Camping at Paluma Dam, June 2006

With working on Saturday and Church on sunday 9am and 6pm service as well, We thought it was about time to take a weekend off. And why not the best place to go was Lake paluma Paluma web site Paluma Video our camp We packed up on Friday for a lunch time departure, But some last minute customers had other ideas, who absolutly could not leave it till next week, so after getting them out of the way, and some deliveries on the way at Giru and we got to the highway turn off at about 5:30pm, The drive up the mountain is a bit scary at night and to make matters worse the cloud base was at about 5 hundred feet the last hour up, it also rained, we got to the dam at about 6:45 I suppose. Then its find the right camp site that we booked, I left the booking slip at home didn't I, and couldn't remember the site number, so I just picked one and set up camp, in the rain, Lesley cooked up some stir-fry, rain still going, we went to bed. The ranger came up the next morning, your in the wrong site! he said, you should be over there, pointing across the road. Oh can we stay here? I asked, Alright, he said I will have to change the site number on our records for you, that is if no one has already booked it, in that case you will have to move! whew! that was close. That sorted out we settled in for the stay. Bacon & Eggs for breakfast, and a hot Tea out of a ceral bowl, don't like that, on the list today make some coffee mugs. Sat afternoon I went on a walk up to the mountain lookout about 8k, about two hrs in I said to mysef "not gonna make it" it was about 3pm I had been walking for about 2 hrs now, say 2hrs back it would then be 5pm that's late enough to get back, anyway Lesley would be worried, so I turned around, as I walked along I started to sing out loud "holy spirit have you way in me" it was nice to be on my own with nature (God) I felt as if the holy spirit was with me all the time, I asked the holy spirit to show me some thing special that I need, and not really expecting anything, this voice said to me in my head, hello! I looked up! who said that? and it is as if I had seen the forest for the first time, I am all around you! the voice said, I'am an earthly spirit not a heavenly or too far away spirit as you think, but I will always be available for you, its hard to convey the feelings I felt that day but it gave me a sence of comfort, nothing is beyond me, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, from then on it was singing and more singing, hope there are no bush walkers around this guy is nuts. I couldn't wait to tell Lesley about my experience it seemed I was back to camp in no time. The weekend just got better and better, Sunday the sun was out, day trippers with their kids arriving for a picnic lunch, the weather was fantastic, we went to visit a Bower Bird's nest that I have known about for about 10 years, and is still being used, I don't know if the bower is handed down from generation to generation or not, but it was still there and in good shape(Photo with the blue plastic things) if you look close you can see the bower right in the middle of the shot We had lunch about 2pm, sausages and salad and a cup of tea, then started to pack up for the drive home. Love Bill & lesley