enforced rather than printed. Staff patrol, and they came past our circle twice. Plan the long evening knowing it ends at ten.

There are no open fires. The park's rules prohibit campfires and solid-fuel barbecues; gas only, in the designated spots. The barbecues were free, and there were enough of them that eight families cooking at once never queued.

The lagoon starts at the edge of the park, and where we were it was not up to a small child's knee. An inflatable kayak brought from home was the best thing anyone packed. Water levels change, though, and we only saw one afternoon of it.

Bikes are fine, with conditions. Helmets at all times, daylight hours only, and not near the camp kitchen, the amenities or the boom gate. Electric scooters and skateboards are not allowed at all.

Visitors have to check in at reception, can come between nine in the morning and nine at night, cannot park on site, and cannot bring a dog. Worth knowing if your group is bigger than your booking.

One night is not enough. We would go back and book two. We would also not have been awake at half past five if there had been another evening in hand.