Camping on Queen's Birthday

Rick, Ann, Chris & myself had been looking forward to the Queen's Birthday Long weekend for a while - pity Chris had double booked himself for a work something exchange cross over - so it was just us three. I couldn't wait to get away from civilization (equipped with ipod, DS, PSP & a book) to relax, take lots of photo's, & to spend time with my two besties :)

We left at about 4.30AM, and arrived at 11.30AM (we had a breakkie break inbetween somewhere but other then that we were driving the whole way)

Surprisingly the camp site was empty - except for maybe 3 or 4 other families. Score! I have been camping when its camping season, there's so many people around, you don't really get peace & quiet (and you hear bloody snorers during the night!)

Rick forgot to bring a number of things:

• a floor mat
• a table
• chairs
• towel
• pillows

But he did bring his gazebo - which was great as we got shaded from the sun during the day :) We had to go into town & get a chair & a mat, which cost an arm & a leg but hey - we'll have it for next time.

After we set up camp, we walked out to the lake - a gorgeous, quiet lake which was only steps away from our tents.

We came back to this fella, hanging around our site! He was missing one ear, and i think he was looking for food.. he was not at all scared when we approached him for photo's (& i touched him a bit for like half a sec with my jumper sleeve). He left us alone after leaving a nasty surprise near our mat Lols..

Saturday night after a meal of canned minestrone soup with bread, we cracked open some bottles of wine & drank a bit before heading to our sleeping bags. Fell asleep to the sound of waves of the beach near by..

Sunday morning me & Rick got up to take photo's of the sunrise, but were a bit impatient.. headed back & got changed to go for a run my idea of course, i had to keep my fitness up!! We ran around for about an hr, just exploring, and finding out where we can go trekking later on.

Breakfast was instant noodles with sunny side up fried eggs - yum! Thanks to Rick's portable gas stove, we still got to eat hot meals. BAsically we just stocked up on noodles, canned soup, baked beans, eggs, chips, chocolate, fruits, water & wine :P

We went venturing to the beach, and walking trails, it was GREAT to have the place sort of all to ourselves..

This lake we came across - was so beautiful the water was SO still, that ripples from one tiny bottle brush went right to the edges. So still that the sky was 100% reflected as if it were a mirror.

We packed some sandwiches for the walk & ended up having them on the beach. While Ann enjoyed the sun up on the rocks - Rick & I were exploring rock pools & collecting shells.

We got back, & headed into town to stock up on some more wine & firelighters :) Ended up having soup & bread again for dinner, stayed up drinking & toasting marshmallows!

This little guy visited looking for food .. & later on in the night came back with his mates to raid our rubbish bags!! (which were hanging on the gazebo & they bloody climbed up!!) Half way through the night i heard hissing and crumpling plastic sounds haha.. & in the morning there were foot prints on Ann's tent lols

Monday morning woke up & caught the sunrise - from a high vantage point about 10mins walk from our tents

After sunrise back for some breakkie (baked beans, toasted cheese sandwiches & more eggs) then off to Bondi Lake - which was no longer a lake it had dried up cos of the drought - and the kangaroos lived here!! We got some great shots with Rick's telephoto lens & my zoom lens.

My favourite wines:

• Brown Brothers Muscato Rosa
• Brown Brothers Muscato
• Brown Brothers Cienna
• Rosemont O
• Brown Brothers Zibibo Rose

We've decided to make camping our yearly Queen's Birthday Long Weekend tradition, had soo much fun just chilling, exploring, eating :P hehe

More photo's are on my flickr