With the queens birthday long weekend, and the factory shutting for 2 days, there was an opportunity to get away....Steve, our poodle, had a job to do near Brisbane, and if we were in the area (or within 3 hrs!) there was a chance to put a face to the name and meet up with Alex and Connie of Disability Aid Dogs .
A few phone calls and everything was on. All we needed to do was to find a tent and camping supplies, get ourselves packed and put the dogs in the van.
Normally this wouldn't be too challenging, but Molly still has her puppies for another 2 weeks, so its 2 adults, 5 adult dogs and 6 puppies on a mission to SE Queensland, a 2,000km round trip.
The first morning was spent finding a tent. Looking locally, then on ebay. It turned out that the online shop was actually in Gosford so we went to visit camping megastore and got kitted out. The staff were very helpful and wished us well on our trip.
There is plenty of accomodation on the Pacific Highway, particularly around Coffs, which is approximately half way, but with a pack of dogs on board, even those places that might allow pets might think we were having a laugh, so free camping it would have to be.
At Grafton we headed inland on the Summerland Highway, which is more scenic and runs through a variety of state forests and national parks. from looking on the internet, a place called Ellangowan State Forest seemed like a reasonable target, but with no maps... fortunately we stumbled across it (we think!).
Next challenge. putting up a 6 man tent, which we'd not seen out of the bag at 11:30pm... Apologies to the people in the caravan, but by 1am it was up, and we were all in bed. Us in one compartment of the tent, big dogs in another, and the puppies in the back of the van. A good nights sleep was had by all...
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