Some free camp sites don’t have toilets, but most do. The quality of those toilets falls somewhere between “I’d be proud to have that toilet in my house” and “?#!*?#*!?”.
There have been a couple of toilets that I refused to use. At one place in the Blue Mountains, I checked out the toilets upon arrival, as I usually do, and was immediately grossed out. The water had been off in the toilets for some time, but people had continued to use them. Both male and female toilets were in scary condition.
My van was recovering from overheating, and there were no other free camps close to where I was, so I had to stay. I would manage without using the toilets.
I sat outside my van for the next couple of hours, calling out to people as they arrived to use the toilets. “You probably don’t want to go in there! The water’s off and the toilets are gross.” The first people to arrive were a middle aged man and his elderly father. The son stayed with the car while his father walked into the toilet.
The son called back “It’s OK. He’s busting!”
The father – looking a little pale - came out of the toilet after a few minutes.
“Thanks for letting us know,” the son said as he and dad headed off.
And so it went for a couple of hours. In that time, about fifteen people pulled up to the toilets. I warned most of them. For a while, I gave up, thinking I was wasting my time, but I started again because I felt I had to let people know.
One lady thanked me for warning her, and immediately drove off. She was the only one who didn’t go in. Another lady went in, and was out again in a few seconds, saying “I see what you mean!” I called out to a young woman. She came out a little while later saying “It’s OK … I didn’t sit down!”
??????
At one stage, I thought that I must have been over-reacting earlier when I inspected the toilets, so I went in for another look. Of course, they were even more gross!
In all, I think two or three of the approximately fifteen people definitely did not use the toilet. I think everyone else did.
I don’t quite know what to say about that.
Anyway, the toilets at the Lions Park Reserve in Port Macdonnell in South Australia are in pretty good shape. They are housed in a large concrete tank, which is a little unusual. The photograph is of the sign on the inside of the door. I have seen some interesting toilet signs in my travels, but I might write about them another time.

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