Lake Quallilup – the Bee Movie

We stayed there for 4 nights, but have I mentioned the bees? This place was dry; dry of fresh water. The lake was very saline and there was no fresh water for miles, just what we had brought with us. When we arrived at dusk there were no bugs to speak of – always a good sign. However after we had thrown out some washing up water on the first day we noticed a lot of humming coming from outside the caravan. When we investigated there were quite a few bees (looking like the European wasp, but NOT the European wasp), congregating around where our water flows out of the caravan. That evening there were quite a few more and with the ‘Secret Life of Bees’ in my mind I went about smiling and calm through them so they wouldn’t sting me. The next evening word had clearly got out, and at the first smell of fresh water there were swarms of em. Darren wanted a shower so we drove the car away from the caravan where they had congregated and he tried to have a quick shower before they got a sniff of the fresh water. It did not take long. Soon Darren and 20 or so bees were all showering together. This is where I firmly drew the line, better to smell than be stung that became my motto. The days were so hot though, that by 3 pm all the water had evaporated away and only a few hopeful bees hummed about. But at the start of each day there was condensation that had collected on top of the roof from the cool nights, and the bees were going crazy for it. By the fourth day all washing up was banned (hooray!), and even teeth washing was an exercise (in that we had to walk some distance away to wash ‘em). On the last day, Darren of course needed some David Attenborough footage so washing up was done and after the caravan had been folded down, we threw out the water…