Michelle's chickpeas: Our First Bush Camp

The other weekend we had had enough of shopping for boring housey stuff or having our weekends full of stuff to do, so we decided to go camping. We had been recommended a campsite about an hour inland, so we bought a second hand tent and other bits we needed and headed off after Rowan finished school on Friday afternoon.

We packed up in hurry, which is never a good thing to do, so we forgot a few bits but we survived!

We drove for an hour on windy mountain roads gradually getting further into ‘the bush’. It was quite amazing to see just how close we are to proper Aussie bush. We drove past loads of cattle stations with hundreds of cows grazing in the shade of eucalyptus trees surrounding the waterholes. It looked very idyllic.

We made it to the campsite after driving the last few km’s down a dusty dirt road and were very pleased when we got there as it looked great, loads of shady trees, a creek running along side the camp ground with a backdrop of Mount Archer covered with thick trees and rocky outcrops.

We only had an hour until the sunset so we had to get to work on the tent, it was a bit tricky but we managed to get it all up, then went to put in the tent pegs and realised that the second hand bargain tent we had bought came with NO tent pegs! Fortunately we were on a proper campsite and the shop sold them (at a very inflated price, but who cares, they sold them!).

We finally finished putting up the tent, lit the bbq and got a camp fire going all just in the nick of time before the sun went down. During this time the cicadas, kookaburras and other birds and insects start their nightly calling – WOW, it was loud and amazing. Whilst sitting by the fire Rowan and I had 2 kookaburras fly low over our heads and land in a tree nearby and start their crazy laughing call.

Later in the night we were amazed by the stars. The sky here is so big and there are no street lights to pollute the sky, needless to say the stars are the biggest and brightest the boys have ever seen. Rowan just kept staring at the sky saying WOW. We spent the evening toasting marshmallows and answering Rowans questions about the universe!

We all slept really well in the new tent, which has loads of ventilation which was well needed. When packing I thought we would all need a jumper and I even packed and extra couple of blankets (I am just not used to camping and not being cold!), but we only needed a light cover in the early hours!

The next morning at about 4.30 Tris and I were awoken by the dawn chorus. We had forgotten the deafening sound of the birds waking up for the day, there were kookaburras laughing, whip birds cracking and cooing and hundreds others. It is truly so unbelievably loud but amazing. And what is even more amazing, the boys slept through it all!

When they finally woke up we headed into the nearest town to stock up on supplies (well drinking water, as we forgot to pack any and the campsites water you need to boil first – not that great when all you want is cold water to cool down!). The nearest town is Woodford which seemed quite sweet and quaint. The local supermarket proudly proclaimed that Sunday trading will start here before Christmas! It’s hard to believe but lots of places don’t have Sunday trading here yet, it really is quite old school in some places.

When we got back to the campsite it was very hot so after some lunch we headed down to the creek with 2 airbeds in tow! We all jumped in 2 on each airbed and had races up and down the creek. Earlier in the day Tris and the boys had spotted a snake slither off into one of the waterholes, so we were slightly apprehensive about going in, but there were loads of people in the water so we assumed it was safe. We had great fun trying to capsize each other and floating around in the cool water.

We spent a good couple of hours down there, Rowan and Tris built a dam and Reuben made friends with everyone’s dogs! We saw another snake slither out of the creek where we had been playing, no one knows what type it was though!

Towards the end of the day we had some food and headed over to the shady shelter where the campsite was showing a kids Christmas movie, but the boys decided after watching the film for a bit that they would rather toast marshmallows and stare at the stars!

The next day we packed up and headed home, with a list of all the things we forgot so we can make sure we have them next time!