2013 road trip - Day 1

I was wondering what had possessed us to consider a camping road trip in the middle of winter, when it had been raining every day for the past I don't know how many weeks. But Monday dawned fine and clear, which was comforting.

I had planned camping stops, mostly in national parks, for every 3 hours or so, but the first day's drive was only to be an hour and a bit to Munmorah State Conservation Area. Then I asked Louka if she'd prefer the quick but boring route, or the longer scenic route. She opted for the scenic route, so instead of the Newcastle freeway we took the old Pacific Highway.

Graham had packed the complete Harry Potter audio CDs to keep us amused while driving, but when he asked if we should put one on, Louka said she didn't like them. Graham said ok, tomorrow then.

We remembered The Entrance as being a pleasant place to stop so we headed there for lunch. Unfortunately the fish and chips were pretty poor, but we managed to eat enough to stave off hunger and had a little walk along the waterfront searching for signs of monsters.

At Munmorah we were the only people, so we set up the camper and took the short walk to the beach. When we reached it we found a barrier across the path as the beach had eroded to make a sand cliff about 3 - 4m high. But of course that didn't stop us, and we wandered along the cliff edge till we found a more accessible spot.

We'd made some bolognaise sauce to take with us so the first night's dinner was easy - except it got dark at 5 o'clock! This turned out to be a bigger issue for winter camping than the cold. I think if we do it again we'll get ourselves a good lantern.