Kilkivan Bush Camp - July 2014

Friday 18th July, 2014

It's time to head off on another local weekend camp this afternoon.  Where to this time I hear you ask.....  well, we're off to Kilkivan Bush Camp.

We get away at 4pm, so not too bad this time but probably won't get there before dark since it's winter.  Kilkivan Bush Camp is about 137Klms north west of home and should take us about 1 1/2 Hours, maybe a little long due to the fact we have to meet a friend briefly on the way.  For a Friday afternoon the traffic north to Gympie isn't too bad really, worst part of it all is that we're driving straight into the setting sun - talk about eyeball burning!

Bruce Highway heading north

Arrived at Kilkivan Bush Camp around 6pm and yes it was dark - *sigh*!  Office appeared closed, (I called early in the afternoon and the lovely lady on the other end of the phone said to just find a campsite and fix them up in the morning).  We did bump into the owners as we were getting back into the truck, they had suggested a nice spot on the creek where we wouldn't have any neighbours - sounds nice to us!  Unfortunately in the dark, even with some directions we still didn't manage to find the spot they were talking about but we did find a nice spot above the creek near the track across it.  It was more or less a dead end so nobody would camp beside us, just enough room for the truck and to open up the camper, fireplace, grass - nothing wrong with that in our eyes!  As you can imagine there are no photos tonight of our campsite, it's dark! I did take a couple of the campsite first thing in the morning.

Our dead end campsite - excellent!

See dead end haha and fireplace!

Eventually got the truck into the right spot (yes you would have been giggling at these antics), opened up, setup, started heating dinner.  And dinner: leftover spag bol from the other night. Very yummy!  Cleaned up and retired to the warmth of our bed - Boris was happy to put his pj's on, be lifted up onto the bed and snuggle up under his blanket next to me.  It was going to get a bit nippy tonight and it had been a long day for Craig.  Goodnight good folks :)

Saturday 19th July, 2014

Well Good Morning Boris, is it cuddle time puppy dog!  Come on up then..... 7am arrgghhh, blimey joseph dog, it's the weekend and sleep in day plus it appears to be ruddy cold outside right now!  Managed to stay in bed until about 7.45am, then everyone needed to get up.... Dressed, coffee getting made (slap my hand, I forgot the cowboy coffee this weekend :O), decided we'd go up to the camp kitchen for the free pancake breakfast these guys put on, on a Saturday morning to say thank you for camping with them. Seems quite popular as you'd imagine and I tell you what, some of the best pancakes we've ever had (told Craig he needs to pick his act up with the pancake making).  You have a choice of maple syrup of course, chocolate sauce or strawberry jam & cream to go with them - yum! There is coffee there for you as well.

Camp Kitchen - free pancake
breakfast!

Breakfast done, wandered back to camp to have a look around our campsite.  Had the pleasure of watching a couple of what I think according to my bird book are Eastern 'Pale-headed" Rosella's sitting in the trees just next to us.

Looking at the creek from our camp

Eastern "Pale-headed" Rosella

Eastern "Pale-headed" Rosella

Boris waiting to find out what we're
going to do next.

Time to go pay our camping fees and get a wheel barrow load of firewood for tonight - yes it's a wheel barrow that you fill up with split wood and wheel over to your camp, great value, just remember you have to take the wheel barrow back for the next person.  Had a great chat with the owner while loading the firewood, really nice fellow.

some of the resident chookies
(I thought the fluffy one was funny)

With that taken care of we're off for a walk to have a look around the place.  You've got the office there next to the driveway and across from that you'll find the toilet/shower block.  

Office

Toilet/Shower facilities on the left

Firewood pile

On the other side of the driveway are a couple of camping areas that have a creek bed running between them, it's dry this weekend, but with the creek running it would make for a very pretty camping area.  Even so this weekend it is still pretty, green grass, shady trees, campfire rings - can't ask for much more really. 

Creek bed

It's still pretty

You'll also find a playground on the other side of that creek, which Craig tells me is fun to play on........  Boris apparently wasn't real sure about the closed in tube you have to go through to get to the slippery slide, so he turned back and waited for Craig at the bottom of the slide.

The Playground

Craig & Boris playing

Campsites

More campsites

Fellow campers looking for their nugget
they dropped.  Don't know how big it was
but they needed a metal detector to find it....

You'll find some powered sites on the other side of the office - between it and the camp kitchen we had pancakes at this morning.  

Powered sites

Powered sites

Then below the toilet block you have the tier that we are camped on that overlooks the other creek and below that right on the creek is another area (the one the owners suggested we would like and we would have!). 

