Easter 2015. Torrington National Park

I started packing the car on Thursday night but as the rain started I had to stop and hope that it wasn't raining in the morning. Not a good omen for a weekend away camping. I was up at 6am on Friday morning and although overcast it wasn't raining, so I finished packing the car, showered, changed and headed off before 7am. A quick stop for fuel at the BP just over the border and then I headed south on the motorway before turning off to Lismore and then onto Casino where I had a late breakfast at Maccas. The weather continued to look horrible, overcast and drizzling as I headed toward Tenterfield and combined with the twisty road meant it was slow going. 

Just before Tenterfield the rain cleared away and the roads were dry, there was even some blue sky. I turned south towards Glen Innes and the weather seemed to be getting better. After 30 odd km I turned off towards Torrington via a dirt road shortcut. Torrington was a nice little town, bigger than I expected. Then I followed the signs to the national park campground for another 15 kms or so of dirt road. At the entry to the campground I caught up with Greg, Debbie and their new camper trailer and after paying my camp fees followed them to the furtherest camping spot over the rocky creek crossing. Adam and Meagan were there and had spread out a bit to deter anyone else from thinking about staying in this spot. After a quick chat it was time to setup camp and have a bit of lunch. 

I setup the new tent fairly quickly but I still need to find a better way to get the fly setup as it is a bit difficult for one person. I then thought I would try out the new wide angle zoom lens (Tamron SP AF 10-24 mm A-mount, my camera has a crop factor of 1.5 so in reality it is a 15-36 mm lens) I bought for my camera, so I took a few photos of the car and tent at different angles.

This is about 15 mm (in 35 mm parlance) and close things like the Paj's bull bar get quite distorted. 

A bit further away and the lens at roughly 27 mm which is the widest my main lens goes. 

And finally further away and about 36 mm. I need to play around with it a lot more before I take it away to Antarctica next year. 

We'd just finished lunch when it started drizzling, so we all crowded under the camper trailer awning hoping the rain would go away. In one of the breaks I went and got my gazebo and we put that up to give us a little more room under shelter. Around mid afternoon the others (Kemsley, Josh and Phil) rolled into camp and they crowded under the shelter until there was a slight break in the rain and then they put their tents up. We then added the awnings on Kemsley's and Phil's cars to give us a comfortable area under cover and proceeded to have a few drinks and a chat for the rest of the afternoon. Cheese and dips and crackers sustained us until dinner, which was a communal affair consisting of several curries and rice. I was to cook damper for dessert but the weather hadn't been kind to the fire which Adam had been nursing along and there wasn't enough coals for the camp oven. 

Sometime after dinner the rain stopped for awhile and we were able to sit around the rejuvenated camp fire. 

This however didn't last too long and when the rain came back we moved under the awnings and then onto a nice warm and dry bed. Overnight the rain kept drizzling and things were getting wetter in the morning. After a sleep in, a leisurely breakfast and some more chatting under cover we took advantage of a slight break in the weather to head back into Torrington for their Easter Saturday fair. We had an early lunch at the sausage sizzle, followed by a nice coffee and home made dessert in the local community hall. Then it was back to camp for an afternoon of lounging under the awnings chatting, unfortunately there wasn't a long enough break in the rain to sit around the fire but after dinner I managed to make my damper with Kahlua soaked raisins using the Weber Bbay Q that Greg and Debbie had in their camper trailer. The consensus of opinion while sitting around under the awnings was that we would probably pack up the next day and head home early as it wasn't much fun camping in the rain. 

The rain persisted down all night and that sealed our fate. After a quick breakfast there was a period were it wasn't raining so we all quickly packed up and got ready to leave. Greg and Debbie and Adam and Meagan headed home via the bitumen while the rest of us followed Kemsley on a magical mystery tour through the back roads to Tenterfield. We lost count of the creek crossings and the cars were covered in mud. At Tenterfield we got some lunch from the Fish and Chip shop and ate in the park as the weather had cleared up a bit. Phil then ended up heading home on the bitumen while the rest of us found some more dirt roads going past Boonoo Boonoo national park. Then it was through White Swamp and onto Rathdowney before a quick stop in Beaudesert to discuss the possible itinerary for a trip away during winter. Kemsley and Josh then headed back to Brissy while I turned east to Canungra and Nerang and then finally home. All up I had done just over 750 kms and was feeling wet and soggy but we still managed to have an enjoyable weekend. 

Of course I had to unpack all the wet stuff from the car and get it set up in the garage to dry. 

Luckily the next day was nice and sunny and I could roll out the car awning and let it dry as well. 

The water proof tape on the seams of the awning had degraded to a useless state so I removed it and tried the old candle wax trick on the seam to try and weather proof it. Hopefully, next time I need to use it in the rain there won't be anymore drips coming through. 😄💧💧💧