The Outdoors ... Fail!

Last weekend I (perhaps somewhat naïvely) decided that Husband and I should go on a picnic and forest walk at our local Gorge. We'd never been there before, but we drove past it on our way to a birthday function last month, and I thought it might be a nice place to visit. To prepare, Husband made some curries which he packed into our Tiffin picnic set, and I made sausage rolls for entree. I won't post the recipe as there isn't one, but here are some progressive shots:

We had some trouble finding the picnic area as the GPS kept wanting to take us around to the other side of the gorge. Eventually, after going down some bumpy dirt roads, we found it. There was already a large group there who looked settled in for the afternoon. Thankfully we hadn't brought anything that needed cooking on the single barbeque that was there. Unfortunately I didn't get any shots of the curries or of our picnic spread at all. The place was infested with wasps that kept flying in our faces and trying to land in our food, so we scarfed down our food as quickly as we could. It was also a little disconcerting when members of the other group kept staring at us as they walked past to use the toilet that was situated not far from our table.

I'd also wanted to go for a walk on some of the walking trails that the Intertubes had promised were there. The last few times we'd gone bush (Chiltern National Park, for example), the walking trails had been nicely signposted with the name of the trail and estimated time to walk it. Nice and civilised. However, there were no signs whatsoever and we couldn't really figure out where the walking trail started -- or even if there was one at all. It was a little disappointing. As we were walking back to the car to drop off our picnic equipment, we were still in the mind to possibly try and find the trail. Just then however, about 8 more cars-full of rowdy families arrived. That made the decision for us. We got in the car as fast as we could and went straight back home!

I did manage to get a couple of photos before we fled, though:

Perhaps I've been conditioned from a young age, or perhaps I just spend too much time on Pinterest, but I can't help thinking that the Australian bush is ugly compared to the majestic Redwood forests of the U.S., or the damp, moss-covered pine forests of Europe.

Next time, we might visit our local Scrubland, or our local Culvert.