2nd of January

 

As we were walking down to the beach on the 1st, we were approached by this lovely older guy who was telling us about his business hiring out canoes on the Brogo Dam.  He had a little folder with some photos in it and it sounded pretty cool.  Then, when he mentioned that they were Canadian canoes, James was practically grabbing that leaflet out of his hands and shoving into his armpit for safekeeping.  I wasn't really aware of the appeal, but when we rocked up to the boat landing the following morning, I suddenly understood.

 

These were the canoes we had seen immortalised in the great classics like The Brady Bunch camping special and The Parent Trap and pretty much any other summer camp movie you can think of from the North American dynasty that is the summer camp movie genre.  I honestly felt like I should disembowel a raccoon and pop it on my head before stepping inside such an icon.  Harriet was less than impressed with my need for a photograph before the camera was stowed away safely in the car, as can be seen above.  But that slightly surly, pre-teen belligerence does become her in a way.

The canoe trip was totally and fantastically awesome.  Let's forget for a moment that in a moment of white hot anger and frustration I smashed a packet of corn thins and broke a cucumber into hunks with my bare hands.  Yes, best to forget about that.  Let's remember instead the serene setting, the lizards and bright blue dragonflies, the paddling (which was actually heaps of fun and not physically demanding at all) and the swimming off a tiny beach with dam mud oozing between our toes.  Another family turned up and lo and behold if they weren't from Stanmore.  Of course.  In fact the woman looked a little familiar, but I couldn't really place her exactly.

 

And yet again we were motivated by the plaintive wails of Ted to seek out some sort of sustenance.  The walk down to the fish and chip shop was pure torture - Ted screamed the whole way down there about how tired he was and how hungry he was.  It didn't help that the shop was highly popular and we had to wait quite a while for our food. *sigh*

 

I have to say though, I had the pleasure of eating the most magnificent vegie burger I have ever had the chance to eat.  The patty was so chock-a-block full of vegetables that I was crunching down on broccoli florets and sweet potato pieces.  It was absolutely delicious.  Even the chips were pretty good.  And then, after complaining about how hungry he was (you can see we had purchased a juice to give him some energy while he waited), Ted spent the majority of his time running around the tables and even, at one point, running straight out on to the road IN FRONT OF A CAR.  Oh my god, I nearly had a pink fit of despair.  I had a serious chat to him about how dangerous that is and he did seem to take it on board and slow down when he neared corners after that.  However he still only deigned to return to the food every now and then.  I foresaw a hypoglycaemic meltdown come bedtime for sure.  They don't call me Cassandra for nothing.

 

And then, miraculously, on the way home Ted seemed to find an amazing reserve of energy.  He ran, jumped, zoomed and generally cavorted his half naked body down the length of the beach.  Harriet was heartbroken that on this last night at our campground I was preventing her from performing more body surfing.  I felt compelled to point out to her that it was actually freezing cold in the wind and the temperature of the water had dropped quite a bit from the previous day.  But still - there were tears.

 

 

Ted has recently been going through a phase of saying to James "I don't love you.  I only love Mama.".  Oh yeah - feel the love.  But it is occurring at the same time that he's increasingly requesting James to play games with him and chat to him.  So I was pretty happy to snap this shot of the two of them on the beach log.  This last one is my PAD.