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Lenny - I hadn't heard of the KinderKot, just had a look. Great idea! Which Big4 did you go to - there are two up there?
Tinks - LOL, I can't reverse ours either, don't feel embarrassed! We have plenty of other skills. And watching the vans all pull up at the caravan park and seeing how many times it took to get some into position, well...not many can reverse them either! We stayed at Big4 Adelaide Shores, it's on the beach at West Beach.
Hi all just subscribing to the thread.
We are campers as well, although we are the rough it in the state park hiding on the deserted 4x4 track type. You know the "if theres a loo it's too civilised" type. Ah nothing quite like shoveling it in the dark. chuckle.
We have a camper van Jayco which sits in the drive getting old while we hoof it in a tent....I'm trying to convince dh to sell the jayco and buy a 4x4 camper but he's not convinced. YET!
We are currently saving the dollars to purchase a camping fridge and have our eyes on a Australian made model. Oh I am having trouble thinking of it's name......bushman? maybe?....anywho it's made in Victoria.
Our kids are on the older side but enjoy things like bird and animal hunts. Were they list all the animals they see and look them up in the books....yeah we take books, bird books to identify birds, animal books to identify animals and not to forget reptile and bug books. Ah they lead to some very interesting questions which have to be written down to research on the net once we are home on occation. The kids also enjoy the stars and the book that go's with that cause I don't know all the constalations. Balls, cricket bat, board games and most importantly my scrapbooking stuff, cause it's not camping if I don't get time to relax as well. Mind you the supplies are seriously pared back to the bare essentials which does have a tendancy to cramp my creativity at times.
Since our last trip we have purchased swags for everyone as one of the water containers split and leaked all over the end of dd's sleeping bag. Lucky it was a hot day so it dried nicely before bed. We are also looking at a new stainless steal water tank so no more split water containers....ah seams the last 4x4 track was a bit too rough for that one container.
Girls I read in the last few posts some are having dificulty backing vans. Try a big old car park for practice that dosn't have many "witnesses" really helps! There are already lines painted for parks and narrow roads and stuff for practice. Brilliant! I learned how to back when I was in the Army but taught my Mum to reverse the van in the local car park.
Lenny - we have a kinderKot - it rocks!!
We are now campers :rofl: - as PRMG said we went camping with them for four days and now have the camping bug. DS LOVED it, so did DH and I, we are now looking into getting a nice big family sized tent for now, with a goal to get a caravan or camper trailer in 4-5 years. Now with baby #2 on the way our more expensive holidays wont be as frequent and we want DS and eventually DD to be able to enjoy the great outdoors - Yay!
From Scratch - I bought DH a telescope for father's day and we sometimes take that away with us. He found an app for his phone, I think it's called Night Sky (it's put out by the Sydney Conservatory) and it links in to where you are and what you should be seeing in the sky at that moment. He loves it. I've got a bird identifying book put away for when DD is older, but we're not equipped to go off on the beaten track at this point.
Nay - the tent you put up on FB looks cool. It was so much fun camping with you guys. It's the first time we've really gone with others (who didn't stay in a different area in the park in a cabin) and still can't believe how much fun we had.
We got the tent on the weekend and did a test run putting it up and down in the park (we have no backyard) and the girls loved it! Can't wait to try it out for real now!
Lenny, it sounds like it will stand up to the weather that we will be camping in - if it is raining that heavily I am pretty sure we will be packing up and going home :lol:
Oh definitely Nai. They are good tents. Nothing much was holding up in that weather! And like i said - it's super quick to pack up if you need to do it in the rain ;)
PRMG - I didn't know there were two. It was on short point road. Right by the beach, but on a bit of a cliff.
MN - the kinderkot was the best buy. We knew DS2 was safe and happy in his 'tent'. DS1 was sooo jealous! He wants his own 'tent'. I ended up buying it 2nd hand from BBer.
