At one with Nature

This weekend was camping time. The idea of being 'At one with Nature' was greatly aided by the fact that we were car camping. God forbid we should have to carry all the gear we used during our camping weekend. My friend, Trina, and I went camping at Green Patch in Jervis Bay and we had two full cars of gear. I think we both had enough food to feed an army for the weekend and we managed to get through most of it.

But there was no sausages and baked beans for us. We started the weekend with a crunchy chicken salad. Trina got the recipe off the back of a packet of Changs noodles. She brought down a pre-cooked chicken which made life very easy. She also brought a box of ice cubes so that we could enjoy a few Gin & Tonics - this really was luxury camping.

We had an ongoing battle with a gas bottle that was connected to a lamp and a two burner stove but it always seemed to come good when we needed it most. Which was handy when I was preparing marinated steaks on the second night.

The highlight of the camping gastronomy were the pancakes which Trina made on the last morning. Now I would love to be able to say we whipped up some batter on the morning but really the extent of our culinary input to the pancakes was deciding on how much water should be added to the pancake mixture. After a bit of a dud start, caused mainly by the lack of a spatula to flip the pancakes, Trina perfected the little golden beauties. She ingeniously put together a pancake flipper with the use of a plastic lid, a Swiss army knife, a twig and some tape from a first aid kit - she must have watched a few episodes of MacGyver in her day. This is definitely one woman you would want to be stranded on a desert island with. Before you'd know it she would have put together a life raft and away you'd sail.


I would highly recommend camping at Green patch (section Y). The wildlife is fantastic and the beach beside the camp site is magnificent. We were blessed with good weather all weekend and even managed a hike in to Steamers beach which is a real hidden gem.