Our first trip

We planned our first trip to Walhella this weekend. Cate finished work at 11am on Saturday and we wanted to head off as soon as she arrived home. The trailer was packed and we left at around 12:30
We decided on Walhella because Cate and I had been there before and had taken Zaron and Laytten, a lovely place we could introduce to Ethan and Aisha. Wikicamps had told us it was accessible with a camper trailer, however only one campsite was, the other was for tents only and had bollards preventing car access. The available one was rocky and the only unpleasant part of Walhella.
Back to wikicamps and we discovered Coopers Creek camp ground only 6 Kms away. Brilliant!
Turned out to be an amazing place. We drove in past several parked 4wds, to an oasis of rocky river, camp fire places and pristine bush. We parked the trailer and I began to set up.
We took our time setting up the camper, althought the actual tent took 5 mins (yes I did time it) to set up. The awning wasn't attached and that took a little time and getting all the boxes where we liked them was heaps of fun playing with. A little walk before dinner was great fun for the kids
Stew for dinner, 2 fruits for desert. It was then time for PJs and off to bed.
The kids slept much better than I thought they would. Asleep by 7, the usual time, however they both woke around 3 telling us they were cold. It was cold, around 2-3 degrees, they did go back to sleep and woke again at 7.
Was a beautiful morning. Foggy, misty, cold, beautiful. Set the fire and cooked breaky. Just after breaky the fog lifted to the most wonderful morning. Sunny, motionless. The mist began rising from the car and tent. Before long everything was dry. Ethan was singing the Beetles and he and Aisha were dancing by the fire, very cute.
We took our time packing up and went for a small walk to the creek, again beautiful. We had lunch in Walhella followed by a trip on the old log train.
The kids had a ball, as did Cate and I. I think Coopers Creek could be a place we could frequent often.

Buying a camper trailer

As fate would have it 3 days after we got home from Sennis, I saw a camper advertised in the trading post. It ticked all our boxesand, unbelievably, was both in our price range and not on the other side of the continent. I had seen many campers for sale in either Western Australia or far north Queensland.
As it happens it was located in Werribee. my dad has a camper and works in Hoppers Crossing. I rang him around midday and asked if he could go and have a look after work. He did so and called from there. Maybe 10 minutes later he made the deal. Transfer of money (oh my god! Don't mention the mortgage) blah, blah and the next weekend we went to Hoppers and picked it up.

I told Cate in the proceeding months that all the good deals I'd seen in the far north were unrealistic because we wouldn't buy one without seeing it first, mmm we managed to buy one only 2 hours away and bought it with out seeing it.
A big thanks goes to dad and Krissy. Their input to our decision and checking it out for us is definitely appreciated. They went out of their way to pick it up and leave it at their work for us. We were excited, to say the least, when we did see it for the first time. The 2 very poor pictures in the trading post did it no justice. For one of its age it appears to be hardly used and in better condition than I'd thought.

We have a camper trailer!!!!

Now the fun part planning our trips.

 

In the beginning

The thought of camping really began when we went to Phillip Island Big 4 Newhaven, in January 2013. Cate, Zaron, Laytten, Ethan, Aisha and I stayed there with the Bearsleys on our annual week long holiday.

Cate and I were looking at camper setups and thought we could eventually get ourselves a camper trailer and see more of this great country of ours. Scouring the Internet and visiting outdoor expo shows seemed to consume my every thought from mid January till April 6th, the day I saw a camper trailer advertised in the trading post. 

A week after we got home from Newhaven we decided to hire a camper trailer from Johnno's Camper Trailers and head to Pambula Beach in the September holidays. The trip was organized and booked before the end of January. I had also discovered an iPhone app called Wikicamps. An app that displayed all the camping spots in Australia and their features, it turned out to be a brilliant app.
In those months I researched all of the manufacturers I could find. Many of the quality ones were well and truly out of our price range. The second hand market was very interesting to watch. Very little price difference between the old and the new. I had spreadsheets with all the information I thought I needed, and had a great idea of what we really wanted. A simple to set up entry level second hand camper trailer without any bells and whistles.

We had never taken Ethan and Aisha camping and decided to spend our 9th wedding anniversary at the Sennis campground around 30 minutes from home. I guess the thought was if it was a complete disaster we could just come home at any time. We packed the car - tents, sleeping mats, sleeping bags, food etc and headed off. We had a magnificent time. The only issue was there were very few walks. We had such a good time Cate and I knew a camper trailer would suit us.