16 Jul 2015

Stealth Camping Episode 2 : BUSTED!

Our next campsite, on the Manning River, was just perfect. We camped on the sandy bank a few metres from the river, where we even had our own little waterfall. We spent the days building elaborate sand castles, damming the river with rocks to watch the flow change, digging moats, swimming & playing in the water and walking along the sandy banks. Late in the afternoon we would light a fire to cook and spend the evening by the fire stargazing. We could not believe our luck at finding a spot like this! We began our mornings with a swim is the icy water then we would sit around the campfire drinking coffee (hot chocolate for the kids). Emilia and Jackson got into the early morning swims, especially when we did it naked- they found it hilarious when Daniel and I nuded up! We spent 6 blissful nights here and planned to stay at least another 5 but our luck ran out. The spot is apparently the local swimming hole and one day a car arrived. After getting out and walking around they left, I was panicked but Daniel was ever hopeful. About an hour later we heard another car coming up the track and I hightailed it up the river with Emilia (I am no good at confrontation and already felt guilty that we shouldn't have been camping there). Before I got our or earshot I heard a guy pull up and say to Daniel 'this is private property mate, you can't camp here'. Daniel ended up having a good chat to him, he was the manager of the campground at Manning River. He agreed that it was an awesome place to camp but that we had to leave in the morning. He even offered to help get us out if we got stuck in the sand. We had to move to the actual campground just a few kilometres up, but he gave us a discount too so all good. We were all disappointed but glad we got nearly a week here. 

A highlight for the kids here was 'toilet making'. After our first disaster hole (Daniel spent ages digging a deep hole in the soft sand but whilst using it the edges collapsed and I slipped in the hole, thankfully the sand that caved in covered my business so I didn't end up with pooey feet) we spent ages trying to perfect the perfect bush loo. I did the first one and found a Y shaped stick to use as a toilet roll holder and a large stick as a balance rod! I even reinforced the edges so there was no chance of me slipping in again. Well Daniel had to better me with the next one and he used 3 sticks to make a working toilet roll holder! For a few days later the kids imaginative play consisted of toilet building!

The mornings were very cold. I was so jealous of the kids uggs.

Early morning nudies!

What a spot!!!




Helping pack up. He wants to do everything Daniel does!

Quite a challenging site to get out of.

Nearly there. Daniel did a great job getting the van out and didn't even need to use the winch.

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