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Camping At Tom Groggin
Hi all,
Just thought I would give a quick review of our camping experience at Tom Groggin Campground on the 24th-28th January 2017:
My wife, Myself and our three kids left on the Tuesday morning and headed to Island Bend to campground in Kosciuszko National Park NSW. It had taken us nearly two days to pack all the necessary items into the Pajero and Camper Trailer but we were able to leave by 10 am (which is pretty good… for us). After a quick stop at Burra to visit some family members, we were back on the road by 12pm. We took it easy and arrived at Island Bend at 3pm. Perfect! Two hours to set up camp, then into the Snowy River for a dip before dinner…. NOPE! Island Bend camp ground had plenty of nice spots but the river was flowing too fast for the kids to safely go swimming and within minutes of exiting the Pajero, I was right back in it to escape the enormous biting Horse-flies. This wasn’t going to work! (After much asking my wife)
, we decided to head for Ngarigo Campground which is located on Alpine Way and was the closest trailer suitable campground to us.
A quick drive through of Ngarigo told us that we were not the only ones with this idea and the campground was packed to capacity! What to do?! All our careful organisation had not paid off, it was getting late, still boiling hot and to make matters worse…. The kids were hungry!!
There wasn’t much else we could do but to push on towards Tom Goggin Campground which was another 90mins down the road and hope we found something suitable. So we dug a couple of packets of lollies from the emergency supply (Trust me, when you are travelling with kids… this is a vital consideration) and managed to placate a 10 year old, an 8 year old and a 21 month old for another hour and a half. We arrived at Tom Groggin Campground just after 5:30pm and were immediately impressed with the size and location of the campsites (well I was impressed, my wife was just relieved!). In a very short time we had found a shady camp spot away from the main camping area where we were finally able set up the camper.
Our site was fairly isolated, about 300 meters away from the river and the nearest campers (very important in maintaining camping etiquette when your toddler doesn’t sleep through the night) and 400 meters from the nearest drop toilet (a blessing and a curse! I was forced to do a few early morning drives to the toilet for a child who just wasn’t going to make it in time on their bike!) But still close enough for the kids to make friends with other children at the grounds.
The temperature sat around 30-35 degrees during the days for our whole trip, but the evenings got down to a pleasant 12-15 degrees which made sleeping easy! Because of the heat we did not go on any of the many hiking trails but mainly spent our days exploring the 4WDing tracks and swimming in the nearby river. The river, which we thought was the Snowy River but later discovered was the Murray River was a bit too shallow to swim in most places but there was a deeper spot adjacent to the main camp area which was popular in the heat of the day. The older kids soon discovered the technique of floating in the current and catching a ride to the deeper calmer waters of the swimming hole. This resulted in many bruises as the bottom of the river is rocky not sandy but was also a lot of fun.
One of our favourite things to do whilst camping, is pack a lunch, jump in the 4WD and head off exploring for the day. Tom Groggin turned out to be an ideal base for this activity. It is quite literally surrounded by 4WD tracks which range from easy to fairly difficult. Unfortunately the main drawcard, the Davies Plains Track was closed but we were able to get pretty far up the Mount Pinnibar track before needing to turn back due to low fuel (Something we neglected to consider). The Mount Pinnibar track (or Mt Peanut Butter track as it was soon named by the kids) was pretty steep in places and I ended up staying in Low-Range for the majority of the time. It was also a popular alternative to the closed Davies Plains track and was quite slippery in places due to the dry conditions and many 4WDs accessing the track. This is a track that we will definitely be heading back to complete.
The Tom Groggin Track wasn’t quite as intense as the Mt Pinnibar but afforded us with some spectacular views of the snowy mountains and some great pictures. We spent a few hours on this track until needing to turn back as it is not a loop track. A passing 4WDer told us that the Mt Anderson track links the Tom Groggin and the Mt Pinnibar tracks to form a loop but we had run out of time to complete that particular journey and decided it was wiser to turn back.
Overall it was a great trip even though it started off a bit stressful (our trips usually do). We are keen to visit Tom Groggin again and hit the 4WD trails again!
