One for the money...

Camping: nature's way of promoting the motel industry. ~Dave Barry, Only Travel Guide You'll Ever Need

My friend Sian looks forward to this time of the year all year so she can whisk us away into the Great Dividing hinterland rainforst & camp somewhere where it cooks us by day & freezes us by night.

I've camped all my life so I am more than happy to be whisked; Ditz less so. It's not the lack of soap & water in a teen girl's life that troubles her as much as the eco loos. I have to admit I see her point. These no flush contraptions remind me of nothing so much as the old thunder boxes down the back paddock with the resident red back spider under the seat! Liddy is envious but she must work.

Then there is the hiking. My *no exercise please* kid gets to be hiked all over the Springbrook ranges & some of it is pretty difficult walking. Ditz's legs ache just thinking about it. Sian & I keep saying we want to do the Wari track but it is an all day hike & we need to leave early. Ditz wilts every time we mention it but so far we sleep so badly none of us has woken early enough to get us all moving in time. It's the thought of the Yowies. Any time Sian or Ditz wants the loo at night they want company, just in case you know, because it is Yowie country. I will get a hard time for teasing. lol.

This will be our longest stay so I have invested in a couple of camping chairs for Ditz & I. I am getting too old to find sitting on the ground for prolonged periods terribly comfortable. I am Sian's *wildlife watcher* buddy. She has other people she likes to go camping with but I'm the one prepared to sit indefinitely [& quietly] beside a pool watching for platypus. This exercise drives Ditz demented. I'm also pretty good at spotting wildlife, especially nests because I know what to look for ~ & what I'm looking at! [memo to self: remember the bird id book this time for the birds I don't know].

So today I pack & tomorrow I cook; Friday we leave. I really only have to prepare 2 evening meals; Sian will do the other 2 but I need some Ziploc bags with a *trail mix* ~ mostly nuts because I don't like dried fruit ~ & to buy the fruit, salad & noodles [noodles are a lunchtime staple] that we are going to need for 4 days. I'm always a little ambivalent about holidays. The extra work involved always makes me tired just thinking about it but I always have such a great time once I'm over that quirk in my personality. However bags won't pack themselves [more's the pity] so I'd better get moving.