Post by Carolyn™ on Jan 29th, 2008 at 4:23pm
We had a great weekend. We visited Coolendel for the first time. The rough road for the last part was unexpected and not really enjoyed by our No. 2 Daughter but we all arrived safely.
As we went Friday it was relatively empty and we picked a site with a bbq and camp fire as we thought that might be best if we played with the camp iron ovens and not too far from the amenities for the beginner campers.
Almost completely set up when a Youth Group of 54 arrived. We decided to tough it out and it turned out fine. I would much rather listen to soft singing and strumming of guitars than dorf dorf music if I have to have noise. We are somewhat restricted in where we go with her not having 4WD and I guess not many places on a long weekend would be quiet.
As we went Friday it was relatively empty and we picked a site with a bbq and camp fire as we thought that might be best if we played with the camp iron ovens and not too far from the amenities for the beginner campers.
Almost completely set up when a Youth Group of 54 arrived. We decided to tough it out and it turned out fine. I would much rather listen to soft singing and strumming of guitars than dorf dorf music if I have to have noise. We are somewhat restricted in where we go with her not having 4WD and I guess not many places on a long weekend would be quiet.
| The boys went fishing so my daughter and grandaughter made a damper from the CWA Scone packet. It was the first time any of us had used cast iron and fire coals and as you can see they were very happy with the result. Sparkey cooked us a boned and herbed leg of lamb with roast vegies for dinner but he is camera shy. It was real melt in your mouth, perfectly cooked, much as I hate to admit it. We did have beer and wine to go with it all (not the grandkids) ;D | ||
| We should have stopped while we were ahead. The next day I cooked a version of the lemonade/cream scone recipe. I decided I liked the pull apart idea I read somewhere in the posts. I did it in the Bedouri/gas set up and didnt check the gas which was put on by Sparkey. It ended up with a black bottom and very brown sides before the centre was cooked. BUT......the top was nicely browned and it pulled apart and the insides were fine..... A lesson learned. My daughter was reading a magazine which had some Australia Day recipes and she decided for the last night to make a scone/damper with bacon/cheese and onion in the cast iron oven but with gas. I said I would preheat it but she and Sparkey said no......It took ages to cook and the bottom just a bit brown but eatable and tasty. |
| This is us set up. They have a few peacocks there who roam around and did the occasional dance for us. Also rabbits, large reptiles, wallabies, lots of birds. In the night our daughter was awakened by something grunting and scratching at her tent ;D. Sparkey said it must have been wombats and the next night he woke me up at 3.30 a.m. to come and look at the biggest wombats he had ever seen. :o | ||
| The first time we went down the river we almost had it to ourselves, but of course it wasnt to stay that way. Not shown is a large clump of rocks which kept all the children amused climbing up and jumping off. It kept us busy watching to make sure they surfaced each jump. This tired everyone out and they all went to sleep reasonably early. We had gone back to our tent and someone stood on a body submerged and dragged a 20 year old girl out of the water, she was very lucky with a dr and an ambulance camper on site. She rescusitated very quickly but they got an ambulance to come out and then the rescue helicopter as it was felt she had water on her lungs. She appeared ok, we hoped so. Earlier in the day the ambulance driver had had to attend to someone who was bitten twice badly by a large reptile while photographing it. He said so much for his day off :'( . Apparently the hospital had had two snake bites already this weekend. There are small rapids which flow strong for short bursts and areas and the river of course drops deep at some spots as well. Our kids are reasonably strong swimmers but we still watch them like hawks. All in All a real Aussie Weekend. |
