Making Damper and Lake Atkinson Dam Camping

August 2012

Lake Atkinson was beautiful. We set up camp and enjoyed the water and scenery and the abundance of bird life - a bird watchers paradise. The lake was graced with a water skiier and 2 on a jet ski. They were fun to watch :)

The sunset was magnificent. It was a Thursday and we only had one other lot of campers on the other side of the camping area. Nicely mowed lawns, toilet block was ok - could have done with a sweep out and cobweb clean but working loos nonetheless :) Lots of bins for rubbish - clean grounds.

On site gas BBQs and plenty of tables and chairs. Camp fires had to be within 2 metres of the shoreline which was fine by us :)

Our little old dogs enjoyed it as well - they are regular campers with us.

Click here to see more pictures of our camping trip at Lake Atkinson Dam.

We only got to stay one night because Mother Nature decided to throw a hissy fit - BIG time! The lake was like a crazy ocean with huge waves that washed up on shore. Here is a morning after shot.

 Camping trip cut short but the One one day we had at the lake was beautiful. Went to bed that night  at 9;30 pm and then at 10pm, Mother Nature kicked up a big ass wind! Scary. Camper was rockin' canvas shaking, zippers jingling. A few poles flew up so we were on deck hammering in more pegs. What a ripper of wind! It lasted until 3am .... and then we slept. 7am was nice so took the dogs for a walk around the lake and then 8am, the winds returned again. Have you ever tried to pack up a massive camper with annexe and walls during wind gusts of up to 70 klm per hour?

It was full on family team work! The kids were awesome helping us, sitting on things so they didnt blow away, packing pegs, holding poles down - far out! Now we are home sweet home as I nurse some swollen knuckles that I bashed whilst packing up!.

Saw smoke at Gatton on way home in the mountains. Dad just rang and the fires have spread to Laidley and with this wind STILL going on, God only knows how far the fires will get. Wind is on the news even interstate in NSW - holy moly. Thank God we're home safely ♥

Mother Nature may have caused us to cut our camping trip short, but our spirit remains in camping mode ~ got Billy, coals and camp oven out of the trailer. We've got a camp fire ring out the back yard but dont want to risk it in case the winds pick up again - that was waaaaay scary yesterday man! Lit the indoor fire (may as well warm the house up too :) and heating coals in that then will transfer out the front yard (no wind :) and cook in the camp pot oven. Girls kneaded the damper dough ♥ and will light the fire soon, heat the coals and make a damper! Whoop whoop :)



First of all, get a nice fire going and heat your coal beads. We played it safe with an indoor fire - had enough of that wind for a while!

Knead your damper dough - or in this case, have fun playing around with it first - Oh the joys of homeschooling ;)

When using a camp oven, remember the RULE OF THREE for coal beads.

For example:

12 inch camp oven
Beads on top: 12 + 3 = 15
Beads on bottom 12 - 3 = 9

14 inch camp oven
Beads on top: 14 + 3 = 15
Beads on bottom: 14 - 3 = 11

In our case, we have an

8 inch camp oven so we have used 11 beads on top and 5 beads on bottom

Here was our first check after 20 minutes of cooking but was still gooey dough in the middle

After another 20 minutes of cooking, (40 minutes in total) heres what we ended up with

Bon appetite  :)

Damper was LOVEly :)