camping

For the past few days we have been off the map - well out of internet range - camping at Girroween near Stanthorpe.  The weather was great - except at night it was FREEZING.  I slept in my beanie, gloves, polar fleece and several other layers and also tucked a warm husband into my sleeping bag.

Our tent at 5.30 in the morning.  That's quite early, but my bladder won out over my warm sleeping bag.

 We kayaked.  Be 'we' I mean the kids.  I was the on-shore crew.  Chris even went so far as to call me 'Base Camp Mamma'.

Scooter came camping with us.  She loved it, even when we put her ball in impossible places.

We went on, as it was described in the ranger information, a 'strenuous' bush walk to the pyramids.  The rangers were right.  It was strenuous - so much so that I didn't make the top of the pyramids and had to recover sitting NEAR the top eating a chocolate muffin and an apple.

Sisters at the top of the Pyramids.

Chris  went up with to the top with the girls.

They found a geocache at the top of the Pyramids.

Gab waved to me from the top.  That's me - sitting and recovering down the slope.

It was quite steep to climb.  My legs got the wobblies a bit.  I chose not to climb right to the top.  I didn't have to prove anything.

Doesn't everyone do the 'I'm pretending to hold up a big rock' pose?

I made a scavenger hunt for the kids one afternoon.  It had items like 10 brown leaves, 2 feathers, a signiture from someone not at our campsite, and a tadpole.  Catching a tadpole in the dam took about an hour and a half.  I actually though it was not possible.

But they did it!  And the shrieks of excitement over this tadpole in a plastic bag echoed off the granite mountains around the campsite.  Tadpole catching was also under a strict catch and release scheme.

There was a beautiful dam right next to the campsite.

photo by Annika

photo by Annika

photo by Annika

photo by Annika

photo by Annika

 Annika took the camera and went around taking hundreds of pictures.  Some worked out really well.

We wen 4WDing in the national park - fun times.

 Scooter felt she needed to help us navigate and negotiate the bumps.  She was on the job and loved standing looking out the front window.

Berry farm icecreams - mmmmmmmm.

Mucking around in the dam.

I caught up on a lot of reading.

And we did lots of geo-caching.  We found about 15 geo-caches this trip.  It helped there was a big run of them (37!) near Stanthorpe on the fruit run.

Loved camping.  Loved being with my family and friends. Loved coming home to my warm bed.