Winter Madness - Part 1

The title of this post reflects the opinions of most of my friends on my camping trip being taken in June.  This is, of course, close to midwinter here in Australia and can get quite cold.  The Australian Camper Trailer Club's South East Queensland's group had organised  a camping weekend from Friday June 5 until Monday June 8 at a place called Atkinson's Dam about 230Km from Tewantin.

Coincidentally the Sunshine Coast Bicycle Touring Club had organised a camping weekend from Friday June 12 until Sunday June 14 at a place called Kenilworth about 50Km from Tewantin.  I thought that it would be a good idea to combine both weekends with a bit of solo camping in between.  I checked with my house/dog sitter, Jenny, if she was available over this period and she was so I signed up for both weekends.

I had made some improvements to the battery monitoring system in my camper trailer as Atkinson's dam would not have any power or water at the campsites and I would be relying on the battery for lighting and keeping my fridge going.  I do have a solar panel to top up the battery during the day but was worried that I would run out of power.

On Friday morning I fed Louis and set off for Atkinson's Dam.  This an Australian Scout's Association Camping ground on the southern side of the lake caused by the dam.  It is about 12Km from the nearest village and about 2Km from the nearest road. 

My route to Atkinson's Dam

As you can see the dam is inland from Brisbane and on the way to Toowoomba a notoriously cold place about 200m above seal level.

I arrived just after lunch and drove to the lake's edge and setup my CT to the right hand side of some early arrivals. Lindsay, one of the camp organisers came to great me and said that I had picked a noisy spot next to the family campers with young children.  I said that I would just take out my hearing aids.

My campsite

Set up - solar panel at work

 After setting up I joined the other campers around the camp fire.  I had brought 40Kg of wood in Noosa to help keep it alight.  We sat thought the afternoon getting to know each other - rather the others getting to know me as the new boy in the group.

I sat too long without a top coat and got very cold so retired early to my CT for a bowl of soup and a hot drink cooked on my little stoves. I clambered into my track suit and got into my sleeping bag and soon got warm.  I had good night's sleep.

Next morning I was up at dawn (just after 6.00am) and rode my bike to the primitive facilities. There was a concrete block building with an iron roof divided into to areas for male and females.  The toilets were actually dark grey but were clean and had seats and doors which shut.  The showers had side partitions and tatty shower curtains so one had to forget modesty as the only place to change was in the open area.  The good thing was that the showers were hot!

I prepared my breakfast and went for a walk around the lake.  We were camped on the shallow side of the lake with the dam wall on the other side.  The lake was very low and where we camped was under water the last time the camped here.  One of the campers, Rick, was out in his kayak fishing.  The family camped next to me was riding bicycles with mum, dad and the four girls from about six to fourteen years old joining in.  Later the girls were sent to gather kindling for their bonfire.

At about 11.00am the older campers gathered for morning tea/coffee aroung the campfire.  Most had prepared snacks.  About 1.00pm I drove into Lowood to get some supplies and got completely lost.  My 24Km round trip was extended to 50Km but I saw a lot of the country.

The camp fire

The other campers to the left

I am on the far right

 We gathered fora drink and chat before dinner.  I was asked what I as having and I said I was cooking Scotch Fillet steak and onions accompanied by coleslaw and potato salad was down by a good red.  There was some skepticism about my ability to cook steak on a small butane stove as they hadn't seek the grill plate I had before.  I took some photos to show them.

Cooking dinner on the second night

Dinner is served

After dinner we sat around the fire chatting.  Several people had their dogs with them including one couple with three German Shepherds who were beautifully behaved.  It is a pity that I could take Louis but you can not leave a dog on his own.

Sunday followed much the same and some campers packed up and left in the afternoon.  There was a smaller group around the fire that night.

On Monday it was time for me to pack up, thank  Lindsay and Robyn our hosts and say farewell to the other campers.  I especially said farewell to the families camped next to me which had grown to about nine kids plus parents.  They were a lovely group.  There was no TV or computers just cycling, kite flying, kayaking and even card playing.  It was a pleasure to camp next to them.

My battery held out and I had had a great time.