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Return to Shooters Hill

This trip was in planning for a week or two and we finally settled on dates that each could accomodate. However it would not be a good start to the day for me. On Thursday, 6th November, the first day of the camp, things went south right from the outset. A trip that should have taken something like three and a half hours took almost twice as long. The whole 65km length of the M4 Motorway was a car park due to a broken down truck just west of the Lighthorse Interchange and by the time I got to Blackhealth to get the traditional fish and chips for tea it was almost dark. By the time I got into camp, it was nudging bed time, yet to make up for it we stayed up for an extra hour or so just so I could set up, get my chair out and relax a bit before calling it a day.

Between Mt Victoria and Oberon, I also managed to slam into a fairly large kangaroo. The animal was killed instantly - such are the fortunes, or misfortunes, of driving at night and whilst the only collarteral damage was the loss of the Lion bagde off the grille and a small crack in the grille itself, stopping further up the road to make sure there was no harm done to the cooling system ensured that my arrival in camp took even longer than planned for. The bad news did not end there and in reality, it was a weekend of disappointments I have to say.

On the upside, we knew where we were - a small campsite on Crown land near Shooters Hill, south of Oberon and a place once visited by the well known 4x4 videographer, Shad Donaghue. The place hasn't changed that much but I couldn't help notice that a few of the trees on the shoreline had disappeared. HINT: freshly cut trees do not burn - do not cut down live trees and expect them to burn in a campfire - they won't. Collect your wood from the ground.

Also, on the upside, I brought along a new item to try out, knowing that we'd be camping near water. A new kayak is now a part of my arsenal. It's a 3.2 metre Pryml Titan from BCF and came with a comfy chair and the dual paddle. I did struggle getting into it the first time due to the shoreline I was using to board it, however practice makes perfect and I managed to go for the maiden voyage without falling in the drink. I hadn't used a kayak or canoe in about 30 years, but it didn't take long to get used to. The one downside to it is that because I have a rooftop tent, there is no practical place to put it during travel, so it had to go on top of the rooftop tent and be tied down with four straps to ensure it stayed there. A minor inconvenience.



The next morning gave us good weather and the chance to pack up a dry camp. We had brekky, which is most often just cold stuff (cereal, etc) and maybe toast. Dave has his coffee and I pour myself a big orange juice. I reckon the days of the big fry ups are gone. There comes a time when it is just too much effort and all the meat just sits on your stomach all morning which drains more energy than the food provides.



We then packed and set off for a drive along the Abercrombie Fire Track - apparently one of the steepest fire tracks in the state and I reckon they aren't wrong. Some of the hills had inclines of around 35° and the surface was a bit marble-like in terms of the small stones covering the road. Iroincally, I'd only purchased new tyres for my truck the Thursday prior and boy did they perform well. I am very happy with the new Yokohama Geolandar MTs.

We did divert to the Burraga Dam for a look around, thinking that we may well stay there on Friday night but there were too many noisy types there and we stopped to relax for a bit. It was here that I launched the new kayak and went for a row. Thinking that my 20 minutes in the boat was up I returned and was politely informed that I'd been on the water for more than an hour! Time flies when one is having fun.

It was then time to pack and find a place to camp and we stumbled upon. We ended up at the Silent Creek campground, which did seem peaceful enough but there were a lot of insects flying around. More bad news was to greet me the following morning. For a while I thought I'd been struck down with a big bout of hayfever - a problem I had a lot as a kid but not tended to bother me that much as an adult. However it wasn't hayfever but a cold. A cough developed and my head filled up with enough phlegm to drown me and the rest of the camp would be a bit on the miserable side. As I write this article, I am still slightly affected by it but the worst has passed. The confines of a rooftop tent is not the place to be when breathing is difficult and the fact that I had no snotrags (tissues) to blow my nose with just made matters worse. Anyway, we had brekky and then packed and departed, looking for night three at a new place.

