There’s nothing quite like falling asleep in a tent. Nothing but a thin layer of fabric separating you from the magic of the Australian bush; the kangaroos, emus, wombats, platypi, dingos and deadly spiders. Naught but a totally ineffective and stupidly thin piece of fancy plastic protecting you from the elements of rain, wind and bitterly cold air.
Yes sir, there is nothing quite like falling asleep in a tent. But there is something that comes close to waking up in a tent at 3am frozen to the core – waking up on the floor of one of those giant walk in fridges at the bottle shop and wondering what the hell you’re doing there and why you can’t feel your toes.
Weather can be cruel mistress. Easter 2010 I went camping with my girlfriend in the Flinders Rangers and it was HOT and WINDY. I was sweating real sweat during the day and sweating bullets by night as I frantically retied several guy ropes at 3am with the real fear that the entire tent would be blown away Wizard of Oz style. This year we headed to the Grampians in Victoria and were met with RAIN and FREEZING nights. This all sounds a bit melodramatic, and I guess it is, but it was pouring buckets for pretty much the duration of erecting the tent, and the nights got down to just a couple of degrees which isn’t particularly pleasant when you’re not in high end sleeping bags. The rain came and went over the next few days, and the final few days were absolutely perfect, but it’s fair to say a night in a Coonawarra Motel on the 5th night was very welcome.
We decided to tackle the Mt Difficult hike on Easter Sunday. I kid you not, it’s literally called Mt Difficult. 8.8km return, 465m vertical climb, plenty of rock hopping, rock scrambling and about a million steps. The guide suggested 4-5 hours return, we ended up taking closer to 6 and we really didn’t take too many breaks. This is the part where I’m supposed to say something like “It was really hard but I’m really glad I did it”, and I’m trying desperately to come up with something that doesn’t sound totally cheesy, but here it goes – it was really hard but I’m really glad I did it. Actually, I’ll take it one step further, it was totally awesome and I haven’t enjoyed a walk / hike / trek / climb that much since I climbed Ayers Rock as a child in the 80s (back when it was totally cool to climb it. And call it Ayers Rock).
Despite the aforementioned cold nights and rigorous physical activity I had an incredible Easter. I got my fix of Aussie wild life and even managed a fair bit of guilt free chocolate (nothing like smashing an easter bilby with some red wine on a camp chair after summiting Mt Difficult). I’m back to the real world now of unanswered emails and wedding preparation (I’ve got 2 on this weekend – I had to turn down Kate and Will as I was already booked) and it will likely take another big night’s sleep to catch up on the hours lost through midnight shivering but I’m declaring Easter 2011 BEST ANZAC DAY / EASTER LONG WEEKEND EVER.
(I’m also declaring this post best CAPS LOCK BLOG POST THIS YEAR)
Why would anyone want to camp beyond this point? The kangaroos are on THIS side!
It wouldn’t be a country market without a redback in the books for sale (and a collection of venus fly traps)
CONTACT SIMON – VIEW MY WEBSITE – GET EXCLUSIVE CONTENT ON FACEBOOK
