I had a great time camping, despite the "personality clashes" that occurred.

Thursday
After managing to fit all our (mine and my sister's) stuff into Shawn's car, we departed for Jeff's place where we met up with Nora and Pedro and in two cars, with Nora's car leading the way.

Nora is a crazy driver. I don't think I can say it better than that! I'd never fear for my life with her but she likes to do the unexpected. She managed to lose us once or twice but we finally found each other again.

Once we registered and found our campsite, it was pretty late at night and it was a bit of a challenge to put up 3 tents with limited lighting, especially because two of the tents were brand new and had never been put up before. The mosquitos buzzing around as we tried to figure out our tent though were plentiful. Our tent was surprisingly easy to put together (once we read the instructions). Shawn was nice enough to make sure my sis and I were set up before he set up himself. Our bathrooms were outhouses (waaaaah, no flush toilets) so it was a stinky little place, but with 2 stalls each, men and women. They were pretty clean though, all things considered.

I stayed up until 3 or 4, staring at the stars (that's all I'll admit to). It was gorgeous out there; our site was prime location for star gazing. There were shooting stars too!

Lesson learned: Bring a map and know where you are going; try to arrive at your campsite while the sun's out; pack lighter!.

Friday
We woke up at 8:55am (earlier than I'd ever wake up at home) to the annoyance of some fellow squatters. The sand, though pretty soft on the feet, was kind of hard on the back. I didn't have my camera with me yet so I don't have any pics of Friday to jog my memory.

After some wrong turns we found the showers and that made my day. Had breakfast, bummed around and 9 more people arrived. We helped them set up their tents, had a late lunch, then we drove to the beach.

The beach was gorgeous! The sand was really light in colour and that same soft stuff as at our campsite. You could see for miles and it looked like the lake just drops off if you look out far enough. The water was ice cold but some brave souls went swimming. I waded up to my knees and that was enough for me. I was hoping there'd be some sand dollars to pick up or interesting shells but I didn't run across any.

We got back, cooked some grub by lantern and flash-light and got a fire going. It started sprinkling but not enough to put out the fire. We hung out by the fire for a while. Two of the single guys went off to scope out some chicks from another campsite but the rest of us stayed put and had chilled by the fire. By then Mike, Jov (the missing part of our food group) and Kasia and Misiu showed up so it was time for fun. Four of Nora's friends also got there too so we were up to 22 people. A couple of people got a little alchol into them and decided to try out the beach that was down the slope from our campsite. This beach was covered in reeds and bushes and not really the best place to wade (we had no idea how deep the water was or anything) and it was pitch black outside. It was funny because Mike kept saying "There are two summa cum laudes out there" and my sister kept imagining what she'd say to the newsreporter, should any harm come to the swimmers:

Police officer: "Was there any alcohol involved?"
My sister: "Why yes, there was."
Police officer: *Rolls eyes*

Needless to say, no one came to harm. After a while we went off to bed again and now that my camera was here I snapped a few pics of the the starry night. I hope they turn out.

It's one year before Mike and Jov get married.

Lesson learned: Bring an air mattress; bring more pants/warm clothing; bring less food.

Saturday
Woke up earlyish again. Since we were going to the beach later I decided to save my shower for after the beach. After brekky we got ready for the beach and walked there this time.

It was sunny but chilly, the same as Friday and this time more people braved the water. Again I waded, only up to my armpits though; I was too chilled to put my head in. I played in the water for a while then we played some volleyball (well, we had no net so we just sort of did some drills) and had other beach fun. We stayed there most of the afternoon; heading back for "lunch" at around 4 or 5pm. The late lunch means no one was really hungry for dinner but even so we managed a few marshmallows (I didn't try the smores!) and some roasted sausages over the fire. I took a short 4 hour nap! Thank goodness Jovana came to wake me up or I might have slept all night...and I'd have been so pissed.

At campfire that night we sang some songs (Jeff's an awesome guitar player) and again some guys went to check out the girls at the other campsite. One guy apparently got lucky and my sister could hear them on the way back to our tent. I got to meet the girl later (on her way out of our campsite) and she seemed pretty cool with the fact that we were giggling and speculating over what had happened. I walked her back to her camp (and pumped her for info) and she gave me this pink lemonade drink for my troubles.

As we were all getting ready to go to bed, this weird buzzing/creaking noise started right behind my chair and I freaked out, freaking everyone out. It was hilarious in retrospect but I almost jumped in the fire trying to escape what was likely a cricket, waving my stick like a madwoman.

Lesson learned: Bring a volleyball net; try smores

Sunday
It was so sad that camping was basicsally over. Check out time is apparently 2pm but we took our time getting out of there. It took a while to get all packed up and double check our site, get rid of garbage, etc. Some people had to work Sunday afternoon so they took off earlier. The plan for the rest of us was to pack up, head to the beach for an hour or two then head back home; stopping at Arby's because apparently we don't have one in the Ottawa area.

I snapped lots of pics during this pack up time and hopefully they turned out.

Sunday was so hot. It was great! The beach was packed. Even though it was a large beach you had to work hard to find a patch of sand big enough for our group. Some others had packed up earlier and were at the beach already; finding them would have been like finding Waldo (according to Kasia) but since two of the guys are twins I kept an eye out for them and we ran across them without too much trouble.

We baked in that sun (even I got browner) for a couple of hours and then started off at around 5:30pm. We had a nice time at Arby's on the way back and then parted ways (so that each car could drive at whatever speed they wanted). The drive back was pretty silent in our car (remember the personality clashes I mentioned earlier?) and we were both relieved when we reached home around 9:30, quarter to 10.

I unpacked my stuff and immediately began doing laundry. I didn't want to bring any bags into my room for fear of brining foreign Sandbanks bugs to invade my room :). I finally tumbled into bed around 2am, exhausted.

Lesson learned: Drive down myself; make sure my sister brings at least one person to hang out with

I had a great time and hope we can do it again. Next year is MIke and Jovana's wedding, though so it's hard to tell if we'll have time. I really hope so.

I ran into 2 people from Ottawa and heard that a third person from our highschool was also there. Small world, eh?

Nora's set up a yahoo album for the pics and I can't wait to see them. I will probably link some pics to this entry once I find some!

I learned a lot about my friends on this trip and I'm sure they learned a bit about me. I now know what a well prepared camper needs to have a fun and successful trip and that even though you're camping in a group, it's a good idea to be completely self reliant...just in case.

Posted on 2004-08-23 at 2:24 p.m. |