At lunch time we arrived at the Bummaroo Ford campground, run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and found that the ground has a park fire ban in place - it is a spoiler alert for the fact that we now have a government in this state that seems all too prepared to remove fun from peoples' lives. We did note that not all the campers there were observing the ban. If this ban was put in place by the RFS for safety reasons, I'd understand, but there was no fuel build-up in the ground, plenty of rain in the days prior and those disregarding the ban were using the alloted fireplaces - so there was no danger being created. The days weren't really that hot either and the nights were quite cold. It is a disgrace that where there are proper facilities and no fire danger that campers are banned from lighting fires. I mean, who wants to camp whilst not being allowed to have a campfire? Watch out - Fun Police about!

We had lunch at Bummaroo and then decided to head back to the spot we had on Friday night near the lake. There were too many idiots flying past the spaces we occupied, throwing dust around instead of just taking it easy to create little impact. Some people just don't deserve access to public areas - the lack of respect for others is breathtaking.

We set up camp just in time for a storm to fly over. I didn't really know how close until I decided to put the kayak in the water and go for another row. When I got to the other end of the lake I heard the rumble of thunder and decided that I'd had enough boating for one day. We were fortunate that the lightning was just to the right and we copped very little rain and a couple of dumps of tiny hail but that was about it. The show was over in 30 minutes and we began to set up our fire and chairs before starting tea. I cooked a couple of bacon and egg hamburgers and Dave had a bit of a mixed grille.

Sleeping was not fun - even though it did drop to 4°C overnight, I was forced to turn off my electric blanket and only have one cover over me due to my cold giving me a couple of degrees of temperature. I was that hot that I did give some thought to terminating the camp but I didn't want to leave Dave there on his Pat Malone so to avoid spoiling the occasion I toughed it out and just monitored my own situation to see if I was going to deteriorate any further. An hour or so later I turned the blanket back on, rolled over and managed to get back to sleep.

Morning came, and I got up for a piss and to blow a gallon of fluoro-green snot out of my head. Then it was time to prepare brekky - again just cereal, toast and OJ. We relaxed by the fire for about an hour before breaking camp. Dave took off to Tarana for a look around and I was planning on making the trip but my sickness got in the way and I just didn't feel up to the extra driving. So I made an early exit and headed back home, which is just as well because the traffic bottleneck at Blackheath (a well known problem on Sundays) was starting to build up. This is another issue caused by this government we have - the Blue Mountains Tunnel project, providing an 11km dual carriageway under the Blue Mountains between Katoomba and Little Hartley would solve this traffic problem but because this area isn't in Western Sydney, the Government doesn't give a toss. People want the tunnels built and the Premier should just get on with it.

Written at 20:22 on 15 November 2025 by Brad.
Posted in the Camps section. Comments: 0 ·

A weekend on the Central Tablelands

It was a case of us not really knowing where to stop for the night and whilst we fully intended to check out the area, the exact locations for the overnight stays would remain a mystery right up until a late decision was made. This would be a theme for the whole weekend.

Whilst race car drivers were preparing for the Great Race - the Bathurst 1000 - a mere 100km to the north-west, Dave and I decided to check out a one horse town called Rockley, west of Oberon, and possible visit the pub for a meal to break with the usual arrangement of self-catering.

Night one involved a change of plan and we wound up staying the night at Burraga Dam, quite the scenic spot and only two other groups of campers in a reasonably large ground. I assume there are times when one cannot swing a cat in this place, but on the weekend in question, it was quite peaceful. I arrived at about 20:00hrs and Dave was already set up and was using his new folding fire pit for the first time on a joint camp and it performed fairly well. The days for this camp were mild but the nights still had a nip in the air.

The next morning, brekky was made and eaten before a break of camp and travel to Rockley to check out the one thing that keeps this town afloat - the pub. Brekky for me consisted of cereal and chocolate milk, orange juice and a serve of peaches and that got me through to morning tea. We arrived in Rockley at about 13:00 and hit the pub for a drink before walking the main street to see some of the ancient artifacts and buildings. Everything from abandoned shops, old trucks and firetube boilers were on offer, highlighting a once industrious town where copper and gold were once mined.



