Tiny cabin stay

Last week we worked for two days and then headed to the Kangaroo Valley for a mid-week cabin stay. We booked a tiny cabin that was off the grid, where we had a couple of horses for neighbours and a fire (plus lots of marshmallows) to keep us warm. It was the nicest way to spend the winter solstice. Here are a few photos to share:

The trip was a tiny step towards car camping. We still had running water, a bathroom (with a composting toilet!), and a roof over our heads. Between the two of us we have zero camping experience, so we figured we'd try this out and see how we went. I loved cooking on a camp stove, and making my first ever fire.

We stopped at Hall for lunch on our way out of town, and stocked up on fancy beers at Hops & Vine. I'm going through a sour beer phase at the moment, they're a happy medium between beer and cider. Food inspiration came from Heidi and Rachel's camping trips - we packed some slow cooked meatballs that'd been stashed in the freezer, and I made my own pancake mix by halving this recipe.

Mornings were chilly and we'd wake up to steamed up windows and fog outside. My favourite activity was making breakfast in the cabin. On our first morning we ate buttermilk pancakes in bed and drank tea until it was too bright to stay in bed. We drove to Berry for hot pies and coffee, firewood and the best mint choc chip gelato.

I packed The Female Persuasion and it was the perfect holiday novel. It was surprising and entertaining, and very accurately captured feminism and gender politics today. We both thought there would be heaps of time for reading and drawing but our afternoons were busy in ways we didn't expect. We built a fire before dark, made pasta and greens on the camp stove and sat around watching the stars come out. On our final night, the winter solstice, we had big bowls of spaghetti and meatballs by the fire followed by s'mores.

It was so nice to have a couple of nights away after a busy first half of the year. We arrived home to sub-zero Canberra temperatures, extra grateful for hot showers and heating and daydreaming about a beachy cabin stay when the weather warms up again.