Camping at Pink Gum (March 8-10)

It had been ages since we had been camping as a family and so we looked into some cool places to go.  Eventually we settled on spending the Easter long weekend travelling along Great Ocean Road.  Since the plan would be to stop for a single night in a handful of places, we decided that the tent would be too painful - continually setting it up and then taking it down the next day would be a big chore.

Kristine's parents offered to lend us their camper trailer, nicknamed the Taj Mahal, as it was designed to be a quick set-up and pack down.  It could also hold a lot of our camping supplies in the trailer itself, freeing up a lot of room in the car.

So, that being planned, we realised that we had never used the Taj and had only even seen it set up once, so we needed a trial. A weekend away where we could test it out and learn how it would work for our next travels.

Kris and I briefly considers Kuitpo forest, but it was closed for camping this time of year (due to fire risk).  We then found Pink Gum, a campsite in the Onkaparinga Gorge that offered a handful of sites and some nice bushwalking tracks.  It was also super cheap ($15 a night!)  After we booked it all in, we found that it was only 18 minutes from our house and about 10 minutes from Kristine's parents house so if we got stuck it would be easy to get help.

We headed down on Friday night after work and started to set up.  We got most of the way through but there were a few poles we couldn't figure out, so Peter and Heather came down to give us a hand:

Our site

Pink Gum Campsite

Our site

Camper and shower tent

Friday night went pretty smoothly, once we got everything set up.  Although the gas stove had a blockage, so we ended up giving the kids hotcross buns for dinner and Kris ducked home to grab our gas bottle.  I then cooked up some sausages and Kris and I had a late dinner while the kids slept.

The next day Kris had to duck out to meet up with a friend, so the kids and I relaxed around the campsite:

Cam enjoying a hot chocolate outside the tent

Alana and Tom played a game

And Cam read

Our kitchen

When Kristine got back just after lunch, we decided to head out for a hike in the Onkaparinga Gorge, following a walking trail that lead to a rockclimbing area.

We started with a short walk down the road and then arrived at the cliff where a scout group was practicing their rock-climbing (Onkaparinga River National Park Rock Climbing and Abseiling Area):

Tom

On the way

Walking

  The walk was nice, but it was about 32 degrees C, so pretty hot. The view from the cliff was nice, over the Onkaparinga river:

View from the cliff

Looking along the gorge

 We then following the steps down into the gorge to the base of the cliff:

Heading down

and down

Looking along the gorge

We headed back up, a little disappointing that the track didn't go any further.  But one of the scouts pointed out there were more rock-climbing areas on the other side and a bit of a path down.  It started as a pretty easy walk and then ended up in a goat trail that lead down to the water of the river:

Half a canoe stuck in a tree

Heading down the track

A lizard we saw on the way

At the end of the path we reached the River and headed over some rocks to a quiet spot where we could have a break:

Blue Fairy Wren at the river

After a short break we headed back up.  It had gotten hotter and the path up was harder than the path down.  By the time we got back to camp we were really hot and sweaty.

Some of the park walks

 
We set up the camp shower and had a wash, then made some dinner and played a board game before bed.


We had an easy start to Sunday and just relaxed around the camp.  We packed up just after lunch and headed home, so that we had the public holiday monday to relax and see how we would set up all of the components for when we do this on the longer trek in a few weeks time.