Camp
A night around the fire..
Some trips are about the kilometres. This one was about a fire pit, a ring of log seats and a sky that kept getting bigger the longer we sat there.
At a glance
- Date
- Trip
- Overnight camp
- Camp
- Grassy site, fire pit, log seats
- View
- Ranges on the skyline
- Best bit
- The fire, obviously
01Finding the spot..
We were not after anything fancy. Flat ground, a bit of shade, room for the 4x4s and somewhere to sit when the sun went down. We found all of it, plus a ring of log seats someone dragged into place years ago and a view of the ranges that turned purple as the afternoon wore on.
First rule of a good camp: arrive with enough daylight to set up without a head torch. We nearly managed it.
02Setting up camp
Tents went up first, then the kitchen. The kitchen is where every camp lives or dies. A flat bench, the stove out of the wind, water within reach and the esky in the shade. Get that right and dinner almost cooks itself. Get it wrong and you spend the evening hunting for the tongs.
Power stayed simple: lights, the fridge and phones on charge. Nothing that needed a manual, and nothing that hummed all night.
03Before the first match
Before anyone lit anything, we checked the fire danger rating and any total fire bans for the area, and read the signs at the camp. Fire rules change with the season and sometimes with the day, so it gets checked every trip, not once a year.
We used the existing pit, kept the fire small and kept a bucket of water beside it all night. When we turned in, it was drowned, stirred and drowned again until the ashes were cold to touch.
04Around the fire
This is the bit that does not fit on a gear list. The fire settles, someone puts the billy on the coals, and the talk drifts from tyre brands to old trips to the night a possum walked off with a whole loaf of bread.
Nobody checked their phone. There was nothing on there better than this.
The ranges disappeared into the dark and the stars came out in a hurry, the way they only do a long way from town. Someone tried to name the constellations. Nobody could prove them wrong.
05The one thing we would pack again
A proper camp chair each. Not the bargain one that folds you in half. Log seats are lovely for about forty minutes, and then your back starts lodging complaints.
Close second: a long-handled shovel for the fire. It moves coals, it buries ashes, and it settles every argument about who is in charge of the fire.