Erin didn't fancy an elaborate birthday dinner. She really just wanted a camp oven dinner in the forest - specifically our adaptation of butter chicken, which is actually butter pork (first made during our Kwiambal trip). There's a pic of a thermal cooked version cheffed when we visited Ironfest in 2012. You can see the added butter and cannellini beans, plus extra vegies.
The weather was amazingly variable throughout the day. There was blue sky, rain, wind and even hail! We decided to keep preparing and packed a gazebo to set up on-site over one of the existing picnic tables.
Once at the reserve, Erin and Vaughan set up Elmer's awning. When it was last used, one of the side poles was bent but is still functional (though hopefully will be replaced soon). You can see Nick lighting our latest acquisition, a new Coleman Northstar Dual Fuel Lantern bought at the most terrific bargain price, due to it being used as a demonstration model. Our original dual fuel lantern was purchased in 2009 for our first camping trip and has served us very well since. It hasn't been functioning to it's usual high standard though (and neither has our original dual fuel stove, also from 2009) but in chatting to the salesman, he offered the solution - and service kits for both items are to be purchased in the near future when stock becomes available.
What of Erin's camp oven feast? The fact that there are no photos of the finished dish prove how great it was - and how hungry we were! (I'd cooked rice in the thermal cooker before leaving and it was pretty good too). The cake was lovely and the birthday song was sung with great gusto, particularly by Bandit! Erin declared the night wonderful - and it was. There was even a wombat sighting as we chatted by the fire. It doesn't get much better than that!
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