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.

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