Anzac camping weekend (Day 3)

Alas, the final day of our little camping getaway. It was a bright, sunny morning, which we thought was a shame for us to leave on such a good day. But hey, most of us have to work the next day so no choice.

As Malaysians, our days are filled with the topic of food and eating. First thing we thought - makan!

Haha... so we had ourselves a hearty brekkie, with Auds trying her barbeque apple...

And again, Lucas' creative way of toasting bread...

It was all good, with us ending the trip with some silliness. We were not sure what to do with the remainder of the eggs (we bought seven boxes of them!) so some of the eggs ended up like this:

Oh, and just as I was about to get into the car, I was given another reminder of the trip - another bite from an oh-too-friendly little leech.........

Anzac camping weekend (Day 2)

It was a wet morning, perfect condition for more of us to get unwelcome bites from leeches on the prowl. As the rain started to clear slightly, we quickly cooked breakfast. It was quite a sight watching them prepare breakfast over the stove wearing ponchos. Had pictures taken but was strictly prohibited from posting any of it on cyberspace. We had umbrellas protecting the food and the cooks. Haha....

It was quite a breakfast, considering we were camping out in the wild; bacon and eggs and the works:

While they were cleaning up outside (I stayed in the tent lots), Michael found this little fella:

And guess what they did to it?

Terrible, just terrible my bunch of friends... hahahaha...

We were so glad the sun came up that arvo. We quickly took things out the tent to dry - literally nearly everything was wet due to flooding in everyone's tents.

Our tent was fine, except the part where Shaun slept so he had to sun his sleeping bag. The couples' tent had water go in but was saved somewhat by someone's bra. Hahaha, it helped soak up all the rain water and prevented it from flowing all the way into the tent!

There were some of us who had really healthy hair that would become oily if not washed so it was teamwork to get their hair washed!

While they were at that, Justin showcased his calligraphic talents:

Some of us decided to stay in the tent to stay away from the wetness:

When our tummies told us that it was time to eat yet again, we took out the sausages. Lucas had this ingenious idea of cooking the sausage using a banana skin. It actually worked! The sausage on the inside cooked!

There is one place I so have to tell everyone about: the compost toilet. Haha, the funniest part of our trip has to be this facility. Why? Because, as you walk up the walkway, it looks like an alright little cubicle.

But when you push the door open, wala!

Your nose will instantly pick up on the whiff of ammonia. As it is a COMPOST toilet, they collect your shit (literally) for 9 months before clearing the pit. No water so yea, go imagine. And, no lighting, so when we had to answer the call of nature at night, we had to go in pairs, with one person holding a torchlight while the other... well, you know...

Another funny incident that occurred was this:

Oh well..... someone had to forgo his Indomie. Oh, and how can we not take a group shot?

The fire for the night was a good, big one.

We had dinner like no other camper: steamboat with two flavours of soup base! We had clear soup base, as well as tomyam soup base with whatever you can think of to throw in. We even brought lemongrass and onion and tomato. There was mushroom as well... talk about good food. Imagine how good it tasted when we thought even Indomie tasted amazing in the wild.. haha!

We had a good round of spooky stories, which made me too terrified to go all the way to the toilet. And, I had my first leech bite while eating dinner. I did not even realise it was me until I saw blood on my slippers. Haha, Shaun was wondering where the fat leech came from: Okay everybody, check your feet! Someone must have gotten bitten! I was so confident that it was not me. Oh, good job, Chrys.....

As the mist crept up upon us, the surroundings felt spookier. Some other campers were using their torch lights to 'signal' us. They came nearer and we realised it was the group of Asian campers out in the front. They came over to ask us where to get firewood.

We then decided to call it a night and as we were settling in, we heard a loud fart from the other tent. Gosh.... must be the baked beans in the morning. A few minutes later, we had the signature snore from a dear friend, also from the other tent...

Anzac camping weekend (Day 1)

As the title suggests, we went camping during the long Anzac weekend. There were 10 of us in total: Justin, Xin Wen, Michael, Jona, Nic, Audrey, Shaun, Miow, Lucas and I. I figured that it would be a good fun, as I've never camped out before. In fact, I nearly backed out due to my sprained ankle. Thankfully, I did not because it was, like I said, good fun.

First stop: Shaun's place. We had to transfer things from Justin's car, from Shaun's house, to all the cars, including Jona's car. And trust me, there were HEAPS of stuff. Just take a look at the car we were in:

And that was only one of the three cars. It felt like moving house in a way.

Next stop was a makan stop at McD's. Due to some 'timing issues', we missed the McD's breakfast and had to settle for the normal stuff. Hm, as long as I get to eat the fries, I'm happy.

It did not take us long to reach the jetty at a town called:

And yes, we take ferries there. Wiseman's Ferry is a cable ferry that goes across the Hawkesbury River, helping to connect one side to the other. Like the ferries in Penang, they ferry not only passengers but also vehicles. The crossing has remained in use on its current site since 1829, making it the oldest ferry crossing still in operation in New South Wales, and possibly in Australia. How cool is that?!

Having swerved off the main road onto the gravel road, Michael was the first one to exclaim that we are totally cut off from civilisation: Ha?! No reception one here?!?!??!

Our campsites were right at the end, tucked in a corner. On the map, it said there was a creek next to us but when we got there, it looked more like a longkang. Hm.......

While we were all busy putting up the tents, or more like, they were all busy putting up the tents, one fellow was happily dragging one loaf of our bread away.... That prompted Jona to go full throttle using his parang.

This is a brush turkey and there were three of them, not just one! Okay, understood la, we are intruding your land but hey, bread is not meant for turkey consumption!

We had tents of three sizes: S, M and L. The small tent was meant for Audrey and I until we found out that it gets flooded inside when it rains! The medium tent was for the two couples and the large tent, was well, for the rest of us (was initially boys only until we two girls had nowhere else to hide from the rain). Yes, it RAINED, just like the weather forecast said it would. And boy, did it rain!

Luckily, before it poured, we managed to build ourselves a decent fire and had some marshmallows.

We even managed to cook dinner in the nick of time and when we felt the rain drops, it was SAVE THE FOOD! BRING THE LAMPS INTO THE TENT! Mayhem! We had to all go into the large tent to have dinner. Wasn't too bad considering that there were 10 of us in a 6-man tent with food and stuff.

It was only 10-ish when we decided to sleep, as there was nothing else to do to pass time. The ghost story session was a flop - no one had good stories to tell and we were all too annoyed by the rain to listen and to get engrossed anyway. We reminded each other to keep an eye out for creep crawlies, especially leeches (Xin Wen had one crawling up her leg just as she was reminding all of us: Check your legs for leeches ar..... *SCREAM*).

And look at how well-organised we were to ensure that everyone was comfy:

We dozed off into dreamland accompanied by the pitter patter of rain and leaves dropping onto our tent.