Gloucester River Camping area

11- 13th of June
We headed up to Gloucester after some domestic chores and shopping on Saturday. We left to arrive on dusk but turned up in complete darkness due to my poor orienteering skills.
There were a few scattered campers spread amongst the campground but I wouldn't say it was crowded. Everyone there was pretty chilled there no loud music or roarkus behavior. We went to sleep after a few sauso sandwiches and a wander around spooking some wallabies.
It wasn't a good night sleep though Vinnie played up on us his battery system malfunctioned and alarms started going off in the middle of the night, If that wasn't bad enough power was not working in the morning which meant no coffee, without coffee I lacked the ability to resolve the issues I was facing with the battery system, so I went for a walk with the girls along the mountain stream beside our new home.

We watched some bikers readying themselves to head out on a day trip and we readied ourselves to swoop on their spot as soon as they left. It was A good setup level ground and a sweet BBQ setup with a swiveling hot plate and swivel arm to hang the Billy and camp oven, with just a short walk to the toilets and Gloucester River. So I cranked the fire and soon had my mug of coffee and managed to overcome any prior issues realizing I left 2 cables disconnected to Vinnies Battery system the last time I altered the batteries.

Moments before Disaster 

We checked out the main section of river that was not far from our camp site I decided to take a couple of photos of the girls by the river hoping onto a rock to get to a good vantage point for the picture I managed to slip and fall into the river in the most uncoordinated way I did this in full view of some young boys that were walking up the river bank and I was shocked they didn't even laugh if I saw some doofus fall into the river while trying to take a photo I would of been rolling around on the ground in hysterics.


While down by the river the girls took their gumboots and socks off and dipped their feet in the chilly mountain stream. They skimmed rocks across the water and soaked in the tranquil ambiance of the place, there were lyrebirds running through the scrub and little Finches (I say Finches due to my complete lack of Avian Knowledge )  that would surround you as you sat in your camp chair.
We made Damper in the camp oven our first attempt the recipe went....

Damper
Ingredients
900g of Plain Flour
2 cups of Milk
1 Tablespoon of Baking Powder
and a reasonable pinch of salt

Method
Mix Ingredients together kneed for a bit, put in camp oven until cooked.



The damper turned out ok I had to cut a burnt crust off the bottom but the dough was nice and dense we spread a bit of Margarine and honey on it and even the girls gave it a go. I will try this again but maybe experiment with different recipes. Also on the menu for lunch was some pork spare ribs with a spice rub.

Spicy Pork Ribs
Ingredients
A rack of pork spare ribs
Chilli Powder
Crushed Coriander
Cumin
Paprika
Honey

Method
Mix a couple of teaspoons of each of the spices with a tablespoon of honey and coat the Ribs sit by the open fire till it looks cooked enough to consume.

Lunch is served 

There was some nice bushland around where vinnie was parked. We went for a walk and checked out all the little camping areas that could be utilized while staying here. We walked to the end of the camping areas where there was a clearing beside the river signs that were posted there suggested it was platipus territory. We didn't see any platypus, but Eliza's doll did find it a good place to wind down.    

For dinner we tried another stew in the camp oven, While we prepared the stew the girl wandered in the bush near our camping area and found a vine swing to push each other on, they found places to climb and hide and best of all there was no LCD screen involved. They kept amused for a while dinner was bubbling away.

Gloucester Camp Stew
Ingredients 
2 Lamb Shanks
2 cloves of garlic
2 Onions
2 Carrots
2 Potatos
1 cup of Risoni
Salt & Pepper
Method
Brown Meat, put aside, saute garlic and onion then add chopped up veggies cover with water, season.
boil down stew till meat falls of the bone should take 3-4 hours in the last 15min add risoni. Enjoy


The Stew was a success unlike my last attempt. We spent the night roasting marshmallows on the fire and spot lighting bandicoots.
We woke up fairly early and journeyed on the windy bumpy gloucester tops rd to Gloucester falls where we went on bush walk to see the falls. We enjoyed the walk as a way to end the trip, I promised the girls a cup of soft drink each at the end of the walk if they completed it without me needing to carry them. I was amazed at how successful this incentive was.


