Today, Sunday 18th Jan, found me back at the D'Aguilar Range. Yesterday I discovered how close we live to the reservoir. On Sundays, Janet works a shift 5 minutes down the road from the reservoir. By the time I got home, I had a plan… Tomorrow (now today) was Sunday. Janet would be working at The Gap.

"Janet - wanna go for a swim tomorrow?"

'Yes!"

The heat was ridiculous again and I forbade Janet to spend an hour and half catching trains, buses and walking up some stupid hill to get to work. It's only a 25 minute drive, and the car is air conditioned. It's not like I had any big plans, and that meant I got to spend extra time with Janet in air conditioned comfort So I 'forced' her into my car and drove her to work. I very dutifully then went and did my grocery shopping; it was dual purpose, needed food, and it was in air conditioning I was counting down the hours until Janet's knock off. We had invited her friend Yvonne (a.k.a. Kelly) to come with us. I got home in time to put the shopping away and for Yvonne to arrive. Next stop - The Gap so we could grab Janet.

Alina is a smart cookie. She had made sure there was plenty of food and drinks. But there were no cups… We approached the (overpriced) café up at the Wildlife Centre and asked if we could buy some disposable cups from them. The lass behind the counter said 'Sure, but I won't make you pay for them, I'm not that bad!'. So down the pathway through the bush we tromped and got down to the reservoir to discover that unlike when I was there yesterday, every-freaking-one was down here for a swim. Oh well, blankie down, food out, munch munch, gulp gulp and we were ready to hit the water - yes that's right folks, we did NOT wait the obligatory 30 minutes after eating. I could hear my grandmother's voice in my head as the water lapped at my knees and I paused for all of .000025 seconds before wading in up to my neck! And guess what? We were perfectly fine!

It was a little over crowded and that had caused some of the silt to be kicked up in the water, but it was still an enjoyable swim. Afterwards we lazed around on the blanket, catching some sun and naps before deciding it was definitely time to head home.

What an afternoon - picnic lunch and a few hours of sun and water. *bliss*