One happy camper

For someone who doesn’t camp, I couldn’t have picked a better way to kick off my month of Book Week than Townsville’s Cathedral School Writers Camp in North Queensland.

Although I had hoped it would be relatively civilised (ie with somewhere to plug in my laptop), I didn’t expect an experience more glamping than camping.

While the forty-five kids and four dedicated staff had to rough it in dorms, their precious writer-in-residence had her own queen-sized bed in Paluma’s Rainforest Inn, all her meals cooked for her by the lovely Jeanette and Jodie at Gumburu Environmental Education Centre, and was even chauffeur-driven the two hundred metres back home each evening.

Mind you, with the food police 1600 kilometres away back in Brisbane, there was nothing to stand between said writer and the sticky date pudding, so they could just as easily have rolled me down that unlit road each night after dinner…

Our days and nights were filled with writing, games, singing and story telling. We hiked to a waterfall, drank from its crystal stream and survived to tell the tale (Carmo’s mountain goat escapades have probably reached legend status back home in Townsville by now.)

I’ve been home a day and miss it already – all the laughs with our inspirational leader Judy; the blind-folded walk through the rainforest with Loretta; threading sinkers through trousers with Carmo; and scary stories round the campfire with Floyd.

And the kids, well, they’d take some beating. Thanks for making me part of your writing crew.

When I got home I opened the folder Judy gave me and haven’t stopped grinning. Thanks for the warm and fuzzies, Cathedral. You writers rock!