3 Days Solo Camping in a Remote River Paradise

Well g'day guys and man I'm so excited for this trip. We're on a three-day adventure exploring this beautiful river and it's an area that I've been looking at for a bloody long time but it's a pretty tricky area to access. I actually had to get access via private property. We're now making our way into the national park and yeah we're going to spend the next three days exploring this river. It's got beautiful sandstone features, it should have lots of caves so hopefully we can do some cave camping. It's got gorgeous bushlands surrounding it and hopefully lots of wildlife so I'm super excited after this weekend so yeah let's get amongst it. So I'm only a few hundred meters into the walk and already it is so beautiful. Like you've got these gorgeous sandstone caves, this lovely little flowing river amongst all the she-oaks or casuarinas and one thing I just cannot get over is just how beautiful the bushes around here. Like it's just so open and grassy, honestly looks like a manifold park. It's absolutely beautiful to walk through. I guess this is what the old settlers used to talk about when they first came to Australia that a lot of the bushland looked like a park and that was because the aboriginal mobs would do their cultural cool burns so basically they would sort of regularly sort of burn the landscape to sort of thin out the bush so it's not too dense to allow animals to move through, reduces the fuel load so you wouldn't have big raging bushfires and also encourages grass to grow so provides food for kangaroos and wombats and things like that so yeah I guess this kind of provides a bit of a glimpse into what the past might have looked like. It's tricky, I can't decide whether to follow the creek or come up into the bush and have a look at all the caves because it's just caves galore and you never know they might have some aboriginal artwork in them and then again down by the river it's so nice. A bit spoilt for choice here. Wow I think that's a turtle shell, that is rad. I've never found a intact turtle shell that's every single one of them like there's just caves absolutely everywhere like have a look at these big ones just here and I need like honestly like weeks to explore this place there's just so many nooks and crannies to check out this is uh the time right now is when I wish I was a bird so I could just duck up and have a look and duck back. Man that is an awesome little cave for an animal it feels so cozy inside of that it's like a little house. Alright so it's just hit three o'clock so I'm going to start keeping an eye out for camp now if I'm happy to settle for like a grassy spot then literally I can just take my pick everywhere is good like look how nice and open this is here it's honestly spot for choice around here in terms of the campsites but I wouldn't mind sleeping in the cave if I could find one so I haven't really found anything that stands out just yet so I might go for a little bit more of a wander and we'll see what we can find. These spots are like too good to be true like that legit looks like a park honestly these spots are insane such good campsites but the thing with me is I always want to see what's around the corner I've still got a little bit of time it's getting close to about 3 30 now um so I might have a little bit of a look around the corner if not that looks like a pretty good spot. A pig skull. Alright we're getting pretty tired pretty keen to pull up stumps however I think I might have saw a couple of caves over on that side so I'm going to cross the river check them out if they're no good we're just going to settle for a grassy camp for tonight but there is a semi-flat spot over there there's a lot of animal tracks and animal scat so I'm not quite sure this is going to be the best option there's another cave I think just around the corner I'm going to go check that out. Alright so we've got a nice little cave here it's not the tallest cave in the world but it is relatively flat so I should be able to sleep here pretty easily the only issue with it is there's um yeah a few animal tracks and some scat lying around and it kind of looks like there's a bit of a game trail sort of going up through this gully here so I might get some visitors through tonight um yeah so I'm just trying to decide what I should do whether I should camp here or camp down that's a little grassy patch down there both are awesome options they're both like just got such a nice feeling in this area so I'm pretty small for choice but up here it's really nice like I'm looking out over over the gum trees and this little rocky gully here and there's lots of birds flying around and um yeah we're in the sun as well which is quite nice I'm thinking I'm probably going to go for the cave purely because it's going to look better for the thumbnail that's one thing you've always got to think of when you're doing YouTube is how the thumbnail is going to look and I feel like the will look better up here compared to just camping on the grass so yeah let's get camp set up all right so for my sleep gear tonight I'm using the Alton Walkabout Swag I've got a Cedar Summit Etherlight XT insulator mat I've got the Neve Gear Waratah quilt rated to zero degrees and I've got two Cedar Summit Eros pillows now if you're in the market for a new quilt I'll definitely recommend checking out Neve Gear it's an Aussie brand and your hand makes all these quilts here in Australia and they're actually reasonably priced and they're really good quality I've