We left Lake Indoon around 9.30 this morning, and arrived at Galena Bridge just after mid-day. What a pleasure it is to be travelling shorter distances in comparison to our usual full days of travel. With only a short distance planned for the day we had time for a cuppa in bed this morning, and I even read a couple of chapters of my book before rising. Then it was a leisurely breakfast of yogurt and fruit before filling our travel mugs with coffee, and starting out for today’s trip. With such a short distance – not even 300kms,  we barely even needed a loo stop.

A quick mini set up as we’re staying hooked up, then lunch cooked in the van. That’s almost a first. On our previous longer travelling days, we would make lunch to eat as we travelled along. I think, and hope those days are now long behind us. This is a much more leisurely way to travel, allowing us to enjoy the trip, as well as the destination.

Lunch and dishes out of the way, we set off to explore our surroundings on foot.

The area is divided into two camping areas with caravans on one side of the river, and tent groups on the other. I’m not sure if that’s the usual way of things, but that’s how it is today. Over the river from us is a large group of back-packers on tour, all with their little tents supplied by the tour operator. I wasn’t sure if we were going to be in for a raucous night  as they seemed to be in party mode. All quiet now though, so perhaps they’ve burned out early.

The caravan/camping area on our side is quite large. We have dump points for our chemical toilets, lots of bins for our rubbish, and well maintained drop toilets. A shady walk track runs between the level caravan sites and the river.

There’s also several fire pit rings. Hopefully someone will have wood tonight for a bit of a camp fire – there’s nothing quite like a camp fire for the swapping of camping tales.

Free camps, particularly ones as good as this one tend to fill up quickly. We usually arrive late in the afternoon when planning a free stop only to end up on uneven sites nowhere near the best of views. Today, arriving earlier, we’ve found ourselves a  level site in a prime position.

It’s currently just after 4.30pm and now all the good sites have been taken. The place is filling up fast but there’s still a few spaces. No doubt by morning the area will be full to capacity as the younger back-packers  don’t tend to arrive  until after dark. They like to make the most of their time and money by filling their days completely in the towns, and then heading for a free camp spot to find a place to squeeze into later. I gather not many countries have the facilities we have here for visitors on a budget. They love it, and why wouldn’t they – what’s not to love. It’s good to be living in the ‘lucky country’.