I’ve been a little delinquent in sharing my life stories, so hopefully this weekend will make up for the past few months.

I decided it was time to go camping again, so on Friday night I met Remko and Daisy and drove north towards Colo: the middle of nowhere, yet only 45 minutes from the outskirts of Sydney. I set up my tent and started cooking dinner: curry! That’s right, I was not exactly roughing it. Soon after dinner, I curled up in my new two-person tent and quickly fell asleep.

Normally I would ease into testing new equipment, but the first night in the hills delivered an assortment of weather that proved my tent more than adequate. It rained for most of the evening and, right on cue, stopped when I was ready to get up. I brewed some coffee and then made omelettes. I’m not certain whether my method was conventional, but I put the eggs, bacon, and seasoning into small zip-lock bags and boiled them. The omelettes turned out well and, with some aged cheese, certainly hit the spot.

As the sun rose, I jumped into Remko’s car (emphasis on car) and headed back up Putty Road. About 45 minutes later, I turned onto the Culoul Range Trail, a fire-service road that was supposed to be 10 kilometres long. After 15 kilometres, I finally reached the parking area, covered in mud and grateful the suspension was still working. Without much direction, I set off, found what appeared to be a trail marker, and started hiking. The trail disappeared into prickly bushes, through which I persisted, over a group of rocks, and down a hill. At that point there was no trail. I assessed my plight, decided to turn around, and went back up the hill, over the rocks, and through the prickly bushes.

After finding the correct trail, I hiked on, stopped for lunch, and made it to the lookout. I turned around, jumped in the car, endured the bumpy drive back to the campsite, and started playing poker.

Luckily, I wasn’t playing for money, as Remko had the game under control most of the time. Soon enough, I had dinner (more curry!) and fell asleep.

I woke feeling rested, drove home, and started editing the map of the area.