Camper Trailer Diaries

Wombeyan Caves and Coolendel

Saturday 10^th of April 2010,

Two weeks into a new roster system saw us staring at 10 days off for Neil in the Easter school Holidays. After other new acquisitions such as a new Pajero and a 12v fridge, we had no choice but to go adventuring. As we now had the means, we could go further a field in rougher conditions. We set our destination as Wombeyan Caves. The pack began with earnest. Fridge fully loaded and in the car left more room for firewood in the trailer. A new bike rack saw all the bikes on the back of the trailer. Not much at all on the top. We hooked up the car and finally a car that does not look like its ready for lift-off. Another first was that the roof of the car was higher than the trailer.

Armed with directions from whereis.com, off we set. She climbed Macquarie Pass with relative ease and we stopped for a pie or two at Robertson, where a passing truck blew a tyre and we all skipped a heartbeat. Back on the road, only one stop to ask for directions (other than refusing to pay $46 for a gas fill at a servo). We hit the dirt, long and windy. Along the way we stopped at a lookout over the Nattai N.P. Great views of the range. We also found out that the annoying cap for the water tank had fallen off. Well I always had trouble with it any way. Obviously, why it fall off. We then turned around to see Ben in the middle of the car park, pants around his ankles relieving himself. Nice modesty Son. More very windy and narrow, but beautiful road as we past Wollondilly River station where many were camped. The road got even narrower. But eventually we made it. It was fairly busy and we found a nice spot and got setting up. We seem to be getting better at it and we were fully set up in under 2 hours as the boys had a good game of soccer. Now to the fridge for a nice cold beer. Ahhhhh, all worth it. A quick feed of pasta and sauce as night had fallen followed by not much more than stargazing with amazement before an early night.

Sunday 11^th of April 2010,

A nice morning after a little rain during the night sent plenty of other campers on a mission to get out of bed to ensure everything was rain safe. It was nice being able to lay there knowing we had no such issues, listening to the rain. By the morning Ryan ended up in our bed and Zuz finished up in Ryan’s. Zuz and Ben went for an early morning walk up the dry creek bed and Ryan and I rose a little later. I was outvoted on breakfast. Normal pancakes, but still yummy. We tried to get Ben onto his bike minus the training wheels. That is going to be some work. Dot call him Mr Stubborn for nothing.

We then went to the visitors centre and bought a family pass for 3 caves for $75. Pretty good value for caves I reckon. Today we tried the self guided cave. Figtree Cave. Up and over a nice hill and then into the cave to come back through the hill. A very nice cave for a self guided one. It had all new stainless handrails. Ryan was a little scared at first after being so keen to see a cave. By the time we came out at the Beautiful Victoria Arch, he had enjoyed the experience and wanted more. So much that we bought some plastic toys bats for the both at the Visitors centre before heading back for lunch.

It was now time to prepare for dinner, well the fire to be used to cook dinner anyway. Out came the axe and a pre-purchased (last year, so should be very dry) bag of wood. It took a while, but we ended up with a nice big pile of chopped wood. We also spent some time hunting around for some smaller natural stuff for kindling and fire sustenance. A bit more soccer and taking car of the manual tracking solar panel saw us whittle away the arvo. Now it was fire time. Built it up and cheated with a touch of metho. Whoosh and away we went. Too easy. Foiled some spuds and threw them in and took our merry time watching the spuds cook as we also slowly cooked our Kransky’s over the fire. There was a bottle of wine in there too somewhere. Nice and cold wine, loving that fridge already :- ). The fire kept up warm on the outside as we also managed to toast some marshmallows.

Monday 12^th April 2010,

Got up to a glorious day. It was chilly, but beautifully clear. Autumn at it’s best. This being a beautiful part of the world helps too. Cranked up the kettle for a sweet cup of coffee watching the boys play tag to warm up a little. Choccy pancakes today won the day and I proceeded to make a very running mix. Ben rather had his 3 Weet-Bix. Fine, more pancakes for me. Some more soccer and the Frisbees made an appearance. Seemed to be a lot of running and chasing Frisbees for me. After a bit of a clean up we took off for our cave tour of the Wollondilly Cave. Drove down to the visitors centre, where we were early so sat and watched Mr and Mrs Gang Gang Cockatoo in the trees for a bit. It was a slow walk up the hill to the meeting point where it was pretty windy, chilly, but provided a lovely view.

