[bird (Anthony Wesley)]

Update:

I'm back home now, got in about an hour ago. I went back up to Nambucca Heads yesterday to have a second look at that venue now that I'd seen all the other options. There was only one other place that was close to scoring the same on features, but in the end the Nambucca Heads location just came out on top in all categories:

- Cabins: all nice, well located on the top of the headland. Sleep up to 5 per cabin, 6 cabins available, located together away from other campers.

- Trees: none that will get in the way. Low trees and scrub for good windbreak.

- Open space: each cabin has open grass (flat) and there's a large open (flat) area close by within reach of power.

- Wind protection: The grass areas are well protected from the direct wind.

- Cost: As low as any other place I could find (see below).

-Owners: friendly and interested in what we're doing

- Privacy: good, the park is at the end of the road, boom gates at entry, the cabins are at the far end of the park. Should be very little passing traffic.

- Location: On top of the headland, about 50m above the ocean. Can stand there and look down at the beach and water. Bushland in all directions.

Overall rating: Perfect.

Now we have to determine numbers and how much accommodation to book. 6 cabins are available - ideally I'd like to book them all so we have that end of the park all to ourselves :-) But realistically we might only have enough to book 2 or 3 over that period.

I'd suggest that people bringing families to mix holiday with astronomy pleasure will likely want to have a cabin to themselves, and people travelling alone should consider sharing with other people to keep the costs down. Each cabin has a master bedroom and separate bunk beds.

I'd like to make the booking at the end of January, so lets try to get the word out to everyone we think might be interested. I'll email everyone I know including some overseas people that have expressed interest.

Check out the link near the top of the thread to the tourist park for prices. The system I'll use will be to share the cost of adults evenly among those staying each night, and the cost of children is charged to their parents.

eg 2 adults is $65, so that's $37.50ea per night, 3 adults would be $75, ie $25 per head.

Children under 5 stay for free, otherwise $5 per night each.

If we book for a week we pay only for 6 days. For that reason I'll book for 2 weeks so we pay for 12 days.

For people with families booking out a cabin to themselves it's easy to calcuate the cost, but for people sharing it's not so easy as it depends on who is there on each night of the camp. I'll try and get everyone to commit to exact dates as soon as possible so we can sort out who will be in which cabin.

At this stage the camp will be from Saturday June 21 to Friday July 4 inclusive. That makes exactly 2 weeks, of which we pay for 12 days and get 2 days free.

These dates can change up to the time that we book. School holidays start on July 5, the day after the end of the camp. I'd hope to have very few campers there during the camp (other than us).

All in all Sounds pretty darn good to me :-)

cheers, Bird