It's been a long time, now I'm...

coming back home....I've been away now, oh how.......

Hands up who was singing it in their head?? (Gotta love the Beatles).

I haven't been away too far, just very busy with Christmas, some commission work and getting stuff ready for my market stall...and I finished a couple of items too.

We here in Oz just celebrated Australia Day - it commemorates the first settlement of Europeans in Australia - it has been mired in a little controversy given the status of the traditional landholders, but it is still a public holiday and it is very traditional for folks to get away for 'the long weekend' (Oz Day is the 26th January and it happened to fall on the weekend, so Monday was declared a public holiday, giving us a 3 day weekend).

My bff, her partner and my husband decided to get away camping, to Noojee, a spot the boys recced the weekend before.  Gorgeous spot, next to a river and not too far to travel.  There's new long drops, lots of shade and given the weather forecast, it seemed like an ideal spot.

Oh dear, how wrong we were...

When we pulled in late on Friday afternoon, it didn't take us long to set up and get the kettle on and contemplate what we'd have for dinner.

Nicked the photo from my bff's facebook page

A Ranger came around to let us know there was still a Total Fire Ban in place, so cooking over the fire was out of the question.  No drama's - perfect opportunity to have dinner at a place called The Outpost in town (the schnitzels were amazing, real chicken breast and came with a multitude of different toppings.  The boys had a Billy Burger and declared them very, very tasty - we'd definitely go back again).

A couple of camping groups in the same area decided that the Total Fire Ban could not possibly apply to them, so they lit a campfire - given they had young kids in their party, this behaviour was completely irresponsible.  It was compounded later by the arrival of several dirt bikes - obviously they'd been out riding when we arrived and the noise they made on their return certainly shattered the serenity of the place - being in a valley added reverberating echoes all around the camping ground - hmm, not enjoying Noojee as much now.....but wait, there's more....

Several groups decided that they should play their music, loudly, so everyone could hear - so we had Jon Bon Jovi up against doof doof (I can't call it music - Gawd, how old do I sound!!) - not the same doof doof artist at each site mind you, but lots of different ones, just in case we didn't like one of them....

This continued for some time - but it did finish reasonably early on Friday night so off to bed and hopefully a better day on Saturday.

Have to say, Saturday not a great deal better - more bikes - a nice surprise though was that a Total Fire Ban was not declared so campfires legal and we looked forward to a good night around the fire.  Wasn't to be - the 'music' was louder - it appeared that each group decided their particular music should have centre stage - so they just kept turning the sound up - we even had the Bon Jovi group 'singing' along to their cd (don't give up your day job girls!).  The group behind us played a card game that apparently required a lot of shouting - things like f**k, a******e and raucous laughter - don't get me wrong - I love a drink and I swear - but omg, there were kids about and OTHER PEOPLE CLOSE BY.  The noise continued until 1.30am Sunday morning and I'd had enough - not enough sleep - terrible music - noisy bikes.....

I'd love to say I marched up to the ferals/bogans and demanded they thought about others besides themselves - but I didn't - they'd been drinking since lunchtime and I wasn't game enough - so, after breakfast Sunday morning, we came home - a day earlier than planned.  The good thing about that was I was able to watch the Oz Open men's final  - sorry Murray didn't win but it was a great match.

I love camping, especially bush camping, and the irresponsible idiots that tear up the bush, frighten the wildlife and think of no-one but themselves make me despair.  I know this type of anti-social behaviour happens in towns and cities all over the place, but I usually avoid situations where I have to deal with it..there was a time when I wouldn't have thought twice about confronting the perpetrators...I wonder when I got so afraid?

In the grand scheme of things, I've nothing really to complain about - we have people battling floods and bush fires in this great land - and I grieve with them...and send my best wishes to all them, including the emergency services members and volunteers assisting them.

Happy Australia Day..