There is an app called WikiCamps and it shows all the out of the way places that you can camp for free. The sites range from dusty patches of nothing next to a truck stop to beautiful, secluded river side open spaces with clean drop toilets and a running water supply (those are rare).
We needed a place to stop in between Lake Boga and our next destination in Adelaide so we consulted WikiCamps and found a recommended spot called the Ngallo Tennis Court Campsite, a disused tennis court that the locals turned into a camp spot.
We set off from Lake Boga, drove through Swan Hill and stopped off in Ouyen for a coffee/hot chocolate and playground visit. It took a while to actually find a playground and when we did it was pretty run down. Ben and Lou had to give each other imaginary swings on this equipment.
If the state of the playground wasn't a strong enough indication of the regard this town has for children, the sign below certainly made it clear that the Fun Police are in control.
We left Ouyen, afraid that someone might kidnap Ben and lock him in a dark cellar and headed for our overnight Tennis Court Campsite. I was looking forward to seeing what the beautifully named town called Boinka actually looked like and was sad to discover that it is nothing more than a 80kmph zone and a rail crossing. We continued on through the town of Carina and turned off the highway onto our first dirt road with the van, Ngallo South Road.
After a couple of kms we saw the camp area and pulled in. It was deserted and dusty with a falling down old wooden shed that used to be club rooms and a very old asphalt tennis court that was pocked like a moonscape and had 2 trees growing in it. There was a rusty, corrugated iron drop toilet that was gross, full of cobwebs and a bit stinky and an old empty water tank. There was a big open space and 2 fire places that were full of ashes, partially melted beer bottles and an old burnt out sardine tin. It was perfect!
 |
| Happy with this great spot! |
As soon as we pulled up, Ben wanted to play some tennis so he and Jenny had a challenging match. Jenny played on the side with the two bushes. She called them George and Jeb.
She and Ben then got their bikes out and rode up and down the dirt road collecting fire wood while I dug out one of the fire places and found some good marshmallow roasting sticks (which Jenny then inadvertently threw in the fire). We got a great fire going and had a brilliant evening in the perfect quiet with no-one around for miles (aside from a couple of farmers passing by, one with 3 enormous truck tyres stacked in the back of his ute - not something you see every day!)
We spent a lovely night there and look forward to more of the same once we get to the more remote areas of our trip. We will need to ration our water better next time. We took 60 litres but Ben used 50 of those having a long hot shower. Next time he can stay dusty and smelly.
No comments:
Post a Comment