Camping : Part 2

We woke up to another beautifully warm and sunny day.  First things first, it was time for breakfast! 

And what says Sunday more than a lazy Sunday brunch? 

The boys set to work cooking snags, bacon, fried eggs and toasting the bread for our meal.  The beauty of camping is, much like a BBQ, it's the one of the rare times when it's macho for a man to be taking care of all the cooking.  G and I sat back and relaxed (yes, of course I was in the hammock!) while we waited for our food to be served.

We made a couple of new friends, who happily joined us for breakfast.

They stayed behind and held fort at camp while we headed off for another trip down the rapids!

Liam packed up the ute - strapping in the tubes, lilos and floaty devices and then laid down a tarp for us to sit on comfortably.  We all piled in the back of the ute, and set off down the road! 

This is the first time ever that he's allowed me to ride in the back of the ute. I attempted to do this once, on the way home from the shops.  He wouldn't unlock the door, so I yelled out "FINE, I'LL RIDE IN THE BACK!" and he replied with "FINE!" so I climbed into the tray.  He thought I was pretending, so he got into the driver's seat and began backing out of the parking spot.  As he reversed out, he looked back at me expecting me to be freaking out, but instead I smiled and waved. He promptly stopped the car, got out and demanded that I get into the passenger seat!

Yay for finally getting to ride in the tray! It was good fun, taking in the beautiful view, smelling the fresh country air and chattering away to my best friend.

This trip down the rapids I was a little more co-ordinated and only fell off my lilo once! And that was only because I was too busy blabbing away (typical!) to notice the big rock coming up right in front of me.  

We got back to camp, and decided we were enjoying floating too much.  Liam got a big rope, tied G's lilo and mine together, and anchored us onto a rock so we wouldn't float away downstream.  Then before heading off with Mark for another attempt at fishing, he placed a yummy blackcurrant cider into my hands.  Have I EVER mentioned how much I love that boy?!

By this time, most of the other families had left so we were uninterrupted out there.  It was so peaceful, just floating out in the middle of the river, drink in hand.  At one point, we even fell asleep! It was lovely, but I did have a few angry patches of red sunburnt skin to show for it.

The beautiful view from both directions... it didn't matter which way I floated off - it was win-win!

Liam came back from his fishing expedition, and LOOK! He'd caught a giant friendly killer whale!

I got back to camp to find that G had taken over my hammock! MY hammock, remember?! I think Mark and G spent a lot of the weekend waiting for me to get up from my seat so that the could pounce! Definitely  a very comfortable hammock.  (You can't tell I loved that hammock, or anything!)

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and soon enough it was time to pack up and go home.  It's hard to believe the how compact our home for the weekend can become... the boys took the tent down and shoved it into its tiny bag, and all that was left was the lonely little door mat :(

We're heading back up there with a few more friends for Liam's birthday, and I am already hanging out in anticipation! Not to mention our overseas trip which is coming up before then!

So tell me... where's your favourite camping spot?

Camping : Part 1

In continuing on with the Australia Day celebrations, we thought what better way (apart from the BBQ and beers, which we'd already had!) to celebrate all things Australian than to head away for a weekend of camping! Liam and I packed up the ute with fishing rods, tents, hammocks, camping gear and threw our best friends in for good measure, and headed to Big River, down by Eildon.

I was lucky enough (sarcasm alert!) to have to work on the Friday after Australia Day, so we headed up as soon as I got home that evening. Liam's best mate, Mark, managed to head down earler in the day so he had a few hours to set up camp before we arrived.

Driving down the big stretch of road, we spotted this sign which Mark had put out so that we wouldn't miss the campsite.

Yes, that says "LIAM you poof". Boys, honestly!

On the bright side, Mark had been busy during the day and totally set up camp!

This was our home for the weekend. A four room tent, including two single rooms, a "living room" area and a double room, plus a gas fridge and all the bells and whistles. Not quite as "roughing it" as some might imagine, out in the Aussie outback! This was my best friend, G's very first time ever camping, and she was suitably impressed.

Unfortunately our bathroom facilities were not quite so glamorous! Long-drop dunnies. G was not quite as impressed with this arrangement!

When we arrived, the sun was starting to go down so after a bit of a quick explore the boys got the fire going so that we could cook some dinner. It was still quite warm, so it was a perfect night to relax for a bit underneath the stars. It's amazing how many stars you can see on a clear night out in the country.

After a hearty meal and a few drinks, we had a relatively early night so that we could get up early and make the most of the day. In the morning, G opted for a bit of a sleep in, but the boys and I wandered down to the river for a bit of early morning fishing.

However I soon found that THIS was the perfect way to spend the morning - lying in the hammock with a book, drink in hand, clear blue sky above. I could have stayed there forever.

Being the ever-thoughtful soul that he is, Liam had decided to surprise me by packing the hammock for me to use on the trip. Have I mentioned how much I love that boy? It was a perfect idea!

This is food photography - bush camping style! Bacon, egg & cheese toastie. YUM.

There was even table (hammock?) service! My wonderful man cooked up breakfast, and served it to us.

Didn't have to lift a finger!

