Thursday, November 11, 2010

Our Australian Camping Adventure

Last weekend, I had three days off.  It looked like it was going to be rainy in Sydney, so we decided to take our first camping trip down south, where the weather would be a bit better.  We picked a campground in Kioloa to stay at that would accept the dog, and headed down on Friday.

Unfortunately, as soon as we stopped at the first beautiful lookout -- and it was beautiful -- I found out that I had not put my storage card in my camera.  So we have absolutely no pictures.  I said that was okay, because if I post pictures of everything, my friends and family will have nothing to discover for themselves when they come visit.  Ethan responded "You keep telling yourself that, honey.  Whatever makes you feel better."  Jeez, thanks for the support.

Anyway, the trip was a  lot of fun.  We are a bit out of practice on the camping, and therefore didn't do so well with the food.  The barbecue that we could use at the campground wouldn't heat up our water in a timely fashion.  I think our pots needed to be on a direct flame, like we get with our normal camp stove.  But we hadn't brought that since we didn't have any fuel yet.  Next on the shopping list: fuel.  And matches.

We camped out overnight, narrowly avoiding the night time showers, and enjoying the large kangaroos hopping around the place.  They were all over! Fievel kept barking at them, so he spent a lot of time in the car.  Fortunately, they did not hop on our tent.

The next day, we went to Jervis Bay and Booderee National Park.  It is surprisingly untouched, with plenty of bushland and beautiful beaches to explore.  We saw three echidnas digging into the bush!  One was a real fatty who was unafraid and let us get pretty close.

The beaches were great for the most part, although apparently we were there during a large bird migration, in which the exhausted birds die and wash up on the beaches.  So depending on whether the beach had direct access to the ocean, there were a number of dead birds on the beach.  I did not like that.  But overall the park was great, and we would like to go back and do some more bushwalking and do some kayaking, but not in dead bird season next time.

That night, the kangaroos didn't hang around as much.  However, all the possums came out looking for food.  Australian possums are much cuter than American possums.  They are soft and fluffy, with big ears and eyes and a long fluffy tail.  They aren't as mangy either.  A couple of the possums had babies on their backs, which was so cute.  We had a good time wandering around the campground, looking for possums in the trees.

The third day, we packed up to come home.  We had breakfast in a great little cafe by a lake, then went back to Jervis Bay, where we did a short hike to an absolutely gorgeous beach.  Finally, we stopped by a winery on the way home. 

I wish we had known a little more about all the cool things to do in Jervis Bay.  We had a great time, but we could have done so much more -- hikes, fishing, kayaking, whale watching tours, etc.  So we are already thinking we might like to go down again in the future.  With campfuel next time.

4 comments:

craftosaurus said...

Kangroos! So cool!

L said...

It was really cool. They were really tall -- almost as tall as me. When I went to the bathroom at night, their eyes gleamed in my headlamp, which was a little eerie.

Unknown said...

I would be paranoid that I would inadvertantly piss one off and get my ass boxed-ending up on "When animals attack!" That sadly, WILL prob be me one day! lol
Sa

L said...

Yeah, they were a little disconcerting. But I think kangaroo attacks are pretty rare.