Camping Part 1
Reading: Simon Reynolds-Rip It Up and Start Again
Health: good
Weather: Sunny and Bright
Camping is supposed to be all about roughing it and relaxing. Getting back to nature, and letting it all hang out. I was anything but relaxed on the eve of our latest camping trip. I had to run around getting a few items for the trip (prizes, sand for ciggie butts, etc). Additionally, I had to assemble all of my camping gear for the trip, so that Steve & Gareth could take it up with them when they went, as I was not driving myself. Instead, I was leaving directly from work, and meeting up with Maktaba, who’d hired a car for the weekend. Throw in the fact that I had to process a batch of new memberships to ensure that the membership draw included all recently signed members, and you can imagine how busy I was.
Friday, I had to work by myself (again) as both Blondie and Blah had the day off. The Boss wasn’t in for most of the day as well, as he was software crunching and attending meetings. At 4pm, I was out of there in a shot. I dragged my carcass over to Southbank as quickly as my feet would fly. Maktaba and I hit the road to Mount Glorious, only stopping briefly in the Gap for some groceries, and more importantly, BEER.
We got to Camp Constable just as it was getting dark. The camp is a Unitarian Church establishment. NO drinking permitted (yeah, that was going to happen). It boasted a dining hall with a large kitchen & walk in cold room (and we were soon to discover, resident rat). Upstairs there was another hall, with an old piano, and two bunkrooms. There were several toilet blocks and showers. There were a couple of barrack type buildings, four or five permanent tents (A frame structures, with power, little balconies) which slept ten. There was also a camp fire area, playground, tent camping area and a couple of random trailers thrown in on a steeply sloped site.
Since it was already almost dark, and Gareth and Steve weren’t up from the city yet, Maktaba and I decided to choose one of the small trailers to bunk for the night. It had three beds crammed into it, a small sink, electric tea kettle, electricity, screens and door. Quite posh, really, for just us. We dumped our gear, and headed to the dining hall for dinner.
There was quite a large crowd for a Friday night. Bears camping trips are notoriously intimate on the first night, with the bulk (pun intended) of the guests arriving on Saturday. This time we had roughly 35 people on the first night. It was good to see a lot of new faces, or at least people who didn’t go out a lot. It made for an interesting mix. Early on in the evening, I managed to imply that Maktaba was a scat queen. Some of the others joined in on the ribbing and the rumour took on a life of its own over the course of the weekend.
Rob whipped up a massive pot of chilli con carne for some of the boys, which made me glad that I wasn’t in that tent. Other meals were sizzling stir fries, roast dinners, steaks. It was quite sophisticated compared to a lot of previous camping meals. Maktaba and I brought a roast chook and salad, which was nice. Beer flowed freely.
Post dinner saw most of us sitting around the campfire. Some of the guys were complaining that that they were freezing, but I thought it was nice. Daisy acted as ringleader on a revealing question and answer game that included such topics as “when did you have your first homosexual experience?”, “ What is the kinkiest/strangest sexual experience that you’ve ever had?” There were some surprising answers, and then the conversation jumbled into splintered directions.
People started to drop off in small numbers, and eventually it was just a few of us. I remember shambling of to my trailer at around 2am.