The 10:30 tour with Johny Mango as out guide. Very enthusiastic at his job, but this would be easy to do. We descended into the cave down the ‘practice’ ladders, a good 5m high each after being told the ladders in the cave were a max of 2m or so. Then as we were in the first chamber after 2 ladders, Ryan says “I need to do a wee”. Not what you want to hear at the beginning of a 90 minute cave tour. So Zuzi took Ryan back up the ladders out for a pit stop outside the front door. They managed to make it back for the rest of the trip. Even though the guide was very knowledgeable, this cave did a lot of the selling itself. A lot of the usual cave features. Lots of ladders and Ryan was doing a great job of them. It was not very active due to the little rainfall lately, but there were some pretty tight squeezes that add the experience of being in a cave, not just a big chamber underground. The highlight was going through a trench section with lots of little benches at waist height full of little mites and tights. If this was full of water it would have been unbelievable beautiful. It went for some distance too and was amazing as it was. The photos wont come close on this section. The lowlight was when going through this tight, enclosed space following Benjamin. He let one of his finest rip. Nowhere to hide, every one behind him coped it. Onya Son! The Wollondilly Cathedral was pretty impressive too. The cave was 800m long and showed a good variety of cave types with lots of ups and downs and plenty of ladders, some fairly long, 10m+ and it was a fair exercise for me by the end. How Ryan managed to get trough beats me. Once we were out, he basically placed himself on the ground and looked totally exhausted. But he gave us the thumbs up so we knew all was well. But what an effort from him, champion stuff dude! We let him recover for a while before heading back down. Snakes and corn chips for lunch and then decided to by the boys an ice-cream in Taralga some 30k’s away as a reward for their efforts.

A very small old colonial type town with 2 pubs and a general store. Got our ice creams, eggs and milk (after we managed to pierce a hole in the milk bottle on a beer bottle top when pulling out of the fridge this morning. Never seen that happen before.) and headed back to camp. We stopped along the way to fill the Pajero’s picnic rug lined boot full of firewood from the bush. It was easy to find due to the large piles near a cleared power line track. The arvo was spent building up the fire, writing diary and Zuzi was busy studying Chemistry with Balloons? As the sun went behind the ridge, the battery was still showing 12.6v after 2 days. I was very happy with that. The fire was lit with one match, no cheating. The native wood kept it going nice and hot, until it ran out. So showers were taken and the boys flaked into bed. We played scrabble where I won by accidentally cheating. Oops.

Tuesday 13^th April 2010,

Got up to another pearler of a day, all be it very chilly. So much so, we even asked the car for adjudication on the topic. 4o, so I guess we were right to feel it. A cuppa or two and many layers for the boys before we all went for a walk up the creek after breakfast. On returning, Zuzi went back for a longer walk up to the waterfall while I tried to teach the boys the finer skills of the Frisbee. Ben caught it with his eye and his lip but I think is getting there. Then it was time for another wood run. We travelled up the road and took several stops to fill the car with bigger wood for tonight. Everybody had the same idea and some were bringing trailer full loads of wood from their trips. A saw would have been so handy. Might have to add a bush saw to the kit. We unloaded our bootie and chopped up the 6 foot log we managed to squeeze into the car.

