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wood fires at Arapiles 14-Jun-2011 At 12:19:15 PM jezza

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Just back from several days at Araps. I must have been there 50 times now, but I'm still amazed how beautiful it is there, and at the quality of the rock.

STATE OF THE NORTH CAMPGROUND
This campground doesn't get as busy as the Pines, so maybe you'd expect it to be cleaner - but then again, maybe it doesn't get cleaned as often?

Anyway, I was amazed at how clean it was. I'm not just saying that - when everyone had left on Monday night, the place was bloody spotless. I found some rubbish in some of the bushes, but I had to hunt for it, and it had obviously been there for quite some time. Honestly, I'd give a pat on the back to all the climbers who used that campground. I saw about twenty tents there on the weekend, maybe more.

There's dead wood and dry bark all over the place in the North Campground. If we have a dry summer, some of it may have to be cleared, because it's a fire hazard. That'd be kind of ironic.

Unfortunately, though it's tidy, the North Campground looks pretty awful. The rains of summer & autumn came rushing down the hill, cleared out large areas, completely gutted the tracks, and generally wreaked havoc. Not much planning seems to have been done to manage run-off in this area. I would volunteer time to build a run-off channel to redirect water into the neighbouring paddock.

JEZZA'S HUNT FOR POO PILES
I hunted for poo piles, but couldn't find any. Maybe the rains have washed them all away. In my desperation, I talked to someone who had, many years ago, been a full-time resident. He was able to point me in the direction of an ancient poo pile in the SW corner of the North Campground!!

It's said to be more than 5 years old, and there's no longer any evidence of poo. But there's a medium sized tomato plant, that must have grown from seeds in the poo itself -apparently the tomatoes are flavoursome.

I was kind of disappointed. I believed Wendy, and I'd expected to find a few poo piles in the North Campground (which is further from toilets than any of the campgrounds). Maybe there's some near the Pines, because there's more poo producers there. I didn't have time to look, but there's always next time.