Camping the Basin at Ku-Ring- Gai Chase National Park
Finally the weather cleared enough this weekend for us to book a campsite at The Basin. We have been trying to go for 2 weeks but the Autumn season kept bringing in weekend rain! Unfortunately Mikey had to work and the only way to get to the Campsite is to take the Palm Beach Ferry and the last one leaves at 6pm. That was not enough time for him to drive from Manly to Palm Beach. So it was a girls camping weekend!!
Katie works at the Kayak rental place so she was not done until 5pm so D and I were on the early mission to pack, shop, and set up camp. It was quit the adventure trying to lug all of our stuff on the bus and then onto the ferry but we managed. We took the L90 bus from Narrabeen to Palm beach and then took the Palm Beach 20 minute ferry ride to the Basin. The ferry ride was beautiful really giving us a panoramic view of the Northern Beaches Peninsula.
D and I arrived and quickly staked out a spot that was close to the water and the grills and far away from others. Wallabies greeted us which immediately got us in the spirit! They are sooo cute. The camping is tent camping only and they have no store or anything just that at 10 and 3:30 they sell ice. So we bought ice at 3:30 and checked ourselves in. After we set up we headed straight to the grills for a sausage sizzle. We had a perfect view of Pittwater Intercoastel with all the sailboats and in the distance you could see the Palm Beach lighthouse. So beautiful. We then cased out the rest of the area. The Basin is surrounded by water and hills of the national park. They also have a big picnic area and 2 big fire pits with wood they provide to build a controlled campfire.
We met Katie at the ferry 6:20 and then headed back to the grills for dinner! We made fish sandwiches, corn, and raman. It is not an official camping trip without raman. We then went and sat by the campfire with some other Aussies and then retreated back to our campsite where we sat on a blanket and talked about life under the stars. It was so much fun!! Our sleeping situation was pretty funny. We took mikey and I's tent since it was a 3 man but we only had the one air mattress. D had the idea that if we turned it horizontal we could at least all have room for our upper bodies. So we all slept with our feet hanging off the edge. Pretty funny!!
The next day was the day light saving so we got up 6:30am and watched the sunrise. We then went and made a much needed breakfast of sausage, bacon, eggs, beans, toast, crackers and cheese, and coffee. We had breakfast by the water and then got ready for some swimming! The sun was shining bright it was going to be a gorgeous day! We snorkeled the Basin and then took a walk around the cliffs and found a relaxing spot to watch all the sailboats on the water. There was also wild Goanna's around the camp ground. We saw them getting into one persons food and even into their coolers. Apparently they get pretty aggressive around the food! They will crawl up you someone said. I stayed a good distance back from them. They are really cool to look at. Sadly it was time to pack up and get the ferry back to reality! Mikey was there to pick us up! It was such a great way to spend a weekend!
Love Always,
Kristen