been using this for about a year now I've actually got two Neve Gear quilts and um yeah they're super warm and yeah really well made so I definitely recommend checking them out there'll be a link in the description below if you guys want to have a look at it and it's also an affiliate link so if you guys decide to purchase one using that link it's a nice little way to help out the channel but yeah definitely recommend them they're a really good quality quilt oh you bastard I just had a jackjumper ant just down there bloody bit me on the leg that hurts like a absolute b**** oh they're a painful little bite jackjumper is actually pretty dangerous if you've got um heart issues I believe they can actually send you into cardiac arrest from what I've read man that absolutely kills it's like throbbing oh ouch oh man there are so many mozzies out tonight as well I'm getting absolutely hammered up here maybe I should have camped down by the grass so I'm just going to use the ferro rod to get the fire started tonight I've just got some dry grass here well cheers guys to an epic day that's such an awesome day today it's really nice it's like perfect weather beautiful walking beautiful landscape and a really nice camp as well except I'm just being swarmed by mozzies though I don't usually get bothered by mozzies when I'm out at bush but I think because I'm camping next to like a little gully there's just mozzies everywhere so hopefully the smoke from the fire can help to keep them away I'm not quite sure if I made the right decision to camp here I just had a wallaby or a kangaroo try to come down this gully and try to sort of come on this little game trail here um but you turn around once you sort of saw me and jump back out and yeah I feel this is probably a pretty regularly used game trail because this gully is not that steep and obviously a lot of the animals are probably up top during the day and maybe the during the night they come down and sort of drink from the river or maybe graze on the banks and so I feel this area trail is probably pretty used so I kind of feel a little bit slack to be honest camping here because if this is like one of the easiest ways for them to get from the top of the cliffs down here um and I kind of feel slack if like they have to turn around and then I'm not quite sure where else they can sort of get down there are like other gullies but maybe this is the easiest one I don't know I don't want to sort of like put the animals out and also like once I obviously I've got a fire going now I'm talking so they can hear me but once that's turned off I'm just going to be sleeping in my swag right there and like they won't even sort of know that I'm here until they're literally probably stepping on top of me so yeah I'm quite sure I might um I might even sort of grab my gear and go down to the grass um obviously even on the grass I'm still going to have animals walking around me there's just kangaroos absolutely everywhere out here um but at least down in the grass they can sort of go around me um but I've got the fire going obviously so I might just cook up some dinner and then I'll make the call whether I want to stay here for the night or whether I want to sort of grab my gear and just go down to the grass like it's only just over there so it's not much of an effort it might be that might be the better option all right so tonight we're going to make a calzone or calzone I'm not quite sure how you say it but um yeah basically it's just a pizza pocket so I've just got some naan bread I've got some onion some pizza sauce zucchini capsicum got some feta and just some mozzarella cheese I've just got some marinated feta and we've just got the cheese I'll chuck on the veggies monster mosquito got stuck oh that thing is huge all right well I don't think I can really stay here there's just like constantly animals trying to get through there's another kangaroo over there at the moment just jumping around so what I'm going to do I'm going to eat my food which looks bloody delicious by the way that looks super tasty and then um yeah we'll put the fire well and truly out because obviously this is a main thoroughfare for the animals so I don't want them burning themselves so I'm going to make sure that fire is well and truly out I'm just going to grab all my gear and make my way down to the grass and yeah so camp down there it's a little bit annoying I did like it up here but it's uh I'd rather sort of make the move now and get everyone done with and that way the animals are free to move and we're not bothering each other so yeah catch you guys in the morning man that was so nice I just had this beautiful little bird just flying around me in this tree it was um really quite a little special moment so many birds in this place hey like waking up this morning it's just like a choir of singing songbirds is definitely a nice way to start your morning had a bit of a chilly night last night though got pretty um pretty fresh but I think I probably made the right move about yeah moving camp down there even though the cave would have been cool to sleep in um I did hear quite a few animals just scurrying around last night so I think it probably was the right move in the end even though it was a little bit annoying it's getting pretty close to eight o'clock now so I reckon why don't we get some breakfast into us and then we'll pack up camp and we'll um yeah make a move all right so for breakfast this morning we've got some homemade muesli some powdered milk some honey and a kiwi fruit and