Fateful Voyage

More camping tales...

Here is Little Bear & her daddy having a nice peaceful float on a rubber raft.


Little Bear wasn't entirely keen on the boat, however it kept her out of the very cold water so she didn't fuss too much.





This was the first day we were camping. The next day everyone except Little Bear & I (3 adults & 3 children) decided to take the raft up the rapids, all climb in & ride it down. All of them can swim.


They did this successfully once & decided to go again. The second time down wasn't quite so good.


As they were rushing down one particular spot, the raft was swept by the rapids into a tree.


I will now give you Cheetah's version of this story.


"The boat crashed into a tree and I went smashing into the tree and T was underwater & I was tangled in the rope which was wrapped around my finger & it was the only thing stopping me from drowning & it nearly severed my finger. I nearly died & the boat is still stuck in the tree 'cause Uncle J couldn't get it out."


I thought he was exaggerating. Some bits were exaggerated, but not as much as I thought.


The boat crashed into the tree with half the occupants going one way, half going the other & Cousin T going under. Cheetah got tangled in the tree with the boat. DH grabbed him, asked if he was OK & when Cheetah said yes he got shoved to the river bank. DH then went looking for the other kids. Aunty M had gone forward & when she looked back she could see Uncle J but Couldn't see either of her two kids. Uncle J meantime had found Cousin C who was panicking (out of view behind the tree to Aunty M) & he managed to get her off to the side & raced back to extract cousin T who was still under water.

It happened very quickly with none of the adults exactly sure what happened when the boat hit the tree.

All were OK with only some scratches & bruises & some very bad memories to speak of. I have written a very brief & unembellished story (there was other stuff that happened) because I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what happened & the adults that were don't really want to talk about it. It must have been quite traumatic.

Everyone survived except the raft. I think everyone was so glad the kids were alive, they didn't really care about the raft.

Pay It Forward

I have won somehing from Possum. I'm not sure what it is, because it's going to be a surprise! I can't wait till I get it!!!

Now that I have won, I have to host my own 'Pay it Forward'.

The rules are:

* The first 3 people who comment on my blog, telling me what they think of it, will win a homemade prize from ME!!!
* I have to post it within 365 days. I don't think it will take that long though! ;)
* The 3 people who win a prize, MUST host a 'Pay it Forward' on their blog, then follow the rules as normal.

Good Luck!!!

Tranquility

Welcome to the first installment of the camp experience...

Now camping with kids isn't the most peaceful experience, but it is still usually better than the hustle & bustle of everyday life.

When it came to the noise level, this camping trip definitely wasn't peaceful.

Here is a video of a Lace Monitor (otherwise known as a Goanna). It isn't a very exciting video, (sorry it's sideways but I couldn't help that) however if you turn the sound up as loud as you can, you will hear what we listened to all weekend.

That is the sound of Flying Foxes. Usually they are only this noisy at dawn & dusk, but this time there were so many of them fighting for space in the trees that they kept this up all day & all night long.

The only time this noise stopped was when it was raining so hard that the noise of the rain was as loud as the noise of the flying foxes had been previously. As soon as the rain eased up, the flying foxes began again. The worst of it was when it was only gently raining, because then we had both the noise of the rain AND the noise of the flying foxes.

We're Back

Just thought I would ease everyone's minds & let you know that we are back from camping.

We had a great time but instead of packing up this morning, we packed up & came home late last night.

While we were away, we were blissfully unaware that there was a category 4 cyclone 200km east of us that is now a category 5 and about to hit the whitsunday coast today.

At lunchtime yesterday we needed to fill our gas bottle up & went for a drive into Ingham & that is when we found out about the cyclone. We were going to stay, but then we got a brief but heavy shower that caused Uncle J & Aunty M's tent to get a bit wet inside. That combined with the fact that it doesn't take much rain to close the highway up in these parts and Aunty M has an important meeting on Monday so we decided that for the sake of 1 night (as we usually pack up first thing in the morning), it wasn't worth it & we left.

I will blog more about our camping experiences soon, but for now I just thought I would let everyone know we are back safe & sound with just a few extra bruises, scratches & other injuries that are completely unrelated to the cyclone.

Cheers

I figured I would play along with Mum-Me & find out what my musical taste says about my attitude to life ...

Your Taste in Music Says You're Cheerful

Your musical tastes are upbeat and conventional. You are an easy going, optimistic person. Family and friends are very important to you. You enjoy caring for and helping other people. You thrive in a tranquil environment, and you do your best to keep things peaceful. You enjoy your life. You have your priorities straight.

What Does Your Taste in Music Say About You?

I don't disagree with anything they have said (although like Mum-me I am interested to hear what others say), however I am a little bit sceptical that they can determine this in only 4 multi-choice questions.

Isn't she lovely

Little Bear has been a little under the weather the last couple of days.

Any other time, that means a tired, grumpy, miserable little girl.

This time, she was just sick enough. She was quieter than usual, sat for ages on my lap at all times of the day, and was generally happy just sitting quietly & watching tv. Except for when the panadol kept wearing off, she was the most beautiful contented child. (And I got 2 days off work to be with this Angel).

I have very few close up photo's (that I haven't cropped from a larger photo) because she doesn't usually sit still enough.

Today she let me take this one.

I have briefly stopped to post this, as I haven't had a chance in the last couple of days to post & this weekend we will be camping so not likely to be any posts then.

Now I have to get back to preparations.

Camping

Next weekend we are going camping for 4 days & 3 nights with my brother in law & his family. We've camped a few times now with them & are pretty organised about it.

Would love to hear of any ideas for camp food or camping activities that other's might have, or interesting camping experiences too.

Leave me a comment, or tell us all about it in a post.