Camping At Junee – 2024 Anzac Day Weekend At Old Junee
We spent the 2024 Anzac Day weekend camping at Old Junee. The old recreation grounds are a go to camping spot for us as they are close to home and have plenty of space. As an added bonus whenever we go there we are usually almost on our own.
Originally we had intended to go to Bethungra Dam however because Anzac Day fell on a Thursday we had to work from the caravan on the Friday. The mobile connection out at Bethungra Dam isn’t the best – it’s usually only 1 bar on 4G for us on Telstra. Old Junee gives us 3 or 4 bars on 5G so it’s a much better connection.
We headed down on Wednesday afternoon after work and set up camp. It’s only about 45 minutes drive. We left home at 4pm and were having a beer at about 5.30pm. Gotta love that. We got the fire going, cooked some dinner. Dinner consisted of a couple of cans of braised steak and onions on toast. Whenever we co camping and set up late in the day tinned braised steak and onions or hotdogs are the traditional dinner. Nice and easy. After dinner we settled in next to the fire for the evening, a few drinks may have been consumed.
It’s pretty peaceful at the old recreation grounds which is one of the reasons we like camping at Junee so much. You get a bit of road noise from the Olympic Highway but that settles down to the odd truck every now and then as you get further into the evening. Maybe once or twice a day you’ll get a freight train running through to Junee off in the distance. Most mornings and afternoons you get a bit of noise from the farmer in the paddock opposite doing his rounds of the property and cracking off a few shots with a .22 at some rabbits. Other than that it’s just the sound of the wind and whatever noise you make. It’s really quite peaceful.
Anzac Day we had a sleep in. It was bloody cold so I got up early and cranked the gas heater into action. Amanda was pretty crook with a cold so for the first time in 20 years we didn’t go to the dawn service. We didn’t do much all day. We watched the AFL on the telly via the Foxtel App hot spotted off my phone. It really works well. Then another fire, dinner and bed.
Friday was a work day for us. We are both set up to work from home so we plugged our laptops into the inverter and we did our usual work day things. Amanda works from home full time whereas I work from home Monday and Friday and go into the office for the other three days. Mind you the office is only about 20 minutes away from where we were camped at Old Junee! Friday after work I cut up some firewood we had brought with us (some old red gum railway sleepers) and then we got the fire going and smashed quite a few beers well into the evening.
Saturday morning was cold again so the gas heater got got another good run. I headed in to Junee early to the dump point empty the toilet cassette and while I was there I called into the Junee Bakery to get some fresh bread rolls for dinner. The pies and sausage rolls looked bloody magnificent so I grabbed a few each of those for breakfast. The Junee Bakery makes one hell of a great pie! One of the really good things about camping at Junee is you’re close to everything you could possibly need. Dump point, potable water, fuel, an IGA supermarket and loads of great pubs are all really close by.
Saturday afternoon we didn’t do much, just sat around the fire and watched a bit of footy on the tv again. Dinner was pulled beef cooked in the camp oven on the fresh bread rolls I bought earlier in the day at the bakery.
Sunday was a nice slow morning and then we packed up and headed home. I can’t wait to go camping again.