My Happy Travels

We booked a Hipcamp, we invited the family and the stars aligned where we got enough us able to be in the same place that it was going to be one of those camping trips with the family you never forget. Well, we definitely won’t forget it, that is for sure.

Four days off work, that is always nice. Easter long weekend just screams for a camping trip but it is also the busiest time to book a camping trip. We booked early but not so early that we had hopes of privacy. Again the stars aligned and we found a Hipcamp that was new to the site and not booked out. There were two spots left. One that seemed a long way from Amamoor creek and the other that was on the creek but close to the entrance and the road. We chose the creek side position obviously 😁

Wanting to make the most of our time off, we booked Thursday night expecting to set up in the dark. We managed to get away early and seemed we may have some daylight during set up. Then we got the call… now, if you are new to Hicamp, the idea is you camp on private property, in this case a working cattle farm. The sites are meant to be private, rural and a lot don’t have facilities. This was one of those that you must be self sufficient, bring everything including a toilet and take it all back out again. We were cool with that and had ourselves sorted.

Now the call… the call was from the manager of the site. We had spoken before because I wanted to add some extras to our booking and he has let me know the process to add to the booking. The manager was, himself, away that weekend camping on Moreton Island and was calling to let me know of a problem his caretaker was dealing with on our site. Interlopers…

The interlopers had set up on our site and were claiming it as their own. They didn’t like their site and didn’t want to move from ours. Could we have their site instead was the question being asked of us. Two things crossed my mind. 1. WTF and 2. How was I going to communicate to every member of the family making their way to ‘our’ site that we were now somewhere else. I asked the difference between the sites which was mostly size and proximity to the creek. I, of course, also asked which site was better and was told the site we booked was the better of the two.

We were fast running our of daylight and phone service the closer we got to the camp-site and we had family coming from multiple directions arriving at various times. Some driving 9hrs the next day to reach us. After a quick discussion with Wayne, we asked can they just be moved on, we have 16 people heading to the site today and tomorrow, some of us already on our way. We were assured that was fair, the interlopers were in the wrong and it would be sorted.

Crisis averted, back to being excited to catch up with family and enjoy 4 days of fun, laughter and Easter traditions. We roll into the site and immediately knew the crisis was not over. We see a young guy on a quad, looking stressed talking to a couple who did not appear to be happy and most definitely had not moved on. Well shit, this is not the start we were hoping for.

I approach the group to see where the discussions had to got to and find that the interlopers did not intend to move on that night. They claimed that they booked first before anyone else and soon discovered the site they booked was not the site they wanted. They claimed to have had many private messages exchanged to move them to our site of which they say they were assured the move had been sorted. CLEARLY NOT. We had booked this site some months before and had not heard about any double booking even when we added more to our booking, no issues were raised until our drive to the site!

To be clear, I do confrontation for a living and was not keen to start my break this way. We discussed the situation and decided we could set up in the track to side of the site and they would move on in the morning. Of note, we were a group of 7 at this point. 4 cars, our camper, a roof top tent, a swag and an actual tent. They were a group of 3 adults, 1 child, a camper, a swag and 2 vehicles. We outnumbered them already and had 9 more people coming with several more vehicle expected over the course of the next day.

We set up in our temporary spot. The caretaker was awesome (and somewhat relieved the drama was over), he went and sorted use a load of firewood and we settled into our first night beside our makeshift firepit with the babble of creek in the background. None of us appreciated the thought of setting up twice (we were there early for a reason) but we vowed to not let this inconvenience ruin the long planned camping trip.

We all woke eager to set up properly and begin the fun and games planned. We had our breakfast and started to get a little restless as no action appeared to be taking place at the interlopers camp. We told ourselves to be patient and considered a 10am checkout was fair and we could sit tight a bit longer. 10am came and went… that was it, time to find out what was happening.

I went over on my own thinking a show of force might be a bit much. I could do this, speak reasonably and see what their plan was. Well, their plan was no plan. They were not leaving. They were claiming the site, felt bad for us, but were not moving to their site and that was that. Of course, this was not acceptable.

What happened to moving in the morning, what happened to finding a different site, what happened to us setting up temporarily so they didn’t need to move until morning. All of this was a lie and not the actions of reasonable people. Alright then, now what. They were angry, swearing and clearly not going to go. They weren’t going to their site, there was barb wire and it was dangerous for their 3 year old… Please! You booked on a cattle farm, there is going to be wire! Where else could they go, it was Easter, everything would be booked out. Blah blah blah, sorry, but not moving. Accusing us of uncompromising and yet what was their compromise?

Already in our group we discussed the option that if they were going to refuse to move, we would ask the caretaker to mow a larger area surrounding our temporary site to accommodate the numbers still to come. It wasn’t ideal, but we would make it work. So our compromise was to walk away, make our own site and their compromise was for us to camp with them. Come and set up with them. Ah, no thanks. At various points the female interloper suggested she just needed time to find somewhere else but then backtracked to the not moving position.

I walked away feeling frustrated yet determined that this would not ruin Easter. The female interloper got in her 4WD and left the site in hurry which I thought might be her scoping out other sites, but nope straight up the hill to the homestead. I jumped in my daughters car to go find the caretaker and talk about mowing. Turns out, Mazda 2 not built for rutted out driveways so we turned back to get a 4WD. As we approached the house (my sister had come along for moral support and probably to keep me calm) we could see the poor caretaker coping an earful. We approached and said quite plainly that were not wasting anymore time arguing, that we just need some mowing and that would be that. At this point interloper said she was going to leave, she just needed an hour and a wifi connections to arrange a new booking. Blah blah blah, bad reviews, blah blah blah, Hipcamp regular reviewer, blah blah blah. I simply said, okay 1hr, you have 1 hour and walked away.

Needless to say, they needed more than an hour but we did get our site back. We moved in, set up and by the time the rest of the family arrived they were none the wiser except of course the recital of the story of the interlopers.

The spot was great, mowed, private enough and plenty of space for our large group. The creek was right there, the trees hosted several hammocks and the fire pit area allowed us to all fit around in a circle. We enjoyed the spot and manged to make the good memories of a great family camping trip. The disconnect from the outside world with no service was an actual relief. Everyone was able to relax, be in the moment and make some more good memories with the family. The hosts, relieved as we were that the interlopers were gone, were excellent.

Our site was called Peachy: https://www.hipcamp.com/queensland/namaste-farm/namaste-farm-camping