Happy Camper...

OK, so it wasn't the most wonderful camping trip (but I guess it must rate somewhere considering there have only been 2 or 3 ever). I headed out there as soon as I got up and got ready. Esky, bread, steak, salad, salt, pepper, wine, wineglass, tent, mattress, chair, wine, wineglass, clothes, towel, doona, pillow, wine, wineglass, newspaper, coffee, milk, sugar, baked beans, wine, wineglass and smoked oysters. Oh yeah, almost forgot the cup, plate, combs & cutters and wine. Headed off on this mammoth trip, (I really think that camping should be done in a 50k radius from home, but apparently REAL campers don't do that) - 260k down the track I came to Edith Falls. My God, the rules of these places - No pets, No fires, No noise after 9pm, No parking on the grass, No fishing (!!!$#%#@... what the??), No boats, No walking on re-vegetation areas (the dirt bits with dead trees on them).... I actually defied one of the rules and was promptly told to remove my vehicle from the grass forthwith. But settled in nevertheless to find that "we" were a group of 6 - and all pretty decent people despite the fact that I only knew two (women I work with) and the other 3 included the local sergeant and his "oh I am so indispensible, I have so much to organise, I am solely responsible for almost every function in Jabiru, I really needed this weekend but almost brought my laptop with me, If I don't do it NOBODY will" (we all know the type) wife. Who other than all that, was quite OK once we all knew how important she was. The husband - the only male there - was just great, waited on the ladies, cooked all the meals, packed and unpacked, and seemed to know a bit about everything - when his wife let him.

OK, first pic is the falls, where we swam in the huge water hole, which was freezing but so refreshing.



We had a drink and nibbles at about 4-ish then everyone seemed to dissapear into their tents for an afternoon nap. OK, I thought, what do I do now?? Not being a napper, I looked around and realised that apart from hooking up with a bit of a bush walk, my options were to follow the example of the REAL campers, so I dragged out a book and laid down for a few minutes in my tent. This tent was lent to me by Chrissie who is anxious to have me learn this thing called camping because she loves it. As part of her job she takes aboriginal oldies out to the middle of 'bum f**k' and there she sits with them for two weeks catching and cooking bush tucker (fish, turtles, kangaroos, mangrove worms etc. etc.) Waits on them hand and foot, sets up the tents, keeps the fires hot, the lot .... and genuinely loves it. So she lend me all the tools I needed. The tent, the chair and the camp bed. The tent and the chair were child's play (with the sergeant's help), but the stretcher was just not possible. So, on the mattress I lay, book in hand, waiting for the others to resurface. Turns out I was the only one who dozed off!!
Pic of the campsite.



Dinner then a cupla drinks, then just as we were all talking about going to bed, a few droplets of rain alighted upon us, and panic set in. Two of the tents were mesh, and mine was partly mesh, so we all scrabbled aroud as the rain intensified trying to find waterproof covers if we had them - I'd wondered what that plasiccy sheet thingy in the tent bag was... and basically we just called it a night.

Fortunately very little rain came into my tent. Unfortunately I got drenched BEFORE I got into the tent. Fortunately I took my bottle of wine and glass in with me. Unfortunately I'd put the tent cover on back to front so I couldn't get any air flow inside. Fortunately I took my smokes in also. Unfortunately, because of the tent-cover stuff-up, I couldn't have one.

Pic taken inside while it was still raining....