4 Days at The Ruins

The Ruins camping ground is just out of Forster on the NSW coast and part of the Booti Booti National Park. We met our 2nd son, along with his 3 children and wife who camped in a camper trailer, while we finally tried out our Pop up Van on its first shake down. It was to celebrate the Ant's 40th birthday.

The area we stayed in  was very nice, $16 night with toilet and shower facilities, no power. It was a good first try as coping with the fridge(gas run) and a plethora of cooking options, and changing the cupboards around gave me plenty to do. We also were a 2 minute walk to the beach and had enough space around to try out our fold up bikes. DIL and I rode to the reception area to pay so that was a wobbly experience for both of us, been a while, like 20 years, since I rode a bike. Its true though you never forget. With all the open area around had a few practice runs and have improved a lot.

View from out tent.

The first night on new foam mattresses and the sound of the surf were a little hard to take, so I was a quite tired the next day, but after that, slept well, probably exhaustion, between fresh air, the beach, the children and the heat, getting up in the morning got later and later.

The two awnings were joined together note RHS red chairs is sons.

John coped with trying to work solar power into batteries and had quite a few problems, also no tools to fix things as they were accidentally left behind.This was for charging the ARB fridge/freezer, which he managed to keep to minus 3 degrees. The mistake I made was not freezing everything other than meat, to start with, so it didn't have to work so hard. In future will freeze juice, water, ice,cold meat, milk, maybe cheese. The little fridge in the van worked ok but it was stuffed to the gills, and I think would have coped better with less to chill.

Back view

 I found that we needed to improve our cooking facilities and will ditch the mini BBQ and go with a double burner we have, and the little Japanese single burner. Saucepans/steamer need to be stackable, and our make do table for the BBQ was too fragile so we are getting a decent one.

Trying out the BBQ for Breakfast, back of van was under a tree and shady cool.

 Add a few hooks here and there after the cupboards are painted and things will improve.Loved my camp kitchen that John made, it was great. Also think I need a decent thermos to fill each day. Boiling water for tea/coffee 5 times a day was a waste of fuel.

Visiting friend

All in all it was a great time, and the stars at night amazing. Spending time with Miss J colouring in was also nice. Played cards with all the kids, remember Go fish and Concentration.

Colouring in.

The beach was unmanned and very long, first day, there were blue bottles dotted here and there and rips, the next day double the amount. By the third day they had gone to be replaced by lots of seaweed, and pippies buried in the sand everywhere, but the waves were reasonable for the children, and by the last day the beach was perfect.

National Parks photo of Boomerang Beach.

Next trip won't be till after the New Year maybe February or March,  depends on how hot it will be. In the mean time there is plenty of work to do.