We went camping out in the bush over the weekend.
I didn’t do much camping as a child. It was never my parent’s ‘thing’ and so you can imagine my excitement when an aunt, uncle and cousins took my sister and I to North Haven (NSW) when were young. I still remember that trip – we went and saw ‘The Land Before Time’ and ‘Oliver and Company’. Two movies! How extravagant!
It was all tremendous fun.
Then in Year 5 our school went on a camping excursion that got caught in the southern end of a very low-reaching cyclone and was flooded out. I still remember lying in the dark with the water running past my ears (we pitched on a hill) and waking up in the morning to find in one corner a pool of water that went up past your ankles.
That was not tremendous fun.
Our recent expedition went charmingly. The weather was mild; chilly at nights, to be sure, but that’s what fires are for. When I first arrived home I was still high on the unexpected surprises: that, after being unplugged from all things electrical and technological, I felt a kind of peace. I didn’t once chew my fingernails. The nagging pain from my ulcer that’s flared up in recent months (thanks to book stresses) went away. Better again, the kids never once nagged or complained that they had no television or computer games like I thought they might. They were too busy playing around, doing nothing but doing everything. At night we sat by the campfire and watched the stars and moon, drank a little, played charades, made up stories and toasted marshmallows.
Before we went away, Adam kept teasing me about “how I thought I would go?” roughing it. While I got quite annoyed and said so – I grew up in the country, for chrissakes. I know how to piss in the grass when needs be – I must admit there was a quieter part to me that was also wondering the same thing. I hoped I hadn’t been hopelessly citified. Posts like this didn’t help either, in retrospect!
But in fact I enjoyed myself so much this re-cap has been difficult to write, as if by handing over little pieces of our journey and my thoughts might in some way mean that their impact lessens inside me; that if I fail in adequately describing how it went, then perhaps I should’ve remained quiet in the first place.
I’d like to thank our friends who we went with for taking us along for the ride. Can’t wait for the next one.
Here are some photos. My iphone’s battery died on the second day (not that it mattered – I was out of reception range), and I’m taking that as a sign it was supposed to be off anyway.
Almost there!
My friend was responsible for the strawberries in the champagne glass. This is why I love her.
Playing in the grass.
Our humble abode.
