and in any case was too far away to have disturbed us (or made us feel safer!!) We had stayed on campsites like this before, the only difference with this, being that it had it’s own resident bear!!! Of course this proved no problem for my ex-venture scout hubby but I have to say that I was absolutely papping myself at the thought of having to fight off the odd bear or mountain lion! We took all advise extremely seriously about how to camp in the vicinity of a bear and made sure that everything and I mean everything was in the bear locker!!! Bears apparently aren’t too bothered about people the only thing they want is your food, but they have very sensitive noses so you can’t leave anything that has a smell in your tent or on show in your car, otherwise they will get in your tent or pull the door off your car!!! This is no joke we have seen many photos and leaflets about this so we were taking no chances! We made sure that we cooked well before dark and that everything was cleaned up and packed

away. We lit a fire and knew we were safe as bears don’t like fire but I have to admit I was still very edgy about the whole experience especially with the onset of darkness! As soon as it went dark I asked Rob if we could retire to the tent as I didn’t want to have a close encounter with either a bear or mountain lion!

It is incredible how secure a tent can make you feel! Even thought I knew that a flimsy piece of canvas (so to speak) would hold no protection from a bear, I have to say that I think we both felt safer snuggled up inside snowgum! It also gave me a chance to read the enchanting Tokaido, a book which we had both scoffed at when we picked it out of the book swap in Fiji, but as it turns out is one of the best books either of us has read. Amazingly I had a great nights sleep and was delighted to open my eyes and realize that I had not been eaten by a hungry