A week or so ago was the September school holidays and lovely hubby took some time off so we could go camping.
We packed up two vehicles and off we drove. Me in one towing the camper trailer and hubby in the other towing the boat. We had one child each and Patch the dog was in his crate on the back of hubby's ute. When you go on a family camping holiday you really can't leave the dog behind.
We went to Boondooma Dam which we have been to before but it's been a few years. No other family members came with us this time, it was just our little family of hubby, the kidlettes and me.
It was lovely.
From late on the first afternoon we had the campfire going which pretty well ended up getting stoked up for every meal. Our butane gas can stoves broke within the first 24 hours because their springs aren't very sturdy so it was back to the old fashioned fire to boil a billy to have a cuppa tea.
It was pretty dry and dusty where we were. In fact it's been pretty dry and dusty everywhere with fire bans, crunchy brown grass and big patches of parched dirt everywhere.
The dam levels are really down from our last visit which turned into a bit of a positive for us. Most people like to camp near the water so they can have their boats anchored near their campsites.
Being camped RIGHT NEXT to other people really doesn't appeal to us unless they're our family or friends. We camped in the same place as last time and had no neighbours at all. If you look in the middle of the next picture you will see our little camp right there in the middle of nothing.
It's not that much of a walk down to the water and we were able to keep the boat down there the whole time we were camped as well as the kids kayaks. We seriously had a whole huge amazing area to ourselves.
There's a bit of a walk to the top of the opposite hill up to the dam wall which the kids and I did one day. They loved the walk there but decided it was a bit too long to have to go all the way back to camp again. (Ice-cream bribery was involved and everyone made it just fine).
Patch came with us on our walk too and was a very grateful pooch that he was able to be a part of our family holidays too. He did get a treat for walking all the way too but it wasn't ice-cream for him.
Not only were the kids bikes utilised a lot (perfect for a quick trip to the amenities when you camp a little further away from them), but the kayaks were used quite a bit too.
No electricity. No computers. No X-Box. Just some old fashioned fun.
Bikes. Kayaks. Tennis. Reading. Card Games. Board Games.
Hubby found out Master M has been learning to play chess at school so there was a lengthy chess tournament.
We taught Little Miss R to play Patience. Most people would refer to it as the American name of Solitaire these days not the English version of Patience. Once she realised that Poppy calls it Patience, that's the only way she will refer to it now. She then played it A LOT!
We did catch a few Red Claw as well which is one of the main reasons we went camping at Boondooma Dam in the first place. Unfortunately it was still a little cool (about 0 degrees celcius our second night there), and some decent pot fulls were still a few weeks away.
What we did catch was pretty tasty.
I cooked them very basically by keeping them in their half shell, brushing them with some garlic butter and cooking them on the hot plate on the campfire. Bloody delicious is one of the best ways to describe them.
Time seemed to pass all too soon and next thing we knew we were packing up and coming home. Lets hope we don't leave it so long before our next trip away.
xx Susan
