This one time, at Sofala....

Just like every year, I went camping to Sofala. Unlike most years though, I have taken my friend Sash with me. I took him there for the first time last year and this year we had our long lost mate Ben come along too. Sadly, Ben got married nearly 2 years ago, and I think I've only seen him twice since then. Sash and I have a pretty good gut feeling that he's being locked away with a ball and chain, so we really pushed for him to come camping with us. I think he could have used the time away from the missus.

After months of planning, we were on our way. Ben drove up from Wollongong and picked up Sash. They later came past my place and picked me up and we were on our way to Sofala. Sash came with me last year, though he hadn't camped out at the usual spot due to being flooded. But this time around was fine and we had Ben's old Pajero to get up through the rougher stuff that my car would have winced at.

Because Sash had to work that day, he got home in the afternoon and when we finally arrived at our camp spot, it was about 9:30pm. Fortunately I have set up my huge tent in the dark many times and can do it by feel now, though Sash had a go at doing it and pretty much got it right the first time. Sash has been camping before, but when he was a kid. Everyone had done everything for him back then... and the consensus wasn't much different now. Leaving food out for hygene was his favourite past time. LOL. Luckily I brought more food than expected and we were pretty much never hungry. This was Ben's first time camping, ever. So I expected someone fairly green. But he was able to get the fire going by rounding up some good, dry wood and sawing it in the morning.

Two years ago Ben made a comment to me about camping while we drank copious amounts of beer at Oktoberfest. He told me he'd take a hotel any day over camping. But two years is a long time and clearly things have changed. Ben loved it and can't wait till next year.

We pretty much spent the rest of the day lounging around in our chairs. My camping chair being the trooper, taking my weight for the last 5 years. I bought it at Bunnings on special for $5. That will give you an idea of what sort of quality craftsmanship I was resting my behind on. Ben's chair was brand new, yet it was falling to pieces. Sash bought his chair last year but the welding had come away this time around. So the award went to mine for the fact that it's still standing in one piece and has the ability to take 100+ kgs and still stand to survive another camping trip. The thing that sucks about it is that I want my chair to die so I can go and purchase a new one.

Later that day we ate lunch and went for a walk around the place. I showed Sash and Ben the other side of the river and we walked around telling each other some pretty dirty jokes while trekking the dirt trail. The river was the driest I've ever seen it in the last 10 years I've been visiting the place.

It's Saturday night and we decided to go to the local pub. I was expecting it to be bustling full of people like every other time I went. There must have been something going on in Bathurst because the place was dead. We grabbed our beers and sat in the back chatting about crap again while we got bitten by the mossies nesting in the stagnant river.

Once inside, we talked some more crap, watched some TV and was then approached by the bar wench taking our empty glasses and offering us the opportunity to order some pizza they're about to order. We knew we had a lot of food back at the camp site, so we declined, had a few more beers and went back to the camp. Once we got there we pretty much got the fire going, expecting to eat, though we were still not hungry. It must have been the large lunch. Although we did have some jaffles in the fire for breakfast which were so good both Sash and I ate more than we should have.

We sat there till about midnight talking about all sorts of things. Boy things about girl things. Stopping once in a while to take in the silence, look at the stars in the sky and then interrupted by the sound of what appeared to be a monster screaming to death.

What the fuck was that? Ben stood up, held the torch out to the bushes looking for some evil beast ready to devour him. The sound went away and Ben finally sat down. We talked some more, there's the sound again and we heard some rustling in the bushes. Ben was up again. I thought he might be freaking out. I wasn't scared, but when you hear sounds like that, so close to your camp, you start to think about what the hell it is. Sash spotted a wallaby in the bushes. "It can't be that, this sounds more like a Tassie devil"

Relaxing back in our seats, we fed the fire some more and talked about girls some more. It was no 2:30am and we figured it would be best to kill the fire and head to bed. We all got in the tent and were about to fall asleep when that sound was even closer. Ben finally cracked it! "It's a koala!"

The bomb dropped, once he said that I knew it was a koala. Of course. Sash still debated it, but Ben was right.

The next morning we woke up late. Ate some brekky and started to sit around wondering about heading back. It sucked that we were only gone for such a short time, but it was time to go. Sash and Ben packed the car with all our bits while I packed up the tent and cleaned up the tarpaulin I kept under it.

Sash apprehensively drove the Pajero to Bathurst where Ben took over the rest of the trip. It's the one thing that I dislike about Sash, he doesn't like trying new things. He was really unsure about driving the Pajero. He does the same with music, doesn't listen to much more than metal and doesn't play other instruments, which I believe teaches you a lot about how to interact with other musicians when you play music together. But ah well. Everyone is different, and it's my own issue that I have to deal with.

All in all, Sofala was great as usual. I can't wait till next year when we go back, make more fun of Sash and his food hygene antics and lack of fire building abilities, more fat jokes at Ben's wife's expense. We all had a great time and I'll be back there next year. In the meantime I'm looking forward to my camping trip coming up at Point Plomber.

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