Along the way, a flat tyre held up progress for about 40 minutes. It is hard to believe that for a bloke that can change a standard car tyre in around five minutes took far longer with this one but there are some differences with a 4x4 ute. The standard jack is a factory bottle jack and the spare tyre is held in place with a mini chain block under the cargo area. 4x4 wheels are also bloody heavy. It was a learning experience and my new Dewalt rattlegun did help a great deal.



After the brief tour we checked out a sports ground where camping was permitted but the welcoming committee, a cranky magpie, changed those plans and we decided to have a late lunch at the pub before heading to find a camping spot for the second night. By the time we arrived at where we wanted to stay, there were fishermen parked right on the sweet spot by the creek so we headed up the road a bit and stayed on the shore of Native Dog Creek and unknowingly camped just across the road from a few other people who seemed to be in the area just for the evening.





For tea on Saturday night, I went back to basics - canned spaghetti on toast - a quick and easy one followed by a peppermint Bulla ice cream for dessert. A peaceful night's sleep preceded the same offering for brekky on Sunday morning. After packing up a few things and waiting for the morning sun to dry the frost off the tent, that was put away and we headed off for the return trip to Sydney.



One thing that I did try out on this camp, with some success, was my new lighting system, consisting of three weatherproof bulkhead light fittings, two of which have both manual and automatic control. It all worked a treat, especially when I got up in the middle of both nights for a midnight piss. The automation does two things - it lets me get out of the tent to go about my business without faffing about looking for a torch or fumbling for the light switch and it will also make intruders to our camp site think twice before doing anything stupid. This gear also saves me the effort of needing to bring lights and leads, a feature of most of my camps for the best part of the last 20 years.

Lunch on the way home was fish and chips from the takeaway in Blackheath. Then it was back down the mountains to the concrete jungle.

Written at 20:14 on 20 October 2025 by Brad.
Posted in the Camps section. Comments: 0 ·

Hill End - just a quick getaway to test a few things

Early on Saturday, 17th May, I set out for a night at Hill End so I could test out my new plumbing system in the back of the ute. A 60 litre water tank connected via 12mm John Guest pipe and fittings to an automatic water pump, then again in 12mm JG pipe to domestic copper pipe and brass fittings, including a stop cock and a folding laundry tap completed the job. All I had to do was pour in some fresh water and see how she goes.

Saturday afternoon came and I drove into camp after stopping off at Green Valley to cut and bag some firewood. This made me a bit tired so I headed into the rooftop tent for a lie down. I ended up regretting that because whilst the day was sunny and warm, the night was not and my lie down went for a bit longer than planned.

Hill End can turn on some pretty cold weather so when I woke up I was freezing to the point where I could barely stop shivering. I got down, emptied the firewood onto the ground and got the fire lit with the help of the usual dose of kerosene and then proceeded to put on some warm clothes before preparing a snack and settling down by the fire for the next few hours. Just before sitting down, I turned on my electric blanket - a handy accessory during the colder weather.

Snack and drink prepared, I sat by the now quite hot fire and relaxed, knowing that the fire would keep me warm until bed time. By this stage however, it was too late to be bothered testing anything and I just relaxed by the fire, watching some old school wrestling until it was time to turn in.

Bed time came around and at about 22:30 I hit the hay, which by that stage was nice and warm and I slept well all night with the blanket switched to medium - just right for a night down to 4 degrees. Whilst some may think that camping is a time to prove how tough and resilient one is, that is best done when one is young and generally does have things to prove. At my age, I just don't see the point and would rather be comfortable all night. So there.

The following morning, I did sleep in a bit, which is unusual for me, as I do normally like to rise early and get brekky out of the road. When I got up I decided to postpone brekky and break camp - a big black storm cloud was looming and I wanted to pack up a dry camp. And, so it was - I got packed and I was in the truck ready to go as the first drops fell.

