The Princess and The Slater

Once upon a time there lived a beautiful, curly-haired princess.
Let's call her Nat.
(Mainly 'cause that's her name.)

Nat appreciated the gorgeous, fine things in life and camping most definitely did not fit into that category for her.




Despite her princessly-ness Nat befriended a commoner named Shar in her high school years. Even though Shar's parents were not, under any circumstances,  going to buy Shar a car, Nat stayed true to her common little Irish friend and their friendship endured into their thirties (and far, far beyond I'm sure).

Over many years of their friendship Shar tried to open beautiful princess Nat's lovely contact lens-ed eyes to the joys of the great outdoors and sleeping under the stars.

Finally in the Spring of 2011, princess Nat hesitantly agreed to accompany Shar on a camping trip with their families.

Shar was overjoyed and vowed to ensure that beautiful princess Nat would not be disgusted or disappointed in her choice.

Shar booked the cleanest, least skankiest caravan park she knew of. She chose a park with electricity and  close proximity to the castle so that the travel wouldn't cause princess Nat any undue anxiety. Shar and her Hubby went about packing every possible shelter, bedding, cookware, utensil, beverage, gadget, dust busting appliance they had and couldn't wait to share their passion with the princess.

'Camping time' arrived and thunderstorms were forecast. Shar was dubious but the apprehensive princess allowed herself to be chauffeured to the tent site as arranged.

The beautiful princess Nat then set about embracing the common life and having herself a great old campin' time. 

  

   Nat and Shar (with their families) pitched tents, set up a makeshift castle, explored the park, nibbled, sipped, supervised swimming (even Shar couldn't brave the ice cold waters), rode quad buggies, played, beach walked, cooked, used communal showers and ablutions, nibbled more, sipped more, chatted, slept poorly, woke early (by castle standards), ate, sandboarded, parked, nibbled some more, sipped some more, lounged, read, fished, nibbled again, sipped again, toasted marshmallows, slept less poorly, and cooked once more before packing up the castle and tents.

You can take the princess outta the castle...

 

On the last day, when packing up the tent - yes, the princess swept and packed and tent folded - the beautiful princess noticed a large population of slaters right under the spot where she her precious self had been sleeping.

Common Shar was worried about the future of princess camping at this point, but was delighted to see the beautiful princess Nat actually pick up a slater to show Master Magoo. How far she had come!

Once home in her castle of serenity the beautiful princess rejoiced in having survived and even enjoyed her first ever foray into the common world of camping. She could see little evidence of fungal infection or any permanent damage to her children.

Within hours, the beautiful princess Nat realised how much she missed the commoners and invited them over to share yet another banquet (Indian for the record - and divine!!) with her and her family.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Now, I believe there's a little something in that for all of us.

Like a fabulous time with great buddies.

Nat  - you're the sweetest princess I know.

Hooray for princess camping!

Shar :-)