Camping usually turns out one of two ways… AWESOME or TERRIBLE. Capital letters totally necessary.

Fortunately I’ve lucked out with pretty great camping so far — Mount Whitney, Channel Islands, Australian Outback, and a bunch of other places I haven’t blogged about… like the Inca Trail, Catalina Island, and Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin.

And my luck continues on Fraser Island! We encounter no snakes, dingos, or other deadly Aussie critters. No one gets injured, we don’t run out of water or food, and our 4WD vehicle doesn’t get stuck in the sand. This experience officially falls into the AWESOME camp (no pun intended).

All credit belongs to Dropbear Adventures, who organizes a stellar trip.

When we arrive at our intended campsite and discover (via a ranger notice) that there’s been an aggressive dingo in the area, we immediately pack up and set off for a new location.

About ten minutes before this photo was taken, there was a full-on campsite under these trees:

But while the rest of us hike to Lake Wabby for a swim, Troy sets up our new campsite all by himself. Here’s the “driveway”:

Our common area for meals and hanging out at night:

Troy sets out the mussels we collected this morning in preparation for tonight’s appetizer.

Our tents are erected mere meters from the beach.

This angle shows just how close we are to the shoreline — it is so peaceful to hear the waves crashing nearby all night long.

Major fail… I have no idea what kind of shell Troy is holding up. Anyone recognize this?

This plant is neat — if you crack open a stalks, it leaks some sort of antiseptic.

Troy demonstrates:

The sun begins to set on our first night:

Troy begins dinner. He proves to be an excellent cook both nights.

He boils the mussels we dug up and adds onion, olive oil, herbs, a dash of milk, and some champagne supplied by fellow travelers Mickey & Oonagh from Ireland. I’m the only one who loves the dish! I go to town on these little guys and they are fantastic.

For the main meal, we enjoy Aussie grilled steak, veggies, and boiled potatoes. That’s a Summer Pear Cider I picked up in Rainbow Beach earlier — I’m not a beer fan, and Strongbow is my cider brand of choice while in Oz.

The next night, Troy whips up a stir fry over rice. Delicious and healthy.

Here’s the chef, posing for an Instagram pic (username = AsHerWorldTurns):

After dinner we gather on the beach for an astrology astronomy lesson. Troy has a green laser pointer with remarkable power to point out stars overhead.

It’s July 6th and we happen to be three days away from a New Moon — a perfect time to view the stars. And the Milky Way galaxy shines best in July so we are doubly lucky.

As Troy uses his green laser pointer, I notice that the streaks on my long exposure shots look like the aurora borealis (which is very high on my bucket list). Until I get to see the real deal, these fake “aurora” shots will tide me over.

Your photographer says hello! Even if the shadows on her face are a little creepy in a telling-ghost-stories-around-the-campfire way.

Our dining area under a canopy of stars:

By the beach and under the stars… the most perfect campsite ever.

FYI – the above shot was taken on our second night when the clouds moved in.

And here’s my tent, under the Milky Way:

On the final morning we wake up to this:

Wild flowers around our campsite:

I have a few more miscellaneous photos to share from our camping trip…

Meet Mr. Dropbear (of Dropbear Adventures):

For the uninitiated:

A drop bear or dropbear is a fictitious Australian marsupial. Drop bears are commonly said to be unusually large, vicious, carnivorous marsupials related to koalas (although the koala is not a bear) that inhabit treetops and attack their prey by dropping onto their heads from above. They are an example of local lore intended to frighten and confuse outsiders and amuse locals, similar to the jackalope, hoop snake, wild haggis or snipe hunt. [via]

Any Australian will relish telling foreigners about the deadly and dangerous dropbear.

On the right below is a handy device Troy brings along so that passengers can charge phones, iPods, etc.

Many thanks to Dropbear Adventures for sponsoring my tour in exchange for photography services. Opinions are my own.