Hi all,
we've just returned early from our first camp since Easter last year and hopefully those of us who have been camping had a slightly smoother time than we did... If anyone has had a few issues, maybe this lot will make you feel a bit more satisfied with your lot!
Sooo....
Packed up the kids and left Sydney early Wed arvo for 10 days in the Central West - first stop Forbes then the idea was to proceed on to Coonabarabran for some Warrumbungles action. We were all going a bit crazy with anticipation, looking forward to finally re-opening our great camper and having an easy time in our beautiful West away from the big smoke. Somewhere near Canowindra I remember mentioning that I had a bit of a sore chest but thought nothing of it. My olds - mad and experienced campers - were already in Forbes and waiting for us to arrive.
About 2 minutes before pulling into the park, our little one (3 yr old) announced that she had a 'sore tummy'. She says this all the time and it generally means 'I'm hungry'. We said, no worries - grandma will have something for us in a few minutes. Not satisfied with that, she elegantly projectile vomited all over herself, her brother, the bags stashed in her footwell, onto the food containers etc., finally wrapping up as we pulled into the park. Of course she had an immediate recovery and offered a very bouncy "hello Grandma! Look, my shoe's got a bit of chuck on it!" as if nothing had happened only seconds later.
While the girls tended to that disaster, dad and I began to set up camp on our beautiful site in the Apex Riverside park. Knowing that we'd carefully packed up a tinder-dry camper in Tibooburra only a year ago, and then lovingly stored the trailer with an expensive 'waterproof' car cover on it, I was already imagining sitting under the awning, beer in hand laughing about our daughter's arrival disaster while surveying our glorious view of the countryside in about 45 minutes, as I unzipped the cover....
The first vision was of an enormous steamy pool of mouldy water with all the zip-on panels, once perfectly new-like and crispy dry now swimming over each other in an expensive and heart-breaking orgy of yuck-ness. After removing the 5 panels and laying them out in the sun, the next level of entertainment for us came in the form of billions of ants, nesting in every possible nook and cranny, billions of eggs etc. So a decent spray (hate spraying anything onto the canvas) and a big sweep and finally we had shelter - not smelling as good as it once did. All the clear panels had turned a frosty opaque white, obviously never to be seen through again - this really upset me.
We opted to sleep in the camper despite the new odour and mummy, the kids and I eventually drifted off to sleep. Meanwhile, in my oldies' tent nearby - their night was shattered at around midnight by a monstrous storm, with horizontal gale force driving rain, forcing its way through the open outside flap and quickly taking residence within. My olds lay there in a mix of shock and inability to do anything as they had no wet weather gear. About 20 mins later, just as suddenly as the forceful storm began, it finished and they emerged to inspect the damage and begin de-watering their sleeping area. "How come the car is bone dry?" asked mum. "Strange - the kids' camper is dry too!" said dad. Turned out to be an industrial strength sprinkler on a timer, 1m above the ground and 3m from their open tent! Got a good laugh and the mortified owner switched it off first thing.
Hours of scrubbing mould and a light spray of Oil of Cloves in water (1/4 tsp to 1 litre - magic) and finally things were getting under control, including the return of our beautiful clear panels by Fri, when I had to be taken to the local hospital for chest x-rays. Returning to our camp, we rushed inside as a huge storm hit, real this time. We were very glad to have been so well prepared for it so sat down with relief and ate some dinner. For some reason my missus thought it would be a good idea to check out our bed and so we climbed up the ladder to enjoy the sight of a glorious indoor waterfall and a vast pool forming on, in and under our double mattress. The main roof cover over our mesh roof had blown aside - not secured properly by yours truly - and the torrent equated to about 5 buckets of water - sheets, blankets, books, pillows, mattress etc. all swirling around. A bit of despair began to mount (we don't despair easily).
That night, while the bed linen rolled around the dryer and our mattress dried itself propped in the owner's garage, the four of us fell asleep on the floor together (thankfully the bed cavity didn't overflow into the kids sleep area!!). No more frantic storms for the grandparents outside and onto relatively smooth sailing...
...smooth sailing straight home to look after yours truly as soon as we could dry the trailer fully. Yesterday's weather was perfect and we had a whole day to clean, dry, fold and pack up our stuff beautifully.
So there's a bit of work to be done now we're at home - I'm going to plan and build a proper CT port with a decent cover and buy a new cover for the trailer. Never again will it be left for so long unopened and we'll have to find a way of preventing ants from making home there (any suggestions??).
As for the sore throat - it turned out to be a serious lung infection and during most of the 6 days to now, I have been almost fully incapacitated with temperatures fluctuating between high and dangerous and no break from coughing longer than 10 mins. In fact, on 3 of the nights, I found myself sitting doubled over in a chair in the mens' bathroom at around 2am, coughing uncontrollably to 'Forbes Classic Hits of the 80s' for hours on end, just so I didn't wake anyone else up. Fingers crossed it will pass quickly - I've had enough! There's no denying that it was pretty good to be waited on hand and foot... ;-)
However, we're all still alive and in good humour and hopefully our mix of incompetence and bad luck has given some amusement to others!
Cheers,
Dave
