5/9/10 KINGS CANYON

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO ALL THE DADS READING THIS.


We bought steak sandwiches for tea last night. A bit on the dear side but they were very good steak sandwiches with real steak! We forgot to tell them they would be ‘take away’ so they were served up to us on plates and nicely presented. Because we wanted the meal back at the caravan they gave us a tray and we promised to return the plates and tray in the morning.

This morning we all woke feeling reasonably refreshed although Raymond and I were feeling pretty worn out from the efforts yesterday. Hazel and Royce seemed to be in better condition! My legs were a bit stiff and sore but loosened up slightly after my shower. We did a load of washing, took the plates and tray back, had a cappuccino and investigated the souvenir shop. Whilst I was in the shop Raymond and Hazel decided to do a camel ride which was leaving almost immediately so Royce and I went out to watch them depart and take a couple of photos for them. The cameleer invited us to come along with them (walking) so we headed off on foot with the camel train (only 3 camels). I hadn’t planned to do much walking today because I was a bit sore and still tired from the very strenuous day yesterday. As it turned out I became an assistant cameleer! I was given the ‘handbrake release’ to keep the second camel moving because she has a tendency to stop quite frequently. The ‘handbrake release’ was a fairly long stick with a blue rag on the end. You don’t need to hit the camel with it, you just need to convince the camel you are serious, so I ended up on several occasions giving Doctor Heather (the camel) a bit of a growl and told her to keep moving so she did. I thought I did pretty well! It was a 30 minute walk and although the camels only look like they are ambling along when you are on foot trying to keep up it is a reasonable pace! On the way back one of the new camels (Missy) decided to charge towards us so I had to tell her off and she stopped, gave a bit of a growl at me, then walked away! All very exciting. I think I could be a Cameleer!

We spent the rest of the day doing very little. Royce played on the computer this afternoon while I read for a while and had a catnap. We walked down to have another look at the camels and take a couple of photos, had another cappuccino then came back to the caravan and we both played on the computer for a while before setting up the BBQ for tea. I chopped up some veggies to cook on the BBQ and as I am typing this up Royce and Raymond are cooking tea.

I have been writing up my Blog each day as a word document just trying to make sure I don’t forget too much and once I have an internet connection I will copy each entry into my Blog.