Here he is, hard at work! :)

However, G and I decided that we wanted to try our hands at campfire cooking! If only so we could say that we'd cooked jaffles over campfire coals. And we proved a point that ladies are superior cooks to men, even by campfire, when we turned out these perfectly toasted jaffles!

After breakfast, we took a drive a bit further upstream. We packed a few lilos, inner tubes and floaty devices and set off down the rapids and floated back to camp! It took just over an hour to get back to our camp site this way, and although it was awesome fun I came home with bumps and bruises all over my body! The boys also rigged up a floating esky using a cooler bag, a wading pool and copious amounts of duct tape! Although the esky stayed afloat the entire trip, we unfortunately flooded the river with lots of alcohol as we tried to keep the stubbies in our hands safe while going over the rapids.

Once we got back to camp, we set up our chairs in the river, and G and I worked on our tans with magazines and books to keep us occupied. Mark and Liam decided to try a spot of fishing, and Liam managed to catch a baby trout! As he was only a tiny tacker, there was time for a photo opportunity before setting him free.

There were plenty of people swimming in the river, so it wasn't the most ideal fishing spot.

However while G and I spent some time relaxing (me in the hammock, of course!) with a good book and some magazines, the boys went off on a mission. The fish just weren't biting, but they managed to catch 4 little fishies. Most of them were far too small, and got sent on their merry way, but there was one who ended up on the dinner plate. Poor fishy!

Everyone else in the campsite seemed to go to bed very early (lots of young families) so after dinner it was just us left sitting outside by the campfire. It was absolutely gorgeous, the warmth of the fire, the clear sky full of stars, and the quietness and serenity which was interrupted only by Mark's bad jokes!

And of course, what would camping be without toasted marshmallows by the fire? G had never tried this before (really, a camping virgin!) and adored these! Although I prefer to hold my marshmallows above the flames until they are toasted crunchy on the outside and soft and gooey on the inside, Liam advised her to put the marshmallows right into the flames until they caught on fire. She seemed to enjoy these little blocks of carbon!

Part 2 of the trip still to come! :)

Australia Day BBQ

For Liam, Australia Day is like his religious holiday.  It's the one day a year he looks forward to, and celebrates everything that he loves.  We decided to celebrate the day by inviting our friends to join us by the pool with beers, BBQ and Triple J's Hottest 100 - what could be more Australian than that?!

The last few events we've tried to organise have been cursed with dismal weather (read: thunderstorms) however it was our turn for a win, and we were blessed with sunshine and a lovely warm summer's day! Whilst I busied myself sorting out my nails (the important stuff, obviously!) Liam cleaned, swept, dusted, decorated and transformed our backyard.

Of course there were Australian flags! We put up large ones in the bar, in the bungalow, on the fence, and hanging off the hills hoist for good measure! I decided that my Essendon flag also needed to take pride of place in the bar too.  Liam, although being a massive Hawks supporter himself, humoured me and put it up as I asked.

More flags outside the bar area, and we brought the ratties outside to play!  As you can see, Rocket is keeping guard, and making sure his little pals are safe! We also had new covers for the two couches in the bar, but people seemed to use them more for storage space than anything! Since it was such nice weather, everyone opted to sit out in the yard to enjoy the sunshine! It was lovely... kind of like having a little picnic at home with our friends! :)

Liam was determined to have zinc! He was so excited to find green and yellow coloured zinc at the shops too! He had a ball, painting everyone's faces with Aussie-coloured stripes! Unfortunately for me, his godson got a hold of the zinc and I decided it would be a good idea to let him paint little wiggly lines down my leg.  Just a note for all of you - zinc does NOT come off easily, and may result in awkward little tan lines!

The pool got PLENTY of use! Boys being boys, were running around attacking each other and throwing everyone into the water.  Unfortunately, this resulted in a couple of phone deaths. RIP little phones.

Rocket loved joining in the festivities! But the excitement all got a bit too much for him! 

The next day, I totally understood how he felt.  I think most of our guests were feeling a little worse for wear but it was totally worth it!

I was not a huge fan of the top song of the Hottest 100 though! But then again, I've always been a little less into commercial music than the next person. I just don't understand the big hype over that song.  I mean, it's a good tune, but is it really THAT deserving? And it's been overplayed to death.

What are your thoughts?

NOTD - Belated Happy Australia Day!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Australia Day!

We hosted a BBQ bash, and then headed up to Big River for a camping weekend away! :)

I had ideas in my head for lovely Australia Day themed nails, but underestimated how much preparation I would need to do for the BBQ and how time-consuming it would be!  I do this every single time, and end up rushing to the shower just as guests are starting to arrive.

I've had to switch my photo-taking hand, due to a nail-breakage injury that my regular model has suffered :(

The initial plan was to do up a stencil for the Union Jack on the thumb, and another for little stars that would make up the Southern Cross on each nail.  After a few attempts at getting the base colours perfect, only to ruin them during the preparation process for the party I gave up and just used an old bottle of OPI glitter that I found stashed away (red, blue and silver mixture - perfect colours!) and painted the Union Jack freehand.

Not quite as I'd hoped, but still received plenty of compliments from my party guests! :)

How did you spend your Australia Day?