The Camping Thread #2

**~Phoenix~** · October 7th, 2013, 05:13 PM

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.

**wysiwyg** · October 7th, 2013, 05:21 PM

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.

**glorious** · October 7th, 2013, 05:30 PM

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

**Miss.September** · October 7th, 2013, 05:56 PM

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!

**wysiwyg** · October 7th, 2013, 06:32 PM

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.

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).

**Miss.September** · October 7th, 2013, 07:01 PM

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 !

**Astrid** · November 3rd, 2013, 07:06 PM

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

. 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!!!

**wysiwyg** · November 3rd, 2013, 07:21 PM

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

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.

**Tinks** · November 3rd, 2013, 07:31 PM

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.

**Lenny** · November 6th, 2013, 05:51 AM

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.

**TickToc** · November 6th, 2013, 06:55 AM

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

**wysiwyg** · November 29th, 2013, 04:00 PM

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.

**black_rose** · November 29th, 2013, 04:02 PM

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

**Tinks** · November 29th, 2013, 05:04 PM

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.

**Lenny** · November 29th, 2013, 05:30 PM

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.

**wysiwyg** · November 29th, 2013, 05:50 PM

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.

**Tinks** · November 29th, 2013, 06:40 PM

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.

**black_rose** · November 29th, 2013, 06:43 PM

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.