Camping - an essay
I'm too tired to think of a catchy title to this post.
It was a hard trip for me in some ways. It reminded me a lot about the things I did with T and the places we went. Being the first time since we parted company, I felt some difficult moments. It's surprising and disconcerting that I still get so emotional. The hurt is still very close to the surface and I'm not used to that. Anyway...
J (yeah, freakin everyone in my life is called one of two names!), my workmate picked me up around 8.30am. The drive to Mitta Mitta took just over 4 hours.
The good thing about the drive was that we're the same on long trips. We didn't feel like we had to talk and there were times when neither of us wanted to talk. So we just sat. Comfortable silence.
The little English woman in the GPS tried to make us go in the wrong direction a couple of times, because she didn't allow for roadworks and sharp turns. No, we won't turn left, because there's no road there... At one point, she stopped mid sentence, which was very funny, and J said, "yeah, think about it for a bit", but overall, she did a good job.
We managed to avoid all the cows on the road (oh, they were everywhere and did not care about cars at all!) and found the camping spot with little trouble. The others already had their vehicles unpacked and their tents up. There was one other guy from our department and his son, plus two of his mates and and their kids. Four kids under 8, four guys, and me. The others didn't show.
J and I had to pitch our tents a bit further from the others, because of the way the camping ground was set up, around the bend of the creek. My tent went up first. We chose the spot because it appeared to be the most flat. After it was up, I noticed a nice big wombat hole in the slope behind my tent. The 'run' (the track the wombat uses to and from it's hole) led right to my tent. J pitched his tent about 30 metres away from mine.
We didn't do a great deal on Saturday afternoon. Really, it was too hot and we were all feeling it. The kids fished and swam and we....sat. I fell asleep sitting in a chair under the trees and I think I got a little heat stroke, because I ended up with a nasty headache (and sunburn, I discovered later). We drove into 'town' (a couple of houses, a pub and a corner store) to have dinner at the pub, but I felt so bad I could hardly eat. I didn't stay up too late after we got back to camp. I was in my sleeping bag before 10pm. The guys say they went to bed around 12.
In the night, I heard scuffling outside my tent. I had a torch, but wasn't keen on having to get out of my sleeping bag. There was lots of noise, right next to my tent. The next morning, J told me it was that loud that he'd heard it all the way from his tent. Thanks for coming to my rescue, buddy! Actually, I wasn't really bothered by it. More, it was kinda cool to feel so close to somewhat scary nature, by myself, in the dark. And I figured it was the wombat trying to work out what the heck was in the way of him getting too and from his house.
The kids were up early on Sunday morning. That meant we were up early, too. Breakfast was around 7am. Our campsite was at the base of quite a decent sized hill, so we took the kids for a walk up there. Ok, the kids either ran, fell, laughed, cried, or rode the shoulders of their dads, but we all eventually got almost to the top, before one too many ant bites and other dramas had us heading back to camp.
One guy and his two kids had to leave at lunch time, but the rest of us drove to the other guy's parents' house, to go walking and go through a cave. Again, it was stinking hot and my head was starting to thump. My icy bottle of water became hot water, and undrinkable, by the time we were done.
We trekked through the bush with assurances of "there's a track here somewhere", saw kangaroos, got spiked by blackberry bushes, and I landed on my arse more than once, jumping or sliding off things.
The cave was awesome relief from the heat. Nice and cold, and sandy (no bat poop!). In places, it was big and wide. In others, you had to stoop to get through. It was quite steep and we had to be careful how we stepped, but from the top, you could see where we were heading at the other end. The hole looked small, and we'd joked during the week about what if the hole was still that small once we got there. Well.... Let's just say I thought I'd have trouble getting through and I was the smallest of the adults. We all got through the hole by literally lying flat on our stomachs and pushing ourselves through with our toes and hands. We got out successfully, but absolutely covered in dirt. It was well and truly stuck to my sunscreen. I looked a sight, especially sweating and by that time, feeling nauseous as well.
More trekking through the bush with promises of a track not too far away, more blackberry bushes - I ended up with bits of stick in my hair - barbed wire and careful steps, we made it back to the house, where I stayed entrenched under the ceiling fan till it was time to go back to camp.
