“Kids, off you go to collect wood for the camp fire.” This is what our kids heard every night when we arrived at a new camping spot. Tonight, they were even responsible for starting and maintaining the fire.
Between 3 of them they had Campfire Leader, Main Wood Collector and 2nd Wood Collector 😊. While the kids were busy with their campfire duties and our Captain Andrei was unhitching and opening the caravan, I set off to explore this area.
We drove on Sandstone-Wiluna road from Wiluna to reach this place. It took us 3 hours or even more due to a number of pee and photo stops.
Kids did not complain being on the road for that long. Some used the opportunity to stay in the car and read books, while the youngest, played with the wheels of the caravan, pretending he was a mechanic!
Waiting for the drone to fly there and back, I was taking pictures while my little son played with the red dirt. There is so many things you can pretend the red dirt could be. Let your imagination run free!
The road, although being unsealed, was in a very good condition (suitable for 2-wheel drive).
Despite of that, we saw quite a number of abandoned cars on the road.
I must mention that during our travel (it was in July in the afternoon), we did not see a single car travelling in either direction during our nearly 3-hour journey.
We found Lake Mason on Wikicamps and decided to camp there for the night. Originally cattle, then later sheep station, it is situated 50km north-east of Sandstone. In 2000 it was bought by Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) and turned into a conservation park, which covers nearly 150,000 hectares of land.
There are remnants of the homestead, which is run down, but is still looking very decent with all necessities for campers. There were a couple of picnic tables in the undercover area of the homestead, tap water in the adjacent kitchen, where we washed our dishes, cement fire pits with plates for cooking meals over fire. Flushing toilets (even with a roll of toilet paper!) were a bit further away.
We were pleasantly surprised to find 2 showers, where the water could be heated by burning fire wood.
We were the only campers there and made full use of the facilities – starting the fire and heating up showers, bringing lots of wood (even enough for the next users), using picnic tables, covering them with picnic table clothes, which made our dinner more home like.
Going for a morning walk is one of my favourite pastimes. It is an opportunity to enjoy solicitude and take some pictures.
It is normal for kids to go without showers (or even washing their faces) for days when camping wild. Even though Ilusha did take shower the night before (the first and the only one during the whole 7-night trip), he must have forgotten to wash his face… or it quickly became dirty again. Well, “wild and free” was not only our motto for that trip, it was how our hearts and bodies looked and felt!
