Driving down to Lane Poole on Friday afternoon we realised that it was approximately a year ago we had travelled down the same road for a weekend of camping with Simon, 
Carmel and Harry. It was the intro to Chocolate Scones (aka Rocky Road), and this time it was an introduction to camping for Fleetcare’s Financial Controller (and my friend) Jess, her husband Jason and Brianna. James and Lucy, our “normal” camping buddies joined us too.
We left Perth Friday afternoon and arrived in plenty of time to set up the camper, light a fire and cook some dinner. James and Lucy joined us Saturday morning for a cup of coffee then it was off to Stringers, a car shuffle and then a paddle down the river. Lucy is 28 weeks pregnant and while she is in denial that she is about to become a mother, she is still quite active. It’s just a shame her kayak wasn’t very stable, as in the first couple of hundred metres she managed to fall into the river not once, but three times! Admittedly she was trying to help another group – who promptly left her to her own devices as she was bobbing in the water trying to right the kayak.
After swapping her kayak for James’ we were off again. The river was flowing quite quickly and we made good time. The mud map provided was quite useful (if we’d followed the instructions) and pointed out when to take the left or right course, also pointing out rapids where we would need to portage. Unfortunately, we were going much faster than expected and at one point thought we were in an innocuous part of the river when in fact we were going down a grade 2/2.5 rapid. Lucy and James had stopped to take a look at the rapid and agreed to portage, Tim and I decided to brave it (again, we thought we were in a different spot!!). Well, we were going quite well at one point…. then started to head straight for a HUGE rock in the middle of the rapid. I am not sure what happened after that, but we ended up at the end of the rapid, kayak upside down, Tim and I floating around looking for our paddles and very very wet. Did I mention it was overcast and about 15 degrees? While the next hour or so was quite cold with limited opportunity to dry out, the paddle was quite scenic. We had a great time.
A nice dry off followed by a yummy lunch and an afternoon snooze, and then Jess, Jason and Brianna arrived. As virgin campers Tim helped Jason set up the tent while Brianna had the important task of holding the tent pegs. They were soon set up and I introduced Jess and Brianna to pit toilets!! Brianna was also introduced to toasting marshmellows on a campfire – a bit hit with those young and old. Later in the night after dinner James set out leading a nightime walk in the search for possums. When mentioning a possum search to Brianna I had forgotten that possums aren’t quite as rampant in WA as in Qld, so we didn’t manage to see any. We did however see a kangaroo and Brianna took great delight the next morning in pointing out that it must have been near the campsite because she could see it’s poo “and it’s fresh!”
All slept well – and we should have given the wine, port and chocolate consumed and the morning saw better weather than the previous day. Tim and James headed off for another paddle (avoiding the nasty rapid this time!!) while the rest of us hung around camp. Before we knew it, the time had come to start packing up (in between a game of croquet) and head home.
A great weekend was had by all. Next stop – Sandy Cape at Jurien Bay in 2 weeks time!