Our level and creek side campsites

3rd Tier campsites creek side
very nice if I do say so myself.

Fat Hen Creek near our campsite

The owners are slowly clearing the rubble/silt out of the creek from the floods last year and it's looking very pretty. 

Looking at the lower tier of
campsites

Across our little creek is a huge area (at a guess 10 acres approx) where a small group of horse lovers are camped this weekend.  This large area is bordered on one side by the creek and the other side by Rossmore Road.

Crossing the creek

The end of the property
(a great campsite)

Looking back across the acres

Back at camp after our 1 1/2 hour walk and starting to feel a bit hungry - time to start the fire to cook lunch on.  What's for lunch I hear you ask, well we decided to go with hot dogs.

Lunch cooking on the BBQ plate

Yummy, hungry now.

 It's a very relaxing place to be really - Grassy roomy campsites and plenty of them, lovely little creek, office & facilities centrally located and you can have campfires, it's pet & horse friendly and there's a camp kitchen.

We needed to get the fire going better to enable us to cook dinner over it for a few hours.  That timber was proving rather difficult to get going, so we went hunting for some bigger sticks to put into the fire and get some heat into those chunks of timber.  Took about 2 hours but we finally got them all going and it's now time for Craig to start his Lamb Shanks.  BUT first Boris the dog decided he needed a cuddle, must have been enjoying his weekend camping I think....

The tail didn't stop wagging

Dinner preparations begin:

Coat the shanks in seasoned flour

Make sure you have a good fire going

It's only 2pm but someone's cold
and it's been an exhausting day for
the little black dog!

Brown those shanks

Now add the stuff in his recipe.....

And there you have it, now simmer
for about 3-4 hours

Simmer..

While dinner was cooking we decided to play with our new cameras and were hoping to get a colourful sunset.

Horse people coming back to camp

Brushing down the horse

Sunset

Boris loves camping

A bit golden in colour

Me and my little black shadow

Boris waiting for me to come back from
a shower and ignoring Craig calling him
Sweet little boy.

I'll let you know that the lamb shanks & mashed spuds were absolutely beautiful, fall off the bone, melt in your mouth dinner I have come to expect accompanied by the lovely red used during cooking.  A little sit around the fire after cleanup is done, then it's time to head off to bed. Not as cold tonight in our opinion.

Sunday 20th July, 2014

Good morning all, don't you just have the best sleep when you're camping!  There was certainly no rushing to get up this morning, but eventually we must.  Being it's Sunday it's big breakfast day - what are we having you ask:  Bacon  Scrambled Eggs, Cherry tomatoes, spinach & toast.

We have to head home today, you know work beckons tomorrow sadly :(  No rush to pack up though.  We're ready to head off in the direction of home at 10.30am, firstly though Craig feels the need to investigate where the road goes to beyond the campground (saw the chimney sign saying 8klms that way), went along the road until we crossed a cattle grate and it just didn't feel right after that, felt more like you were travelling along someones property road so we turned around and decided we'd leave it too next time and ask more questions before heading off to look for them just to make sure we are not trespassing.

Welcome to Kilkivan Bush Camping
(Yeah, I know I'm back to front)

Looking in to the creek side campsites

We headed into Kilkivan, there was lunch and a beer(wine) at the pub mentioned but seriously it's only 11.30am and I'm still full from breakfast!  Oh look there's the local markets, lets have a look.  Boris was an instant hit with the older ladies manning the stalls and we picked up some homemade lamingtons & biscuits.  Ran into some campers from the campground that we were talking to yesterday morning.  Kilkivan is a beautiful little town, love it.

Kilkivan markets

From here we headed off to have a picnic lunch at Little Yabba creek and check out the re-instated free camp there.  Might have taken somewhere between 1/2 an hour an hour longer to get there then what we were expecting - road closures.  Anyway we got there and the free camp site look lovely.  Toilets, campfire rings, it's a small area but quite pleasant with Little Yabba creek below it.  We had lunch and then headed home.

Little Yabba Creek free campsite

Summary:
Where:  Kilkivan Bush Camping & Caravan, Rossmore Road, Kilkivan
Website:  www.bushcamping.com.au
Cost:  $20 per night per couple unpowered
Firewood:  $20 per wheel barrow load
Facilities:  toilets, showers, playground, grassy sites, campfires, pets allowed.
Would we go ago:  Definately yes!
Comments:  Very relaxing, pleasant surrounding.