Camping with friends

I hadn’t been to a full on REAL camping until that day. I went to picnics and slept under the moon on the terrace humming songs and with flash light pointed towards the dark sky, but never inside a tent nor cooked food at the camp fire. I ate when others cooked, if that counts.

That day I was referring to earlier was in Australia, maybe 3-4 months after I reached there. Some holiday was coming up and Trevor, was making plans for us. He’s a serious bicyclist; he would ride for miles on his bicycle. He was also a friend of the owner of the house we all lived at. So, he’d drop by once in a while to see how the appointed house parents were taking care of us, how the house is being maintained et al. Anyway, the house parents suggested to him why doesn’t he take the bunch of us for camping and he agreed.

On the day of our camping he showed up in a hatchback to our relief, we all pooled to bring food, chips, drinks, cans of food here and there. We were the most colorful in all senses we could be, I for one, I forget the name of my v. good friend from a nearby country of Kenya (he said he was a journalist back home, he told us some of the most exciting stories on quite evenings at home), the gal from Taiwan (she was studying music, I had never met anyone b4 who was studying music for education, only had come across lot of engineering & medical students, people who seemed to have a job by the end of it all. She and I would exchange traditional outfits, take pictures and she’d play piano and I’d listen.), the Canadian guy of course and Trevor.

On route to the camp site, as we slowed down for the other campers to share the road, one of them said there’s a broken branch ahead of us, be careful while we drive. Whilst a halting damp rain, we arrived at our camp area, and started our escapade. Oh I forgot, my Canadian housemate’s friend also came up with his “girl friend” who was in the same class as the Canadian housemate, but he always fancied her and is upset that his friend is dating her, he told us so, that’s how we knew it. Anyway, after setting up the tents, starting a camp fire, we started the grill as well and then Trevor said why don’t we take a walk. It was dark by then, but we were all game for it. Trevor knew his way around, he said to bring the flash lights but not to turn it on unless he says so, this way we can see the wild life in it’s natural state.

We started to walk in the woods, with the crushing sound of dried leaves under our feet, whispering of different sounds in the woods and what they signify, as we went along further Trevor suggested we should enjoy it and just sit in the dark, in quite silences we all found a place to lean on and sit down. At that moment, to somehow capture the time in my heart, I looked up at the sky; it seemed so far away, felt like the trees were floating and the sky was the bed of a sea with stars sprinkled everywhere and shining bright.

We resumed our walk back and finished cooking. As we were eating, my Kenyan housemate suggested we all sing a song, maybe even our national anthems. It was a sweet thought, so we all cheered him on to start first. With his lively eyes sparkling in the light of the fire he sang and we listened as if we were all being connected to Kenya in some way, then we all took turns to sing and dance too. We all united in a strange way at that camp fire. We later retired to our tents to sleep.

The next morning woke up smack in the middle of the woods, with the pale sky, the dampness of the ground, and the remains of the camp fire. The next two days were spent trekking, swimming in the water springs, sharing jokes, later our house parents joined us in their RV.

The morning we were supposed to leave are the few hours that’ll always stay tucked deep in my heart. I got up early, sensed that Canadian housemate’s Friend and his Girl friend (Sheila was her name, no she wasn’t a desi), were coo chi-cooing : ) I looked around, there were few people from nearby camp grounds were up, I saw a board pointing to a “Bird’s eye view Point Trek”. I heard Trevor talking about it before, so I challenged myself to take the walk, the nite b4 Trevor said we’ll start our way back by 7.30am, so I knew I had to be back by 7.30. To trek alone, what would happen if I’d get lost, if I was hurt, such adversities crossed my mind. But determined I was.

The path was very welcoming, u could hear distant waterfalls, the voices of awoken few, birds chirping, I was walking briskly. The terrain was naturally paved, there were wild flowers just about everywhere, there were dense shadows of the towering trees, amongst them I walked following the directions for the “Bird’s eye view Point”, sometimes it would be so sharply steep, you’d have to be so cautious. Then I reached the point they called Bird’s eye view, the view from there was astounding. Everything looked so minuscule, acres and acres of land till the end of your sight, trees at different levels, the way the landscape danced at unusual stratums, and I was there alone but remembered all I love, wind gushing from both sides, I felt like I accomplished something, don’t know what, but I did. I thought if I could do this alone, I could do anything.

In a daze I trekked back and realized they were all about to leave in 5mts if they hadn’t found me, yeah right! It’s only like…8.15 ! oops. Sorry guys, but really, would they do that? Naah…cherishing many memories, we sat silently and Trevor drove us back.