The Camping Thread #2

I love Swan Hill, BR! Where did you stay? Bugger about the mirror though!

We just got home from Echuca. DH had a job there and he expected to be working all Friday and Sat but it ended up bring only a few hours across both days! There was some sort of festival on which was great - all the old steam engines and the like were on display. Last night they had a paddle steamer sail and a fireworks show. We got tickets and went, it was great. Poor DD2 was petrified by the paddle steamer whistle and she was less than impressed with the sound of the fireworks too but DD1 was in absolute heaven. It was a pretty cool thing to do.

The Deni ute muster was on too do there were crazies on the road and speed cameras everywhere. I wanted to go to the muster but it's pretty pricey and DH really doesn't want to go (even though he's just bought a ute complete with roof top fog lights - he'd fit right in lol).


Question:
Does anyone know where you can get your caravan weighed? Can you just go to a truck weigh bridge or is there somewhere else specifically for caravans? Our van is only 1050 tare and my territory tows her easily, but we 're not sure that the ute will. And as the ute is on diesel and 4wd it would be handy if it could tow the van.

We survived & had a great time :) and we know she doesn't leak & pretty sturdy in the wind lol. We went down to Edithburgh Caravan Park which is a nice spot on the Yorke Penninsular here in SA. It was pretty quiet because of the time of year and a nice park. DH works FIFO so we are planning to head off the next two times he's home and then an extended 1-2 week trip to Vic in January when we head over for his sisters wedding.

We were pretty happy with everything we took/have packed into the camper and she's all pretty much set to go apart from clothes & food and the kids odds & ends - I actually had fair bit of cupboard space spare but I'm sure won't take me long to fill them.

Pac - I'm pretty sure a truck weigh station will weigh a caravan, what kind of ute does your DH have? What is the Adelaide Shores park like, I've heard rave reviews about it and friends of ours have hinted about us going there with them in December but it's only 20mins from home about 45-60mins for them and if I've got to pack everything I prefer to go somewhere a little bit further away.

Phoenix, it's an older model triton. We know it has a 1500 capacity so towing the van fully loaded will be questionable (and by weighing it I think we're hoping to be pleasantly surprised and find all our crap doesn't weigh what it should lol).

As far as Adelaide Shores goes, we've stayed there three times now and still aren't tired of the place. A lot of people we've come across staying there live locally - within 30 mins.

The pros: It's got it's own beach gate. A walkway that goes along the beach to Glenelg one way and then up to Henley the other (possibly further). A water play park was officially opened a couple of days ago. Two pools, two jumping pillows, clean toilet blocks, playground, games room, toddler games room. The grounds are immaculate. It just goes on and on. We find that everywhere we go, we end up comparing it back to Adelaide Shores.

The cons: The only thing I didn't like about it this time was the wind was horrendous. And I found that in other caravan parks, the staff are always around to offer tips or advice but here you don't really see anyone. Lots of tents were lost and a few awnings were broken and I wonder if that would have happened if there had been ground staff telling people to prepare (we spoke to one lady camping and she said she's been there during five different Septembers and lost her tent each time).

If you haven't been there before and you can go, Big4 do a visitor thing where for a fee ($10 I think), you can use all the facilities etc for the day. Maybe do that? I definitely think it's worth staying there though.

Where are you off to in Vic?

All that Tare, GVM etc etc confuses me lol. DH wants to modify drawbar to carry his dirt bike so figure that is going to effect our overall carrying/towing limits. We have an older diesel patrol but I'm not getting involved lol

DH is a country Vic boy & is a keen bush camper - he had to sweet talk this city girl to give it a go & he's lucky I like it, though he had to buy me a portaloo before I agreed to go lol

Not sure where we'll end up going, his family is in the gippsland and there is talk of heading to Dargo with one of his brothers or maybe Yanakie where his cousin has a permanent van. I've been Dargo in winter before & Yanakie a couple times.

We haven't been to those places in Gippsland. It's lovely down there though.

We're thinking Nagambie for our next trip. Not too far for a weekend and we haven't been there before. DH wants to hire a boat, but it makes me nervous with DD2. I love boats and have been on them all my life but DD2 is a restless little thing and I don't know how she'll go.

