Jan 19

Shallow inlet

Our direction is the ocean and having escaped any further branches dropping on the bus or us, we pack up and drive towards the east.

With the heat it would be nice to see the ocean, so we head that way. Ideally we would go to Wilson Promontory but as some genius declared that National Park, the dogs don’t agree. Luckily someone else decided to make a camping just on the edge of the National Park and hey, there’s even a bush part to it. To clarify myself, what I mean by bush parts is the following. Most official campings have a nice piece of flat land, they make trenches for fresh water pipes, electricity pipes and grey water drain pipes. Then they put turf (grass) over it, make neat fences, put up lights, a nice amenity block and sometimes even a store for some urgent supplies. People camp there joyfully, nicely in neat rows, parked back to front and gather for morning tea, talk about the weather, go fishing and at around 4 pm it’s time for drinks. They have the benefits of plentiful power, water and clean toilets and shower every day. Most have the washing out, some even put out pot plants and stick up the arial for the television.
Then there’s us…….we like to not do any of that. Of course, sometimes it’s nice to have a real shower and wash our clothes after a week of bush bashing. But most of the time we enjoy those campings where we can find our own spot, have shade, rely on our own power (solar), most times our own 100 liters of water and our toilet in the van (to complete the visual in your mind, don’t worry, the loo is in an enclosed cabin inside the van with a fold up door). Ideally there’s some form of toilet on the campground for the more serious business and to empty our toilet cassette every couple of days. These campgrounds are usually provided by councils; some are free, others charge a fee of around $7 pppn. In most instances they have a dirt road as means of access and, although not dirty, they are generally less well maintained; very rarely grass and not every camper cleans up behind themselves.
Some campings have smartly anticipated these two kinds of campers and have a full fee paying camping and at a short distance a reduced fee bush camping. Also at Shallow Inlet. They have fresh water taps (not at the site but at locations spread around the campground) and drop toilets. So a perfect choice for us.

The name of the campground has a reason and when we arrive it becomes clear why this is not a great kiting spot. Not only there’s not much of water apart from at high tide (which here and now is at 7 am and 7 pm), also in the deeper part every man and his dog has parked a little boat. I’m not a total beginner but kiting a narrow inlet and playing slalom around buoys and boats is asked a little too much.

Lucky for us there are enough things to do around the camp site and we don’t have to get bored. Funny that, we have not much to do apart from travel around Australia and we are never bored. When there’s no time pressures you can fiddle for hours with little things, read a book, play guitar, play with the dogs, have time to talk, practice art or play the Very Bad Game we got from Niki and Nic for Christmas.

It’s a fun game, but then I’m an easy judge; I love any game I can win. Ok, I’m a sore loser but enough about me.