Trip 47 – Augusta Chrissy camping

Things change. This year particularly so, as on our annual Chrissy camping trip to Augusta, Georgia was unable to join us as she’s now “out on the beat,” keeping us civilians safe, working as a Police Officer with W.A. Police. Whilst I’m talking about the girls, I should mention that Mads also finished her Naturopath degree just before coming down, and that was on top of a huge year finally getting her house finished, then sold, whilst juggling the responsibilities of two jobs and full-time study.

Jules and I couldn’t be prouder of our two girls. They are intelligent, funny, and just generally, all-round good people. They’re not just our kids, but our friends as well.

But I digress…

In addition to George not being down, Rod only managed to get down for a few days himself, as he was helping Nina look after her visiting relatives, so Rod and Nina missed New Year’s Eve. Courtney was down this year with her baby, Addie and partner Shelby. Tyler and Mitch, now both driving, went home early to celebrate NYE with their mates rather than us old fogies. So yep, things change. But hey, that’s life and we’re all living it.

But change doesn’t mean our Augusta trip wasn’t great, as it was!!

For Jules and me, this was a very casual trip with plenty of time spent chillaxing, either reading a book, watching the Aussies beat India at the cricket on the laptop, or visiting wineries and spending time with friends. Notable activities this year included:

• Quade and I spending a couple of cracking days out fishing in the yak (Hobie) – perfect conditions and dozens of fish to keep us entertained.
• Jules and I had a couple of lovely morning teas and meals at the Ragged Robin and ColourPatch.
• Catching up with Seth and Mel, Jules and Mad’s gym trainers, at Mr Barval for a lovely afternoon of chatting, wine and cheese platter.
• Catching up with my hockey mate, Brad at his sister’s winery, Knotting Hill and sampling their great wines with a lovely lunch platter overlooking their wonderful dam.
• A beautiful lunch at Glenarty Wines with paired wines with P&T.
• A Berry Farm brunch with the camping crew.
• Jules and I chatting to Rob at Firetail Wines for an hour or so about life, kids and everything else, whilst sampling their fantastic wine as we do every year.
• A round of par 3 golf, where the mozzies were the clear winners.
• Swimming on the calm days with Harriet.
• Spending a really subdued New Year’s Eve with the normal crew, plus Lyle and Andrea, Quade and Mads mates Wayne, Emma and family who were staying on Rod’s site for the days that he wasn’t using it, and Jules and Toljy dropping by.
• Catching up with Beres for a beer back at camp one arvo.
• A meal at Jimmys, the Augusta Pub.
• Enjoying the top-quality meats from the Augusta Butcher.
• Partaking of the much-improved fare at the Augusta Bakery

And, despite having done our Chrissy camping at Augusta for more than 20 years, this was also a year of a couple of new firsts, including:

• Spotting a couple of Quendas, also known as Southern Brown Bandicoots. One within the Flinders Campground, and Mads spotted another on her walk to ColourPatch one morning.
• Watching a large male Kangaroo buck, hop right through the middle of the campground one night, seemingly nonplussed by all the campers, noise and dogs around him.
• And most spectacularly, observing our first Aurora Australis. Bec had noted there was a solar storm in progress, so we walked up to the point by Granny’s Pool to view and photograph it. Absolutely beautiful and amazing to witness.

And to top it all off, we were blessed by generally great weather, with light-ish winds for a change and warm, sunny weather most days.

Once again, Augusta has the goods and we just love this place. All the while, having a good time chilling out with our friends and family.

Enough blogging though, here are the pics.

Here comes the infamous NYE pics, noting that this year was a lot quieter than normal, which we put down to Georgia, Rod, Nina and Tyler not being there. This year’s theme was Disney/Pixar.