My Fantastic Easter Weekend

My fantastic Easter weekend

Day 1: Leave home, 7.00am. Drive four hours. Hike up hill for four hours. Camp, exhausted, on cold, barren, exposed spur. Prepare and eat “special pasta”. Fail to finish “special pasta”. Sleep. Awake. Sleep. Awake. Sleep.

Day 2: Awake. Freeze. Eat half-bowl of muesli, conceal rest under rock. Hike half and hour. Stop, realise tent has fallen from pack. Andrew volunteers to return for tent. Hike until 2.00pm. Pitch tent. Lie in sun on sleeping mat. Fail to complete “quick” crossword. (“Quick”? Bastards. Liars.) Prepare and eat “magic tuna ramen”. Sleep. Awake thirsty. Fail to find water in tent in dark and so go without. Sleep. Awake thirsty and cold. Sleep.

Day 3: Awake. Peer outside tent. Frost, everywhere. Find and consume water. Eat breakfast. With day packs, set out for Mt. Bogong. Sustain mild sunburn, cold, runny nose, chapped lips. Legs, feet also sore. Reach peak. Sit down. Discover grass spikier than it looks. Stand up. Inspect stiff breeze and wonder why I decided to leave kite in tent. Inspect stiff breeze and wonder why I decided to leave kite in tent. Eat lunch, make way back to camp. Nearly fall, several times. Reach camp. Make popcorn. Fail, again, to complete “quick” crossword. Prepare and eat “funky rice w/ vegetables”. Sleep. Awake with face pressed against side of tent. Peel wet tent from face. Sleep.

Day 4: Awake. Still cold. Pack up camp. Walk four hours. Nearly tread on snake. Receive assurances that one would “probably not die” if bitten by that particular snake. Reach main road. Leave gear by road and walk seven kilometers up road to cars. Drive cars back down to gear. Load gear in cars. Drive four hours. Reach home, 7.00pm.