Is there a word that means ‘it feels like so long since you went camping’? I was starting to feel that way. It was now August and we’d only been away in the motorhome for a couple of nights since April. I really don’t like to see her sitting under her carport and not being used.

Brother-in-law to the rescue. We received message from Richard’s brother, David to say that he and partner Anni were spending a few days camped at Oura Beach Reserve near Wagga Wagga. We jumped at the chance to join them. With a short window of 2 nights due to commitments with grandchildren we quickly readied the motorhome for the trip.

How do you leave your motorhome after a trip? Ours is cleaned thoroughly and packed again ready for the next trip. All we have to pack are our clothes, perishables and cold food. A quick check that the water tanks were full, wood bin was full of wood, clothes and food were packed and half an hour later we were ready to roll out the driveway.

It’s an easy 206km from home to Oura Beach Reserve via Wagga Wagga and we arrived around 4.30 in the late afternoon. What a great spot it is at Oura Beach Reserve. The reserve is right on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River and is a large area with plenty of flat grassy spots. There are BBQ shelters, fire pits, a toilet, good phone reception, generators are allowed and it is dog friendly. When the river is not too high there is a lovely big sandy beach to swim from, launch a boat or kayaks or enjoy a spot of fishing. You can find Oura Beach Reserve on Wikicamps and it is located about 20 minutes drive from Wagga Wagga.

Just something to be aware of when camping near the river, beware of the huge River Red Gums and avoid parking under them. Big branches from them fall and if one of those landed on your camp it could be a catastrophe.

When we arrive David and Anni already had their Avida Esperance motorhome all set up, a fire going and Anni had prepared nibbles. We quickly set up our motorhome at 90 degrees to their camp and ten minutes later we were enjoying catching up around the fire.

David and Anni had recently purchased their 2014 Esperance and this was the first time they had ‘free camped’. What a learning curve that is. We’ve had our motorhome now for 8 years and have had some amazing adventures in it. We especially love free camping and finding those great spots away from the crowds. We are not fans of being squashed into a caravan park although we have stayed in some great ones and have even put up with being squashed into a busy park just so we could visit an attraction in the area.

But free camping is a learned thing! You don’t know what you don’t know!

We have discovered that the most important thing when free camping is battery management. We have AGM batteries in the motorhome and we have learnt how to manage them ensuring that our battery levels remain over 50% at all times. This is not easy to learn and we made lots of mistakes. Learning which lights and appliances draw what amount of power is the first thing. We quickly discovered that the strip lighting in our motorhome, whilst it looks lovely at night, draws a lot of power so we don’t use them at all. In fact I have taped up that switch so no one accidentally puts them on. I charge our devices during the day when our solar panels are charging the batteries. I use our washing machine powered by our inverter only when it is a sunny day. We turn off our diesel heater at night when we go to bed and turn it back on, if necessary, in the morning.

Of course, as newbies, David and Anni don’t know any of these and ran out of power overnight. David uses a CPap machine and had it on all night. This flattened the batteries and the next morning he had to start the truck to put some charge back in. There are Cpap machines that have low wattage and he will investigate those further.

The second important thing to learn when free camping is managing your water. It depends on how much water storage you have to how many days you can free camp for. It also depends greatly on how thrifty you are with water usage. We have 180 litres of water storage and can safely manage that for a week before we need to fill up. That means having very quick showers, minimising water use for cooking and washing up and not using the washing machine. We have often done a load of washing whilst filling up with water. One load of washing uses 20L of water in our little top loader. As we were only going to be a couple of nights we could have long luxurious showers without the fear of running out.

The third important lesson was how many days can your toilet cassette last. We’ve found that ours needs to be emptied every 3-4 days so we bought a second cassette and keep that for times when we are camped in such a great spot we don’t want to leave just because the cassette is full. Many campers have now changed to composting toilets and these can last for many weeks before needing to be emptied.

The next day David, Anni and I headed into Wagga to go to the dump point, fill up with water and go to Bunnings and Anaconda. Upon arrival at Wilks Park to use the dump point we discovered that the only hose they had was a 50m hose and we had no large fitting for the water tap, only a small one. Of course the potable water tap needed a large fitting. Oh well, add it to the list of shopping at Bunnings.

David emptied the cassette and the next stop was Bunnings. The Bunnings store in Wagga is a very large one. I can spend hours in there! We ended up with a new short hose, a variety of hose fittings to fit a variety of taps, a Makita blower and vacuum cleaner with a spare battery. A quick stop then to Anaconda where we picked up an extra large Muk Mat and a couple of large de-flappers for the awning.

What a great shopping trip! Then it was back to the Dump Point to fill up with potable water using the new short hose and large tap fitting.

Back at camp we found Rich had a relaxing morning reading a book and tending the fire. We all spent the rest of the day relaxing around the fire and chatting.

It rained a little during the night and I love the sound of the rain on the roof when you are warm and snug in bed.

The next morning it was time to pack up and head for home after a delightful couple of nights. It was great to spend a couple of days with David and Anni and help them get to know their motorhome capabilities. I’m sure we will have many more camping adventures with them in the future.