Toward the end of our extremely convivial meal the previous night, J and I had invited us over for a brunchy breakfast. We left at about 9am and drove via a Mullumbimby garage sale where I got a pair of jeans that make my butt look like a Mack truck, a singlet that is too itchy to wear and a very nice linen shirt.

We got to the house at 11am and oohed and aahed at the building work that’s been done since we last visited. The new front door is particularly beautiful - J had pink, wine red and clear sparkle glass cut to fit and puttied it all in herself. It’s gorgeous. There are Queenslander style casement windows across the front, which makes the whole look of house zing as you approach it.

There is a new wall, which has created a real spare room - although there was about a four square inch hole in the plaster board where Small C had kicked it in during a spasm of excitement. J and I were admirably unconcerned.

Ian made everyone coffees and then me tea. Thus fortified, J created a Jamie Oliver-esque breakfast of scrambled eggs on toast with creams cheese and smoked salmon with capers. Swoon. M ate his capers while damning their existence. Gourmet. This was followed by a highly anticipated pile of toasted hot cross buns. The female members of the brunch expressed horror at M’s liberal use of butter (i.e. by the slab),

We all then lounged around until J decided something had to be done about the nits that were taking over Small C’s head. She deloused Small C with nit-killer as Small C moaned and cried, emerging from the bathroom 40 minutes later, much improved. Colonies had been cleared from her head. J stayed home to then deal with her own hair, while we went for a walk - a WALK! - to somewhere called Blue Fig Causeway. I don’t do walks. But on this occasion, I had been convinced by I that it was a level track, only about two kilometres, and at the end was a beautiful fast running creeky river.

We went via a hidden campsite in the hills that was beautiful and secluded, with fire pits. It was three dollars a night! M and I vowed to return - one day.

The walk was beautiful. The track wove its way amongst goal post straight white gum trees. I, a naturalist who regularly disappears into the bush on dusk to playback owl calls, pointed out interesting trees and plants, the names of which we promptly forgot. Small C scampered nit free along the track. I strode quickly at the front to keep warm, as the sun was blocked by the forest.

Here and there we saw nine foot high stumps with wedges cut in the sides for the old time tree choppers to put planks in to stand on and chop from. These stumps were enormous in circumference. It was quite depressing. Most of growth seemed not to be very old at all - probably about 50 or 60 years? I-the-naturalist would know.

We heard the river a while before we reached it. I mourned that it wasn’t a hot day, because it had amazing rockpools and waterholes, little rushing rivulets and cool fat boulders to lie on. Small C is part goat, and bounded from rock to rock. We climbed down the waterway and squeezed our way through the bush for about 30 or 40 metres until we emerged at a big waterhole. Two big trees had fallen across part of it, and had turned into logs. Perfect to launch yourself into the water, if it hadn’t been the cool end of a not very hot day.

Our walk back was brisk with Small C being piggy backed as we rapidly lost light. We paused only for Small C to do some tarzan like swinging on some accommodating strands of vine.

We reached the car just as night fell and were all so exhausted that we shelved to idea to go and watch Brazil at the Federal town hall. Instead I had a blissfully civilsed shower and a few glasses of red wine, a dinner of fried onions with not-dogs and garlic bread, followed by ice cream with chocolate syrup. M and I were almost too sated to for the 25km drive back to camp, but the thought of all our stuff sitting out in the open got us moving.

We were horrified to find, as we drove away, that it was only a quarter past eight!! It felt like about a quarter to midnight and the drive seemed to take far longer than it had in the daylight.