Flashback to December - Checking out a Camping Spot

Now that we have our caravan we would like to disappear for the occasional weekend without travelling too far from home.

We had read about a hidden gem called "Bakers Shaft Campground", about an hour away from  home.  We hadn't heard of it, so just after Christmas we hopped in the car and went to check it out. It looked okay on any websites we could find.

We discovered it was on the Bellubula River, just near Junctions Reef, which was a popular swimming and camping site up till the mid 80s, when it was closed.

After travelling down a little dirt road, we came to a gate, which was the entrance to the camp site, which was then a further couple of kms in.  To our surprise, it was hidden, but unfortunately, not a gem.  The drive in was narrow with long grass right up to the track.  There were low overhanging gum trees that would have scratched the van and probably taken out the antennae and air conditioner unit.  

When we got down there, there was a nice new barbecue shelter, a park bench overlooking the river and a drop dunny.  The only problem was, the grass was about four feet high everywhere and the ground was quite steep.  No where to park the van.  To the left of the entrance there was a concrete culvert that had big chasms either side of it, presumably washed out from all the rain in the winter.  We guessed that this was the access to the main flat camping area. It didn't look like anyone had been there for quite some time.  

As you can imagine, we were a little disappointed, but glad we went to check it out before taking the van in, as it would have been rather interesting turning it around to get it back out.

Not to worry. we got to explore a new to us road, that had quite a few interesting buildings along its length, as this had been an old  mining area.

We had plenty of time, so lots of pics on the way out.

This gives you an idea of how long the grass was at the camp site.

What a cutie.

When I  was a kid we had one of these army huts from the Cowra Army Camp in our back yard as Dad's workshop and garage,  We even had a cubby house in one of the rooms.

All sheep yards need a big shady tree.

Don't you love the patina on the old shearing shed.

I'm sure the little shearers' huts would have been hot in summer and cold in winter, but aren't they still in great nick.

Plenty of grain storage.

Our next port of call was Carcoar Dam.  There is a popular camping found there, which to our surprise is a free camp.  That is somewhere we may look at for taking our van for a weekend.  It is a picture at the moment as the dam is nice and full.

It was so nice to go for a leisurely drive after all the hoo haa of Christmas. a nice unwind sort of day.