Best Base Camps

[TerraMer]

What have been some of your best base camps?
Did you car camp, use a camping ground, walk in away from roads and trails?
Was it in a national park, state forest, commercially run holiday park or free?
What gear do you carry in? Do you set up for luxury or stick to only the necessities?
When you choose a base camp what are your considerations?
Are you base camping solely for walking, peak bagging, climbing, kayaking, etc, or for days off doing not much, bird watching, swimming, painting?

I have only recently started thinking of base camping with my kombi in Nth NSW/Sth QLD national parks where I can drive to a variety of parks and conservation zones within an hour and over summer I plan to spend a lot of time in the Alps exploring many of the access trails to the AAWT and will be base camping in some of the nicer places I have only briefly walked through in the past.

The ideal base camp in a tent for me would be one with few human visitors, a dunny, windbreak and a fresh creek/river/beach somewhere near by. I can do a few day walks, some bird watching and not much else. A kombi base camp would need somewhere to hang the day hammock and somewhere private in the bush to hang the solar shower.

One of the best "base camps" I visited was Annapurna. After joining a local family on an unplanned pilgrimage to a sacred lake at over 5000m and climbing a pass about 6000m I continued on alone towards my original goal, Annapurna Base Camp. It was monsoon and I had spent everyday walking through cloud and had only one 30 minute cloud free view of the mountains i was surrounded by during the entire week until the night I reached ABC. There were only 2 other walkers and their guide at ABC and at midnight the manager came knocking at our doors inviting us outside. It was spectacular. Bright snow covered peaks silhouetted against the dark starry moonless sky. I felt so small with all those mountains around me and to top it all off there was a distant avalanche that kept on crashing just long enough to make us nervous. Then suddenly the cloud came back in for another 3 days of wet until I reached Pokhara. This Himalayan base camp was pristine, empty and comfortably equipped with a warm lodge, although I hear it is a completely different scene in the tourist season.

[MartyGwynne]

Best base camp so far is at the Meuler River East gippsland in the croajingalong national park.
It does have toilets and a few camp sites next to the inlet/river. Fresh water is a bit hit and miss so best to take your own drinking water.
No fires allowed though! so it is best to go during the warmer months.
It is at the end of the track so gets less visits/campers.
It is best if you have a canoe/kayak to explore the waterways though.

[Drifting]

Any of the drive-in camps on the Bogong High Plains, when no-one's around...

[TerraMer]

Best base camp so far is at the Meuler River East gippsland in the croajingalong national park.
It does have toilets and a few camp sites next to the inlet/river. Fresh water is a bit hit and miss so best to take your own drinking water.
No fires allowed though! so it is best to go during the warmer months.
It is at the end of the track so gets less visits/campers.
It is best if you have a canoe/kayak to explore the waterways though.

Croajingalong is a beautiful stretch of coast. i was lucky enough to go through the Wilderness Coast Track in a solo walk from Tathra to Lakes Entrance/Bairnsdale four years ago and loved the areas around Shipwreck Creek, Seal Creek and Wingan Inlet. Mueller River is great, bonus having a lighthouse, I'm a bit of a lighthouse nut. Lots of history through there too

[TerraMer]

Any of the drive-in camps on the Bogong High Plains, when no-one's around...

Yes, wonderful! When I studied in Albury I spent many long weekends and uni breaks up there alone base camping near huts. Rarely saw another walker, snowshoer or skier. It felt like the mountains were my own private backyard.

[north-north-west]

Any of the drive-in camps on the Bogong High Plains, when no-one's around...

Ditto - or MacFarlane Saddle/Lost Plain/Howitt carpark/Bryce's/Dimmicks in Wonnongatta/Moroka. Or Pinch River or Gattamurgh Reach on the Snowy.
Ella Bay up near Innisfail used to be wonderful, back in the 80s, but then they civilised it . . .