I've started up a new Instagram account specifically for our caravanning adventures . Thought it might be a bit of fun looking back.

Phoenix we LOVE moonta bay CP!!! SA doesn't have much free/bush camping but we often take our van away for a couple dats here and there. We just went down to port Elliot it was great for the kids and we saw a whale from the CP!

Pac - I'll be stalking your Vic camping spots for ideas :)

Glorious - Thanks will check that out as we are thinking about heading down that way again and it's a toss up between a free spot near Moonta where you can have fires or a caravan park. Oohh lucky to see whales!! Have you been to rapid bay, it's one of our favourite spots $6pp per night and kids under 8 free. Only problem is weekends can get very noisy with all the young ones that come down partying.

Requested to follow pollythecaravan is a great idea I am getting mum and dad to do the same on their trip. I want them to gps tag them too, or they will forget where taken. I also like you can then use the tags to map on Flickr etc.

Mum and Dad booked Barwon Heads for Christmas week - DD wants to write to father Christmas now, so he knows where to find us.

No haven't been to rapid bay yet! Definitely on the list of wants ;)

Wysiwyg - We have a map of Oz on the wall and the deal with my parents (they are on a two year caravan trip around Aust) is that instead of buying the kids trinkets and the like, they send a postcard of every place they stop and we put a sticker on the map. It's working really well and so far we've tracked them from Melbourne to Coober Pedy. Find my iPhone app is a fun way to see exactly where they are too.

Phoenix - Stalk away! We try and do lots of local weekends. DH is self employed so doesn't get his four weeks of annual leave so we make up for that by taking long weekends whenever we can with one long trip (usually 10 days) when it's his quiet time around March and that one is interstate. But everything else is Vic bound!

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Wysiwyg - We have a map of Oz on the wall and the deal with my parents (they are on a two year caravan trip around Aust) is that instead of buying the kids trinkets and the like, they send a postcard of every place they stop and we put a sticker on the map. It's working really well and so far we've tracked them from Melbourne to Coober Pedy. Find my iPhone app is a fun way to see exactly where they are too.

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I think I will steal that idea and ask mum and dad to do the same. They are doing similar starting end of Nov they pick up camper trailer 26th Nov but in six month stints (as they live in UK so have visa and insurance issues with doing longer) - we want to do a big trip ourselves and will prob get their camper trailer once they have finished or if they decide to have a break for a bit ( I can see them doing US at some point).

Steal away! I got the idea of the Instagram page from someone else doing the same thing - they have a gorgeous little retro van that they hire out.

I forgot to say before that when we receive the postcards, we also stick them into a notebook. I wrote a page about where my parents are, how long they stayed, if they liked it, weather comments and then find some interesting facts about the place. I feel like I'm doing my own grade six project...wonder what mark I'd get !

Hi Ladies!

Looks like we are going to start camping. Well starting as as family of 4, DH and I did a fair bit of camping when we were with our medieval club and a lot of events involved camping.

So we have half the gear. A couple of tents, a good selection of cooking equipment, but need to top up the bedding, chairs etc. Actually I hope our main tent is still fine, better check later.
Long term/short term. We will look at an off road camper trailer. We have the 4wd now and would like to get to more of the out of the way sites. We also like that they come with a comfy looking queen size mattress for us adults ;)

I did grow up with some camping, but I think my mother scarred me ;). My step father was fairly big at roughing it, just a good tent and minimal needs, out of the way places where the best surf was. Well, mum was more of a B&B woman (which she should have admitted), so they upgraded to the pop out campervan. We would be out on the edge of no where and she would lay out the table cloth with the bowl of fruit :rolleyes:. We also had to pack a variety of nice clothes, in case we went into town for a counter meal. So I will need to retrain myself to pack only what we need!!!

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Hi Ladies!

Looks like we are going to start camping. Well starting as as family of 4, DH and I did a fair bit of camping when we were with our medieval club and a lot of events involved camping.

