Camping in Murrindindi

12 February 2022

After a long few years being somewhat trapped in our little corner of the world, we’ve decided to get out and see the most special parts of our home country, Australia.

For our first trip out (and a little bit of a practise run for future camping trips), we decided to head to a campsite out in Central Victoria in Murrindindi Shire. We travelled with a couple of people you’ll recognise if you have read any of my previous blogs – Amy and Anthony (who will now be known as A&A) – to celebrate Amy’s birthday. She used to travel to Murrindindi when she was younger to spend family camping trips at a campsite named Blackwood, so that was where she was keen to show us camping newbies.

We left Melbourne after work on a Friday, which meant we didn’t reach the campsite until about 6pm. When we met up with A&A, we found that the Blackwood site was full, but luckily for us, Murrindindi Road had a few sites along it following the Murrindindi River. Amy and I explored a little bit and found a cute little site just a little further down from Blackwood called Ferns, which had river access and also flushing toilets (bonus!). It was a sweet little site positioned next to a shallow ditch filled with moss covered fallen trees and reeds and saplings of new growth. Amy was telling us that where we were staying had been devastated by the Black Saturday fires in 2009. She told stories of park rangers saving all campers by gathering them in the nearby river as the fire swept across them. Although it has been 13 years since those fires, the area is still recovering, and coming back stronger and even more lush.

I stayed back to guard the site while Amy went back to grab the Drew and Anthony. There was absolutely no phone reception, so we were truly off the technology for the evening, which honestly was amazing, but it did mean that communication was difficult.

A&A are camping experts compared to the two of us, which was made even more obvious during set up! With our limited experience, setting up was long and filled with tiny frustrations, miscommunications and mistakes. But thanks to daylight savings, we managed to be set up just before dark, with many lessons learned. *note to self, bring a mallet for tent pegs next time*. I had a brief moment looking at our camp set up, and start thinking that perhaps, just maybe, I might be a little bit of a high maintenance camper. Looking at the other campsites around us and seeing people setting up their small tents and swags, then turning my sight to our 8 person tent, with a 3x3m picnic blanket down for “tent carpet” and our queen size memory foam/inflatable mattress… I feel a little embarrassed and can’t help but feel that I will learn a lot on our camping escapades.

If there’s one thing I am eager to do while camping, it’s setting up the campfire! Once set up I got straight onto that so we could start making our dinner. Unfortunately we were also underprepared for this. *note to self, bring firewood with you, you can’t always rely on foraging for wood*. Amy and I went exploring the surrounding vacant campsites and scavenged any left over wood left in the fire pits so we could make a sustainable fire, and thankfully there was enough around. Amy then treated the group to some “Bush Ramen”, which was delicious dish of noodles, minced pork and ramen eggs.

Amy and I went for a little bit of an exploration around the campsite for the chance of seeing a wombat, which are known to hang out by the river campsites. We didn’t find any wombats, but we did have a look down at the river access point where we experiences a few other bits of wildlife. There were spiders everywhere (typical Australia hey?) I also spotted a few trout in the water, which quickly swam off when they found themselves in the spotlight of my torch. While we were by the river, we didn’t see it, but we’re pretty sure we heard the thump of a kangaroo pushing off the ground to hop away from the lights we were bringing a little too close!

We spent the rest of the evening roasting marsh mellows, listening to wildlife in the surrounding bushland, looking at the shining stars and having fun with sachets of “Mystical Fire”, turning the flames beautiful shades of green, blue and purple. We even had a visit from a curious, vibrantly red ring-tailed possum, who stayed with us for a little while, watching the humans and searching for any scraps of food.

It wasn’t too long before we were all growing tired and decided it was time to call it a night. The night wasn’t the easiest for us regrettably, as we had under estimated just how cold it would get overnight. *note to self, bush gets icy, there’s nothing wrong with being over-prepared if you have the space to do so*. So after very little sleep, the sun was up and so was I. To warm up and start preparing for breakfast, I got to practise my fire set up again – I’m getting better! There’s something special about sitting around a campfire in silence, listening to nothing but the crackles of flame and the call of birds announcing daybreak.

When the other two were up, we made a brekky of bacon and eggs, with only a small sacrifice of bacon to the fire gods, and enjoyed the morning sun rays through the trees and the little bit of quiet before our younger campsite neighbours woke up. Today we had planned on seeing a few of the local attractions with A&A, but unfortunately we were heading off without them as they needed to head home.

We had our directions on what to see, and we were off toward the Cascades. The winding roads and gorgeous scenery made the trip for me, the passenger, quite enjoyable, not quite so for Drew who had to focus on the dusty, narrow roads, some of which had no more than small poles on the shoulders. But it was only a short trip until we reached the carpark and headed down the steep stairs to the falls. What a leg work out! The goal of the walk was down the bottom where there is a bridge at the base of the falls, but about half way down there was a little worn path which jutted away from the stairs which allowed you to view them from half way up. This was a breathtaking experience! We poked through the trees, climbed over a few boulders and were able to witness the beautiful falls from a vantage point towards the middle of the flow. As it was off the path, we felt like we had the whole falls to ourselves. I could have sat and taken in the sounds of the rushing water and the freezing cold sprinkles of the water for hours. We did however, take a few happy snaps and headed down to the base where the bridges were. This wasn’t as impressive or immersive, so if you were to visit here, I’d recommend keeping an eye out for the offshoot path on the way down. This area was also the start of a Murrindindi river walk which was 3-4 hours one way. This was definitely not something we were prepared for, but with the scenery around here, I’m sure it would have been a beautiful walk, albeit challenging.

And that was that! The end of the short overnight getaway. If we had more time we would have liked to visit the suspension bridge that was nearby, and maybe would have liked to explore the river a little bit more. That just means we will have to go back and see those bits another time!

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If you’d like to read about some fantastic adventures and see some magnificent photos from A&A, head over to their website here!