Camping at Koolandilly

This weekend I went camping with the family at the Koolandilly property. This is the place that I went on my very first day here in Australia. Remember how I said that first weekend that I thought I would enjoy it more if I were less jet legged and more aware. Well I certainly was able to take in more of my surroundings and relish in the natural beauty that I was surrounded by. It really really is one of the most beautiful places I have been. Lots of hills, a big river, huge gum trees and wide open blue skies. I did however find that living where you work and not having a sufficient amount of me time or time away from the kids and family makes for a cranky Jessica. I found it somewhat difficult to spend the weekend with just the family, but I think it may also partially be due to the fact that I have been missing home like crazy for about a week now. I am quite homesick at the moment so going away with only the family added to my homesickness. It made me want to be home with my friends and family even more.

The drive to the campsite is enough to make any agnostic praise ala. You have to travel for about 45 mins down a gravel road, part of which you have to pass through a one lane tunnel through the rock, albeit very neat it is nerve racking at the same time. Most of the road is basically one lane with a few spots here and there to pull off and let someone pass. Not to mention that the road is is the most winding road I have ever been on, and every other turn is a hairpin turn. On one side is a rocky mountain, and the other a shear cliff. The road in spirals down a mountain until you get to the bottom. It is so hard to explain with words, and I couldn't take ver good pictures either. To sum it up you have to keep the car between a moutain side and death basically. I am glad that Peter has driven that road many times, but I still had a mild stroke several times traveling that road.

Once arriving at the campsite we were able to set up camp in the clubhouse as we were the only ones using the property for the weekend. We brought the trailer with us in case we couldn't use the clubhouse, but it was nice that we could. It had seperate rooms and a table and such. It also had a few creepy crawlies that gave me the heeby jeebies. I made sure my bed was off the floor and not touching any walls. I also kept my eye on the large spider on the roof, that legs in was about the size of my palm, that by the end of the weekend I determined it was dead anyway, haha! The biggest issue at the campsite, not in the hut, but at the site was ants! Gawd! These Aussie ants are relentless! They are every where, and they crawl all over your feet and legs if you stand still too long. Plus they are effing huge and bite just for shits and giggles. I HATE the ants!!! Friday was stinkin hot so after setting up camp we went 4-wheeling. That way we would be in the air conditioned car. We went 4wheeling through a nudist colony and through the bush. The nudies were all in their caravans so I didn't see any wrinkly old asses walking around. We crossed a river and drove up another mountain. That is where the picture of me on here is taken. That track up the mountain was even more scary then the road in because everyturn was actually a hairpin turn, and one side equals death. I also saw my a kangaroo while we were 4 wheeling. It was the first one that I saw that was alive, and I could actually stop and take a look at. After a few hours of 4 wheeling through the bush and up mountains we headed back to camp for dinner. I took my journal down to the river, below a mountain, and sat in the middle of the river on a rock writing in my journal drinking tequila cooler. That is pretty sweet I must say. That same night I saw so many more kangaroos. They were all over camp, every where you turned there were kangaroos. Actually walking back from the river they were all over the path, and since I am from Canada I didn't want to get to close for fear of death by roo, but it was cool to be that close to all those wild kangaroos. I even got to see two of them boxing! The only thing I didn't see, that I wish I had of was a joey in a pouch. Tune into my facebook for pictures of all the wildlife I saw this weekend.

On Saturday we had to take a unexpected trip in town for a few hours. Too much wine on a Friday night can sometimes lead to a trip to emergency the next day, lol. And no, it wasn't me! It was good that we went into town tho, because after discovering that Peter and Charli didn't know what smores were I was determined to give them their first smore experience. I went in search of graham crackers and marshmellows. Little did I know that it wasn't just Peter and Charli that have been deprived of smores but Australia in general. They don't even have graham crackers and their marshmellows were about 1/4 the size of our roasting mellows. They were only slightly larger then hot chocolate mellows. I took my stunnedness out on the poor stock boy at Woolworths. What the hell kind of place am I living in that have never had smores, don't know what they are, and don't even have the things to make them. It is just down right nutty! So after that we had some lunch and drove to the Wombeyan Caves. Geesh! I thought the drive into camp was scary! One madam Willis would be having herself a litter of kittens if she had to drive that road! At least on the road into camp there is some vegitation that you pray would slow you down or stop you if you went over the edge, but on this drive it was just shear death to one side. You could see straight down for at least a mile in some spots. I tried to look straight ahead. The caves were really cool. We didn't do the whole walking tour because the kids fell asleep on the way there (or passed out from fear I think, lol) but Peter and I walked around a bit. They were huge and really cool. It made me excited for the trip I have booked to the Jenolan caves in two weeks. Then we spent Saturday night around camp. I made a fire and tried to make smores, but was only frustrated by the ordeal. I bought a biscuit type thing, but it was no graham cracker and that was evident. In the morning we packed up and shipped out. I was grateful that we left earlier then expected and I was able to get some sanity time by myself, and did a little retail therapy to smooth things over. In the end I am thankful that I was able to experience the breath taking views around the property and were able to see all that I did.

Last I leave you with this. Before we went camping I took the kids shopping for a few toys to bring with them. Their parents don't ever pack anything for them to occupy themselves with in these situations, but I decided to take a stand. I would not put up with wrangy kids any longer when the cure could be found in a $2 pack of dinosaurs and a bottle of bubbles. So we went to K-mart and were browsing for some things we might want to get. I saw a rack of bubbles and they had billion bubbles and all sorts. Then I noticed an odd shaped bubble wand staring me in the face. I took a double take, because at first glance I was a little offended until I realized what it was supposed to be.

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It is a banana of course! These bubbles smell like bananas, so why wouldn't the wand look like a half peeled banana? I did have to take a double take tho, hehe. Well if you have read this whole thing, good on ya, it is a long one. I miss everyone at home, and thanks for tuning in. Hopefully the week will be good.