So we have half the gear. A couple of tents, a good selection of cooking equipment, but need to top up the bedding, chairs etc. Actually I hope our main tent is still fine, better check later.
Long term/short term. We will look at an off road camper trailer. We have the 4wd now and would like to get to more of the out of the way sites. We also like that they come with a comfy looking queen size mattress for us adults ;)

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Will let you know what I think of mum and dad's off -road camper trailer when they pick it up later this month. We are going to be visiting them in it / staying in it quite a bit. They are planning on doing a fair bit of out of the way stuff - well that is their plan.

We have an off road camper trailer. It's so good. Ours has a king size bed and heaps of room for the kids to sleep inside. It also has 2 extra detachable rooms but we don't use them and a built in kitchen. It makes camping so easy, we keep all of our equipment in it so all we need to do is pack clothes before we go.

We did some 4 wheel driving towing it this weekend, it handled well. Even the river crossings.

Yay Astrid. We just spent the weekend at the Murray again in the forest. It was a lovely weekend. Brumbys wandering by, even saw emus there for the first time.
Our friends have a 4wd camper and they are so much better set up than when we all had tents! Which is just handy when time is limited over weekends etc.. But we all started out tenting and got ourselves into it and then looked around to see what suited how we liked to camp, ITMS.
You should go on a few trips or even hire a trailer a couple of times to see what you like. Some of those trailers are huge and fold into massive massive things.

Hi everyone, cannot believe it's taken me this long to join this thread :)
We're a camping family who have multiple tents for different trips & have just purchased a 2nd hand off road camper trailer & are chomping at the bit to take it away. At this stage with baby due in Feb our next big trip will be to Ayers Rock in Sept school holidays but I plan on organising many mini breaks while on maternity leave.
Looking forward to swapping stories & sharing advice :)

If you are in Melbourne and looking for camping supplies where would you look? Mum and Dad are starting their grey nomad adventure on Wed, delayed by a week, so have time to go shopping and get what need ( not that they are sure of what they need ) - so any suggestions of where is good? For chairs, bedding, cooking utensils etc? (Will be doing a mix of fully kitted out sites and remote places - they have a 4wd campertrailer.

Anaconda are the best you can get everything and if you get a membership you often get good discounts. Aussie disposals are good too.

We get most of our camping stuff from Anaconda, Aussie Disposals and Rays. I got cheap cooking utensils from Kmart and a plastic dinner set at Target. I put all the kitchen stuff in those big plastic containers with wheels on them so it's all neat and easy to pack in the trailer.

Don't get too much stuff - you'll be surprised what you can "make do" with. Do they have fuel Jerries? Must Have! We did 2 months in June and July - and we needed extra fuel sometimes. Then you aren't always a slave to the fuel pump. (2 Kiwis, 2 kids and a caravan)
We have bought from all three (Rays, Anaconda, and Aussie Disposals). Don't buy full price from ANYONE! They all match. And they all have ridiculous sales.
We have a shop nearby us called VanCruiser and they have an online store too. They are always very reasonable as they seem to always sell at online prices. Plus they have a bricks and mortar store - so you can see, touch, try stuff too.

Mm they went to the big Anaconda in Springvale and hated it, they said hardly anything had prices and when they asked someone their answer was "you just have to take to register and if dont like price can leave it there."

I don't think are in danger of having too much as they don't want to buy much until pick up trailer and check out dimensions etc.

Will ask about Jerry Cans good idea. Will checkout VanCruiser and also find a diff Anaconda.

I go to Anaconda in Bayswater and have always found the staff to be helpful. They reduced the price of a swag for me the other day because the one I wanted wasn't in stock.

We go to Bayswater too, they have been good in helping me when dh sends me in with a list. We got all the kitchen stuff from Kmart as well. The best way to learn what's good is to have a sneak peek at other peoples set up.

Will send them to the Bayswater one then, is easy to get to from here too, I went there years ago and we have a card apparently - is the Springvale one new (is right next to new IKEA) maybe teething problems.

