This is dedicated to all those working mums who, on their way to the office, catch sight of themselves in a shop window and realise that – in the rush of getting the kids off to school – they only put make-up on one eye.

It’s also dedicated to the working fathers who, on opening their briefcases to prepare for that important presentation, find their vital paperwork has been lovingly replaced by their seven-year-old’s favourite teddy.

While we know you all love your children dearly, and would never even consider serious bodily harm, there are times when you need a break from the young ones.  So, with school holidays upon us, here’s a suggestion.  And best of all – this will look as if you are doing THEM a favour.

Sugar Bay Resort at Zinkwazi on KZN’s North Coast is the first luxury holiday resort for children and teens from seven to 17.  I was first told about the resort by a friend who sent her son there for the school holiday and had serious difficulty persuading him to come home again.  This is not an activity camp or a school adventure camp – as good and necessary as those are.  This is a resort based on the American model of summer camp, with 16 hectares of recreational facilities, camp counsellors with names such as ‘Hippo’, ‘Squishy’ and ‘Tink’, a gourmet menu, theme weeks that include topics such as ‘Irish Week’ ‘Chocolate Week” (where do I sign?!) and ‘Las Vegas’ week.  

The story behind Sugar Bay gives a clue about the atmosphere of the place.  Zoë Ellender was an attorney who got tired of the venality of the law profession and decided to do something more constructive with her life and with the family plot of land at Zinkwazi.  Together with her engineer husband Nic she designed and set up Sugar Bay, using the template of the American model but adding everything she had ever longed for herself as a child.  So Sugar Bay is a combination of Never-Never Land, Treasure Island and DisneyWorld.  

Arriving at Sugar Bay leads you into a colourful series of venues:  the Grand Hall, Dining Hall, Lounge, Tuck-shop and Arts and Crafts complex.  The grounds snuggle together a sports field, climbing wall, paintball arena, tree swing, obstacle course and swimming pool.  Just over the dunes is the white beach that gives Sugar Bay its name, with a lagoon for water-sports, canoe races and treasure hunts.  

Accommodation is in log cabins hidden in the greenery, and the children sleep in the coolest hammocks ever.   Each cabin is on stilts, with en-suite bathrooms (sheer luxury – when I went to camp as a kid I had to negotiate the pitch-black veldt with a tiny torch to reach the ablutions), and a large verandah.  

The most memorable part of any summer camp is the food, and Sugar Bay has food that is a cut above the average.  In fact, it’s not food, it’s Cuisine.  Admittedly, though, when you have spent the morning doing sand-castle races, swimming-pool touch-rugby, obstacle courses and paddle-skiing, you could be served a platter of lightly-toasted shoe leather and find it delicious.  

The counsellors are the hub around which all the activities revolve.  These hyper-active young adults are carefully chosen and trained to create excitement round every adventure.   The owners of Sugar Bay are fully aware that the counsellor can make or break a kid’s holiday, and so the bouncier and more cheerful the adults, the keener and happier are the kids.

There are many things that make up the perfect holiday – memory-makers, as a friend of mine put it.  And there’s something about holiday camps that bring out the juvenile in all of us.  I remember a NAUI diver- training course where I obtained the nickname Duck (the reasons are too embarrassing to go into) and a crude drawing of a duck followed me everywhere – it’s still in the guest book of the resort next to my name.  Then there are the practical jokes that people try on you that stick in your mind (especially the ones that rebound on the perpetrator!), the silly games you play after supper (the best one involves a candle and a burnt cork), singing camp-fire songs on the beach to an out-of-tune guitar,  the almost-dangerous activities that give you an adrenalin rush.   Not to mention the after-hours gossip in the dorms when the lights go out, the summer crushes, getting up at 5am to go for a swim when at home the parents would have despaired of getting their kids out of bed before noon.  

If it’s true that all of us remain 17 years old in our heads and our hearts, no matter how old we actually get, then I can only say, with a sigh, that places like Sugar Bay are wasted on the young.  
    
Visit the Sugar Bay website at www.sugarbay.co.za