Back in Mt Remarkable

We are on our way back to Adelaide for SOUNDWAVE, the country's biggest touring heavy metal festival. We decide to return to Mambray in Mt Remarkable for a couple of nights on our way through. We find our old site is available, and grab it. the park is quite full this time - there are as many as 20 sites full.

Next door to us is Mr and Mrs Grumblebum, and I can tell you now I would rather scrub men's toilets than listen to this miserable boring couple talk to me. He is the 4WD expert and whatever you have or think, he will make you feel bad about it and tell you all your flaws. She talks without punctuation, just words and words and words pour from her mouth, without breath, about everything from her sister's surprise birthday party, to her 6-degrees-of-separation association with Angry Anderson and blah-d-blah-di-blah. After a while I told her I had to go into the van to cook dinner and as I was closing the door on her, she was still talking talking talking.

Across the way are Steve and Kylie, a couple in our age group, who are interesting and fun, love playing cards, bushwalking and art. We invited them over for a game of 500 and we had a really lovely evening. Steve & Kylie are working their way the country on their travels and have spent time doing everything from cooking & gardening in resorts, to picking mangoes (it seems that picking mangoes might be one of the hardest fruit-picking jobs; really backbreaking and non rewarding). Anyway, after cards we agreed to meet again the next night for another game.


Next day I observed a car arriving which had a large yellow flag on the antenna. "Hmm, that looks familiar..." I thought, and as the car got closer I noticed spraypainted stars across its side. "Jase!" I called, "It's Wolfe and Phoebe!!!" Jase was already waving - they were in 2 cars, one of which was a nice rental. (?)

So the evening ended in quite a party at our campsite: Steve, Kylie, Wolfe, Phoebe, and Phoebe's dad, sister & boyfriend over from Germany for 4 weeks. Also joining us were many bottles of cheap wine, port, sherry, beer and of course Wolfe's goony of red. Coupled with some very cool music courtesy of Hendrix and Led Zepplin, there was little hope of an early night!