Cedar Grove Camping Ground: October, 2014

Amamoor Creek Road,

Amamoor

October, 2014 

Oh happy days. The P and M families went camping and they got to take Mrs P's mum with them. Grandma didn't arrive until the day after we'd arrived, she was an absolute boon on the day we packed up. Her calibrated eyeball knew just how big to fold things, all her years of camping held her in good stead. We really enjoyed taking Grandma with us and hope she can come again, it was such a good family time. 

Grandma and my foot working hard at relaxing.

We spent 4 nights at Cedar Grove, setting up the first day took a lot longer than we thought it would. It was incredibly hot, 35 degrees and choosing a site that was perfect took some time. It was perfect until we discovered the tree roots. Argh. Thankfully Mr. P had bought stronger key head pegs and they were able to go in, the thinner pegs bent (no surprise there). I decided that it would be really handy if someone invented a spear gun that shot the tent pegs into the ground. How to stop them entering the centre of the earth and then getting them out again, would be a job for the experts. Our site continued to be perfect as was our whole camping trip. 

It takes about 2 1/2 hrs or so to get to Cedar Grove from Brisbane. It is a dog free campground with no showers, just taps that bring water from the creek and fire rings. As per other National Parks, bring your own firewood and drinking water. The rangers pop in from time to time and removed a man who decided to come and camp with his 3 dogs. You can camp at Amamoor with dogs, it is only a few minutes further up the road, but not Cedar Grove. 

Looking towards the entrance to Cedar Grove Campground

I was disappointed with how clean or rather neglected the toilets became. When we arrived they were nice and clean but over the course of the 4 days (included in that was a weekend) they were not cleaned once. I caught myself wishing I had packed cleaning products so I could give them all a good clean. I need therapy. Sigh. 

Toilet block, there are two of these

Cedar Grove looked very different before the floods, it has recently undergone an upgrade and while there were once cold showers, there are none now. Not that I can ever imagine having a cold shower, so that part doesn't bother me at all. It is a fenced campground to keep the cattle out, the walks around the campground are nice but you do need to watch where you are stepping and also be on the keen lookout for the stinging tree. I was not happy to see that I had walked past 2 little bushes (they eventually grow into huge trees) growing right by the side of the path without noticing. The mind boggles at how awful it would have been had I touched it or worse had the kids touched it. There are still many, many trees down from the floods and it looks like they'll be left there. On one of the walks we saw this very big tree that once had decking around it over on its side, it must have been just beautiful, but now it just looks sad. It all looks sad with so much flood damage. 

There are no Bellbirds at Cedar Grove and therefore that stops it being the perfect camping area. There are lovely Magpies, Whip birds and the Wompoo Fruit Dove. Possums, Lace Monitors and bush turkeys are plentiful. There were also flies that we took to be  March Flies, that buzzed around but didn't seem terribly interested in biting us, although we didn't give them much chance to. They were more bothersome on that first hot day, than they were on subsequent cooler days. I got bitten by a yellowy-green fly but have no idea what it was and it itched regardless of what cream went on it, for about a week. I still have a round mark the size of a 5c coin on my arm. 

Cedar Grove is wonderful fun for the children, it is mainly small streams with little rocks that are great for building dams, waterfalls and other water features. The kids spent time catching the little fish with their nets and letting them go again. They all liked looking in the Wildlife book and seeing what animals they could identify. There are some deeper spots but mainly it was shallow which was perfect for Missy and Boyo and perfect for letting the creativity flow. Amy and Red took their blow up boat down to cruise the deeper parts on the last day, Missy and Boyo had such fun being towed around, so much so Boyo didn't want to stop. 

Stream showing flood damage

Facilities:

• free choice camping spot
• flushing toilet blocks
• creek water taps throughout the park
• fire rings
• swimming in one deeper part but mostly streams with rocks for building dams
• bush walks

Things to remember:

• bring your own drinking water or boil the creek water
• bring your own firewood and only use the fire rings
• remove all rubbish, there are no bins, what you bring in, you take out
• no showers

Fees: 

There are only unpowered sites, and they are $5.95 for a single person or $22.80 for a family per night.