It was another great week of camping at ever-popular Canungra, Queensland to start off our camping year. Campers rolled in and out over the week depending on their own schedules, and some members not able to camp dropped by to say 'hi'. We had 15 units in total which included three couples new to the group. A warm welcome to Troy & Jill, Alistair & Lynette, and Andy & Lee. We hope you enjoyed the group's company as much as we enjoyed yours.

It was also good to see a few kids at camp and watch them having fun. Courtney & Keith's boys Kaleb and Carter spent hours building a shelter from fallen trees according to the plan they submitted to their Cub leader - great work guys. It was a really impressive effort!Another of their highlights was catching and incinerating (now dead) toads. Thanks to Rick and Gary for their supervision and assistance. They eliminated around 30 toads over 2 nights of hunting. Great result but a terrible smell as they roasted though. Eliza and Jediah have out-grown their parents (and some of us); strange how kids get older but we don't (or so we like to think).

The weather was hot and humid mostly although we had a storm the first night and a number of others threatened but passed close by. All of this meant of course that we had to leave our campers often through the day and wander down to the river with our floating, and our dogs. Once we had turned into wrinkled prunes it was generally time for another meal or another refreshing drink after our strenuous (not) floating activities and avoiding the shrimps.

Days passed easily in and always ended around the ambience provided by the camp fire. Ray and Gary spent their days slow cooking up a nightly feast for themselves on one or more of their six cooking apparatus. As their camps were close to the communal fire we all shared the aromas and got to watch the prep involved each time. They love their camp cooking and really take it to the next level!

Thanks as always to our maintenance volunteers for their work trimming and tidying the Scout grounds. Many hands helped to make a real improvement to the property for the new scouting year.

Special thanks to everyone for their good company and making this such a friendly and relaxed camp. We hope to do this all again next year.

Greg and Lisa Miller

photos Greg