We always enjoy planning a trip, the rough route we may take, the campsites to visit and the sights to see along the way. We seldom visit caravan parks, preferring to camp for a night in the local showground to restock our food, drinking water, fuel, visit the bakery for lunch, then head back out for another week in the bush, camping in state forests, national parks or private property.
However anything can happen along the way that may change our intended route. Nothing is set in concrete and we prefer to let it just happen. If we like the campsite we might stay for a few nights or more. Since covid things have changed as you now need to book online, so the wandering into a national park campsite to fill in an envelope & place it in the box along with the fees are gone. We have found this hard at first as we do not know were we will end up for the night. Even more so if you want to stay longer & the campground is booked out. As we like to travel the back roads & 4wd trails we only manage to cover a small number of kms a day.
This also brings us to another problem, arriving at your pre-booked site & there is a non-paying camper there. Mate we pay our taxes so national parks should be free. We move to the next vacant site & set the musical chair effect rolling. Or we cannot get into a national park as it is booked out. When we do arrive on the Sunday after lunch there is only one camper there & no one turned up as it was raining. They had not cancelled, simply lost their $6 booking fee or $12 to $40 for the weekend.
We rarely unhook our camper trailer, while camping in a campground & explore the area on foot. Between camps we visit the natural wonders we are so lucky to have.
After unpacking it is time to sit back & reflect on the fantastic trip, the beauty of our national parks visited, the waterfalls, the lookouts, the sights we have seen, the close encounters of some rarely seen birds, taking the good with the bad, the warm sunny days along with the wet cold days, the chilly nights & even chiller mornings along the range, the sunrises & sunsets we have seen, meeting old friends & of course the people we have met, the smiling faces & friendly chat, the camaraderie of others who have a similar outlook on camping and travelling all add to the great memory of another trip.
We always set up our camper trailer to make sure it is dry, air the mattress, wash the sheets & then remake the bed, ready to head off again.
