We recently took a trip down south to visit my parents and do a spot of fishing. After loading the subaru full of borrowed camping gear(Thanks Dad) we headed down to Bundjalung National Park to camp for a few nights. It is one of my regular spots that I like but this was El's first visit.The facilities are minimal with pit toilets and no showers or running water but we managed. It is quite invigorating having cold camp showers hiding behind the tent. We had all our warm gear from Canada so we weren't too cold but El managed to steal most of my stuff to wear over the top of her multiple layers. Nights were not too cold until the last night when the dew made its way onto the outside of the sleeping bags and everywhere else. Not quite as cold as when we camped in Nova Scotia though.
I did lots of fishing but had more luck in catching beers from the esky than fish from the sea or creek.
Jerusalem Creek runs out to the ocean eventually, we nearly died(not really-just got really tired) walking the 9 kms return trip (complete with fishing rods,esky and heavy camera). Even though the esky was getting lighter as I removed various shiny metal objects it seemed to get heavier as we went along. We walked along the creek as far as the mouth of the creek and decided to walk along the beach back to the campground to make the trip easier. The only problem with that idea was the south easterly swell making tides bigger than they should have been. We walked about 800 meters back toward the campground and then saw our path blocked around a headland by rather large incoming waves. We took the wussy way out and clambered up onto a rock shelf to escape the seas. Once we got to the top of the shelf we could see that the beach was a no go zone. The problem with this was that we were seperated from the path leading along the creek by various prickly plants, pandanus palms and assorted scratchy looking sticks. Reliving my childhood I managed to bush bash our way back to the track, trying not to pay too much attention to the look of terror on El's face.
This time of year the campground is virtually deserted, mainly due to the cold. Only die hard fishermen and silly people like us go camping at this time of year. It got down to close to zero degrees one night. I got up to look at the sun come up while El was too busy sleeping and steam was coming off the waves.
I also nearly managed to get the car bogged in some soft sand. It only went up to the door on the passenger side but with a little encouragement, some low range and a lot of revving I got out and moving again, much to El's delight. For some reason she did not want the car to get swept out to sea.
Above is a more gentle type of sand-the hard stuff. Its like driving on a highway so you don't have too many problems. At high tide when the sand is soft you have to be more careful as if you lose momentum you can easily get stuck.I have caught heaps of fish at this place in the past but a combination of bad weather and apathy stopped the fish from biting.
After camping we went back to my parent's place and gave the car a good wash. Probably half the sand on the beach seemed to come out of the car and sand was in spots that you didn't think a car had. We got it fairly clean though, just clean enough to notice the fresh dirt put on it driving back to Brisbane.
El is back at work now, doing her science thing. I'm still doing a bit of work as well and enjoying the last days until I go back to uni. I'm starting dentistry subjects next semester so I'm really looking forward to not doing all the science stuff again. I've got credit for a couple of subjects next semester so the workload should be easier. Luckily Organic Chemistry was one of the subjects I got off-I hate that stuff.
Today I am working my way through El's list of jobs while she is at work -doing the house husband thingy.
I'm back to Uni on Monday and have to get dressed up for the dental school so my days of ultra casual are numbered.
