Well we decided to brave it and take 4 kids camping, OMG, what were we thinking, really! We went with our friends Glen and Molly and their 2 kids, Rebecca and James. Rebecca is the same age as Rowen, 3, and James the same age as Angus, just a month younger, 14 months.
Friday morning - the cars packed and the kids are ready and raring to go. Molly arrived just after lunch and we set off for our first family adventure. The plan was to meet Glen in Mittagong, he had had to work, so he jumped on a train at the airport, after arriving home from Brisbane and we caught up with him just after dinner. We left early enough to beat the afternoon traffic though, so first on our agenda was finding something to do with 6 kids to kill a few hours - our solution, locate the local indoor fun centre and let them run wild, and they had a ball. After dinner at the Golden Arches we were on our way.
Rebecca and Rowen at the indoor playcentre -
Along the dirt road we were travelling we encountered a truck that had nearly lost its trailer off the cliff, the kids thought this was most exciting, but whilst we were stopped Flynn decided to lose his dinner - in the car....ewwwww. After a quick clean up we are on our way again, this time with a spew bucket handy, which Rowen made use of....no more Maccas before road trips me thinks!
So its 9.30pm and we arrive at our destination, Wombeyan caves campsite. The tents went up with headlights shining, the kids got to bed and finally it was time for some red wine - at last!
Sat morning - OMG, how early can we wake up, 5.30am, apparantly...aaarghhhh. Eventually the men take the kids for a walk, after Rowen and Rebecca have had fun in the mud puddles and i took advantage of the fact that there were showers while Angus slept and Molly watched over him. The afternoon was spent doing a 3.2 km walk around the caves and surrounding area, without a pouch for Angus, because i was not told we would be doing so much walking, so we played pass the baby all afternoon. The kids and myself were all knackered by the end of it, which mean't for all of them going to bed very easily.
Rebecca and Rowen - Mud Monkeys!
The Wombeyan caves were most impressive with huge caverns and limestone structures which Flynn described as awesome (his new fave word at the moment). I tried taking a few pics, but my camera didn't do so well, so i will have to google some for the scrapbook pages instead.
Wombeyan Cave pictures -
Dinner was followed by roasting marshmallows by the campfire and squishing them between 2 arrowroot bickies YUMMY! Oh and of course more red wine!
Sunday we packed up camp to move onto the Batsh campsite, now we were really roughing it, pit toilet this time with no showers. A quick lunch while the men set up camp and then we went to explore the town of Yerranderie, and i use the word town loosely here, its a ghost town that is privately owned with old buildings and a very teeny tiny museum with relics from the silver mines in the area which we went for a short walk to take a look at.
Yerranderie photos -
Back at camp we fed the kids, got them to bed and Stuart cooked a delicious lamb roast in his new camp oven in the fire, by the time we ate it at 9.30pm, we were starving, but it was well worth the wait, dessert- red wine and chocolate this time! We had forgot to pack any so a quick trip to the kiosk before we left Wombeyan caves had been an absolute essential!
Monday morning, time to pack up for the last time then off to do some off roading before heading home. The track the men had piucked for us proved to be a bit tricky, and Glen got stuck in one massive puddle, because of course we had encountered much rain in the past couple of days......(whats a campoing trip without a bit of rain anyway...) So Stuart, who according to Flynn is a hero, pulled Glens car out with ours.
Off roading -
Our next track wasn't so wet, but seriously steep hills which the kids thought was fantastic. We had planned on stopping at the Kowmung River for lunch, but it started to rain again, so we headed on instead, which ended up being a very good call as we then got hail! Instead we went to Kenangra walls camping ground near the Boyd river for lunch before continuing on our way home. Molly and Glen decided to stop at Jenolan caves, but we decided to keep going......it was getting and the kids were getting grumpy, so it was really time to go home.
Monday evening - 6.30pm - home sweet home, and it has never looked so sweet, let me tell you, hubby has vowed that we are never doing that again until they are all old enough to not annoy the crap out of us - the phrase "are we there yet" is more annoying than fingernails down a chalkboard - ewwww, and Angus doesn't need to be carried everywhere, my bestie told me i was crazy, and i am telling you, i think she may have been right, thank goodness for the red wine, if we had forgotten that, i think i would have gone completely insane!
Well it has taken me hours to get this done, but i promise to upload some scrapping stuff next, i have a pile of Layouts waiting to be photgraphed and uploaded, so until then
Cheers Jenni
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