Every good camping trip starts with a trip to the grocery store – and a trusty cheese platter. Without cheese, you’re missing out on a cracker of a weekend.

We arrived at the very end of Hawks Nest beach around 1pm, in the heat of the day with about 20 other four-wheel-drivers parked up the beach. Families sat in the back of their cars, under awnings, on camp chairs, and scrambled to and from the clear water to cool down.

We lathered ourselves up with sunscreen and plonked ourselves onto the towels, with no plans to move for another three days.

To get up the north end of Hawks Nest Beach, we usually drive along the water edge. This time around, we drove behind the dunes, and didn’t see any signs that advised against this… Until we reached the north end of the beach.

Learn from our mistake. Don’t drive beyond the dunes. There’s a reason for this, they’re trying to keep the dunes clean and not let them be ruined by vehicles, or tossers.

At the end of the day, all the other fourbies left the beach, leaving us with this spot all to ourselves.

We watched the sun set, and listened to everything 80s on the tradio, singing without shame at the top of our lungs.