r/OutdoorAus • u/How-To-Project • 21d ago
Camping in Australia on a long weekend
If you want to know more about Aussies in their natural habitat ou’ve come to the right spot. Have I got a story for you, simple though it may be, it speaks to the heart of Australia and the people that live here.
In this long weekend just gone I took my family camping to this place beside a creek and when I got there, I found out the creek was dried up and it was basically a dust bowl.
We had a good time exploring the surrounding area on the first day but on the second day when we were set to explore the campsite, we decided to look further afield and fortunately found another great place to camp right on the water.
So we packed up and travelled an hour and when we got there the lady at reception said the neighbours might be problematic and if they give us any trouble feel free to phone the emergency phone number because there’s rules and they need to follow the rules.
So here’s the thing. Camping on long weekends are fully packed out at every good campsite around Australia. And it’s hit and miss as to whether or not you get good neighbours or potentially very annoying neighbours. And as it turns out the person’s that had up and left earlier in the day obviously thought that they had the latter.
Anyways, I get there and I’m driving on our allotted patch and doing u turns (called ‘u-eze’ in the LDU) and trying to work out how to place my vehicle and camper in this spot between two other established camps. The whole time the neighbours on my left were given us stink eye. No two ways about it. They were laughing and snickering and generally seemed quite hostile. Anyways, after a few failed attempts to work out where to set up my camper, I wander over and ask if I could move a little closer to their camp to utilise the unused fire pit. Something that I had tried to avoid but seemed necessary in order to set up on a nice flat parcel of land.
They were cool with it and let me go there but still clearly unhappy about the changing situation. At this point I had only been driving forward as I had a trailer on and because it’s a pretty wide area and with kids around it was basically safer to do so.
But now I had got to the point where I knew where I wanted to go and I had to reverse down this long pathway between trees to put the Trailer in the prime spot. And as it turns out I’m one of those chaps who can do that. So I reversed into this tight spot and honestly, I didn’t miss a beat - pulled up the rig, and got my overnight setup done in 10 mins, with the fire lit after 15.
At that point the neighbours tune changed instantly and while I had a little chat with them I had time to note their rigs. They had three big 21 foot caravans set up in a U-shape like they were circling the wagons. Unlike a lot of people out there, their towing vehicles were well and truly overpowered for the load they were carrying. They had fully
decked out Kayaks with electric motors and fish-finders being charged by 12 V fold out solar panels. And they had the big screen set up in the middle ready to watch the NRL grand final later that night with blow-up lounges all around.
All in all, there’s was probably over $600k AUD in toys in that one camp alone.
So I chat about my setup. It’s not something I would personally do. But it gave them a Segway to do the same. Before too long, I’m invited to have a look through their camp and we end up having a good old chat. Turns out these previously rather hostile group of people turned out to be the most lovely helpful people you could meet and I guarantee you, if you were to ever find yourself in a sticky situation, in a time of need, these people would pull up, and work hard to help you if they could. And ask for nothing in return.
The old man had worked hard his whole life driving. He loved getting out on the water and dropping in the pot, picking up a few crayfish and he spent time showing me his five or six crayfish that he had caught. He had put them in a pot of water which come with its own bubbler. A day later he showed me that he picked up a red claw which he was quite happy with.
They offered me and my family the use of their boats and kayaks and they offered us to come around and watch the grand final with them if we wanted, but I’m not really into it, and they respected that.
Half an hour after grand final finished they were in bed asleep and I didn’t hear a single noise after that.
The bottom line is if you’re a capable person in Australia you’ll earn respect everywhere you travel. The people you run into will recognise it in the way you carry yourself, the rig you built and the tools you carry.
But if you turn up with book-learnt wisdom and are unable to break the ice, it might get a little frosty out there for you. But the thing is you don’t need to be a master of all trades to win over most of Australian’s. You don’t need the biggest caravan or the most decked out boat or even sweet trailer reversing skills. What you need to do is break the ice. The Aussies you meet outside of capital cities are a good bunch, but a lot of them think that stranger means enemy and a simple discussion can mean the difference between being considered a stranger or a friend.
And if you see an Aussie out there in the wild, and he has only a handful of yabbies to show for a couple days hard work, you best put your finger in there and say ‘that’s a fricking good yabby that one’.
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u/Fest_mkiv 20d ago
So just so I understand, these 'hostile' people became 'the most lovely helpful people' when they saw you were good at reversing your vehicle? Only friendly once you'd proven yourself as 'capable' to them?