I have been in here for a while but since my last most we did a 3 night trip to Moonta Bay caravan park, was a gorgeous location the only thing that spoiled it was the flies!! There were millions of the things and then heaps of mozzies at night once the flies dropped off lol but it is a spot we will probably go back to.

We are off to Vic in January for a wedding and taking the van, we have planned a 4-5 day stay at Paradise Beach on 90 mile beach. It will be our first free camp in the van but the site does have toilets & untreated water. DH is researching solar panels at the moment, but with our current set up we should be right for that amount of time since the fridge runs off gas and we've swapped all lights in the van to led globes to save power.

Anyone else have camping plans for the holidays?

We're going back to SA for Easter. Some friends of ours want to come too so I'm looking for new places to explore. We'll be in Mt Gambier for a few days and then head up a bit further for some 4 wheel driving. I'm not sure whether to station ourselves in a central caravan park or to free camp as we go. Friends will have a newborn so a caravan park is probably better. I'd prefer it too ;)

Tinks - Robe & beach port are nice places down that way. We did glenelg river a couple of Easters ago & that was beautiful - had toilets but no showers

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Tinks - Robe & beach port are nice places down that way. We did glenelg river a couple of Easters ago & that was beautiful - had toilets but no showers

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That's where we're going. We went there last Summer and enjoyed it, now friends want to come with us so we're going there again and then up to the Coorong National Park. I'd like to go up as far as Murray Bridge but don't know if we'll get that far this time.

If you're looking to go a bit further, Tinks, and are wanting a caravan park, I can't fault Adelaide Shores at West Beach. We've stayed three times now and can't fault it. Has to be our favourite spot so far.

adelaide shores is another 150kms from murray bridge....
in Mt Gambier i would stay in a park.. along the coorong camp in the national park. or go to miningie and drive to murray bridge for a visit :)
Let me know if you come to murray bridge i can meet you and show you the bunyip ;)

Lol, I forget my "bit further" isn't quite the same as most other people's definition! My parents were in Robe a couple of months back, wrong time if year because when it wasn't raining, they were getting blown off the coast! They cut it short and moved on. Other than the weather, the only had nice things to say about it.

We've been to Echuca and Nagambie over the last two months. Not sure where the next one will be. I just want to get outta here. But we have no plans over Christmas and our next planned trip is by plane in April.

We are going to mulwala / Yarrawonga at the end of Jan for 10 days can't wait it's always a lot of fun. Then we are going to Inverloch in April we have two more planned too just can't remember where and we want to go back to Qld in Dec next year. Hopefully we will do a few short trips too!

Love hearing where everyone is going.

LOL PRMG, my bit further is pretty far. I think it's a country thing. I remember being at a pub once, chatting to someone who invited us to his place, said he 'just lived out the back'. My friend and I went out with him and were surprised that he did in fact live 'just out the back'. We expected we'd have to walk a km or so :rofl:


We went to Dargo for part of Cup weekend. Was good fun, except it was incredibly busy. I don't think we'll go there on a long weekend again.

We are off to Balgowan on the Yorke peninsula after Christmas so I'm looking forward to that.

The Yorke has some beautiful beaches nai!

We have found that a lot of the 4wd tracks are getting really busy now :(

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We went to Dargo for part of Cup weekend. Was good fun, except it was incredibly busy. I don't think we'll go there on a long weekend again.

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We went for a few nights about 3 weeks ago, so not even a long weekend and stayed in a few different spots and even though it rained, there were so many others out there. We ended up out of Dargo too for the last night. We got one of the last spots by the river and then 2 more groups came through and hunted about for spots but had to carry on.
We went to Craig's hut too. It was craziness. So many people. It was so packed. And Sheepyard flats etc -I would never go there now, it was like a Big4 it was so jammed with people.

We were at sheep yard flats in July it was so noisy 24 hours a day not a nice place anymore.

We camped at eaglevale, so out of dargo, just a bit further on from billy goat. There were only 2 other groups there and we were pretty far away from them. It was nice. There was an amazing hut near there too. Dh is obsessed with huts :rolleyes: but this one was worth seeing.

I think dh stayed at pineapple flat last time they did Craig's hut. I had to work so couldn't go.