                                                                                       

Mungo Brush National Park

27th-29th of May
After a couple of weekends of Birthday parties, My Daughter turning 7 and me turning thirty something, we managed to get away before May was over, this time Mungo Brush just over an hour from home.
We headed up after work on a Friday afternoon pulling up at Dee's Corner at about 8pm in pitch black darkness, there were lot's of people in the campground, but it wasn't overcrowded. There was a variety of people staying there including Retirees, Beach fisherman, families and Partying teens. 
When waking in the morning I pulled back the blind and looked out on the picturesque Bombah Broadwater, it was a bit of a surprise, we couldn't see much on arrival. 

A nice outlook to wake up to!

The girls were excited, I went on a early morning walk with them over to the beach which was only a 10 min walk away. They played in the sand writing their names while I took a few photos and checked out the surf and diving conditions. The walking path over to the beach crossed a 4WD track that goes straight across the dunes onto the beach from the camp area which would make the camp area ideal for beach fisherman. So it was no surprise there were a few around. 

Beach across from campsite

In the morning the park Rangers came around collecting camp Fees. A little unprepared I had no cash on me, luckily they get around these days with a eftpos machine, I was able to buy an Annual pass that enabled us to visit most National Parks. I have the feeling we may get to visit a few with Vinnie at our disposal. The Ranger warned us about the Dingos that live in the area, we were warned to store our food cautiously which wasn't a problem for us, vinnie had that covered. Just a couple of hours later we watched as Dingo's tried making off with a fellow campers Esky.
There was a good little flat area for the girls to play by the water and plenty of great little trees to climb that were hanging out over the water. 

Photo Bombed by Vinnie

Bombah Broadwater

There were bush walking tracks leading from the campsite, The ranger said the ruins of an old farm is on one of the walks but we didn't locate it, we did see an old water pump windmill that looked pretty old. It was nice bush to go for a trek through and wasn't to difficult terrain to take the kids on, it was known as the Mungo Rainforest walk, we walked out to a point where it was quiet windy, we were thankful it wasn't as windy at the campground as it was on the point, we kept on following the track along for a bit, eventually we would of made it to the Mungo brush camp ground.After climbing a bit of a hill Eliza my youngest daughter decided to put on her "my legs are tired" performance on where slumps down on the ground dragging herself along in a zombie like manner, me saying "c'mon Eliza get up" does nothing in these circumstances, Pretending to walk away like we are leaving her doesn't work either. So Eliza gets a fun trip back to camp riding on my shoulders.

That night we prepared a stew in the camp oven. When we have been on camping trips in the past preparing a stew has been a common occurrence, Our history of camp stews has had mixed results, this time we were going to keep it simple. 

Buckingham Camp Stew
Ingredients 
2 cloves garlic minced
2 brown onions
4 sliced carrots
6 medium sized potatoes diced
4 large lamb chops
Salt and Pepper for seasoning

Method
set up camp oven over open fire that has been reduced to glowing red logs with minimal flame. Brown the chops each side and put aside. Saute the garlic, onion and carrots. Add potatoes and return chops to the camp oven. Cover with beef stock and put the lid on. Sit back in your camp chair with a few beers for 3-4 hours stirring occasionally make sure it doesn't boil dry and burn, it will be ready when the meat falls off the bones.


One of the conditions of this camp area was that all fires were to be kept on the meter x meter concrete slabs that were provided for each camp site. I had my camp oven tripod set up on this slab over the fire we'd made. All was in the pot and things were going well I was half way to having a flavoursome camp stew, I took the lid off to give it a bit of a stir as I did the metal legs of the tripod slipped the pot turned over and a wave of camp stew splashed all over my feet. I was only wearing pluggers (thongs) so it was a double edge sword, ruined dinner and scolded feet. We salvaged enough for dinner but after topping it up with water it ended up fairly bland.
Retreating to Vinnie that night I left my stew covered pluggers sitting on Vinnie's back step, that night a dingo stole my plugger, chewing on it rendering them useless.
On the Sunday we cooked up a bacon & egg breakfast in the van before exploring the other campsites and picnic areas on Mungo Road. A lot of the camp areas are closed in winter for Rejuvenation, from what I could see they all looked like pretty good places to stay. We had a look at the cable ferry that takes cars across the river for $6 if you plan to head to Buladelah. We headed back to Dark Point a significant Aboriginals site. It was pretty windy so I was able to kick a ball to myself as I walked across the dunes. 

We had lunch in Tea gardens and an unsuccessful line fish off the jetties along the waterfront there before heading home. Another enjoyable weekend away.