If you’re a deeply entrenched city slicker then there is no softer landing into a camping experience than a stay at Tanja Lagoon Camp. If you're accustomed to roughing it a little, prepare to experience camping luxury – all the good bits with no inconvenience. They’ve set up four expansive safari tents on permanent timber platforms ringing the lagoon in a manner that guarantees absolute privacy. This is especially good news given there is a full-sized bathtub next to the window for soaking with a view.
There’s a kitchen equipped with everything you need to prepare a meal, including a gratifyingly sharp knife. Of course, if it’s not camping without that woodfire flavour there are individual fire pits for each tent and camp chairs so you can sit around the glowing coals.
Sink into the big soft bed – give thanks it’s not a camping mat – and let birds and wallabies soundtrack your evening and early rise, which is the best time to get out on the lagoon for a kayak from the jetty. Missed the morning calm? The wind dies down again in the evening before sunset, and if you make it over to Middle Beach you’ll feel like the last person on earth, which is no small ask considering you’re only five-and-a-half hour’s drive from Sydney.
Brekky is coffee, tea, bread, butter, honey and eggs from the family’s chooks, supplemented with some fresh vegetables from the impressive kitchen garden that you can pick yourself.
From Tanja it’s an easy drive to Tathra for lunch on the last remaining deep-sea jetty on the Eastern Seaboard; to Bermagui for a dip in the semi-natural blue pool; or up to Tilba to explore a National Trust village that is like an English hamlet by way of Hobbiton, complete with a cheese shop for tastings.
Don’t forget that you’re in serious oyster country so head to Bermagui to try the Wapengo Lake certified organic bivalves; to Tathra Oysters to get to the source for Sydney’s best restaurants; or down to Pambula for creamy Sydney Rocks from Broadwater Oysters.
And if you just want to lie in bed and stare at the trees all day, you can do that too. That’s what makes glamping so attractive. You really don’t have to do anything.