Friday 18th April 2008

Woke before everyone, in a heat explosion floppy tent. I scrambled outside and surveyed the rising sun, recalling how I poured water throughout the van in the middle of the night trying to fill my bottle from our extremely heavy tank of potable water.

I took some photos of the morning sun glistening off of Taloola and our over exposed camp, and then folks gradually began to wake up. 2 rainbows appeared to the south, which we marvelled at, then pondered the incoming rain. In an hour or two we managed to eat a breakfast of brekkie bars and apples and packed the van up with all manner of camp equipment melded with sand. Twas my turn to drive awesomely down the beach, and as we were so efficient we left a bit early and still had to dodge the sea a bit. But soon we were free to drive manically along the beach within sensible guidelines. We stopped off first of all at Dunarabu camp site to wash all our cutlery, user their facilities and the such like. Viewing the amazing coloured sands and the beach wreck, surrounded by crazy dangerous jellyfish or something. Our final target for the day was Lake Wabby, where we would camp nearby. We had to trek 45 minutes along a random path through the forest until we emerged at an amazing site. A huge sand dune that plummets straight down in the lake's edge. Surrounding the lake on all other sides is rainforest and the water itself gets infinitely deep very quickly. The water and the air was very cold but we all kept in anyway. We group swam across it to a small bank the other side, where we were happy to find out Fi was a lifeguard. Although fresh, the lake wasn't as clear as we thought it might be. Once we swam back it started to pour down and we waited under a tree till it passed, a few photos up the dunes later and we walked back. I chatted to Jamie about Asia and travelling in general. As we approached Taloola the heavens opened and we made a mad dash for cover and waited like predatory pandas. Eventually we drove along slightly, to an amazingly perfect tent pitching area, shielded by a sand bank and expertly placed trees. With ease and practiced wit we constructed our tents far better than last night, Barry fashioned an awesome rain cover and the girls began cooking pasta. The end result was insanely yummy and we wolfed it down like hungry monkeys. A group of peeps arrived nearby really late on their first night and were panicking with the difficulty of their night time task, so the 4 of us lads bust on over there, and if you were there, you would have witnessed the greatest and fastest tent erection in history. So much so that all the girls swooned and the other guys became dejected with our manliness. Following this, a night long issue occurred involving the disappearance of our mallet, possibly due to Jamie's absent mindedness. No biggie or 2pac though.

The night once mroe descended into a goon and drink fest, initially via an over compelx game that involved drinking every 30 seconds. Though with no watch available, we were forced to count, somewhat innaccurately, ourselves. This in itself descended into random shouts of "Drink". Good fun. Later in the night I discovered Fi was from Honiton, and we had a lengthy discussion about every Exeter pub and club, as well as Ottery St Mary. The night also involved sporadic dives into tents to avoid the rain, which left sand everywhere. Fantastic night.