that's kiwi fruit with the skin on because it's tastier it's more nutritious and it just saves you having to peel the kiwi fruit and if you haven't tried it definitely give it a go it's honestly not that bad all right so camp's all packed up now the plan of attack for today so this small river actually flows into a larger river just around the corner and what I might do is might walk here down to the junction of the two rivers and then follow the main river down a little bit like a couple of kilometers to just check out it looks really interesting down there I have actually been to the junction before I've come in along the main river to the junction a couple years ago and yeah absolutely loved it but I've never explored this section before I'm pretty keen to go maybe go down explore further down river and then we'll make our way back this afternoon and we'll probably camp um yeah somewhere along this river so that way tomorrow we don't have as big of a walk because we've got a bit of a drive tomorrow so yeah that's the rough plan so I've just come up from the river so I spotted this massive cave and hey man have a look at it she is a monster she goes back so deep up there let's go have a look man this thing is huge it is so cavernous it's been a bit of a rock fall in recent times man what a spot just overlooks the river this is pretty epic man have a look at that there's a huge hole in the back of the cave I'm gonna see if I can scramble my way through it looks like a lot of animals come down here and I think it should be easy enough to get through all right so I just left my pack down there I've just scrambled my way up through it's like a little sketchy like a lot of this rock is pretty loose but yeah I've now sort of reached the top so we'll make our way through and have a look at the view and you look out and you just see caves absolutely everywhere another massive one just over there you could spend like weeks exploring this place I think it'd be some pretty cool things to find all right so we've reached the main river I'm just trying to find a way to get down to the river the banks are just full of weeds like have a look at this scotch thistle it's like chest high it's just so thick there's also been a lot of pigs riding around here as well so yeah hope we can find a way to get down there without a bush bashing through stinging nettle and a scotch thistle oh man I don't know if you guys can tell how thick this is but that is just full of weeds oh there's some pigs in there yeah almost certain there's some pigs in there well we made it down to the river it's just pretty beautiful really nice down here apart from all the weeds and the pigs I'm actually thinking you might be able to packraft this river last time I came here the river was in flood and that would have been a perfect time to bring the packraft but I thought um yeah maybe like sort of during the dry periods it might be a bit shallow but kind of looks like I'd be able to paddle that looks deep enough that the I wouldn't still be bottoming out all the time it's such a great river to packraft as well it's like really scenic nice to add it to the list over summer that's about one o'clock and I could push on a little bit further but I kind of want to sort of get camp set up relatively earlier today like yesterday I was pretty rushed getting camp set up and I didn't really sort of have much time to chill out yesterday afternoon so what am I sort of make my way back find a nice little spot to self-camp and we can chill out there for the afternoon there is a bit more exploring I want to do on that other river and there's a few little side gullies I want to check out so I think we'll save the rest of this river for another time like I said I'm really keen to come back here with the packraft and yeah that way I can sort of yeah explore this place properly so let's head on back a couple little pigs over there oh yeah you guys probably can't see it but there is a big wedge-tailed eagle just by the water ah so this is what the wedge-tailed eagle and the guano are eating looks like a wallaby maybe a kangaroo maybe a small kangaroo yeah it looks pretty fresh still got some um yeah some meat on it and the wedge-tailed eagle's just sitting up there on that rock just waiting for me to bugger off so he can get back to lunch so let's uh let's leave him be that's incredible he's right there on top of that rock I don't think I've ever been this close to a wedge-tailed eagle they're such a big bird they're huge I'm pretty sure they're bigger than the um the bald eagles in like in the United States and Canada it's pretty cool to think that the guano and him were just sitting down together having some lunch all right we just stepped on some sort of prickle thing I think it's like a little cactus I haven't put my shoes on since I crossed the river oh man that absolutely killer that is in so deep oh man that is going to be punished to get out oh man it's so sharp that is in so deep I think I'm gonna have to quickly pull it three two one oh oh man oh he's taking every ounce of me not to swear right now oh they are in pre-date there's still some stuck in there you idiot I didn't put my shoes on after I crossed the water crossing because I was too busy trying to film the wedge-tailed eagle you've definitely paid for that these are in so deep all right so I got some tweezers it must have like a little hook on the really hard to pull out all right well I think I've got most of them out now I think it's like one or two that's still sort of under