In the Wilderness

So I suppose I should overcome my ennui and embark upon an account of our night away camping a week ago.

We had arranged to go with young Guillaume, or Will to you and me, and his young wife Janelle. Oh, and their dogs - details....

Pre-arrangement wise Nicole took a bit of a back seat and little old I had the job of packing and provisioning. So with innovation and ingenuity I single-handedly mounted the roof-rack-box-thingy. Packed the mats and tent which Valerie had lent us. Didn't check it first though - details....

Shopping was a breeze. I just bought everything that I could see, within reason. It all fitted into the multiple cool-bags which seem to appear when we - well I - forget to put a cool-bag out for the milkman.

So mostly packed on Friday night, we got up bright and early Saturday for our appointment at the Calamvale Hotel where we were rendez-vousing.

I should point out at this juncture that wilderness camping had been suggested but poo-pooed by Nicole as a bit frightening so we had located a campsite at Woodenbong which was dog-friendly and not too far from our intended destination and had the facilitiies Nicole coveted such as toilets and... toilets.

So we met up with Will and Janelle, a little late, and proceeded down the Mt Lindsey Highway through Beaudesert and on through Rathdowney where we stopped a while to "stretch the dogs' legs."

Then on over the rather spectacular mountains and into New South Wales.

On arriving at Woodenbong campsite, Nicole took a look and said "Let's move on shall we." As campsites go, nestled in a field not far from the centre of town, it lacked promise.

Will's eyes lit up at that point and with a "your car's good for gravel roads, isn't it" we were off into the wilderness.

Through Urbenville and onto a side-road which soon turned to gravel and wound through the countryside for an absolute bleeding eternity. Around an hour's worth of eternity, through Upper Tooloom where the road inexplicably sealed for a hundred yards or so. The 4x4 Ute which Will was sporting left us in fairly short order and we just kind of toddled along at our own speed. When we came to a junction we'd see him in the distance and then he'd disappear again in a cloud of dust.

Eventually we arrived at Paddy's Flat, almost grounded the car driving down a little dip before stopping at our final destination, a little camping spot right next to the Clarence River.

Whilst Will and Nicole went off to collect supplies of local resource, I made some sandwiches and put up the tent. The wind blew down the river valley, bouncing off the crags in the cliffs opposite our spot, and blew the tent away. Owing to there being neither pegs nor guy-ropes in the tent bag. I suppose to look on the bright side there was no mallet either.

We tied the tent using Ute Rope to the Ute and to a tree. Boulders went inside the tent as surrogate pegs. All was good.

The dust storm arrived pretty soon after and visibility became decidedly murky and the air not quite thick with it but kind of smelly in a dry throat-irritating way.

Then we got to feeding the dogs and needless to say food was a flashpoint for conflict as the two packs failed conspicuously to integrate and an open power struggle broke out between Matilda (9 years old, 21kg) and Gipsy (3 years old, less than 21kg).

After pulling them apart I inspected my wounds - scratches to the foot and thumb, bruise underneath thumb nail where I had prised Matilda's jaw from the neck and ear of her adversary - and secretly gloated that our dog had won.

So we, well they, set to cooking and we were shown how to cook on an open Complete Fire Ban. The food, which I take full credit for procuring was not too bad, just a little burnt.

Will and Janelle laugh in the face of tent-users and after a while got out their swags. A swag for you uninitiated is a glamourised sleeping bag which should keep the elements out.

So we were woken up at various points as they had to stoke up the Total Fire Ban in order to avoid hypothermia. It's cold up there in the highlands of NSW. I say cold, but only apparently so as we were dare I say it snug as bugs in rugs or lugs in hugs in our nice zip-together double sleeping bag. Very snug indeed.

The next day we didn't do much, just went for a little walk. Matilda had another fight after pulling the shamelessly provocational trick of sitting underneath the Ute in what I imagine would be Gipsy's spot.

The dogs had fun with some cows, but it could have been a lot worse.

And other than that, it was homeward bound after our little adventure.