Camping with good friends and family.

It's not often that we take the time to get away from it all. But why not?, (except for the monetary reasons of course - you could even take the time out to go camping in your backyard with the kids).

I dont have many pictures for you this week due to the fact that my trusty iPhone lept out of my pocket unannounced in an area where I dont have reception (mainly using it for the camera). The images that I caught with my mind are fantastic and I will do me best to translate it for you.

A picture says a thousand words, but there is nothing like the flashbacks of a fantastic weekend spent with good friend and company. As we are approaching the end of the year, it seem as though everyone is ready for a holiday. The weekend past was a great opportunity for us to get together, to let the kids (as well as ouselves) socialise, and go a bit feral for a couple of days.

An early mark on Friday saw us departing the big smoke ASAP! It wasnt long before the 2 hour journey was over and we had the camp site set up (after a small detour to the local butcher to get dinner for the night that we left in the fridge at home). A couple of friends had already set up in the back paddock, and a few were still making their way up through the nightmare of the Friday afternoon nightmare traffic.

Before you know it we have a lot of good company around us, as well a good chinwag, that see only a few survive to the wee hours of Saturday morning.

First light sees the young families awake to the serenity of what we call 'the farm'. A small acreage lot, set with the backdrop of the morning sun, rising over tree lined bluff emerging from the rolling hills behind us. The bluff is home to a few hundred cattle lazily chewing on the watered grasses beneath them, and a gentle fog that accompanies the cool air.

The sound and smell of the bacon and eggs, soon awake the masses. Not much deliberation is required for the 'blokes' to decide that a meat purchasing expedition to the colonial butcher is in order, so we pile into the cruisers and head for town. On our arrival, the meat is being handed over as fast as the hard earned money is.

The brother'n'law heads off for a ride on his TE310 into he state forest for a blast and I am very Jealous. I might be able to hit him up later for a blast, to see what all the rave about fuel injection is?

We go for exploring in the forest for some rock pools in the forest that we will be able to utilise in the hot days to come. It is not quite hot enough for dip today, but fun to explore and know what is available around us. We are soon met by a TE310 and we all head back to 'the farm' for a bite to eat, or at least we thought.

The TE310 come past us on the back wheel and disappears into the distance, but we soon catch up to him pulled over on the side of the track in front of a long skidmark on the dirt road behind him. A stick had managed to derail the chain and it looks like it is in the back of the ute for the weekend. It will be chain and sprockets for the bike as the chain has suffered a 90 degree rotation.

Back for lunch and we decide to explore the forest some more before the Triton has to pack up and head back to the big smoke. 'Just a quick look around they said, it will be fun they said'. But nothing could prepare us for the treachery that was about to take place.

We headed up the track into the forest where I had explored with another friend a few weeks earlier. A few dead ends, and a couple of voluntary hill climbs saw us with a bird eye view of the valley. We could partially see the camp ground below and took a few happy snaps to show the crew later before heading further in. Heading south, we crossed a fairly boring section of scrub/logging country, before getting to some really nice timber. Eager to find some rain forrest, we kept heading south to find a few welcoming sign posts showing easy routes to take. My cruiser is in good nick, and the Triton and Navara are pretty much brand new, so we didnt want anything extreme, just something to test out our abilities as drivers and to make sure that the vehicles were up to the challenge. My worn all terarrain tyres were no problem on the ground that we covered, but the paintwork was about to get a real workout.

I have never seen so much lantana in my life. There was no turning back, we had to continue as there was nowhere to turn around and the hills that we decended may have called for winching if we back tracked, and we knew that the road was only a few kilometers in front of us. The lantana scratched our cars like fingernails on a chalkboard. It was terrible listening to it. Was the great adventure that we just had, becoming a tradgedy??

If you dont laugh you cry. We soon got back to thee camp ground and was met with the wifes death stares, 'What have you done to the car!?' I knew it wasnt goig to be pretty. 'It will polish out',.... 'I hope' (mumbled under my breath). I will soon find out in the next few days as I pick up some cutting compound and attemp to restore the cruiser to its former glory. Somehow, I dont think that we will be exploring without a bike in the future.

The afternoon saw use runing after the young bloke on the peewee, making sure that he didnt take off into the distance (running after him with a rope tied to the bike). Im glad that there were a few keen runners, but we are all going to be sore tommorrow.

A few cold beverages to summarise the weekend and the BBQ was in full swing. It is a great feeling to be surrounded by all the babies, toddlers, teens, dogs, friends and family. With the sun setting over the the hills, and the banter flowing, it saw the closing of another great weekend. Tommorrrow we will pack up and head back to civilisation, albeit minus a telephone with images of great times captured.....

Looking forward to next weekend, the 250EXC-F gets its first taste of fresh air in nearly 12 months!