the skin but it's the best I can do at the moment um whoever introduced cactuses to Australia should hang their head in shame I can't believe like it's just sitting there like this there's no cactuses around here except that one little bulby thing and sure enough it's like right where I stood lesson learned for not wearing shoes hey all right on our way home sweet home well we've reached camp and good because I'm pretty buggered I think it's about um it's like 2 30 yeah 2 30 so we're gonna have something to eat for lunch and we'll get camp set up I'll tell you what I just want to collect some water and put one of these little off-grid hydration satchels in because the water here tastes a little bit earthy a little bit muddy so one of these should jazz it up a little bit give it some flavor I also feel like I could use some electrolytes as well I'm glad I got here in a reasonable amount of time keen just to relax a bit like I said yesterday afternoon was a bit of a mad rush to get camp set up so pretty keen just to chill out um it's such a nice place to just like sit and relax I literally feel like you're just sitting in a really nice park it's beautiful especially on like a nice spring day like today such nice weather at the moment so I've just left my backpack just on the grass and I've just been following this little rocky cliff line around there's a pretty cool little cave here which you could definitely camp in that's definitely big enough and flat enough but I'm just going to keep following it and see what else I can find the one thing I really love about this place are the birds there's just such a variety of birds they all sing the most beautiful songs it's so nice like it's one of those places where you can just like sit underneath the tree and just listen to birds all day you'd be pretty stoked at least I would it's such a special place this is a beat every expectation I had of it it's really beautiful all right time to get some grub on and tonight we're gonna have another calzone or calzone I'm not quite sure how you say it but um yeah last night it was bloody delicious it was honestly amazing so I think I'm definitely gonna cook these pretty regular out in the bush because they're pretty quick and simple to cook up as well and super tasty a shout out to Xander Budnick and John from Lost Lakes on YouTube yeah they're the inspo for this so if you guys haven't checked out their content make sure you do they make incredible videos but yeah very keen to get this on the fire and get some food in my belly well another beautiful spring day today lots of birds out this morning which is nice it was actually uh pretty fresh last night got pretty cold there for a bit I was expecting to wake up with um yeah fair bit of condensation on the inside of the bivvy but there actually wasn't any condensation so just goes to show that um the fabric breathes pretty well and like last night falling asleep there's just so many stars the star the sky was just like lit up by stars so that's one of the best things about sleeping in that swag with no tarp above you is you can just lay there and literally just like fall asleep looking at the stars it's definitely a very nice way to camp but yeah we just had some brekkie so i think i might start packing up camp and start making a move because we've got a pretty big drive ahead of us all right so that is completely cool to touch it is not hot at all so i'm just going to scatter all the ashes and the coals just out into the bush around me and that way the grass can grow back and then we'll never even know i was here have a look at the size of that cave that is huge we'll have to go check it out but it was like an absolute mission to get up there well part of me wishes i pushed on a little bit further yesterday because um yeah i just found a pretty cool little cave up there and then there's also that big cave which i saw on the way through the other day but yeah it's a really beautiful spot around here it's absolutely lovely but all good i know i'm definitely gonna be coming back might even come back here trying to do a little survival challenge or something can sleep in one of the caves and try there's always next time man i wish i camped here this is such an epic cave it's probably the best cave i've found obviously i walked straight past this the other day but at least i paid too much attention to just how good of a camping cave it is i think i was kind of expecting to find other ones just as good but this one is honestly an absolute cracker like it's nice and flat it's huge it's got a nice sandy floor there's another spot just over there the best part about it is you're like right next to the river and you will get to look over that view and this is such an unreal cave i am 100% gonna come back and camp here it's a beautiful spot all right well i think i might wrap the video up it's been one hell of a trip honestly like it's beat every expectation it's such a a beautiful area and it's uh yeah rarely visited as well so it's really nice to come and explore it so hopefully you guys enjoyed this video i'll definitely be back so there'll be plenty more to come from this place um yeah i want to say a big thanks to all you guys watching and also massive shout out to my patreon supporters and if you guys are new to the channel and you like this video i would love if you guys would consider subscribing and hitting that thumbs up and commenting below and all that youtubey stuff it really helps out the channel and yeah i'll catch you guys next time. Hooroo!