I decided that it was time to head home via the Bridle Track and heading down there I discovered that the Hawkins Hill stretch has been graded and smoothed out, which helped my old kidneys out a bit. When I reached Black Gate campground, I stopped at a picnic table and rolled brekky out. Fruit muffins and orange juice did the trick.



After a stop lasting about half an hour it was time to get going again and I headed straight home from there. The next camp will hopefully be a bit longer and if I do happen to have another lie down, I'll be a bit more prepared for the change in temperature.

Oh, and yes, that is a new snorkel on the truck. It will get used very soon.

Written at 19:14 on 25 May 2025 by Brad.
Posted in the Camps section. Comments: 0 ·

Lake Wallace, Hill 981 and Marrangaroo

This was a three-nighter to remember and I'll explain what the heck Hill 981 means shortly.

The camp began slowly on Friday, 11th April, after work, I headed through the mighty WestConnex road network from Nth Sydney to the M4 Western Motorway and almost made it from one end to the other in record time (for a Friday arvo) and wound up getting stopped for an hour due to a tip truck catching fire. There were two vehicle fires in Sydney that afternoon, with the other in the Lane Cove Tunnel, though that one didn't affect me.

The truck was destroyed and the firies had traffic moving again as quickly as they could. The run through the Blue Mountains was uneventful and I met up with Dave from Shintara at the Blackheath takeaway, where we both ordered up big.

From there, I grabbed some firewood for the first night, staying at Lake Wallace, which was a lot more peaceful than last time, when a rowdy bunch decided to get into a brawl in the wee hours. Lake Wallace was a stepping stone for the next part of the camp and we stayed the night on top of an un-named mountain with a clearing on it. It was pretty bare-bones but there were plenty of stumps from trees around.

Given that this peak is 981 metres above sea level, my guess is that over time, all these trees has been struck by lightning and destroyed. As the peak appears to not have a name, I am just going to call it Hill 981 for the purpose of this article. You can see it for yourself here and it wound up being a decent camping spot. For the benefit of those thinking of staying there, there's a few things to mention:-

1. It appears to be crown land, but there's no signage either allowing or disallowing camping or having a fire.
2. There is no water or power.
3. There are no ablutions.
4. If there is inclement weather, don't expect to see it out. This area is well exposed to the wind and in a storm it will get rough.
5. A lot of sight seers drive through, so don't expect quiet before dark. One group of tourists saw around 20 four wheel drive vehicles of all brands and colours, shapes and sizes stop in.

As the weather was fine, we decided to stay the night. Tea was a quick affair - I just had soup and toast - and it was then time to sit under the full moon by the fire and sip a few ports.











On Sunday, we had brekky and then packed before continuing our way along the Pinnacle Fire Track. We had plans on staying at a small camping area right down on where Dark Corner Creek and Daylight Creek meet up, again in an un-named area but due north west of Portland. As there were too many gum trees there with "widowmaker" branches over most of the camping area, we decided to move on to Marrangaroo, which has been on the list for some time but ended up being a good place to stop, despite the fact that the previous campers were simply a bunch of pigs. Wet ones, paper towels and even half a packet of fags were left on the ground and all had to be kicked aside. They also left their campfire burning, which is simply not acceptable.

Camp was made and then the fire left for us was stocked up with wood and relit. It wasn't long before the correct atmosphere had been created. Tents were set up and then it was time to think about food. Dave settled for bangers, bacon and eggs whilst I cooked what I normally eat at home on a Sunday night - rissoles with mash and peas - all cooked up on the new Jetboil stove I recently purchased. This model doesn't seem to be available in Australia because the gas outlet on it isn't approved by our local 'experts'. Yet, as there have been no reported issues with this in the US and Britain, where it is sold, I can't see why it won't work here. I have also purchased the Luna burner, which plugs into the Jetboil, meaning that I have three burners, to allow a full meal to be cooked up without having to cook things one after the other.



