My friend Samantha and I left last Monday, the plan was to take a swag each and drive through country New South Wales, camping (at official caravan parks/ camp grounds to please the parents) along the way. Little did we know the stir we would cause... Well maybe we did guess there would be some interest in the idea of two young girls camping in cold weather...
Our first night we arrived at Tenterfield, a very little very cute town not much south of the border. It was about four o'clock and starting to get cold, so we pulled into a small but nice looking caravan park. As we asked for a site to place our swags she stared in disbelief and proceeded to try to dissuade us. She told us we were crazy (in the nicest possible way), that it would be -8 degrees that night, that cabins are only $35, etc. We insisted and she gave us our site, on the condition that we come and get her at any hour of the night if we became too cold. We thanked her and set up our camp...
It rained that night...
We woke sleepy eyed in the morning to the admiration of the grey nomads who greeted us as they left their caravans and asked if we survived, and told us we were brave.
The next day saw us travelling to Tamworth via Glen Innes and Armidale seeing great sights such as The Australian Standing Stones and Thunderbolt's cave...
We arrived in Tamworth and went to the rather fancy caravan park (Big 4) where the reception ladies again told us we were brave and directed us to our site... we set up camp and went for a look around the large and bustling town that is Tamworth, OK just the town that is Tamworth...
(isn't that a cute camp!)That night the two most gorgeous men pulled up beside us ( not gorgeous in the I want to marry them sense, they were a father and son, the father had obviously had a stroke once and the son, probably a grandfather in his own right, was obviously going on a trip with his father so the father didn't go alone). Again they were thoroughly impressed, and again they thought we were a bit crazy.
We woke in the morning and zipped open our swags and chatted to our neighbours in that caravan park sort of chummy way that you do. All while lying comfortably in bed. Which, now that I think of it is rather strange.
That afternoon saw us setting up our swags in Dubbo (yes, we did go to the zoo). Word must have spread because multiple men with their beers in hand came up to chat with us, asking us about our camping experience and how we find the swags in the cold weather.
As we stayed in Dubbo for a few nights we had new neighbours almost every night, grey nomads exclaimed over us every night and the reception ladies knew us as those two girls who are camping in swags. However my favourite reaction came from a gorgeous french family who pulled up in their RV on our last night and their children whose faces lit with amazement when they saw our camp...
So we became caravan park celebrities and at the same time gave all those who met us a story to tell of two crazy girls who traveled with swags...
But the night I will tell about at dinner is the night where we camped at the Warrumbungles and it rained all night, and we ate in the rain, and slept in the rain, and packed up in this rain:
(But secretly that made me feel awesome too).