Lunch was taken to give us the energy to take on the last of our cave tours. Back up the hill was more enjoyable as the wind had gone. Our guide turned up. Another Johny. Mr Johnny for the kids. A cross between Ernie Dingo and Dr Emmitt Brown. We took the long walk down the other side of the hill to the Junction Cave. Just before we passed the entrance to the Fig Tree cave, Zuzi states “Gee, would have been good to keep the token and take the short cut back through the Fig Tree cave” to save us going back up the hill. No more than 30 seconds later, Johnny says don’t tell anyone but we will come back through the Fig tree cave. A typical Zuz moment. So into the cave for a bit of talking and story telling (50% kids on this tour) of the Aboriginal tales. More ladders, but not as big as the other cave. Another great cave. No cave is the same as another. Brilliant tunnels and vast open caverns. A column that had a circumference of 32m and more amazing structures. A very colourful cave as well. One of those caves that you could imagine exploring, I guess. Johnny was great with the kids and made it a real experience for them. They enjoyed it heaps. A few more steps, ladders and caverns and we were back at the entrance. Fryze was once again a stand out with his effort. He must have been totally spent by the time we made it through the fig Tree cave. Wanted to get him an ice cream, but the kiosk was closed by the time we got back. Then back to camp and lit the pre made fire. Preparation is the key for a good boys scout. Foiled some spuds and watched them cook as I wrote and the boys played soccer. It was an awesome fire, big logs and very, very warm on a chilly night. Somehow 2 bottles of wine evaporated tonight?

P.S. My said walk – 4km long “waterfall track” past an abandoned marble quarry, was very nice. Started as an old bush vehicle track for about a third of the way. Just past the quarry and just as I was thinking “this is even fit for a wheelchair” it turned into a goat track. Winding down a steep hill, I was hoping I was on the right track. Came to the waterfalls – if there was water it would have been spectacular. Big boulders about 30m high with a bit of a trickle. Still very, very pretty. As Neil said it was a perfect morning, sunny and chilly at the same time, in the middle of the silent bush. In that setting a hopping kangaroo sounded like a woodchopper. From the waterfall the trail was even narrower so I doubted my sense of direction, but the fact that the dry creek bed was heading pretty much the same direction as me reassured me that I was on the right track. Sure enough, 10 minutes more saw me at the wide track heading for the campground, which I gladly took and which took me back to me 3 boys playing Frisbee. When Ben saw me he threw the Frisbee down on the ground yelling mummy and running for a cuddle. That was nice :-))

Wednesday 14^th of April 2010,

We were hoping for a 10:00 departure, and getting up at 8:00 made this a pretty tight ask. We tried to relight the fire on a chilly morning (7 shortly after the sun came up). Finally managed to get it going after sustaining a small burn to the hand. We cooked breakfast, washed up and started to pack. Again, we seem to be getting better at this. No arguments not even a raised word. We both know what needs to be done and get to doing it. In the end we were packed and were ready to go at about 10:30. Pretty speedy when considering. But a stop to get a promised ice cream for the boys at the visitors centre ensured we pulled out of Wombeyan caves an hour later than planned. We decided to go via Goulburn for easier roads on the driver, even though it was a little longer. We even saw some emus along the way. Stopping a Maccas in Goulburn for a bite and a loo stop, Ryan acquiring his loved night fury happy meal toy. Parked in a bus spot and Zuzi estimated we were near 10m long all up. Back on the road, past Fitzroy Falls and the car was going great. Tows up and down the hills with ease. Came via a very nice drive through Kangaroo Valley. Even stopped at a campground / van park to check it out. Would be good for a weekend escape as a group for sure. We stopped at Nowra for supplies where I had to tighten the bike rack a touch, which is a bit of a worry. We turned off the highway and headed straight for a big plume of smoke. Luckily it was only a bit of back burning.

On to Coolendel and the car was terrific on the road in. Too easy. Paid our ransom (school holidays) and eventually picked our spot after some 15 min of tooing and froing. We got to work for a very quick and tidy set up. In no time we were illuminated and cooking our dinner. Boys were a treat today. No whinging, complaining or getting in the way as we did what we had to do. They just played by themselves when they needed to. After dinner, we sat and did some stargazing. No moon so there was billions of them. Or hundreds and hundreds and hundreds as Benny put it. We saw a few shooting stars. I even saw a big one that had a long tail with it.
Showers for the hard working adults and off the bed. It was great to be back at Coolendel!! 