After tea came ice cream, then the rest of the night was by the fire discussing the five hours of hard driving, including up and down steep rocky grades of up to 40 degrees. It is at times like this that we are grateful for low range gearing and the abiility to let air out of the tyres - making things a lot easier on ageing kidneys.

Then it was bed time and the night was quiet. I ended up having three good sleeps, two uninterrupted by the need to visit the tree in the middle of the night and when a good night's sleep is obtained, the days go a lot better.





After brekky on Monday morning, we broke camp and headed to the pie shop in Wallerawang for a late morning tea, then it was off to the Shell in Lithgow to use their car wash to hose away all the grime from the trip away. Two utes that were absolutely filthy now look like they've just come from the showroom.



Camp #5 is done for the year. Where to next is still in planning.

Written at 20:29 on 14 April 2025 by Brad.
Posted in the Camps section. Comments: 0 ·

Back again, to the Snowy Mountains

It all started out fine, but was to get wet and quite inconvenient before things got better. I headed back to the Snowy Mountains for five days of rest, recreation and was hoping for recuperation at the same time. All Dave and I got in our travels was a lot of aggravation at the hands of the useless and over-rated NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. More on that later in the article.

The five dayer started out as event-free as possible. I left work early so I could avoid the traffic snarls at the start of the Hume Motorway, where the M5 and M7 Motorways merge. Drive South was the order of the day. I'm no mathematician but how the road people expect a two-lane road and a three-lane road to merge into a four-lane road and not expect a log-jam is something I can't work out. To make matters worse, the M7 is being widened to three lanes and this will just make matters worse in the long run, as there doesn't seem to be a plan to make the four-lane Hume any wider to cope. I guess leaving work at 11:00 instead of 13:00 to get out of Sydney may one day become a thing.

Anyway, south I did head and I arrived at Yass for the first night. A stop was made at Goulburn on the way down, for a late lunch and I was quite hungry by the time I got there. Sometimes we stop at Trappers Bakery but this time I was left a bit disappointed in the pie, which was overstocked with grissle. The sausage roll and apple turnover were good though.



Camp was made at Joe O'Connor's Park, where there is a free campground. I set up and then went to the hamburger shop just outside the gate to grab some tea and then went back to wait for Dave to arrive. The first night was peaceful enough and a light breakfast was followed by the drive to where we were supposed to spend the second night - McIntyres Campground in the Brindabella National Park.

However, we would not arrive at our destination, due to the NPWS making an unscheduled (and unannounced) decision to carry out some roadwork, which the road had to be closed down for. Now, whilst it is not unreasonable to expect the Government to maintain roads and we certainly have no issue with it, even if it means changing our plans, in this day and age it is not reasonable to go ahead with it and not tell everyone. There is the Internet, there is the World Wide Web, once known as the Information Superhighway - and on the NPWS website there is an "alerts" section, where things like road closures, floods, fires and vermin culls get announced. Not a word was said, and we wound up doing something like an 80-90km round trip for no good reason. Ever since the change of government two years ago, things have been getting a bit ridiculous with these sudden moves, and also other matters like track closures without a reason and removal of services from campgrounds, such as rubbish removal and I even remember a time when the NPWS provided firewood at many spots, to discourage people from collecting their own and risking fines. I mean, why would a debt-ridden government assist people from coughing up their hard earned and lining a government's pockets...? It just won't happen in this day and age.

We ended up staying at one of the grounds we were thinking of heading to later in the week - Fleas Creek. I am not sure why it is called that name but rest assured, there are no fleas! It is quite the picturesque area. The ground isn't that large and there's lots of trees, and of course the creek, providing some white noise to fall asleep to. We cooked tea and sat by the fire with a few drinks.



