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| Tree swings were a nice touch |
Sandy Creek is situated approx 1 1/2 hours from Brisbane on the way to Kilcoy. The road in is windy, tight and unsealded in places but suitable even in a 2WD. If you added plenty of rain, I'm sure the going would be a lot tougher.
Did I mention tight? In a few places I would have hated to meet someone with a trailer travelling in the opposite direction because passing opportunities were few and far between. I also felt that once you turned off the main road (onto the hilarously named Mary Smokes Creek Rd) the posted speed limits were about 20klms higher than a safe travelling speed, particularly with the van. If travelling on this road, watch your speed and take it easy.
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| The entrance to Sandy Creek Campin |
Day One: Check-in for us was Saturday at 12pm and the weather gods had been kind. During Thursday night a whopper of a storm had ripped through the Kilcoy area. Thankfully for us, the rest of the weekend was looking good with the worst of the conditions predicted to be occasional clearing showers.
Just outside of Woodford we saw a sign on a private property advertising firewood. We stopped and helped ourselves to two bags and a dozen farm fresh eggs. $21 was deposited into the honesty box and we were on our way again. It was an ounce of luck that the wood was chopped almost perfectly for the Ozpig so there'd be little need for the axe on this trip.
After checking in we moved down to the camp ground and commenced the painful task of selecting a site. Sometimes I think i just prefer when sites are preordained. At least if you don't like elements of it, you can blame someone else.
The campground's split into two levels: the high road leads you to an open grassy field with a scattering of shade trees. The amentities block also sits on this level. The lower level contains far more shade, is less grassy in spots and of course, allows you to camp just off the banks of the creek.
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| Plenty of colourful locals |
We'd come armed with our shower tent and loo so the decision was easy...get as close to the creek as possible. Another couple were setting up which left one creek spot remaining. A quick g'day to them and we learned they were waiting on some friends to arrive. So it was back to the drawing board, before finally settling on a spot at the rear of the lower level. Other than not being along the creek, it was a nice spot with plenty of shade whilst still likely to get enough sunlight within reaching distance of the solar panels.
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| Would you choose the high ground |
Those solar panels were the first thing to go up because we were running both fridges on this trip with one of them acting as a freezer for ice cream (yeah really roughing it).
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| or the low ground? |
Soon enough the rug rats were into the creek followed closely behind by the dog. There must be something relaxing about water for that mutt because for the second time he had no longer hit the water before he was laying a cable! The Mrs did the right thing and cleaned up the mess while I made a mental note to fill the water cans upstream.
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| The Creek |
The agenda for the remainder of the day included more creek time, plenty of knee grazes for the boys courtesy of the rocks, a little bit of exploring, checking out the other camps and a whole heap of sitting on my ass doing nothing.
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| Prepare for a trek to the amenities |
As the sun got lower in the sky we fired up the Ozpig. There are plenty of designated fire rings throughout the camp but we decided to bring the 'pig just so we could fire it up in anger somewhere other than the backyard. So far we've cooked nothing but marshmallows on it, but it's great just to stare into whilst providing warmth as the cool of the evening settles in. It also proved perfect for heating the shower water. Dinner came courtesy of the Weber then we settled in to an evening of chilling out to tunes before hitting the sack to the sound of crickets and frogs.
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| The 'pig in action |
Day Two: Not too much to report today. There's only so many ways I can write "Today I did sweet bugger all". The most energetic things got today was collecting 40ltrs of water from the creek. We played a couple of board games, kicked the footy around and when night time hit the kids had a ball running around covered in glo-accessories.
Ofcourse if being a lazy bugger is not your style, there's plenty to do in and around the area. Check their website for more info.
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| Bloody big flies out these parts |
Day Three: There were no middle of the night toilet duties (for me, or the kids); the vast majority of campers had left yesterday (Sunday) and the late checkout of midday meant there was no need to rush into pack up duties too early. I think all these elements contributed to the best nights sleep I've ever had camping!
All good things come to an end, so we packed up by 1000. Trouble brewed when I went to start the Paj and it wouldn't kick over. The battery was just coming up short. No big deal, we had the battery in the Arkpak to jump with - shiit! the jumper leads weren't packed. No big deal, I'll just take the battery out and hook it up to the car - shiiiiit! theres not enough slack in the Paj's terminal cables and they won't reach the battery. So the only option was to hook the solar up to the car battery and wait for nature to run it's course. Half an hour later the Paj roared into action and we were on our way.
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| Ready to leave - eventually! |
We took a detour to Bribie for a nice seafood lunch before treking home to unpack and prepare for a return to the daily grind.
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| Bribie Island |
Overall I enjoyed Sandy Ck and would gladly recommend it to anyone. In particular, for those with a brood of kids and a mangy mutt it was great to pay a flat rate as opposed to paying a premium just because there's a few extra little bodies.
Klms: 371
Fuel: 15.6ltrs/100k
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