Clap go the Hands

   Two blue canvas camping chairs sit alongside each other overlooking a crystal clear creek named Elk River. Though summer months have tightened it's flow there is enough water for a crisp swim and from experience the water temperature is set just enough to allow goosebumps to rise where they haven't in some time. What you haven't been told yet is in the simple time it took to write the first two sentences, both occupants of the blue canvas camping chairs have successfully crushed over 35 mosqitoes between the palm of their hands. Alas, unsuccessfully there remain another 4.9 million mosqitoes to take their place in this cozy camp site we hope to call home for the night.

   Duct tape has almost been depleted, the 60metres of fly wire we purchased from Home Depot back in Los Angeles has encased Big Bird in a smothering hug. There are always pro's and con's where ever you choose to camp. Our slow drive up Elk River Road after leaving Port Orford took a number of winding turns, not knowing where we would choose until it came upon us. An earlier option was to pull up stumps along the coast, we've enjoyed it before and had passed numerous favourable options along the way. However, on this day, 18 degrees celsius and sunny, it also blowed a fierce wind across the Pacific. A brief walk on a beach coast put enough sand in our hair for us to decide a forest camp would be preferred.
   I'm fairly certain a study has been done on the stages that people make decisions if given random options in a linear progression. As we drive along the road deciding if the sideroad cut away is better than the one's before us, or likely to be better than the one's we are yet to see ahead of us. Always a challenge, particularly for two determined personalities.
   We ended up striking it lucky, finding a place we wouldn't have thought would be free, ample space for stretching out and an adventurous clamber down to the creek for a hidden water hole. Sadly it didn't take long for our residents to arrive and the hand clapping began.
   Post dinner now, mixed bean mince with salad in tortillas another warming meal. Looking about as we laze on our couch within our Big Bird, I can count at least five mongrel mosqitoes enjoying the inside of our van. We'll try to crush their lives if they pause momentarily, neither of us enjoy having blood taken against our will. The bed times are early, though we still sleep to 7am. A treat for tomorrow after our shop today, breakfast will be pancakes and wild blackberries. As long as we are not eaten in the night.