Later in the night, the thunder and lightning came. It felt like we were going to cop a serious storm so we battened down the hatches and headed for higher ground - the rooftop tents. When the lightning was at its peak intensity I came back down and sat in the ute for about an hour. Even though the frames of these tents make a good Faraday cage, I wasn't prepared to test out how good or not-so-good it may have been. After the storm had passed, I returned to the first floor for the rest of the night. Quite a lot of rain fell but the tents held up.





The next morning we had a light breakfast before packing and heading to the next spot - Rock Flat. Along the way we'd happen by our next issue with the roads. As we drove toward another spot we ended up not being able to access we found the road getting too narrow for the paint jobs on our trucks to resist and we turned back only to find ourselves (almost) bogged in a patch of red dirt which we came in through with no problems. One at a time, and with several attempts each, we got out of the mire and back on to hard ground, but the rain wasn't done yet. During a dry spell we did stop for lunch next to a written-off Jeep.



Someone did a good job on it too and it looked like it had been rolled. An hour or so later, we were at Rock Flat, and setting up for another wet night. The rain held off until the middle of the night and we were thus able to have tea and sit by the fire until our usual turn-in time of 22:00 to 22:30. We woke the next morning to a big pool of water in the campground and the need to towel down our tents and awnings. That said, at least the thunder and lightning had given us a miss this time and a good sleep was had.



The next morning we headed for Tumut to have brekky, refuel and grab a few things from Woolies, before heading to where we believed there'd be good weather for the rest of the trip - Behrs Flat on the Geehi River.



We have stayed at Behrs Flat before and despite the massive size of this ground, found it fairly peaceful. We opened up our rooftop tents and awnings and let them dry out in the sun. There is nothing like packing up a dry camp I have to say. So, whilst we weren't certain that the good weather would last, we made sure things were as dry as possible.



The final two nights were spent at Behrs Flat and it was fairly relaxing. Someone camped about 100m away did decide it was a good time to start up his generator though it wasn't close enough to be unbearable. It is amazing that people continue to use these things on camps - they are so 2001. With the advent of lithium-iron batteries, DC-DC converters and good wattage solar cells, why would anyone want to bring a generator and have the stench of petrol in the boot of their car, not to mention the fact that they do disturb other campers? It just doesn't make any sense. I own two generators and the larger one has never been on a camp since I have owned it. The smaller one, just 1kVA, has been on a few camps in the dim, dark past but it was only ever used when my group was the only one in camp.

My current electrical setup includes two 200Ah batteries, a Redarc 50A DC-DC converter, and a 350W solar panel. All that together has meant I have never once run out of power and the silence is golden. Since shifting from a station wagon to a ute, I haven't had a chance to shift the solar panel over but I still haven't run out of power, despite putting my 80 litre Waeco fridge into service for this camp. And she uses lots of power. So there you have it - generators are yesterday's news.

The other annoying thing that seems to affect a lot of campgrounds without fire rings these days is the number of people who seem to deliberately set their camps up without first giving thought to where their fire will be. The plot we chose had something like six places where fires had been lit at various times in the past. Seriously, why isn't one enough? We chose an existing one and then built the camp to suit - the way it should be done.





The one downside to Behrs Flat was that there was a lot of horse flies around. These bitches of things just bite, bite and bite again. Fortunately, only the females find this necessary, like mosquitoes, they need blood to feed their eggs. I had three huge bites on one of my feet for more than a week and they itched like hell. In a part of Australia that is home to the second and fourth deadliest snakes in the world, I was more worried about horse flies!



The weather remained warm and sunny for the two nights at Behrs and on the last day we broke camp and headed for Jindabyne for fuel and food. We stopped at the pie shop for a late brekky and then Dave and I parted ways. I had to head back to Sydney to unpack and get ready for work the following week and Dave wanted to spend a night at Thredbo Diggings, which he did.

Will there be a return to the Snowy to sort out unfinished business? The short answer is yes. But who knows when. It could be in a couple of months or towards the end of the year.

Written at 20:33 on 8 April 2025 by Brad.
Posted in the Camps section. Comments: 0 ·