The second we got to camp, we all got in the creek, in our clothes, and stayed there a long time. The water was cold and I really think I would have been ill if I didn't cool down in it. Despite how crappy I felt, I also felt great. I was so pleased that I'd kept up with the guys...and they were impressed too.
Afterwards, I banned the boys from going around the bend of the creek, got rid of my wet clothes and just sat in the water and felt clean (no soap in the creek tho!!) for the first time all day. Apart from the boys (because you really don't want the people you work with to see you nekkid), I didn't really care if anyone saw me. Being in the water, in the middle of nowhere and just being felt good. And my headache went.
We spent the evening talking about work, relationships, arguing about constellations, watching satellites, pondering alien life and generally talking crap. Surprisingly, no alcohol. We ate twisties, chicken chips, nutella, and drank chocolate milk. So good!
It rained in the night. J got up and put the fly on his tent. I didn't know where mine was, so I didn't bother. Thankfully, the only water that got into my tent was in the place I'd put my bags of wet clothes. Our workmate and his son didn't have their fly on either and they got rather wet. By 7am they'd almost packed up everything into their car.
J and I had all our stuff packed up by 9am. Earlier than we expected, but the rain didn't make the day look promising. Before starting our drive home, we decided to drive to the Dartmouth Dam, 20 minutes out of our way. We didn't get 'breakfast' till 12. Photo opportunities distracted us. Me, mostly. (Still yet to be posted on my other blog.)
It was late afternoon when I was eventually dropped at home. I was tired. I'm still tired! But I had an awesome time and I can't wait to do it again.
If only it didn't make me think about T so damn much. Funny how the brain blocks the bad stuff and only remembers the good. Strange that the good can hurt more than the bad.
Coz I know you're dying to know, I took my own tpaper and mostly did what I call 'bush pee'. There was an enclosed pit toilet, but it was a bit of a distance away and it stunk, so I preferred to stick close to camp and be at one with nature. :-p
It was a hard trip for me in some ways. It reminded me a lot about the things I did with T and the places we went. Being the first time since we parted company, I felt some difficult moments. It's surprising and disconcerting that I still get so emotional. The hurt is still very close to the surface and I'm not used to that. Anyway...
J (yeah, freakin everyone in my life is called one of two names!), my workmate picked me up around 8.30am. The drive to Mitta Mitta took just over 4 hours.
The good thing about the drive was that we're the same on long trips. We didn't feel like we had to talk and there were times when neither of us wanted to talk. So we just sat. Comfortable silence.
The little English woman in the GPS tried to make us go in the wrong direction a couple of times, because she didn't allow for roadworks and sharp turns. No, we won't turn left, because there's no road there... At one point, she stopped mid sentence, which was very funny, and J said, "yeah, think about it for a bit", but overall, she did a good job.
We managed to avoid all the cows on the road (oh, they were everywhere and did not care about cars at all!) and found the camping spot with little trouble. The others already had their vehicles unpacked and their tents up. There was one other guy from our department and his son, plus two of his mates and and their kids. Four kids under 8, four guys, and me. The others didn't show.
J and I had to pitch our tents a bit further from the others, because of the way the camping ground was set up, around the bend of the creek. My tent went up first. We chose the spot because it appeared to be the most flat. After it was up, I noticed a nice big wombat hole in the slope behind my tent. The 'run' (the track the wombat uses to and from it's hole) led right to my tent. J pitched his tent about 30 metres away from mine.
We didn't do a great deal on Saturday afternoon. Really, it was too hot and we were all feeling it. The kids fished and swam and we....sat. I fell asleep sitting in a chair under the trees and I think I got a little heat stroke, because I ended up with a nasty headache (and sunburn, I discovered later). We drove into 'town' (a couple of houses, a pub and a corner store) to have dinner at the pub, but I felt so bad I could hardly eat. I didn't stay up too late after we got back to camp. I was in my sleeping bag before 10pm. The guys say they went to bed around 12.
In the night, I heard scuffling outside my tent. I had a torch, but wasn't keen on having to get out of my sleeping bag. There was lots of noise, right next to my tent. The next morning, J told me it was that loud that he'd heard it all the way from his tent. Thanks for coming to my rescue, buddy! Actually, I wasn't really bothered by it. More, it was kinda cool to feel so close to somewhat scary nature, by myself, in the dark. And I figured it was the wombat trying to work out what the heck was in the way of him getting too and from his house.
