My First Solo Adventure

Finally, 6 months after having bought my Kia Sportage Diesel I got around to getting a towbar fitted. 

How empowering is a towbar? 

I had one lesson and I was ready to take Annie away on my own. 

I wanted to try somewhere new but still close to home. 

Glenworth Valley is predominantly a horse riding and adventure park set on 200 acres of rolling hills, flowing rivers and green pastures. They also cater for "off the grid" camping. 

This would do nicely.

So under Shane's watchfull eye, I managed to reverse up to the tow ball with the help of a pretty accurate reversing camera (thankyou Kia) and hitch up the van and connect up the wiring.  I was ready.

The drive to Glenworth Valley took 45 minutes at a consistent 80kms per hr on the motorway and between 5 and 20 kms per hour on the mostly unsealed road down to the valley.

Unhitching and setting up was pretty straight forward until my lack of height and a small ladder prevented me from putting up the annexe by myself.  The campers on the site next to me who were in the process of packing up came to my rescue and between the 3 of us we got the annexe up. 

Campfires, Camp Chairs and Horses

On the first night I attempted to light a fire using the kindling and large firewood I purchased from the local fuel stop and the junk mail that I had collected the week before going away.  I tried 5 times.  The paper just wouldn't burn a flame big enough to heat the wood. It was dark and cold so i gave up and headed inside to warm my hands up in the cutlery drawer.  The heat from the fridge keeps my cutlery toasty 24/7.

The next morning I cleared away the campfire mess from the previous night and started from scratch but this time I used dried leaves and bark on top of the paper and didn't that just set the place on fire.  

I kept the fire burning while I had breakfast and a cup of tea.  It was later in the morning when i left the camp to visit the horses with my daughter and grandson who were visiting for the day that a strong wind blew up.  On our return to camp we were confronted with the charred remains of my only camp chair and favourite camp towel.