Thursday 15^th of April 2010,

Today Zuzi had an early start as she had to go to uni all day so up and off by 6:30ish. Then as soon as she left, Ryan said “I need to do a poo, quickly” so panic stations and off to the loo. Somehow managed to get him back to bed for a little more rest after that. When we did get up I was outvoted and had to have normal pancakes. I managed to eat a couple before a fellow All Terrain’er came around and we had a chat, transferred ideas and modifications. 30 minutes later I got back to the pancakes to find an empty plate. Thanks boys. Not long after that, I saw a creature walking across the mat in the kitchen. On closer inspection, It was a SCORPION! Holy Shit! Even if it was only about an inch long. Quick boys, the bug catcher. In my haste the old bug catcher shattered when it hit the deck. None the less, the scorpion was not too vicious and we easily got it onto the base of the bug catcher so I could photograph and then relocate it.

Then I came back and saw the fridge was not working. Oh my. Well after much investigationing and worrying, it turned out that the male pin had come out of the connector. Then in the process of removing the pin from the socket, I managed to short it out. Lucky I am not a surgeon. Finally got the connector back together as it should be and had to use a double adapter to get everything running off the other set of sockets. No spare fuses either. Ahhh. But at least the fridge was back up and running and cooling the beer.

We had some games of soccer and more Frisbee. Ben managed to catch another one with his lip again. Now he seems to run away from the Frisbee when it comes his way. Hmm, wonder why. Before lunch, we also gave Ben some practice on his bike without training wheels until my back could take no more.

We then took a walk up to the office to see if they had any fuses. No luck, but we all had an ice cream so not a total loss. A walk down to the river to see there is a good 12-18 inches more water than last time we were here. As usual, we could not leave before throwing some rocks into the river.

A quick game of Frisbee led to a fatal incident for one of the Frisbees. Our newest one from the Easter show. Practicing my boomerang Frisbee throws, I totally nailed one. It sailed 10m back over my head and smashed into the sink narrowly missing the gas lantern at a great rate of knots. The Frisbee broke and took a chuck out of the sink. Ooops.

That was the sign to cook dinner, toasted Sangers for the boys, and then Zuzi returned. Set up a nice fire as more sandwiches were cooked. Nice and warm compared to Wombeyan Caves and enjoyed the fire just as much. Ryan, so much so he fell asleep sitting on Zuzi. Also had the added entertainment of watching a group erect a Taj Mahal in the dark. A little slow, but a good job in the end.

Friday 16^th of April 2010,

Woke to another fine day. Started with Ben and I heading for a shower. Lucky I did not want to do any singing. I could not have got a noise in anyway. Always a fun experience. Back for chocolate pancakes, oh yeah :-) We reciprocated to visit the other all terrain trailer, to look at some of his mods. Also got a quick camp oven / cob cooking lesson. I liked the LED spots in the storage area. The bike rack on the draw bar is now a must I think. He also had his gas plumbed in directly from the gas bottle through to his stove permanently. But not sure if the water pump is for us??

Came back and relaxed, Zuzi read, boys played a board game and I wrote. Then I tried my hand at aeronautical engineering and designed some paper aeroplanes. Quite a few spears in the beginning, but finally mark 4 and 5 seemed to fly ok and kept the boys occupied for some time. Good call dad. We also tried Ben on his bike again.

For some reason, most people in the burrows seemed to be leaving today (maybe to beat end of school holidays rush) which left a lot of surplus wood at fire places. So we took what we needed, including a warm log from ‘next door’. We got to chopping on the naughty log and ended up with enough wood for our remaining stay.

Then our daily trip to the office for our ice cream fix. Along the way back through the main camping area, 2 more All Terrains, one looked like a brand newy 3 panel jobby. Very nice. Then down to the river which looked a treat in the arvo sunshine. On return from our walk the wind had picked up and our warm log was smoking nicely. Zuzi gave the log a bit of attention and not long after, the fire was going. We kept it going very slowly in preparation for dinner. More relaxing, Frisbee, Soccer, flying supersonic aeroplanes between the drams of getting a plane stuck on the roof, Frisbee in the tree and Ben running away to the toilet, not telling us until it was time to prepare the spuds for the fire and a slow cooking. They were worth the wait when combining with cream cheese. Accompanied with ‘goop in a can’ (stockpots). The sky had really cleared up and once again billions of stars on show. We were all buggered for some reason so a shower and early sleep.

