This weekend we squeezed in one final camping trip, one last test run before we head off on our 7 or 8 month adventure exploring Oz!
We are home now and all enjoying an afternoon of resting and quiet time that always comes after a weekend away camping. The kids are playing lego in the lounge room with a movie on, Matt is crashed out asleep and I am wasting time on the internet, downloading the photos off the camera from the weekend, and writing this blog post. There is a massive pile of wet togs and towels, and dirty washing in the laundry which really should be taken care of and the bags unpacked, but we all love retreating for some quiet time in our own corners when we get home – the washing will wait, it will be scrambled eggs on toast for dinner and early to bed for us all – this is our normal ‘post camping’ routine.
We had originally organised to camp at ‘Camp Lakefire’ at Lake Maroon outside Boonah, but after finding out on Friday that the 4wd track we had planned to tackle (The Condamine Gorge Track) was now permanently closed due to flooding earlier in the year, and then arriving at ‘Camp Lakefire’ and being told we could no longer camp on the lakefront due to new SEQ Water regulations (and the fact that camping at ‘Lakefire’ was very expensive!) we decided, thanks to some quick thinking from Jai, to head to Lake Moogerah about 20 minutes away, instead. So – after a bit of a bumpy/grumpy, disappointing start – we managed to keep our ‘Happy Faces’ on and have a great weekend camping at Lake Moogerah Caravan Park.
Lake Moogerah is located about 90 minutes away from Brisbane in the very beautiful Scenic Rim area. The campground was fantastic with lovely shady, grassy sites and direct access to the lake (although it is quite muddy/weedy on the water’s edge). The amenities were great and there was even a playground where Shell and I took the kids early this morning to have a play in order to let the rest of the campground wake up without the alarm clock noise of our gaggle of rowdy kids at 6am in the morning! The campground was very busy and obviously a popular spot for water skiers and jet skiers, which was only a problem when they went past us while we were trying to master the Johnson family’s stand up paddle board. Ben and I both ended up having a refreshing dunk on two occasions!
It did get quite chilly at night and first thing in the morning so we were grateful for the camp fire and the extra liners in the kids sleeping bags! We need to give a special mention to our dog Jerry who we brought with us on this trip as dogs were allowed at Camp Lakefire. They were not however, allowed at Lake Moogerah, so poor Jerry spent the whole weekend in the camper, only being snuck out every now and then for toilet breaks!! He didn’t seem to mind though – we would look back at the camper from the lake and see him sitting up at the window watching us all – just grateful to have come along!
An absolutely beautiful spot to camp and the campground was really quite reasonably priced for all of the amenities. We have really fallen in love with the Scenic Rim area – wished we had have found it earlier – just another of the many great spots to camp around South East QLD!!!
Jess and Matt, I must say that the photography through all your posts has been great. Keep up the good work.
Looks like another good weekend, glad to see the kayak getting used.
I hope you picked up your dogs mess after it’s toilet breaks. I’m sure a lot of people would have liked to have their dog their but unlike you, didn’t interpret the ”No Dog’s” rule as ”No Dog’s except yours”.
Hi David – we did of course take our little dog Jerry out in the car and away from the campground for his ‘toilet’ outings. And as he is only a little dog we always found it very easy to pick up after him using a shopping bag. We do respect a campground’s ‘no dogs’ rule but unfortunately in this instance, we didn’t do so. We were only staying the night and knew that we would keep our dog in the camper at all times and knew that he would not bark, so we would not disturb other campers at all. We understand that this was still not allowed, but hope we can be forgiven just this once!