Lifes Little Distractions: Peach Trees

Peach Trees has to be one of my top 5 places to camp. It is located near Jimna, Sunshine Coast hinterland.

We had a great time camping here. There are a few short walks you can do and a few 4wd tracks around. The campsites are extremely grassy. It has that lovely thick green grass that makes you want to run around with no shoes on. The creek is crystal clear. Ben and the kids drank from it a few times.

The campsite has tons of wildlife on it. From kangaroos, to cows, possums and goannas - the kids will never be bored chasing the local wildlife!!!

I don't really have a ton of interesting things to report about this trip to Peach Trees. I had no ants biting my bum, no ticks or leeches in sight... just a nice, relaxing place to be.

If my memory serves me (and quite often it doesn't serve me), I think I spent most of the time perched in my chair reading while Ben paced back and fourth wanting to 'do' something. There weren't quite enough walks for him around - which suited me just fine :)

This was the trip where we started the tradition of campfire stories with the kids. Yes I am aware that humans have probably had a long tradition of telling stories around a campfire but this was a new experience for me and my family. The kids love it. We take it in turns to tell made up stories while we toast marshmallows. The kids get 3 marshmallows a night. This is a far cry from the 'have as many as you want just stop a couple before you throw up' notion that I was raised with. Benjabum has quite an aversion to sugar. He doesn't like the kids to eat a ton of it so we ration the mallows. But it works out ok. When you spend as much time camping as what we do you probably don't want to be stuffing yourself full of them every night.

One of my favourite things to do, after the kids go to bed, is sit back in my $200 reclining camp chair with my diet coke and watch for shooting stars. It is so magical. Ben, being a man of few words, and I (being full of words) have had many a D & M while sitting back star gazing. I always feel a bit ripped off if we go camping and it turns out to be overcast or rainy. I miss those evenings. (in comparison it is currently Friday night at our house and I am hiding in the computer room working on my blog, and Ben is watching the footy and cleaning the kitchen).

And now for my review of the amenities. You must have noticed by now that I write a lot about the amenities at different camp spots. This is because I have a public loo phobia. I am more scared of public toilets than I am of snakes or spiders. Infact, I would rather use my own bathroom - with a snake or spider in it - than have to use a public restroom that is critter free. I have all the symptoms of a full on phobia. Every time I go near one my heart starts racing, my palms get sweaty and my voice starts to squeak. I become completely irrational and freaked out. I have tried so hard to get over this. I watched that episode on mythbusters where they proved that toilets actually aren't as germy as you would think. But no amount of self talk helps.

Even when I was heavily pregnant, I could easily go out for the day and not go to the loo. My phobia was enough to counter act the need to pee!! I have no idea where this phobia came from. It may have something to do with my mother freaking out in public restrooms when I was young and insisting on papering the seat and me not touching a thing. (not a thing, not even the tap or the door handles!!). But then Kristy and Nicky also grew up with the same mother and as far as I can tell, neither of them have phobias.

Just to be sure that I am not passing on any irrational fears of toilets to my children, I ALWAYS send them to the loo with someone else when we are camping. The few times I have had to take them have always ended with me squealing at them to hurry up and then coming out feeling like the worst mother in the world.

Anyway, back to my review of the Peach Tree amenities. They seemed ok. I only used them a few times while I was there. I mainly waited till night time so I could do a bush pee. They do not have hot showers, only cold ones, so I suggest taking your own shower. We have one of those ensuite tents and $15 shower pumps with a head on it. We heat water up on the fire and tip it into a 20ltr bucket and shower that way. It hardly takes any time at all and it is so much easier for us. Especially with all the kids.

I highly recommend Peach Trees. I think it would be a sensational place to go during the summer months when you can really enjoy the creek. It was March when we went and was getting a bit too cold for me to want to swim.