It had been a long time coming this camping trip. There was much
anticipation among both little people and the big. The camper (Matilda) had been
inspected and declared fit for duty. The car (Terry)
likewise had been cleaned out and packed. We were ready at last to head off for a whole week without mobile phones, worries or cares, otherwise known as first world problems.
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| All packed and ready to go! |
The ultimate plan was to meet up with friends Nic and Dave
from previous adventures at Yadboro flat for a night or two, before heading
south with the aim of making Bendethera valley, in Deua NP. Nic and Dave had joined us on several camping trips, however
this time a few changes were afoot. They
were bringing along their new baby, Isobel AND their hired Kimberley Kamper.
The only problem was the weather. As it is when you’re married to a
meteorologist, the weather is always bound to be at best ‘character
building’. The forecast looked
atrocious. 30-40mm of rain was
predicted for our first night, unpleasant but survivable. It
was the predicted wind gusts of up to 100km/h that was the most concerning. We had survived strong winds before, but would Matilda hold up to the strain?
Ultimately we figured that if we were to
survive all the elements on our trip around in 2014, a little wind (or a lot)
couldn’t put us off. The morning of our
departure the weather front had arrived with howling winds and sideways
rain lashing our house. We hesitated, was it worth it, or
should we wait another day? It was thoroughly miserable weather for camping, and I offered Jo the chance to stay at home another day. She simply smiled and suggested we head off, and if it turns really horrible we could always come back.
So we went… wipers on, and headed east.
As we cleared Braidwood, it became apparent we were getting
ahead of the rain. The winds were strong
and gusty, but there was no rain. We
pressed on.
We turned left from the Kings Highway onto the Western Distributor Road. The road was dry, but the winds were starting
to take their toll, and the track was littered with small branches that had
succumbed to the relentless winds. We
paused a few times to clear the road of some of the larger branches, but we
were in a race against time. We wanted
to get to camp and get set up before the rain set in.
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| Jo clears some of the fallen timber... |
About half way along the road we came to a proper tree that
had fallen over the road. Thankfully it
was a lot smaller than the one that had thwarted my shortcut near
Cann River. We had a chance. Out came the axe, however I quickly worked
out that I was not going to cut through this tree in any time soon.
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| Just what we didn't want to see.. |
Hmm… A closer examination revealed there was a chance to go over
this log. So with a few more minutes
effort, all small branches on the downhill side were removed and we lined up.
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| 1st gear low and go go go... |
A little scrabble as the back wheels struggled to get over
the log… a bit more pressure by the right foot… and we made it!
On we went. As we counted down to our last kilometre to
camp I looked at Jo and joked that at least we hadn’t come across the world’s
biggest gum tree on this shortcut… No sooner were the words out of my mouth
when we came across another tree over the track.
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| Not again, and so close... so close! |
Thankfully we were able to skirt our way around this one and
get to camp. Then the next race was
on. Would we get set up and lunched
before the rain came…
Yes we were. We timed
it just right, the rain started as Jo and I were finishing off our sandwiches
under our awning. The kids relished in
the warm rain and rode their bikes and played with their cars until thoroughly
soaked. We were able to enjoy some games
in the tent before dinner. Dinner itself
was a simple matter of pulling it out of the thermal cooker and just giving our
curry a quick burst on the gas. Ah…
camping.
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| Playing just before the rain hits! |
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| And exploring in the Clyde River |
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