I'm home from camp, showered and exausted! But, i had a good weekend. I know, suprising, considering the foul mood that i was in before i left! Here's the rundown...
Even though we decided to leave at 4pm instead of 5pm, it took so long to fit all of our luggage (and wow, there was lots of it!) into two cars and a huge trailer that it was a quarter to five before we left. An hour or so, a few wrong turns, a broken blinker on the trailer and a few fights over control of the radio station between English and i, and we had arrived at the Chookarloo campsite in Kuitpo. Woo!!
Unfortunately, it was almost dark and we still had three tents to set up... it was a bit of a muddle, but we figured it out! Girls tent, boys tent, food tent. We lit the campfire, and settled in. Roasted marshmellows, stupid jokes (A skeleton walked in to a bar, and asked for a beer... and a MOP!!! - it's all in the delivery), silly stories and some tent-related bible trivia. Did you know that a man was killed in his tent when a woman drove a tent peg into his skull? We all laughed, but one of the younger girls was absolutely terrified. It was fun getting her to sleep that night!! We made up a ridiculous song on the guitar that had us in hysterics and then we headed off to bed. Somehow, it was already late!!
I froze my butt off, but managed to get some sleep (after spending a half hour trying to get the littluns to stop talking! We breakfasted, mucked around, a bunch more kids rocked up and then SaviourDave rocked up with a bunch of mountain bikes. The rest of the day was spent biking, eating lunch, playing Killer Bunnies, lazing around... I went on a few rides with the kids (amazingly - and to the suprise of all the boys - i managed to stay on my bike the whole time), and it was enjoyable. Annoyingly, i had to stick with the little girls and they really couldn't go too far without getting exhausted, so i had to turn around with them and take them back to camp... convincing them to peddle through the mud and try not to dawdle, and i had to push their bikes up the hill for them! Not an easy task, wheeling two bikes at once!! But it was still good fun.
We had burnt potatoes and patties for tea, with glowsticks, woo! Then it was time for a few dozen rounds of block-o... and i rocked! I won a bunch of games with my ingenious skills (again, to everyone's suprise) and had a total blast. We did have one drama, when the twenty-somethings from the next campsite over nearly started a buhfire. They were pouring petrol on the fire and it was huge, so Dr.B and i ran over to see if they needed help. They shooed us away, but we saw that the petrol container and the chairs around the fire were alight. The wind was picking up and the kids were scared, so we called the ranger. He couldn't come, so we kept an eye on them... but it was a little too much drama, when it puts the kids in danger@ Luckily, they must've run out of fuel, because the fire died down.
We sent the kids off to bed after another ridiculous song, and then English and i went and sat in one of the shelters with another of the older kids, as the heavens opened and it bucketed down. We watched the lightning light the sky and told scary stories for another hour or so, before we were too frozen and exhausted to move and went to bed... or tried to! I climbed into my tent to find that one of the kids had left our tent open and all my stuff was soaked. So, i tried to move my stuff somewhere dry, and find a space for my sleeping bag. Eventually, i had about 40cms wide of tent space, and squished myself into the bottom half of the tent. Add to that the fact that the wind was blowing at a gale force and the tent poles kept bending in and slamming into my head. It was pretty scary! Needless to say, i didn't get much sleep!! My eyes were hanging out of my head when i got up.
Might i add, i was so, so sick of taking the kids to the toilet. They couldn't go alone, and they seemed to need to go every half hour! One of the girls was too scared to go in alone, so i had to go in with her - and then she was too scared to wait outside if i needed to go, so she'd stay with me!! It was disturbing. I was thrilled to get home and have a toilet to myself!! I never want to be the toilet monitor again.
In the morning, we got dressed and spent hours packing up. We decided to leave early. because the weather was looking pretty dicey. Dr.B and i managed to fold up all three tents in reasonable time, so we took the kids for another ride through the forest ,woo! We were running really late, so evenually, i left at 12pm and dropped some of the kids home before English and i scored Subway and unpacked the car at church. Then Dr.B rocked up, we finished unpacking and then we completely collapsed. We were all exhausted!! We raced home to unpack and shower (tooo, cleanliness!), before coming back for church.
I had a really good time on camp. Somehow, it was easier to forget everything that i'm running away from here in the city. I spent almost the whole weekend in a place of sanity and smiles, without shutting down, shutting off because it was too much, or crying, or yelling. I was happy, and silly and energetic. I didn't want to leave and come back to reality. But at least i had a few days peace, and i'll try to kep the feeling of warmth and smiles with me over the next week.
