Separation

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 Dales Campground, Karijini National Park

Together 

Don’t panic about the title Melissa - we are still married! (Melissa was very worried we would not survive 9 weeks in a small camper van).

However we can attribute some of our success in this respect to an idea we picked up the other night from a couple we met. I asked them who was driving and the man, a lawyer, replied that he and his wife have ‘separation of powers’. He drove, she navigated.

We thought this an excellent idea! So here is my view of our separate powers (Mark may have different view!!):

Mark - driving, music whilst driving, films at night (too cold to sit out), breakfast, dinner, gas/water/ internet/ power, heating, and toilet-emptying.

Sharon - creating itinerary, booking campsites, lunch, washing up after breakfast and dinner, salads, planning daily activities, finding things like marks phone, glasses, and notebook, collecting rocks, and auditing mark’s powers* (I am trying to keep thinking of more so my list is longer). 

*Mark thought me reminding him about the handbrake each time we pull up is a violation of our power agreement but I argued it is auditing. 

 (On my powers, I excelled myself with the salad tonight - Liz would be proud! Lentils, chickpeas, capsicum, olives, mint, and coriander. More than three ingredients!) 

Anyway today is our last day in Karijini. We had a stunning walk along the top of Dales Gorge and then down through the middle of the gorge. Very lush and lots of jumping from one slippery rock to another. Great to see some greenery! At the end of the walk I had a swim in the pool - it was just about as cold as Peaceful Bay.

Rock pools

Trees growing through the middle of the gorge

Mark stretching at the half way mark

Me- only person at the pools mad enough to swim

After our hike we were going to go in search of water (once again our water has all disappeared) but I persuaded Mark to leave it to tomorrow. Instead, I did some mosaic, enjoying smashing up orange rocks, and Mark did some singing and executed one of his powers (cooking dinner). We have just one bottle of drinking water left! 


Sunset



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