Throwback: You know you camped as a kid when...

Before kids had crocs, glamping tents, apps and iPads for those long road trips – camping was full of barefoot adventures, charades, connect four, searching for the Milky Way, burnt eggs and baked beans and the old school Walkman.

Nostalgia warning! Cue tent zippers, mini boxes of all the fun cereals, eye spy, SoFresh CD’s on repeat plus the car choir sessions - yeah, your parents loved the Spice Girls, not. Let’s take a trip down memory lane to relive the fear of long drop toilets, encounters with your first kangaroo, the smell of Aeroguard, endless playtimes exploring the campsite with your new best friends and sticky marshmallow everywhere. It’s all of the things we loved (and loved to hate) when camping as a young explorer.

Whether your parents brekky game was strong or not we all remember waking to the smell of slightly burnt toast, toad in the holes or fried eggs and baked beans on the camp stove. Then, diving into the chip bag cos the taste of charcoal wasn’t your thing. Remember those awkward fun sized cereal boxes you fought over with your siblings? Making a huge mess by pouring the milk straight into the box was totally worth that Coco Pops sugar hit.

The essential scent of Aeroguard did a great job protecting you from those blood sucking bandits but also caused simultaneous coughing fits. So, you’d assure Mum that you would 100 per cent respray throughout the day, conveniently forget, and woke up with a week’s worth of mozzie bites as your karma. Rookie error!

Remember when you channeled your inner Goosebumps novelist, R.L. Stine, telling stories so scary you stayed awake all night letting your imagination run wild as you listened to the midnight melodies of nocturnal nature alive and in full swing. You shuffled closer to your younger sibling as the ghosts and flesh-eating kangaroos stirred throughout the moonlit night that felt like it would never end. Waking up to the sound of kookaburras calling, you found yourself sweating now that your tent was doused in the morning sun. Unzipping to fresh air and freedom!

With a lil’ bit of help, you successfully became a jolly swagman running back and forth ferrying the mill offcuts for the campfire. Not before Dad taught you the family Scout’s honour in all things fire safe. The glowing red and crackling stirrings of the wood left you with a sense of notable achievement, while the mesmerising fire turns the loudest chatterboxes to silence. And then there were the memories of Mum and Dad sharing camp stories (for the umpteenth time) around the fire while you toasted marshmallows.

First encounters of wildlife, where you felt like Dr Dolittle. Making awkwardly long eye contact with the roos. Mistaking a lizard for a snake and freezing, petrified in the moment. And that time when you felt the slippery, slimy scales of a Murray Cod while swimming in your undies. Bugs and beetles in your unzipped tent and ants, all of the ants!

Remember that time you were tucked up in your sleeping bag trying to convince yourself that you didn’t need to go? This was your first experience of an outside, non-flushing toilet situated far from the campsite. The internal debate of whether you had to go THAT bad raged, 'cos not only did you fear what may lurk in the dark, but also the companionship of the local snakes and spiders. All while worrying about falling down into the bottom of the long, dark and stinky pit.

After much deliberation you made a slow, cautious walk out and ran back faster than Usain Bolt, only to trip on your little bro’s tent, scaring the soul out of him.

When you became an explorer for the day by finding your secret spot, believing you were the first to ever discover this hidden gem. You made your first explorer milestone and will remember the moment forever.

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The dreaded finale of the team effort packing up what had been another epic family holiday. Tents stripped and dismantled. Sleeping bags never seeming to fit back in the same bag. Conducting an emu parade, by collecting all your rubbish with you and leaving the camping ground as if you were never there. Driving away smelling and feeling like you’d been on a year’s trek with wonderful memories. But still looking forward to getting home and into your own comfy bed, only to dream about your next trip away.

Make the memory real again – when’s the last time you camped?