Darlington Park - 18th to 20th of July
This trip was to somewhere new with a whole bunch of new friends. Oldmate and Clouty from the Myswag Offroad Camper Trailer forum had organised a SE QLD meet at Darlington Park. I had been meaning to go to one of the Myswag meets for a couple of years now and it was great to finally get to one and meet some great people. I think the final count was 19 or 20 groups so a great turnout for a cold winter weekend.
We took the day off from work and school on Friday and left around 8.30 hoping to miss most of the morning trafiic. We had a slight delay courtesy of a 3 car bingle at the start of the Gateway Motorway, but it cleared fairly quickly and Anna and I were kept amused with the banter on the UHF between the truckies and the tow truck drivers. We arrived at Darlington Park around 11am after paying our fees ($34 for a family of 4 for 2 nights... cheaper than National Parks) we found the Myswag group and tried to set-up. The wind on Friday was horrible with really strong gusts, we really struggled with the awning and only managed to get it up thanks to Toni and Mark (GUEY) who were camped next to us, thank you guys. Unfortunately soon after setting up a very strong gust of wind came through and flattened our awning, we had poles and ropes flying off everywhere and we quickly took it down. The awning stayed off all weekend and when we packed it away we noticed a tear on the front gable where a Velcro loop had been torn off. Hopefully it can be easily fixed in the next week or so. The rest of Friday was spent trying to keep warm and out of the wind, more of the group arrived through out the afternoon. We took the kids for a walk down to the creek and fed the birds up at the caretakers residence which the kids absolutely loved. Just after dark the wind dropped right off and we were able to light a fire and everyone enjoyed getting to know each other around the fire with a few drinks.
We woke to a freezing but clear Saturday morning, Justin (Firefox) mentioned that the weather bureau recorded a low of -2 at 7am.... As the sun got higher more and more of the group emerged from the warmth of their beds, some of the lucky ones had diesel heaters... Most of Saturday was spent sitting around getting to know people, some of the group took a drive up Duck Creek Rd which is a 4wd track up to O'Reilys resort. We stayed behind as we had done this drive a few years back and we needed to take a run into Beaudesert to pick up few things. More people arrived on Saturday arvo and we had a great time sharing tall tales and a few drinks around the fires well into night.
Sunday morning was cold but not as cold as Saturday, we packed up fairly early as we had to get back to Caloundra for Alana's birthday party at the Rollerdrome. We had a really great time, the kids kept each other amused and it was great meeting new people who shared similar interests, we look forward to the next Myswag camping trip.
Darlington Park is located 25km south of Beaudesert just after the small town of Kerry. Its a large campground on either side of Kerry Rd with some really nice spots along the Albert river. There is an onsite caretaker and a small kiosk, we look forward to coming back here for another stay probably in summer to avoid the freezing mornings and to take advantage of the river.
Trip Distance = 340km
Total distance travelled with camper = 10637km
Total number of nights in the camper = 85
We took the day off from work and school on Friday and left around 8.30 hoping to miss most of the morning trafiic. We had a slight delay courtesy of a 3 car bingle at the start of the Gateway Motorway, but it cleared fairly quickly and Anna and I were kept amused with the banter on the UHF between the truckies and the tow truck drivers. We arrived at Darlington Park around 11am after paying our fees ($34 for a family of 4 for 2 nights... cheaper than National Parks) we found the Myswag group and tried to set-up. The wind on Friday was horrible with really strong gusts, we really struggled with the awning and only managed to get it up thanks to Toni and Mark (GUEY) who were camped next to us, thank you guys. Unfortunately soon after setting up a very strong gust of wind came through and flattened our awning, we had poles and ropes flying off everywhere and we quickly took it down. The awning stayed off all weekend and when we packed it away we noticed a tear on the front gable where a Velcro loop had been torn off. Hopefully it can be easily fixed in the next week or so. The rest of Friday was spent trying to keep warm and out of the wind, more of the group arrived through out the afternoon. We took the kids for a walk down to the creek and fed the birds up at the caretakers residence which the kids absolutely loved. Just after dark the wind dropped right off and we were able to light a fire and everyone enjoyed getting to know each other around the fire with a few drinks.
We woke to a freezing but clear Saturday morning, Justin (Firefox) mentioned that the weather bureau recorded a low of -2 at 7am.... As the sun got higher more and more of the group emerged from the warmth of their beds, some of the lucky ones had diesel heaters... Most of Saturday was spent sitting around getting to know people, some of the group took a drive up Duck Creek Rd which is a 4wd track up to O'Reilys resort. We stayed behind as we had done this drive a few years back and we needed to take a run into Beaudesert to pick up few things. More people arrived on Saturday arvo and we had a great time sharing tall tales and a few drinks around the fires well into night.
Sunday morning was cold but not as cold as Saturday, we packed up fairly early as we had to get back to Caloundra for Alana's birthday party at the Rollerdrome. We had a really great time, the kids kept each other amused and it was great meeting new people who shared similar interests, we look forward to the next Myswag camping trip.
Darlington Park is located 25km south of Beaudesert just after the small town of Kerry. Its a large campground on either side of Kerry Rd with some really nice spots along the Albert river. There is an onsite caretaker and a small kiosk, we look forward to coming back here for another stay probably in summer to avoid the freezing mornings and to take advantage of the river.
Trip Distance = 340km
Total distance travelled with camper = 10637km
Total number of nights in the camper = 85
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| Albert River |
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| Anna doesn't like Birds |
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| Friendly Pig from next door |
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| Anna making pizza bases, nice rolling pin... |
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