Darlington Park

Although we are no longer in Capalaba, we aren’t that far away. I had to have another series of tests and need to be back in Brissy this Friday for the results, but we thought bugger it! We’re going somewhere more interesting.

About an hour and a half drive from Capalaba is a great camping spot; Darlington Park camp ground. It’s a very well maintained, open area, quiet (apart from the much needed road works,) near a nice little river, and there are plenty of birds. Oh, and when I say a nice little river, I mean a river that’s crystal clear and so enticing for swimming – if the water wasn’t so cold.

Just a little side note. It really does pay to keep an eye on things. While Peter was setting up the camp, in particular lowering the awning, he noticed something that could have been a problem. The screws holding the awning to the van were not just loose, they were almost out.

FYI The test results came back; I need more tests. ☹ So, Darlington Park is our home for a few more days.

So to cheer us up here are some of the locals.

Even though this was a bit of an impromptu camp, we decided to have a camp oven meal. We didn’t have the right cut of meat for slow cooking. No stock and limited vegies. Who cares, I’ll give it a go. I dug out three lamb chump chops from the freezer, not a cut I normally buy, then because of Peter’s recent health issues, I went about de-fatting the meat. I know, I love my lamb fat too. Never mind, it’s all about eating healthier now, and the carnivore birds got a good feed from the off cuts. Butcher birds, Grey Butcher’s, Magpies, and Currawongs.

After heating the pan, I seared the meat bones, such as they were, along with a few bits of onions, garlic, parsnip, and carrot in olive oil. After that, I did something different. I would normally add the meat and sear that. This time, I added the vegies and coated them with the Moroccan seasoning and olive oil.

I then removed the vegies added a bit more oil and seared the meat, which was already coated in the Moroccan seasoning. Once that was seared, I added about 300 ml of water, 100 of wine and put the vegies back in. Gave it a good old stir and sat down to enjoy a beer.

Did it taste good? I don’t know yet, I’m still enjoying my beer. I’ll let you know in about an hour and a half.

An hour and a half later… They say a picture paints a thousand words, well this picture only needs one…Yummy! To be honest it was not one of the best camp oven dishes, but it was very tasty none the less and we had the leftovers as a fry up for breakfast the following day.

I told Hugo not to feed the birds, would he listen to me? Course not, he’s a boy bear.

And finally, great news. I got the results from my last test, and… we are good to go! No more hanging around Brisbane for anything. We are booked in here until Saturday 25^th June then we gone. The plan is to travel west through south Queensland to Birdsville, then we we take the Birdsville Track and finally make it to south Australia. What?…we’re only seven months behind schedule.

See you out there somewhere

On tow and on the go!