The first weekend of April, our family took a last minute trip to Bandar Khairan to camp for the night. It was probably one weekend too late for camping. It was hot hiking in and worse packing up and heading out. But the night was full of wonderful memories.
It all started with our plan to camp Friday night being upended by remember that I had to attend a baptism class for J that night. So toward the end of eating dinner on Wednesday night (no school for Prophet's Ascension), we said, "Why not just go now?" Thirty minutes later, the car was packed, and we were out the door. We had our tent, our pillows, our sleeping bags, a couple flashlights, books, some playing cards, swim gear, change of clothes, and a bag of water and snacks. The advantage of leaving after dinner was that we didn't have to worry about cooking dinner. Breakfast the next morning was going to be an assortment of breads and fruit. Easy peasy.
 |
| My boys were ready to camp! |
We drove to Bandar Khairan and
hiked to the beach I had visited with my hiking ladies. We arrived at the beach just as the sun was setting. We managed to get the tent set up by the light of our flashlights. We then went about getting ready for bed which included reading out loud from my iPhone (the boys and I are working our way through Roald Dahl books) and a detour to the waterline to view the bioluminescent plankton. Very cool experience! The plankton was brighter and easier to view as the night got later and darker.
 |
| Bioluminescent plankton as the waves crash on the beach. The water disturbance is what causes them to glow. |
The night was... eh. I'm not big on camping, to be honest. I was extremely uncomfortable all night. I woke up constantly. Then the wind started up. Not sure what was going on, but our tent was buffeted around in the middle of the night. E was woken up by it in a very bad mood. Poor guy was still irritated by his disturbed sleep come the morning. And his irritation spread (or at least tried to).
The next morning, we were up early thanks to the heat, poor sleep, and sun. We found that a sea turtle had laid eggs around 10 feet from our tent! Pretty disappointing that we missed it. But we moved on with our plan of the day to swim and hike. After a little bit of swimming, we headed back out to check some of the other hiking paths that veer off the path we took. For this hike, we took one that takes you farther away from the parking area. As you come in, this path is the second right of the forks in the path. By the way, all these paths are marked on Pokemon Go. This new path took us to a very secluded, small beach. It then continues up the cliff next to the water. E relieved his irritation by angrily throwing small rocks off the cliff into the water. Anyways, we couldn't make it very far before determining that we weren't sure where the path was supposed to go. We turned around to head back to our tent. Along the way, we were passed by a tribe of goats.
 |
| Can you see the mama sea turtle's trail back to the water?!! |
 |
| All my boys on our morning hike. E is hanging back because he's grumpy. |
 |
| A tribe of goats on the move. Yes, I looked up what a group of goats is called. |
Back at our beach, we snacked then packed. The boys splashed in the water while Stephen and I packed up. It was getting hot in a hurry. I wanted to check out another hiking path after dropping our gear at the car, but we were too hot to continue. Instead, we headed back to the house (with a stop at McDonald's for a "proper" breakfast first). My bed was calling my name!
