Cold and wet ANZAC weekend ...

Nick recently moved back to shift-work and had a block of days rostered off. We used his free time to prepare the caravan, ready for camping over the ANZAC weekend (back to Firth Park).

Our original plan had been to collect Vaughan after his afternoon school ANZAC service and head off from there.

We were packed on time but plans were foiled by a family of earwigs living in the tail-light socket, stopping the lights from working. The pests were evicted, a loose wire fixed, lighting restored and we were off!

Although I had prepped our beds wonderfully for the cold, the skies were clear when we left home so no-one had thought much about the possibility of wet weather. We left our box of waterproof gear at home - and didn't even think to take an umbrella (for trekking back and forth to/from the loo)!

I'd only packed the camping mats at the last minute and we had one gazebo still tied to the drawbar, from our previous camping trip.  I had a couple of older towels and that was it.  Nick brought some firewood with us, which we very much appreciated as the wood on site was quite soggy.  (At times we needed to put the gazebo over the fire, to protect our cooking)!

We've camped in the rain previously and have endured much colder camping but the two weather conditions together were trickier to manage.  Bandit was distinctly unimpressed by the outdoor living - and no-one was reluctant to pack-up after breakfast on Sunday!  That's a first!