Saturday 17^th April 2010,

Yet another glorious day. Waking to the sounds of birds, nature and children saying can I come up to your bed. Temperatures have been nice so it was shorts straight up. The usual for breakfast – white pancakes. I think that’s the last of them now so chocolate all the way now. We played for a bit, but decided on a day trip to Yalwal that we had thought to be a little too rough for previous cars. So back down the Coolendel road and past Grady’s before the turn off. As we were so close to Nowra we thought we would go and get some maps so we could take the short cut back from Yalwal on the way home. A quick loo stop and hash browns at maccas  before hitting the camping shop. Looking for the right 2 maps, only one of which they had so the we would have to use the force for the last little bit to Coolendel – no bigggie. But being in a camping store, strange things happen. Magically a small camp oven made its way into our hands. We planned to do some damper anyway, but this would make it more authentic. But had no fuses so would have to go the servo for that. Then as I was pulling out of the complex, out of the corner of my eye a “BCF” was spotted and the car was gravitationally pulled that way. Well they did not have the missing map either. But they did have fuses (now i have lots of spares), a foldable shovel and a lid puller. Woohoo, we were set now. Back out into the road with the Pajero really carrying some street cred due to the 20kg layer of dirt on it. This time turning off to Yalwal. Calculations meant 35km from Yalwal back to Coolendel via the main road. On the map it looked 7-8 km on the fire trails. Funnily enough the road to Yalwal was in better nick tan the road to Coolendel.

Down into the valley to a lovely looking picnic area and then up to some open rocky camping areas. We parked the car near the dam and walked around, across the spillway and checked out the dam wall. Pretty impressive to think how they build something so remote. Also helps being a beautiful day. Guessing it would get real hot out here in the middle of summer. Now back in the car, up the hill and for the moment of truth. A left turn onto the Old Burrier Fire Trail. A fair bit rougher at the beginning, but then turned into a smooth 2 tracked undulating road along the plateau. Boys thought this was pretty boring until we reached the hilly section. Now know as bush, bush roller coaster it was a heap of fun for and introduction of 4Wding. Love that car.

Stopped at the office for an ice cream and cheese, crackers and chilli chutney for lunch. Our attention now turned to the fire and the flour in the trailer. Bucket chemistry bread at it best. Now we had the dough. Next we got the fire going for the coals, check. Having no idea how it would turn out, dug a hole, put in some coals, placed the oven on top with our treasure inside and more coals on the top and hope for the best. A hesitant 40 minutes later and it was our moment of truth. Off came the lid the reveal a golden treasure. We arsed it. The best looking damper I have ever cooked. Golden brown with a nice crust. Tasted ok too. A better measured dough would have been sensational. Some more Frisbee and Benjamin hissy fits took us through to dinner. Buoyed by our confidence, w decided to bake the spuds in the camp oven. We ramped up the fire again, dug a bigger hole and threw everything in. some 80 minutes later and now dark we opened it up and walla. Nicely cooked spuds. 2 for 2 now. We ate drank and zuzi read lots of books to the boys by the fire. Zuzi and Ben went for a shower, Ryan and I followed. The boys crashed after such a big day and we enjoyed some more cold wine as we used the rest of the wood. It took me all his time to realise that I would have been at work if I did not take my rosters today.

Sunday 18^th April 2010

Woke up to another spectacular morning. Beautiful clear blue skies and the surrounding hills covered in mist. Today was going home day, so we planned to pack up very slowly. We had our obligatory cuppa’s and chocolate pancakes for breaky. The boys played board games as we cleaned up and sorted out our crap.
Empty the toolbox, then fill it back up again. A trip to wash some dishes for the pack. We would work a little, rest and relax a lot and was a very casual affair. We pulled up the annex and had our lunch. Some more sorting and packing later and we sort off ran out of time. We were going to go swimming. Next time.
Finally everything was where it should be and the car was hooked up. The trip was awesome considering it was the last day of the school holidays. We decided to go straight to the car wash on the way home to de-dirt the car / trailer / bikes.

So that was it. A total success. 8 nights on one tank of water. Ran the fridge at between 2-4 degrees and the battery is sitting at just over 50% on returning home. Great considering both sites were pretty poor solar spots. The car was a dream, more than we expected. Now back to work / school for us all and plan for the next one : ))