The kids were up early on Sunday morning. That meant we were up early, too. Breakfast was around 7am. Our campsite was at the base of quite a decent sized hill, so we took the kids for a walk up there. Ok, the kids either ran, fell, laughed, cried, or rode the shoulders of their dads, but we all eventually got almost to the top, before one too many ant bites and other dramas had us heading back to camp.
One guy and his two kids had to leave at lunch time, but the rest of us drove to the other guy's parents' house, to go walking and go through a cave. Again, it was stinking hot and my head was starting to thump. My icy bottle of water became hot water, and undrinkable, by the time we were done.
We trekked through the bush with assurances of "there's a track here somewhere", saw kangaroos, got spiked by blackberry bushes, and I landed on my arse more than once, jumping or sliding off things.
The cave was awesome relief from the heat. Nice and cold, and sandy (no bat poop!). In places, it was big and wide. In others, you had to stoop to get through. It was quite steep and we had to be careful how we stepped, but from the top, you could see where we were heading at the other end. The hole looked small, and we'd joked during the week about what if the hole was still that small once we got there. Well.... Let's just say I thought I'd have trouble getting through and I was the smallest of the adults. We all got through the hole by literally lying flat on our stomachs and pushing ourselves through with our toes and hands. We got out successfully, but absolutely covered in dirt. It was well and truly stuck to my sunscreen. I looked a sight, especially sweating and by that time, feeling nauseous as well.
More trekking through the bush with promises of a track not too far away, more blackberry bushes - I ended up with bits of stick in my hair - barbed wire and careful steps, we made it back to the house, where I stayed entrenched under the ceiling fan till it was time to go back to camp.
The second we got to camp, we all got in the creek, in our clothes, and stayed there a long time. The water was cold and I really think I would have been ill if I didn't cool down in it. Despite how crappy I felt, I also felt great. I was so pleased that I'd kept up with the guys...and they were impressed too.
Afterwards, I banned the boys from going around the bend of the creek, got rid of my wet clothes and just sat in the water and felt clean (no soap in the creek tho!!) for the first time all day. Apart from the boys (because you really don't want the people you work with to see you nekkid), I didn't really care if anyone saw me. Being in the water, in the middle of nowhere and just being felt good. And my headache went.
We spent the evening talking about work, relationships, arguing about constellations, watching satellites, pondering alien life and generally talking crap. Surprisingly, no alcohol. We ate twisties, chicken chips, nutella, and drank chocolate milk. So good!
It rained in the night. J got up and put the fly on his tent. I didn't know where mine was, so I didn't bother. Thankfully, the only water that got into my tent was in the place I'd put my bags of wet clothes. Our workmate and his son didn't have their fly on either and they got rather wet. By 7am they'd almost packed up everything into their car.
J and I had all our stuff packed up by 9am. Earlier than we expected, but the rain didn't make the day look promising. Before starting our drive home, we decided to drive to the Dartmouth Dam, 20 minutes out of our way. We didn't get 'breakfast' till 12. Photo opportunities distracted us. Me, mostly. (Still yet to be posted on my other blog.)
It was late afternoon when I was eventually dropped at home. I was tired. I'm still tired! But I had an awesome time and I can't wait to do it again.
If only it didn't make me think about T so damn much. Funny how the brain blocks the bad stuff and only remembers the good. Strange that the good can hurt more than the bad.
Coz I know you're dying to know, I took my own tpaper and mostly did what I call 'bush pee'. There was an enclosed pit toilet, but it was a bit of a distance away and it stunk, so I preferred to stick close to camp and be at one with nature. :-p
posted by E in Oz at 9:52 pm
these thoughts escaped my brain at 9:52 pm
4 Comments:
Peeing in the woods... Yes!!...very zen, one with nature. I find leaning against a tree helps.
Sounds like a great time!
The thing about the tree bit that always got me was digging a hole so close to roots. Hehehee.
Your map - you actually stopped at a place called End? How ironic was that :)
Gosh it sounds like it was a good time, even with the heat.
I wanna take a trek--and follow it up with a bath in a sunken tub at the Hilton. LOL
Yes, I'm a wuss.
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