Amamoor Camping Ground was a winner, a large site with grass, trees, bush and a creek.
It was a bit strange though; on entry we saw many dilapidated buildings (I always wanted to use that word, you could of course also say buildings in disrepair or ruins in wording) and also the many tents but hardly any people. On further inspection we discovered that this was not a ghost camping – would that have been a story – but the preparations and stalled facilities for the annual Gympie Muster festival. For amateurs, like me the Gympie Muster festival is:
Amamoor Creek Sate Forest Park, located just outside of Historical Gympie, creates a picturesque home site for one of Australia’s largest outdoor Music Festival, entrenched in community spirit far removed from ties, clocks, suits and schedules. Thousands of festival goers are attracted every year by the smorgasbord of diverse programs rich with our country’s finest musicians, the bush land setting laced with inviting whiffs of campfire cooking and fresh bush eucalypt, the easy camaraderie created by companionable patrons all set to simply enjoy themselves, “there are no strangers at the Muster, only friends you haven’t met yet”
Apparently it is very popular with 70,000 tickets over the four days and already late June the main camping site was booked and marked by roped off areas with empty tents on it. Crazy.
We had a good time there, the dogs roamed free and Nossi found a friend Rosa, a 2 year old poodle with whom he made crazy loops around the camping. Marjo found another opportunity to put the boat to water and had to paddle fast to outrun the stream. Five minutes later she found another obstacle upstream so although it was fun, there wasn’t too much to explore. The river seems to be littered with crossings, fallen trees and the like.
I spent some time totally redesigning my mirror setup. With parts bought in Canungra and use of most the tools I brought we now have a solid passenger mirror. It will never earn any prices of industrial design or make it onto mean stream cars I guess, but it seems to do the job.
Also I puzzled with the drawers inside the bus that are kept drive safe with a piece of timber. Every corner Dotti looks weary up as she realizes that when these pieces of timber fail, she fears she will be the recipient of drawers plus contents. Not that this can happen, but nevertheless I’ve now made an extra lock/stop.
In addition to being the stage for Marjo’s exercise and kayak adventure, the stream also provides an excellent base for fossicking. This time no gold or gemstones but just pretty rocks. And there were plenty. I have learned that in admiring Marjo’s finds, I sometimes need to be more critical. Certainly with more than 11 months to go, one needs to be very critical about the number of rocks we can carry. So although all the found treasures have all unique characteristics and are pretty, we can only take a few. I must say that she is getting smarter about hiding places in the bus and trailer and there are plenty. Just need to be careful when eating things like nuts I guess.
With more time we had fun playing a game of Kubb, a simple but fun game from Scandinavia involving a King, his Kubbs and Batons that my mum introduced us to and I made with my brother when he visited for my 50th. The good part is that you can play it almost everywhere with 2 to 12 people, it is easy to learn and you can play it with a beer in one hand and a baton in the other.
After three days a shower moves from ranked a luxury to something that is front of mind. With nightly temperatures between zero and four degrees a cold shower becomes a very refreshing exercise. I think next time I will repeat my backflip into the stream as in Uralla.
During one of our coffee/tea/booze breaks Nossi ran away madly barking. Then we saw a beautiful Guana walk up the tree. It didn’t mind us taking pictures until I came too close and she climbed higher and behind the tree.
While I was busy with extended renovations Marjo made some interesting bush walks with Dotti and Nossi and collected no firewood (it is not allowed to collect any firewood at Amamoor), and we had a nice fire every evening. Close to 9 pm it got so damp (dew) and cold that it was hard to pick up the not collected pieces of wood. Then we layer up and crawl under our doona’s with added comforter for an undisturbed night of sleep.
Now Dotti is fully normal again with a full night of sleep (the only remnants of her out of sickness is an octave higher bark) Nossi has decided that things get too cold at night and at around 5 am he sneaks in our bed and warms up our feet. He is smart enough to warm himself between the Donna and the comforter so as to be warm and not wake us. We don’t mind the extra warmth for now.
Posted from Tuan Forest, Queensland, Australia.
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