More camping...

This weekend I went camping on Hobart Beach, which is part of Bournda (Born-da) National Park, on the south coast of New South Wales, about 3 hours from Canberra. Anytime you leave Canberra, which is the only city in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory), you are in New South Wales; the ACT is completely surrounded by NSW.

I went camping with a group of new friends that I met through my friend C, who lives in Sydney. He used to live in Canberra and has a great set of friends that I met a couple of weeks ago when he was in town. It was a great weekend, and a really good group of people - I'm looking forward to hanging out with them more.

Like last weekend, this campsite also had a resident monitor. I guess I'm getting used to them? They are better than bears I guess.



When you are camping in Australia, you don't have to worry about bears. Which means that you can store your food in your tent! To a girl raised on camping in California, it feels very weird to keep food in the tent. Sort of like drinking a beer in the back seat of the car. While it's under way. Anyway... each night we put our green bags (ubiquitous in Oz, used for getting groceries home, taking your lunch to work, carrying your bathers/togs/cozzie and towel to the beach) in the tent.
Last night, though, I accidentally left out a package of Anzac biscuits (sort of like oatmeal cookies) and they were promptly and loudly eaten by a possie (a brush-tailed possum - actually really cute, not like the possums at home). I'd have taken a picture of him, but my camera battery died on Saturday afternoon. This possie showed up both Friday and Saturday night, just as the sun went down. He hung out in the trees around our site and was actually pretty bold. He also made noises like a child snoring, I'm told it was him being territorial. On Friday night he set up camp outside my tent and declared to all the sleeping world that I had set up my tent in his territory. Last night he was much quieter, and it must be because I'd left out that pack of Anzac biscuits. Maybe I did it sub-consciously, as a peace offering.

On Saturday afternoon I went for a long walk, around Wollogoot Lake, down Hobart Beach to Bournda Island, and then around Bournda Lagoon on my way back to camp. It was a good 2.5 hour trek. I have to be honest, my butt was a little sore today! Here are some pictures from the walk, taken before my camera battery died.

Wollogoot Lake:


Hobart Beach:


Bournda Island:


I have to say, I really like camping in Oz. I spend most of my time in the ocean, riding the waves (the water is so amazingly clear) and get to have a meat pie on the car ride home. Not a bad way to spend a weekend! (Although, apparently I'm not eating my pies correctly since I'm not covering them in dead horse (tomato sauce, aka ketchup) yet. Look up rhyming slang - it's the most common Aussie language quirk.)

Other Aussie things I had this weekend - since it was the Australia Day long weekend - January 26 celebrates the landing of the First Fleet, the first ship to bring the English over here to settle. Or to populate the prison. Depends on which story you listen to. Anyway - the other Aussie things I had this weekend included kanga bangas (kangaroo sausages) from the barbie, pav (short for pavlova) my new favorite dessert - a meringue covered in custard and fresh fruit, and of course the ever-present Tim Tams.

Wildlife tracker - alive: wallaby, monitor, possum, kookaburra, kangaroo... dead: wombat.