Introduction

In today's post, I would like to introduce you to another member of our family, she is very special to us and always reminds us not to take the simple things in life for granted. I'd like you all to meet our Vintage Viscount Caravan, her name is Valerie.

Today is a special day for Valerie as she gets her very own blog series called 'VINTAGE VALERIE'. Valerie is such an important part of our family as she is what enables us to have regular family getaways, hence why I thought it was fitting to name this blog series after her.

Viscount Caravans

For those of you who are not very familiar with the Viscount Brand of Australian Caravans, they were extremely popular in the 70s and 80s. The Viscount Caravan brand is still alive and well today, but it is the older Vintage Viscounts that have become massively popular again in recent years. Many of the older Viscounts are being snapped up on the secondary market as restoration projects, so that they can be restored back to their former glory.

Our Valerie is a 1979 Viscount Supreme, she is still very much in her original condition. The previous owners took great care of her both inside and out. Although her styling inside is very dated and 70s, she is just perfect for us right now while the kids are still young and a bit clumsy at times.

My wife definitely has future ambitions to do a restoration project on Valerie, she lies in bed in the evening watching YouTube videos of people all over the world restoring and doing up their older caravans. I support my wife in this future project, but it will remain in the dream and planning phase for a little bit longer as we currently have our hands full with our dream home renovation project.

Closing out 2021

The photos included in this post were recently taken during a camping trip we did just prior to the New Year. It was an extremely relaxing and enjoyable family break to close out a long and hard 2021. As you can see Valerie was sporting her festive lights to celebrate the season.

The camp site we chose to stay at was the Kilkivan Bush Camping and Caravan Park which is approximately 40 minutes North West of Gympie. It was the first time that we stayed at Kilkivan, I had heard good reviews about it and I follow their page on Facebook, so we thought why not give it a go.

Remote and Technology Free

Kilkivan truly is a bush camp, it is basically in the middle of no where, surrounded only by large farms and bush land. To give you an idea of how remote it is, we were unable to get any mobile or internet signal out there, which initially was a bit of a shock to the system, but we ended up loving not having any connection to technology or the outside world.

It was quite funny actually, as we were driving out to the town of Kilkivan on the second day of our camping trip, suddenly both of our phones started beeping repeatedly. As we approached the town we suddenly came back into mobile reception, so all of our social media notifications and text messages that had been banked up suddenly started flowing through, one after the other. My wife and I both had a chuckle, quickly checked to see there were no emergency messages, then decided to ignore our phones, so that we could continue enjoying our technology free family getaway.

Simple Pleasures

As with any camping trip that we go on, we make an effort to cook delicious food, that we can enjoy with an adult beverages or two. Our Valerie has a fully equipped kitchen, but we still choose to do the majority of the cooking outside on the Weber Q. I really do enjoy standing outside over a BBQ at a campsite, cooking juicy meat, with a drink in my hand, just watching my family relax and play around the camp site.

It gives me such joy seeing my three beautiful girls enjoying the simple pleasures of life, such as playing out side, sitting around a camp table playing cards or even just relaxing while they chat to my wife and I. We often look at each other while camping with knowing look of acknowledgment, reassuring each other that, 'we are doing parenting right'.

Don't get me wrong, we are definitely not perfect parents, we muck up and make mistakes just as much as any other parent, but when we are out camping and witnessing our children enjoying nature or each others company without an iPad or television in sight, it truly does give us a feeling of joy that is very rewarding.

Exploring

There is a picturesque cobble stone creek that runs through the Kilkivan bush camp. Our girls spent hours and hours in that creek exploring and catching tadpoles. As parents we did freak out initially as we know that creeks like this one are often the home of poisonous snakes in Australia. So without startling the kids we would do quick check at each new creek bed to make sure there were no dangerous critters that could harm them. After that we had to just let it go and leave it to fate, so that they could enjoy their childhood, get their hands dirty and have some fun.

New Friends

They also met a lot of new friends in the creek too, a number of other kids at the camp site were catching tadpoles too. It was so cool to see them all working together, the older children were assisting and teaching the younger children how to catch the tadpoles. The younger children were filled with awe and amazement, taking part in this new activity that they had never tried before.

Our youngest daughter would get so excited each time she caught a tadpole by her self. As proud as punch she would carefully place her tadpole in a clear cup of water with the rest of the tadpoles. She would sit and stare at the cup, then start naming each of the tadpoles.

When it was time to leave the creek to go have lunch, the little ones couldn't quite understand why they had to empty out their cup of tadpoles back into the creek, but they soon got used to the idea. Before leaving the creek for lunch all the children would arrange a time and a place to meet up again so that they could continue playing together. It was so nice to watch them build their friendships, it brought back so many memories of my childhood and similar holidays we enjoyed as a family while growing up.

Fireside Chats

We met a great family that was camping just across from us and ended up spending most of our time with them. Luckily their kids were of a similar age to our kids so it worked out really well.

They stayed one less night than we did, so on their final night, both families gathered around the camp fire to relax and chat about the wonderful but tiring day that we all had. Sitting by the fire, we all took turns to reminisce on what an amazing few days it had been and how much fun it was getting to know each other.

Marshmallow Frenzy

To cap off the evening we decided to bring out the marshmallows, because you cannot truly enjoy a camp fire without roasting some marshmallows. The kids began to scramble around the camp site in search of the perfect marshmallow stick. The stick could not be too short or you would burn yourself, it could not be too thin or it would break, and it definitely could not be too thick or the marshmallow would not fit. The children all worked together to make sure they each had a suitable stick, then it began.

It did not take long for the marshmallow frenzy to begin, with a flurry of children moving about a hot fire roasting and devouring marshmallow after marshmallow. The parents were all eagerly watching the little children to make sure they did not burn themselves or trip into the fire. We eventually decided it was time to cut them off the marshmallows after they had eaten about 4 to 5 marshmallows each. After negotiating our way through the whinging and whining, things eventually settle down again as the kids went off to play games in the dark.

Kid Free Time

Once all the kids disappeared to go and play, it gave us adults a chance to relax and chat without the continual din of children's questions and distractions. We sat there for another hour or so, laughing and telling stories. I sat there, totally content, listening to the stories while staring at the orange glow of the fire. The continual dance of the flames was quite mesmerizing.

Eventually it was time to wrangle the kids back in, to get them ready for bed. Fortunately by this stage they were quite exhausted and had used up most of their excess energy. Of course there was still the odd whimper and moan, but these were more out of tiredness so did not have much gusto behind them.

Finally, all the children were in bed, the little ones had already passed out and the older children were lying in bed reading or chatting quietly to each other. Time for the adults to bust out the cards. We sat up playing cards for many more hours, still laughing and joking. What an absolute blast we had together!

Conclusion

One of the unique beauties about camping is that although we may never cross paths or see that wonderful family ever again, for those few days we were best mates and shared many of our life stories with each other. We connected as people and enjoyed each others company and it was a very memorable time that we will cherish for many years to come.

I am not quite sure where our next Valerie adventure will take us, it might be another country getaway or perhaps we'll decide to visit a beach side camp site next time. To be honest I am not to fussed, as I know it will be its own unique experience that we as a family will enjoy together.

That is the very reason why we bought our Vintage Valerie Van, to build family memories and experiences together. My wife and I know that our children will only ever be little once, then they will out grow us and venture out to build families of their own. We as parents want to know that we did the most we could to give them a full and wholesome childhood, which we believe we are doing. We also want to cherish every single moment we have with them, so that when we are older we can look back at all of our photos and remember how much fun we had together as a family. 👪

Post authored by @strenue