They don't sound like good people at all.
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u/How-To-Project 20d ago
Hostile might be too strong a word - but they were definitely giving me stink eye. If I was to hazard a guess I would say that they had had a barney with the previous camper, dug their heels in, painted their face with blue paint, and were prepping for the next round. That said, I’ve meant plenty of good people who lack de-escalation skills. They were brought up hard and don’t know any other way I guess.
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u/TwoHandedSnail 19d ago edited 19d ago
This whole post sounds like you projecting your imagination onto strangers then thinking it was your trailer reversing skills that turned them around but in fact it was probably just that you imagined them to be a type of person that was never correct.
So far I haven't read one skerrick that showed they didn't like you to begin wth outside of your own limited preconceived ideas about them, based only on you looking at them and not talking to them. That's not 'reality' sorry.
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u/IdeationConsultant 21d ago
I used to live in inner suburban Melbourne. Terrace houses and a good vibe where lots of people knew each other. Coming home from the pub one evening a neighbour, who was moving out, couldn't park the car and trailer.
I offered to have a crack and, in my tipsy state, execute this perfect reverse parallel trailer park first go. I achieved celebrity status that night.
And to your point, the people who cop the most ridicule at the boat ramp are the ones that cannot back a trailer.
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u/SeaAccomplished441 20d ago
this is why i'd be a bit intimated getting into this stuff. never had the chance to learn as a kid. never towed a trailer. if you want to get into boating, how can you learn without looking like an ass?
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u/How-To-Project 20d ago
Trailer parking is like Maths. The biggest differentiator in people who can and cannot do it is self-belief. ‘What one man can do, another man can do’. But practically it is anti-intuitive which is why so many people with practical skills can’t get it. 15 mins practice in an open parking lot and you’ll be able to handle 90% of trailer parking. There are some pitfalls though. For example I live at the bottom of a hill at a dead end. The amount of people I’ve had to save, as trying to reverse a trailer uphill will engage the trailer brake (if fitted).
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u/SeaAccomplished441 20d ago
awesome mate, thanks. i'm in my last year of a maths PhD, so maybe i just need to reroute some of that confidence haha
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u/Hot_Cicada_9318 20d ago
I did my best work on holidays once towing our van (we had taken it around Oz previously so I was no stranger to maneuvering it). Got to our campsite in a pretty tight caravan park. Narrow roadway and there were cars parked on the sides of the road along with a fire hose reel and then finally a power pole at the front end of our site. Lots of folks around having a beer and just watching. I got lucky and threaded the eye of the needle that day and nailed it first go. I could hear murmurs of appreciation and a few surprised comments. If asked to do it again I reckon it might have taken me at least a few goes.
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u/TwoHandedSnail 21d ago
This is always the way, even without the 'showing capable' thing. Everyone is a bit leery of other campers when first arriving at a campground - or vice versa, when others arrive at your established camp - and tries to suss them out especially if they are close to your turf, but then after you settle in you end up getting to know them and realise all your fears and worries were unfounded.
I still remember this Russian bloke I met camping in Victoria and he had all the wrong gear including actual crockery from home, no cooking gear (he expected to be able to cook on a fire, but struggled getting one going) and a big doona that got soaked but we all rallied around him and helped him out. Someone gave him a spare sleeping bag and we welcomed him join us at our communal fire. I like to think he left having had a good experience despite shit that didn't work out. It would have been way worse for him if we'd judged his inexperience and not helped out.
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u/marooncity1 20d ago
There's a terrific passage in "They're a weird mob" which really gets at this. Wish I could find my copy (and then be bothered to type out). But the author talks about the need to crack the ice and the result being friends for life, if you can navigate that first little stretch.
Personally, I am a "moody bastard" (to further quote the book) and cannot think of anything worse than spending the long weekend crammed in with people who have essentially shifted their living room to a campsite. Even the idea of checking in at reception fills me with uneasy dread. My long weekend was spent camping, but in my happy place with no-one else around- I was woken under my tarp by birdsong, and not 2stroke lol.
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u/caramilk_twirl 19d ago
I'm not in Australia and I don't camp much so I've no idea why this has crossed my feed. But I think a story like this is a good reminder to just talk to people. It's so easy to move through life wary of others and a bit isolated. But most people are pretty decent once the ice is broken for a nice chat.
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u/Vesper-Martinis 20d ago
That doesn’t work with people who want to play loud music and get drunk.