After catching up with some friends recently, we found out they had been planning on taking their youngest camping for the first time. Ed is 4 years old and grew up overseas, so his dad was after some advice on some easily accessible and close to Canberra campgrounds. Coincidently I was thinking of taking Ollie out for a similar trip that same weekend. After seeing that the boys got on well that weekend, we decided to join forces and head out together for an overnight boys trip.
We caught up at our place and then headed down into Namadgi. It’s quite a close campsite, just 25 minutes past the last service station in Lanyon. Ollie fell asleep on the way up, which is not something that happens very often anymore. He continued to stay asleep as we drove around the campsite looking for a site that both of us could set up. It was very busy and finding a good spot was tough. There’s not enough spots in a lot of NSW and ACT campsites suitable for a camper trailer or caravan.
Eventually on the second pass I opted to just set up in the furthest corner of a carpark. My mate found a spot in between two other tents about 30m away. Ollie stayed asleep in the van while I set up the camper. Before I set off to help out my mate with his setup, I woke up Ollie. He didn’t take it well and immediately set off for the camper to curl up on the bed for a bit more of a rest. I got him comfy and then set out to help my mate trying to set up a tent with a 4-year-old helping (been there, it’s not fun).
While helping out we met some of the nearby campers. They came over after seeing the van and they were interested in getting a tour of it. Because of how busy it was, the tents were much closer than they would typically be. We were invited to share a fixed fireplace with a couple of other campers which worked out well. There wasn’t much room near the main campground for another fire.
These other campers had a 6yo called Dorian who ended up playing with Ollie and Ed all weekend. In fact, most of the many campers seemed to have primary school age children. We must have just picked the weekend that every other parent did as well. It was also unusual because one of the campsites brought their ‘support’ dog, and another group walked into the forest to saw up a felled tree for the fire. Both of these things aren’t permitted in a national park.
After a couple of beers for the grown ups, and few hours playing soccer and with toys in the camper, we took the boys up to the old Honeysuckle tracking station foundations. They had a great time searching for the moonboot footsteps that lead up to the top of the hill.
On the way back we took the walking trail through the bush back to camp.
Dinner for the boys that night was sausages. Ed had his cooked over the fire on skewers, but I set up the bbq near the communal fireplace to cook Ollie’s sausages. I cooked up my steak after Ollie was settled.
After food it was time for marshmallows. It was starting to get dark, so there were roving bands of kids with torches roaming the campground. Ollie went to bed around his usual bedtime to watch a bit of Pokemon before going sleep.
Unfortunately Ed’s tent was much closer to the central fire, and he could hear everyone talking and laughing outside. We ended up throwing him in the camper with Ollie to get to sleep and then later transferring him to his own bed later that night.
It was a nice community atmosphere with the shared fireplace. We meet a nice couple from England travelling around Australia in a blue van and gave them some tips of things to do in the region. We also learnt a lot about how concrete is tested for strength, and how too much water is being added to Australian concrete. At around 11 it started lightly raining, but not enough to require us to seek shelter.
Over time everyone slowly drifted off to their own tents and campers. One of the campers didn’t have a good night. He ended up throwing up for a good couple of hours in his swag and just outside it. The rest of his family weren’t impressed as it was self-inflicted after a lot of drinks around the fire. I got to bed around midnight.
The next morning Ollie and I had a bit of a sleep in until 8am. One of the benefits of camping is that normal rules from home don’t apply, so Ollie had fruit loops (frooty loops) for breakfast. Ollie went off to play while I slowly packed things away. He returned with three friends and then they took over the camper playing a very loud game that seemed to have a lot of rules, but no one knew all of them at once. I kicked them out after a while and they chased each other around the campsite and neighbouring bush for a bit.
The camper pack down was fairly quick and painless, and just before 10am we were ready to hit the road. Ollie said goodbye to his new friends and we set off back to Canberra. Rosie was there to greet us, having had a relaxing night at home by herself.
A big thank you for our friends for letting us tag along on this trip. We both really enjoyed ourselves and can’t wait for the next trip out.
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