Our November 2009 camp - Charleyong Crossing

My first real posting...

A couple of weeks back we went camping at a free, river-side, dog friendly, bush camp site at Charleyong Crossing.

There is a bit of a back story.  I had been away with work for the week and when I arrived home my wife said 'let's find somewhere to go.'  A bit of research turned up a place called Corang River, not that far from Charleyong Crossing, about 2 hours east of Canberra between Braidwood and Nowra.  We programmed up the GPS and set of bright and early Saturday morning.  We stopped briefly for some fresh bread at Bungandore and then did the final run on the Kings Highway toward Braidwood.

Just before Braidwood we turned off and started to head onto dirt so the GPS was changed from street to 4WD.

We arrived at Corang River and found the campsite just before lunch time.  We immediately were not that impressed!  It was not mowed, lots of ants, lots of broken glass and access to the river was not simple.

We did have Charleyong Crossing in the GPS so we thought that we should go and have a look before deciding which one to camp at.

One point to not is that there is a river crossing on the way in.  It is a weir/causeway type and wasn't deep when we were there.  (About as deep as the rubber thongs I was wearing!)

Side view of the crossing

Once over the river we turned right after a couple of hundred meters and we were on the campsite.  Total time was about 2 1/2 hours from home.

 

A general view of the camping area

There are lots of sites here.  It wasn't crowded by any means.  You can (sort of) see the only other campers in the pic above.

 

And the river was accessible and had a nice 'beach' into the bargain!

 

 The beach

We decided that we would stay so we set up camp.  One of our great traditions is setting up camp and then taking a picture...

Note the clever use of car doors as a

clothes line!

So were were set up.  Admittedly this is about where the story ends.  We had some lunch.  We splashed about in the river with the dog.  Walked up and down the river.  Had some dinner and a chat with the other campers.  Sat back and enjoyed the view from our campsite.

How good is that for an

Aussie bush campsite?

The next morning we had a breakfast and packed campsite away.  It  had been a hot day the day before, but the temperature had dropped overnight and cloud had rolled in and rain was expected.  We took a different route home via a small town called Tarago, mainly to see what the road was like.

The road to the campsite from both sides is Stewarts Crossing Road and it is well maintained dirt/gravel.  It is suitable for 2WD vehicles and towing camper trailers and caravans.  There is a creek crossing on either 'approach' to the campsite, and both were shallow the day we were there.  The roads would likely be slippery in the wet, and the crossings deeper after significant rainfall.

At the campsite there is nothing but a place to camp.  No power, water (other than from the river), toilets or shop. There are no rubbish bins, so please take all rubbish out from the site with you. 

It is free to camp there and dogs/pets are allowed, but should be kept under control.  There was a total fire ban while we were there, but there was plenty to indicate that a campfire would be OK other than in a fireban.

For those with a GPS the coordinates are -35.245278,149.891389

Google maps has a street view of the area - which surprised me!

If you get out there for a couple of days/nights let me know how you got on.

Cheers