Now i can't wait to go camping again!!!!!
Even though we decided to leave at 4pm instead of 5pm, it took so long to fit all of our luggage (and wow, there was lots of it!) into two cars and a huge trailer that it was a quarter to five before we left. An hour or so, a few wrong turns, a broken blinker on the trailer and a few fights over control of the radio station between English and i, and we had arrived at the Chookarloo campsite in Kuitpo. Woo!!
Unfortunately, it was almost dark and we still had three tents to set up... it was a bit of a muddle, but we figured it out! Girls tent, boys tent, food tent. We lit the campfire, and settled in. Roasted marshmellows, stupid jokes (A skeleton walked in to a bar, and asked for a beer... and a MOP!!! - it's all in the delivery), silly stories and some tent-related bible trivia. Did you know that a man was killed in his tent when a woman drove a tent peg into his skull? We all laughed, but one of the younger girls was absolutely terrified. It was fun getting her to sleep that night!! We made up a ridiculous song on the guitar that had us in hysterics and then we headed off to bed. Somehow, it was already late!!
I froze my butt off, but managed to get some sleep (after spending a half hour trying to get the littluns to stop talking! We breakfasted, mucked around, a bunch more kids rocked up and then SaviourDave rocked up with a bunch of mountain bikes. The rest of the day was spent biking, eating lunch, playing Killer Bunnies, lazing around... I went on a few rides with the kids (amazingly - and to the suprise of all the boys - i managed to stay on my bike the whole time), and it was enjoyable. Annoyingly, i had to stick with the little girls and they really couldn't go too far without getting exhausted, so i had to turn around with them and take them back to camp... convincing them to peddle through the mud and try not to dawdle, and i had to push their bikes up the hill for them! Not an easy task, wheeling two bikes at once!! But it was still good fun.
We had burnt potatoes and patties for tea, with glowsticks, woo! Then it was time for a few dozen rounds of block-o... and i rocked! I won a bunch of games with my ingenious skills (again, to everyone's suprise) and had a total blast. We did have one drama, when the twenty-somethings from the next campsite over nearly started a buhfire. They were pouring petrol on the fire and it was huge, so Dr.B and i ran over to see if they needed help. They shooed us away, but we saw that the petrol container and the chairs around the fire were alight. The wind was picking up and the kids were scared, so we called the ranger. He couldn't come, so we kept an eye on them... but it was a little too much drama, when it puts the kids in danger@ Luckily, they must've run out of fuel, because the fire died down.
We sent the kids off to bed after another ridiculous song, and then English and i went and sat in one of the shelters with another of the older kids, as the heavens opened and it bucketed down. We watched the lightning light the sky and told scary stories for another hour or so, before we were too frozen and exhausted to move and went to bed... or tried to! I climbed into my tent to find that one of the kids had left our tent open and all my stuff was soaked. So, i tried to move my stuff somewhere dry, and find a space for my sleeping bag. Eventually, i had about 40cms wide of tent space, and squished myself into the bottom half of the tent. Add to that the fact that the wind was blowing at a gale force and the tent poles kept bending in and slamming into my head. It was pretty scary! Needless to say, i didn't get much sleep!! My eyes were hanging out of my head when i got up.
Might i add, i was so, so sick of taking the kids to the toilet. They couldn't go alone, and they seemed to need to go every half hour! One of the girls was too scared to go in alone, so i had to go in with her - and then she was too scared to wait outside if i needed to go, so she'd stay with me!! It was disturbing. I was thrilled to get home and have a toilet to myself!! I never want to be the toilet monitor again.
In the morning, we got dressed and spent hours packing up. We decided to leave early. because the weather was looking pretty dicey. Dr.B and i managed to fold up all three tents in reasonable time, so we took the kids for another ride through the forest ,woo! We were running really late, so evenually, i left at 12pm and dropped some of the kids home before English and i scored Subway and unpacked the car at church. Then Dr.B rocked up, we finished unpacking and then we completely collapsed. We were all exhausted!! We raced home to unpack and shower (tooo, cleanliness!), before coming back for church.
I had a really good time on camp. Somehow, it was easier to forget everything that i'm running away from here in the city. I spent almost the whole weekend in a place of sanity and smiles, without shutting down, shutting off because it was too much, or crying, or yelling. I was happy, and silly and energetic. I didn't want to leave and come back to reality. But at least i had a few days peace, and i'll try to kep the feeling of warmth and smiles with me over the next week.
Now i can't wait to go camping again!!!!!
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