Over the six-week Christmas holiday period, many families with young children took off on a "much looked forward to" camping trip, hoping weather and good fortune would be kind to them.

We all know family relationships can be a delicate balancing act. Especially when planning an excursion.

Everyone right down to the lowly four-year-old has an opinion on where they want to go and what they want to do, so the planning stage for the trip will inevitably be loud and raucous, with the outcome hopefully being democratic.

Everyone gets their say. But then, making a decision for the family requires the utmost patience, diplomacy, and most of all, persuasive skills … and crossed fingers.

So just imagine a family of strong personalities, differing tastes and varied ages, making plans for a summer camping weekend together, in a remote bush setting.

No running water, no electricity, no pool or beach, lots of flies and scorchingly hot temperatures. Miraculously, everyone is In. The Fam camp is a goer.

What could possibly go wrong?

With planning, and refined planning, what ensues is a ton of equipment and food and bevies and then more equipment, for a two-day odyssey.

There is no designated leader, as that would probably result in insubordination, and worse, insurrection. This is going to be a combined effort family weekend. Or that's what is planned.

But sometimes, the best laid plans ...

The family between them has varied means of transport and accommodation for the trip, ranging from two caravans, to a ute complete with awning, pullout kitchen and swags, to a double mattress in the back of a 4WD.

Enough to comfortably accommodate the seven adults, two teens and 10-year-old.

They hope.

Weather is always going to have a huge impact on what transpires while camping.

And so does the actual campsite, this one thankfully cleared, but crisp underfoot due to current severe drought conditions.

The campsite also has a formidable slope, which makes setting up fractious. And tediously long.

Just as in the Old West movies of Hollywood, when the wagons heading to California protected themselves from attack by forming a circle, so too the family sets up its camp.

Wind direction, and where to access shade in these sultry conditions is critical.

As is the necessity for making lots of room for games to take place. Because there is no internet here, no reception and therefore no devices.

It's camping, which means bringing out the Finska, and Boules, and Archery and Golfsticks, and having good old fashioned fun.

Nothing takes place. Not a game is played.

The wind is so strong, and the heat so furnace-like from early in the morning that it's a case of just sitting around.

Interminably. And continually checking tent pegs and ropes.

This sitting around doesn't appeal. It's boring. Camping is supposed to be fun, right?

No campfire can happen, it's a total fire ban.

It's too early for a beer.

The teens are already edgy and therefore irritating to the adults and, all in all, things are beginning to look a little grim.

The family live on the coast, and they all love the water.

They're not used to these harsh inland conditions.

They need to get out of this heat.

There's a dam 25 minutes away, by 4WD through the bush.

The convoy sets off for relief from the heat which is way fiercer than what they're used to on the coast.

The dam looks spectacular from the road, so inviting. A seriously hot blustery wind is forming whitecaps on the water surface as they get closer. Time to cool off.

The water up close is pea green, with masses of weed and zero visibility. But it's wet and cool and soothing. Everyone in!

Or almost everyone. One teen is suspicious of what may be in that water.

She covers up in towels like a desert dweller and sits on a rock watching everyone else. Until, so hot, she braves the unknown and makes her way tentatively into the dam.

There's a smell in the air, at first barely there, but then unmistakable.

Ten-year-old takes off along the bank to investigate, excitedly returning to report a dead sheep and roo further along. Much consternation and comment.

And by this point in the afternoon, for the adults, much thirst, which means back to camp, for beer.

Out come the cheese and bikkies, the chips, all manner of unhealthy, delicious nibbles. And the beer. That first cold fizzy sip on a very hot day after a 4WD adventure and swim in an isolated dam, there simply are no words.

Late afternoon waiting for the wind to drop and the heat to subside, there is much storytelling, lots of shenanigans involving a blow-up couch which becomes the target for unending divebombing hilarity, and much laughter.

Simple fun.

The grand finale: stargazing.

Lamps and torches are turned off.

The family look up from their camp chairs, and the now seriously deflated blow-up couch, and the awesomeness of all those twinkling stars, the revelation, the beauty, brings a silence.

It is so quiet, so peaceful. The family will sleep well. Bacon and eggs for breakfast tomorrow, with very bad coffee.

Then the big pack-up.

Was all the planning and the effort worth it? Hell yeah.