From Scratch - that sounds like DH's idea of camping. They go to some 4x4 tracks near Thompson Dam. Just the blokes and one or two kids. They camp, swim, 4x4, light fires, cook - beat their chests? I dunno, i leave them to it mostly. We went to some great little spots last year - an inaccessible 'island' on lake Eildon (boat only), a great spot by a river near sheepyard flat, but both of them had composting loos. Hence my reason for finally getting a menstrual cup (TMI, maybe?). You can't have AF when you are roughing it!!
PacRakMG- Oh that app sounds great except we never have phone reception where ever we go. It's a real get away for us when we deliberatly get away from phone reception. Dh is 2IC of a buisness and carries 2 phones...Ugh one of them is always going off so it kind of forces dh to get away from work. Wink!
Nai- that sound like fun! I bet the kids thought it was a hoot.
Lenny- now that is an idea....(menstral cup) I have AF a few times camping but it's never really bothered me but now you mention it a MC would make things a lot nicer.
AH yes we do enjoy a good chest beating from time to time, giggle. We only really started roughing it again good and proper early last year after we replaced the old car. We bought a newish 4x4 twin cab... cause I killed our old commodore....from 4x4ing it a little too much....AH it seams dirt roads 4 times a day didn't agree with it too much after about 6 years in a car that was over 10 years old......Before that dh,ds,myself and the dog used to rough it in the old 4x4 ute but as soon as dd came along all that stopped. We exceded our people to seats ratio. roll eyes! Smile.
Loving the freedom the new car brings us. It suits or lifestyle so much better. We have a horse as well so I can get my own feed now, go 4x4ing, camping, the boys enjoy fishing from time to time in remote river systems, and we plan to do a trip to the Alice and Uluru once the new bubs is not so new. We were planning to go late last year but I got sick so that came to a screaching holt which was kind of a good thing now I look back. Oh and I can tow almost anything and it's no bother at all! I spruke the twin cabs! I'm a convert. I love that I can pack the back with all the camping equipment and just go. Now all I have to do is convince dh camping on a regular weekend is sooooo worth it. I have been known to take the kids and the dog midweek but dh gets a little cranky when I do that...I think he thinks he's missing out.
fromscratch - I hear you on the phone reception! We have our own business so DH's never switches off. Once a year we go down to Yarram in Vic and there is no reception there, it's absolute bliss! We don't carry a TV or anything like that, DD has a portable DVD player in the car that we really try to restrict to just the travel to wherever we're going. We tend to chill out and chat or play board games once it's dark, but it's funny looking around a caravan park at night and seeing all the TVs on in vans :D What car did you get? We have a Territory that tows okay, but we're upgrading DH's old work van to a Ford Ranger twin cab, hopefully within the next 18 months. I somehow think the Territory won't be used for towing after we get the ute!
We're going to myall lakes/lake?? Honestly I have no idea lol we're going with others that have been there before.
Tried tried searching for a thread on keeping food frozen/cold but can't find anything, some tips please?
Have you got a vacuum sealer TMS? I've heard they're great for keeping food for longer in eskys. We manage by burying food in ice, putting ice on the bottom of the esky then the food and then the ice over the top. We've got two eskys, one is a huge ice chest that keeps stuff really cool. If you've got a couple you could put the perishables in one and prevent opening it do it keeps cold for longer, and put things like drinks in another where it doesn't matter so much if it is opened frequently.
We have a little bar fridge in the camper which is pretty useless. The freezer bit freezes up on the outside and the fridge is either too cold or not cold enough. Doesn't seem to function the way it's supposed to. We had frozen butter and mushy icy poles on our last trip (MummyNaomi can vouch for that :rofl:)
Hmmm yes, but we had ready made icy pole slushee Mocktails - just had to drink them out of the packet :ROFL::
no vac sealer but we do have two eksy's.
is dry ice worth looking into? I heard a layer on the bottom can make everything last longer? We need to look at a better eksy but that will have to wait until next time, already bought a lot for this trip.
We now have two waeco fridges, we found that by the time we got drinks cold there wasn't room for food and we are heading into the bush near Orbost at Easter, so now we have a freezer! We eat a lot of chicken and wasn't happy with keeping it in the fridge for more than a few days. Hoping it's not going to be too cold this will be our last trip until spring now.