the Novice Camper continues...

I thought it ironic that the name of the van next to us was "Roma". It was lost (deliberately I think) on Gary who commented that "Were roma round Australia!" I must admit from about three hours out of Adelaide the light wsa different from anything I had seen before. The clarity was incredible and each colour heightened to the extreme. The closer we got to the Flinders Ranges the more it was like stepping into a Leonard Long painting Coming into this camp site I realised that perhaps Adelaide wasn't the wilderness after all. Surroundeed by the incredible hills and set in a bit of scrub but too tired to care really - just want a good nght's sleep.

The Stepford camping families continue to do their waving - it's like having a new nanna on every corner. I continue what Gary calls my Queen ave in return. I reminded Gary of my theory of beeing swapped at birth as way of explanation of me havinng no obvious camping skills whatsoever. Queen Elizabeth was pregnant while in Edinburgh but decided another male heir was needed - hencee the elaborate switch - Andrew for Ev! Mother, father and family were subsequently shipped to Australia at no charge for an extended holiday. This perfectly explains my love ofcrystal, diamonds, and all the finer things of life. After three nights in the van I even look like her - my eyes havee sunk even further back in my head and I look eighty years old!

Alas, another restless night. Gary said I wasn't to wake him unless there was a fire. At about 2 am I awoke with the strong smell of smoke nearby. Was just about to wake him when I realised that the smoke was coming from my hair, courtesy of our 'let's eat around the camp fire' dinner.! None of us could see a thing we were eating it was so dark, but supposedly this added to the charm - wh knows what crawled or flew onto our plates to be chewed and swallowed. Rachel did emjoy the blanket of stars on our kilometre-round trip to the toilet. At zero degrees I will protect my electric blanket like a fourth child.

At about 3 am some sort of animal started head-butting the canvas. Got up nervously to take a peek and after putting glasses on felt a tightening at the sides of my head. "This is it," I thought, "a stroke from the stress of camping. My sight was blurry and the tightness continued until I realised I had put on Sam's glasses. Forgot wild animal and crawled back relieved into bed. Early in the morning the owners of the camping site said that the dingoes and foxes were particularly aggressive during the night trying to get into tents. Did a quick head count of the kids and the electric blanket - all present and accounted for.

Sam not at all worried about the wild dingoes and foxes encircling our camp site. This could be explained by him coming to us a few months ago to tell us that hee knew what happened to baby Azaria. He told us that she was eaten by a flamingo! Now I remember him going pale at the Adelaide Zoo when he asked what was the pink bird on the skinny legs next to him. He stayed very close to me for the rest of the visit there!