It's 2024 and time to camp again!

The first camp of 2024 saw me heading back to Hill End for a night. This time I broke with tradition and headed for the seldom used Glendora campground, which I last used something like 15 years ago.

The main problem with this ground is that most of the unpowered sites lie under huge gum trees and it needs to be remembered that in hot, dry weather, gum trees have a habit of dropping branches. These become known as widowmakers, for obvious reasons. The timber from Australian eucalyptus trees is amongst the hardest there is and if a branch falls on someone, it's gunna hurt!

I decided to hang the expense and book a powered site. Guaranteed level ground and no limbs from trees likely to fall on me. There were far fewer ants too. I am not sure of the breed but they look like efficient attackers so I let them be.

I set up a quick camp for one night after calling in at Mudgee for breakfast - it was the usual fare.

Once in camp, up went a 3.6 x 3.6m gazebo and my swag, plus a few tables to help with kitchen duties. Then I grabbed a drink and sat down to ponder on the firewood situation.

I am one of those campers who simply cannot camp without a fire. There has to be one. In summer, they keep the flies and mozzies away. In winter, they provide warmth. So unless there is a fire ban in force (in which case I try to avoid camping) I always light a fire before dark.

Dark came by at around 20:30. About an hour prior to that I cooked tea and did the washing up. The cooking was done on a new single-burner stove called the Spider. It folds away into quite a small package and is perfect for quick camps. I cooked spagetti with bacon and onions on toast and had that down me pretty quick.

After washing up, I settled down to a few episodes of the wrestling by the fire for the rest of the night. I am a fan of the old school wrestling from the mid-1980s. Great wrestling from the era before the egomaniacs took over.

At about 23:00 it was time for bed. To be honest I didn't sleep that well. I am not sure why, as I was tired enough to just sleep all night. I generally don't like sleeping in swags because I find them claustrophobic. Mine is a big double job and it is pretty much the bare minimum of what I will tolerate. I never use one in winter because once all the bedding is added, there's little room for me and I like to be able to move without touching anything and having a panic attack.

Morning broke and up I got so brekky could be cooked. Two bacon and egg sandwiches had me fuelled up for the break of camp. Then it was time to pack. Everything was in the back of the car in about 40 minutes which is pretty quick for a bloke who does like to bring some luxuries along.

I will try and make the next camp at Coorongooba, which is near Glen Davis. It'll be a two-nighter. If I don't end up doing that there will be a three-nighter coming up down in the Snowy Mountains in the third week of March.

Written at 21:04 on 3 March 2024 by Brad.