Camping...Friday night and Saturday...

Oh man I am so behind on the blog! I've been really tired lately trying to adjust to my new hours at work, which involve very early mornings and evenings with a commute. However, this is my attempt at trying to catch up. Last Friday, we left work a bit early and headed to Girraween National Park for our first ever Australian camping trip. It's also been the first time that we've been camping in a long time so we were pretty excited! It took us about 4 hours to drive there, as we got caught in some weekend traffic leaving the city and we stopped for a bite to eat. We set up camp in some chillier than we're used to weather. Stanthorpe, the town closest to the park, is supposed to be the coldest town in Queensland (the state where we live) and seeing as it's winter, it was forecast to dip down to a nippy 3 degrees, with a high of only 16 degrees!! I bundled up (hat, gloves, scarf, 3 sweaters, fleece pants and wool socks) and didn't mind it at all! It was actually a bit fun to feel some cold on my cheeks again! Having said that, I still wonder if I will ever be able to do a -40 degree day ever again!!! We took a lot of pictures, so I've attempted to post a few of the main events...

There were a lot of birds everywhere! They really were not shy about snatching food either! A kookaburra (seen in the picture above...sounds just like a monkey when he sings!) stole a piece of Steve's toast right off the grill when he turned his back and then later another one (or perhaps the same brave bird) landed right on the grill and didn't want to move, even with Rej and Steve trying to shoo him away!! The birds were very pretty though, however they were also very loud!! It made sleeping in past 7 very difficult! The verdict...I am still not a bird fan!
There weren't too many campers when we were there, which was cool because we had a whole section to ourselves... It's been my goal, since I moved here to see a wild kangaroo. Well, that was an easy goal to achieve at this park! I woke up to kangaroos hopping by our campsite (a whole family of them...it was amazing!) and there were a few of them just having out on the grass by the bathrooms. I was shocked at how tame they were! They didn't even move when we got close to them and took pictures! Mind you we didn't get too close...they are still a wild animal! These were taken on our walk to the bathroom for our morning pee.

On Saturday, we went hiking. The hike was really cool...massive boulders all over the place, many on top of each other. I'm not sure how they came to be like that, but it looked really cool!
Steve's the King of the Castle...
Everyone hiking...we went camping with the Purdys, Rej and Clo and Dan and Amy. One great thing about camping in the winter is no bugs and no snakes!

Lunch break at "Sphinx rock", before heading onto Turtle rock (a rock that resembled a turtle) and Castle rock (you guessed it, a rock that resembled a castle!)
A very tall rock wall...


Group shot...

Shamus has been eating his spinach!
Darryl has too apparently...

My homeless lady gloves...they worked great! Best $4.99 I've spent in awhile!
Hmmmm...what's in here...? Nosy roo!
A very fat possum who went in our garbage when it was sitting right beside us!!! Whatever happened to wildlife being more afraid of you then you are of them?!?
A Mommy feeding her Joey...
...and a wee little Joey in the Mommy's pouch...how cute is that?!

We slept surprisingly well both nights. I was just a little cold on the second night, but nothing too bad. We ate lots of yummy food and drank some wine. All the trimmings for a great camping weekend!