AUSTRALIA'S ORIGINAL AND BEST CAMP OVEN AND OUTDOOR COOKING CAMPING AND LIFESTYLE FORUM

here is a little run down,
Saturday
I finished work at 7am car was already packed from the night before, we still had to pack a lot more things when I got home at about 7:30.

had the kids ruged up and on the road by 9:30

Its a 5 and a half hour drive from campbelltown via the putty road, Wallaby Scrub Rd, Golden Hwy, Edderton Rd, Denman Rd.

this is the very back way and the best part was there was NO traffic.
hit Muswellbrook McDonalds by 1:15pm

Cassie had her ipod tuch and iphone with all kids shows on them for the kids in the car, but by Muswellbrook the kids were over the drive.

left Muswellbrook McDonalds by 2pm on to Aberdeen bypassing Scone out to Moonan flats.

Then it was about a 30 km drive on unsealed road.

4pm we get to Horse Swamp camping area to find it very full and people with a hole lot of alcohol (and I mean a lot I've seen less in some Dan Murphys shops)

So plan B we drive for 10kms to Polblue camping area and that was packed but all families with young kids so,

4:30 we set up the tent that took 1hr I made the kids go and get all the dry bark they could find for the fire.
as its a conservation area you have to bring in your own wood your not supposed to collect wood from the bush.

Cassie quickly made sliced meat sandwiches for dinner.

bed was at about 7pm for me but the kids did not sleep much as it was to cloud and Cassie got no sleep at all.

Sunday,
5:30am I start up the fire and sat there until everyone got up cooked bacon and eggs on english muffins.

That moring Maddy went and played with the kids in the camp site next door.
This was one thing Cassie said that if we would have gone with another family that had kids the same age as ours it would have been alot better as our kids were not entertained that much.

at about 10am I but the beef and potatoes in the camp oven but that only took 1hr so we had lunch at 11am

I went down down to the creek to take pics and Cassie and the kids played cards in the tent.

dinner was at 4pm, butter chicken cooked over the fire in a cast iron pan, had that on sandwiches.
everybody was in bed by 7pm and we all had a much better sleep than the night before.

Monday we packed most of the stuff up in the car and all went down to the creek to take pics.

then packed up the tent and on the way out stopped off at polblue falls and took pics.

I think I'm sugar coating it abit as it was stressful at times but we tyred to have fun.
to sum it up,
in Cassie's words we wont be going camping again untill Abby is about 5. :'(

Building memories and giving the kids some history to look back on nothing better , don't stop, it gets easier and more enjoyable the more you camp.

True

Well Done Puzzleman :)
cheers George

Puzzleman
loved the pics & gets easier the more
you do of it, you learn as you go ;)
couple of cheeky looking kids there :)
Daryl

We had a young family at Thora and it is good for the kids to have playmates but the bigger ones cooked with only a very little help if you look at the photos. The about 2 year old walked around carrying two of the miniature camp ovens. Amazed me how much they enjoyed it all.

We took ours camping once and we were eaten alive by mozzies, had the prawns we worked so hard to catch stolen overnight from an esky outside the tent as well as the bread and butter. Never went again as children.

I love your photos and wish I could have been there to pick your brains for settings. Parlicularly love the logs and trees. Did you use a tripod for the water ones? I might be up that way in the next month or so and hope its not crowded.

Hope you keep at it but you need the whole family to enjoy it at this stage of your life.

:)Great photos....looks cold though....try going camping again when the weather warms up....the kids will enjoy it more when they can play in water and stuff....... and the adults do too (I know I do ;))

Thanks Puxxle Man
Love the photos mate.

May I ask what camera gear your have?

Aart

Nice trip report Puzzleman and a nice set of pics as well. Nice to see another Nikon D90 user on site.
Apart from castironitis, the D90 is another of my obsessions.....

cheers and welcome....

Ross

Thanks guys for all the feedback.
Yep I use a Nikon D90 the 1st 3 pics were hand held with a polarizing filter on, the rest of the water pics were with a trypod and a neutral density filter (ND400)

I run puzzle man productions with my D90
videos here..

http://www.youtube.com/user/puzzlemanproductions?feature=mhum

Hmm Polblue ey"

Will be gett'n nice & cold up there in a couple of months!!

We regularily go up there when the Snow comes in.
Have even camped there in the Snow too.

Cheers, Mick.

BillyBushCook wrote on May 3^rd, 2011 at 1:00pm:

Have even camped there in the Snow too.

:o :o :o

Beautiful pics and a great story. Need to give yourself a bit more time especially with 11 hours of driving for what really was one full day of camping. But better to go for a day than not go at all.

:o :o :o :o :o WOOOOOOOOOO nice photos :)
SBB

Muzz
This would actually make an interesting COG spot in July/August when there is snow up there.
just to remind my self how much I hate the cold! :D :D :D

I ussually go up thru Gundy & Moonan Flat (on the Scone side) but you guys can access it from the Easten side too (Glouster)

Cheers, Mick.

Well Mick enjoy it, I got no chance of getting the bride up there at that time of the year, I am to attached to my balls to have them freeze off.
I must be gettting soft in my senior years. ;D ;D
Muzz .

Just_a_thought_001.jpg (2 KB | )

I would love to go up there to take pics when its snowing ;D

BillyBushCook wrote on May 7^th, 2011 at 6:56am:

I ussually go up thru Gundy & Moonan Flat (on the Scone side) but you guys can access it from the Easten side too

I came down the New England Highway yesterday, thru Scone and stayed the night in Denman......... cold ??? You better believe it.

pd

check out this link from the 4wdaction forum [smiley=cheers2.gif]

http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=112239

Great pics.......Easter where we camped was fairly quiet.....compared to other times.....will make up for it this weekend...camping at Crystal Brook here in SA

Dave

outback jack wrote on May 12^th, 2011 at 4:11pm:

check out this link from the 4wdaction forum [smiley=cheers2.gif]

http://www.4wdaction.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=180&t=112239

Thanks for the link.

Great Link - heading there before long, think it might be soup and stew weather :)

The snow would be great for photos.

Thought I would give this a big bump, because this year we went back..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDm-CoPMZ2Q&hd
If you can watch 10mis worth of video..

What brilliant memories your daughters will have !
Lovely area to camp in by the looks of it.

I am not a morning person. I too would be giving you the stink eye as we left the city that early - but boy it was sure worth it! hehehe

Good grief, how did I miss this one.

That is one very great little video. Thanks for sharing.

I drove across the Barrington Tops by accident last June ::)

Was coming home from the snow and wanted to head up the New England Highway. Got to Newcastle after following the Motorway and the Tom Tom started to indicate going up Highway 1. Just past Raymond Terrace it turned us off to Gloucester. Got there and said bugger this I want to stop at Scone tonight. Reset the Tom Tom for Scone and it took us right across the top.

While I say it was by accident it was one heck of a great ride. Granddaughter got to see a wombat run across the road and into the bush.

We didn't stop to check out the camp sites but can see another trip that way sometime.

AUSTRALIA'S ORIGINAL AND BEST CAMP OVEN AND OUTDOOR COOKING CAMPING AND LIFESTYLE FORUM
https://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl Camping - Caravanning - Camper Trailering - Four Wheel Driving - Off Road - Fishing >> Camping Locations & Travel Blogs >> Easter camping trip 2011 Barrington tops https://www.aussiecampovenforum.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1303969579 Message started by puzzle man on Apr 28^th, 2011 at 3:46pm