There goes 2009.

Seasons greetings and all the best for 2010. We hope you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed your new years eve parties.

We had Christmas at home with some of the usual suspects. The food was great. We had turkey, roast lamb and a fish potjie as mains with a wide range of starters dips and salads. On Boxing Day we departed for our first camping trip with Jake to the Central Coast. We stayed at Dunleith Caravan Park at the Entrance. It was challenging, but we loved it.

Here are some GPS coordinates : =-33.338201, 151.50243

Google Maps : Link

And yes, even though I didn’t arrange the weekend ( Thanks Rob and Eli ) we did have to pitch tents in the rain again :-) The rain was short lived though and the rest of the weekend was sunny and very warm.

Almost 20 of us this time, looks like the camping bug has taken :-). It just seems to get bigger and bigger every time. This trip we had 2 boats and everything else that makes a long weekend camping fun.

A nice wood fire every night, a bit of 4 wheel driving in the area ( Ryan and Fiona lost a tyre half way – luckily no-one got hurt ).

Plenty of boating that included wake boarding and other skiing up and down the Hawkesbury river. Unfortunately no fish ( we tried … )

Paul made his first potjie ( Oxtail ) and it was awesome. Almost everyone had a turn in either the hammock or on a sun bed in the shade under a tree simply relaxing or reading the paper.

Thanks everyone – we had a ball. Here is a link to some more photos

It’s clear that when the blog goes dry things at work are crazy.
I don’t think I have had a more demanding 5 weeks at work ever. But the lessons learnt and the experience gained — invaluable.

One of my mates ( Mark ) saved me from certain implosion last weekend by taking me out of town to a beautiful piece of farm land owned by his sister.

We had no running water or any other of the typical facilities you’d expect at a camping ground and this made it eve more special.
Setup camp next to a old caravan, now home to some swallows and a few wasps. We used the tarp to collect rainwater for drinking and did a bit of “Australian” hunting.

It’s a bit of a drive ( about 7 hours north of Sydney ). We left here on the Friday night at about 11 PM and arrived there around 6 AM on Saturday
morning. I have some photos and will only attach 1 to the front page of this blog – Don’t want to offend anyone with photos of dead animals – some people still think red meat grows in packets on trees :-) – But if you want more just click on the photo.

Anyway – The pressure at work is dissipating and there is light at the end of the tunnel ( Hallo December, I’m back )
PS. You might notice the MO – If you don’t know. The month of November is always “Mo vember” here in OZ. We grow a moustache and raise money for charity ( Men’s Health )
As always it gets shaved off on the 1st of December.

We arrived at around 7 pm on Friday night, let me go back a hour or two so that you can appreciate the start to the weekend in all isn’t splendour.

I left work around 4:45 pm to pick Anne-Marie up from work, car loaded with all the usual – surf board and fishing rod on the roof. 10 Minutes after I picked Anne-Marie up I get a call from the office, urgent call – They need my help with something NOW. I explained that I was in transit and would not be available for at least 2 hours. The urgency of the issue in the office resulted in me pulling over and swapping with Anne-Marie, I was now in the passenger seat and Anne is driving. I plugged the laptop in the car cigarette lighter for power and connected my wireless network card. For the next 2 hours I did some work remotely while Anne drove us to Norah Head just outside Wyong – about 2 hours north of Sydney on the coast. I literally finished the work required as we pulled into the campsite where Paul and Flick have already set up their tent and sat relaxing with a nice cold one.

Sean and Lauren arrived at about 10 pm after a few phone calls to explain how to get out of Sydney – Well done guys – I am impressed you made it all the way to Norah Head without a map.

So far so good – We pitch tents and life is better. Next morning was a awesome 36 degree summers day and we started the day off with a nice egg and bacon roll to line the stomach. The rest of the morning and up to around 2 pm was spent on the beach – beautiful day, clear water and a few small waves for the new 7,6 ft surf board.

I head back to the tent site just after 2 to start with the Potjie, lamb shank curry pot – I knew I needed at least 4.5 hours and I wanted to do some fishing in the evening. so that would have put me on the rocks at around 7 or 8 after dinner with a full stomach.

All went well until about 6 ( yes we have not eaten yet ) when a monster of a storm erupted over the whole Wyong area – Our neighbours lost their tents ( broke in pieces ).
We stood our ground and hung onto the little gazebo we used for shade earlier on in the day. It was like a scene from a movie, everyone grabbed a corner and screamed in unison as the gusts of wind tried to rip our home from our hands.

Completely drenched by the rain we had a small reprieve for just long enough to eat the Potjie ( about 45 min. ) and then that storms father arrived and all hell broke loose. It was messy and wet – I don’t remember much detail – I have memories of Paul and I standing in corners of the gazebo with one hand holding down our protection against the storm and the other firmly clinched around a metal camping cup filled with wine. There was an hour or so of huddling around a little gas fire under the gazebo with FM tunes from days gone by and lots of laughter.

So all I can say is – it was by far the hardest camp we have had – there was lots of fun and lots of stress – but we all made it home and it might take a while to dry out all the tents before we can try this again – but I am looking forward to the next one already.

Thanks guys – it was awesome – you all showed courage and determination – I love spending time with people that always look for the bright side in things even when, like Paul said when he had a quick look inside his tent and everything was floating around – ” Houston , we have a water problem ” :-)

http://www.resortparksaustralia.com.au/ocean/travel-info.php

Yup, went camping again. Ocean Beach Resort on the central coast. You take the Gosford turn off and then the Woy Woy Road to your right. All the way to Umina beach. There you’ll find Ocean Beach Resort park – It’s part of the Big4 – facilities are awesome. It’s right on the beach, next to a little river. It’s a great swimming beach with some nice fishing rocks on the left. For any one following the Sydney Skate fishing saga over the past few weeks – yes he followed me to the Central Coast – It took about 20 min and I caught him again…. Then luckily I also caught some Taylor ( 4 of them ) was great.

Anne-Marie and I stayed in the old faithful tent on a un-powered site – It was beautifully green ( some mozzies ). Werner, Elise, Taylor, Safara, Rob and Eli stayed in a nice bungalow called Wagtail.

Only negative point on the weekend was that they stole our bicycles .. :-(
Anyway – one of those 15 things I suppose..

A possible camp for next time in this area might be in Munmorah State Conservation Area

http://www.nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/parks.nsf/ParkContent/N0605?OpenDocument&ParkKey=N0605&Type=Xo