
Yesterday evening we arrived home, stinky and grimy after ten days of camping and I’m estimating the hosing down and cleaning and packing away a No-Less-Than-Three-Stage Operation.
Worth every single wash load.
An absolute privilege, the hanging about in a stunningly beautiful environment,

serenaded from dawn to dusk by an orchestral movement of bellbirds.
There were some kid dynamics to navigate but there was oh, so much more, to mark a fabulous holiday with some blooming excellent people.

Holiday Happenings In No Particular Order...
1. The Middle’s glee at getting close enough to one of the many camp Lace Monitors to have it whip him painfully in the neck with its tail.
2. The pickling of this kid (and, well, every other kid, because they rarely stood on dry land) in a seawater/freshwater brine.

3. The not entirely covert camp kitchen ransacking by Nigel and Doug and Nigel and Doug and Nigel and Doug the Brush-tailed Possums. The realisation that Nigel, (or possibly Doug), is partial to a jar of peanut butter.
4. The discovery of some local residents:


nb. The current, post-holiday BCC (Bug Carcass Count), after emptying two of the Middle Kid’s pockets, stands at six. Please know the Middle Kid only ever collects bits of dead bug and this magnificent (breathing) specimen is, no doubt, still pootling about on some branch-let.
5. The breakfast consumption of some freshly-fished residents:

6. The search for the resident Red-bellied Black Snake at the shower block proved fruitless. Who knows where he was – lurking behind a loo, no doubt. But we found his stunningly elegant brother:

7. Despite photographic evidence to the contrary, there was jumping into water from height as opposed to jumping into tree from height.

8. Expeditions were mounted:

9. HMAS Sinkable was launched:

(unless one weighs no more than a sprite, things tend to get wet. Entertainingly so, for those onshore).
10. Fires were crafted:

11. Things were cooked on sticks:

12. The very beginnings of a late-night, 500 card game addiction initiated.
13. Australia Day was acknowledged:

14. There is actual evidence that I was there too, waving at you from inside a bubble:

15. A start was made on the Epic Blanket,

(mostly over the nine hour, each-way car journey),

and that the ends, yet to be woven in and bemoaned, are currently coming along quite photogenically.

Weird to think that it’s back to the school routine in not too many ticks of the clock.