Just thought I would give a quick review of our camping experience at Tom Groggin Campground on the 24th-28th January 2017:
My wife, Myself and our three kids left on the Tuesday morning and headed to Island Bend to campground in Kosciuszko National Park NSW. It had taken us nearly two days to pack all the necessary items into the Pajero and Camper Trailer but we were able to leave by 10 am (which is pretty good… for us). After a quick stop at Burra to visit some family members, we were back on the road by 12pm. We took it easy and arrived at Island Bend at 3pm. Perfect! Two hours to set up camp, then into the Snowy River for a dip before dinner…. NOPE! Island Bend camp ground had plenty of nice spots but the river was flowing too fast for the kids to safely go swimming and within minutes of exiting the Pajero, I was right back in it to escape the enormous biting Horse-flies. This wasn’t going to work! (After much asking my wife)
, we decided to head for Ngarigo Campground which is located on Alpine Way and was the closest trailer suitable campground to us. A quick drive through of Ngarigo told us that we were not the only ones with this idea and the campground was packed to capacity! What to do?! All our careful organisation had not paid off, it was getting late, still boiling hot and to make matters worse…. The kids were hungry!!
There wasn’t much else we could do but to push on towards Tom Goggin Campground which was another 90mins down the road and hope we found something suitable. So we dug a couple of packets of lollies from the emergency supply (Trust me, when you are travelling with kids… this is a vital consideration) and managed to placate a 10 year old, an 8 year old and a 21 month old for another hour and a half. We arrived at Tom Groggin Campground just after 5:30pm and were immediately impressed with the size and location of the campsites (well I was impressed, my wife was just relieved!). In a very short time we had found a shady camp spot away from the main camping area where we were finally able set up the camper.
Our site was fairly isolated, about 300 meters away from the river and the nearest campers (very important in maintaining camping etiquette when your toddler doesn’t sleep through the night) and 400 meters from the nearest drop toilet (a blessing and a curse! I was forced to do a few early morning drives to the toilet for a child who just wasn’t going to make it in time on their bike!) But still close enough for the kids to make friends with other children at the grounds.
The temperature sat around 30-35 degrees during the days for our whole trip, but the evenings got down to a pleasant 12-15 degrees which made sleeping easy! Because of the heat we did not go on any of the many hiking trails but mainly spent our days exploring the 4WDing tracks and swimming in the nearby river. The river, which we thought was the Snowy River but later discovered was the Murray River was a bit too shallow to swim in most places but there was a deeper spot adjacent to the main camp area which was popular in the heat of the day. The older kids soon discovered the technique of floating in the current and catching a ride to the deeper calmer waters of the swimming hole. This resulted in many bruises as the bottom of the river is rocky not sandy but was also a lot of fun.
One of our favourite things to do whilst camping, is pack a lunch, jump in the 4WD and head off exploring for the day. Tom Groggin turned out to be an ideal base for this activity. It is quite literally surrounded by 4WD tracks which range from easy to fairly difficult. Unfortunately the main drawcard, the Davies Plains Track was closed but we were able to get pretty far up the Mount Pinnibar track before needing to turn back due to low fuel (Something we neglected to consider). The Mount Pinnibar track (or Mt Peanut Butter track as it was soon named by the kids) was pretty steep in places and I ended up staying in Low-Range for the majority of the time. It was also a popular alternative to the closed Davies Plains track and was quite slippery in places due to the dry conditions and many 4WDs accessing the track. This is a track that we will definitely be heading back to complete.
The Tom Groggin Track wasn’t quite as intense as the Mt Pinnibar but afforded us with some spectacular views of the snowy mountains and some great pictures. We spent a few hours on this track until needing to turn back as it is not a loop track. A passing 4WDer told us that the Mt Anderson track links the Tom Groggin and the Mt Pinnibar tracks to form a loop but we had run out of time to complete that particular journey and decided it was wiser to turn back.
Overall it was a great trip even though it started off a bit stressful (our trips usually do). We are keen to visit Tom Groggin again and hit the 4WD trails again!
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