That was a brilliant read, very informative and interesting.
You have done well in your youth, learning skills which are woefully lacking in today's generations. Personally, i think most kids should go camping and be given the opportunity to do the most basic of survival skills - build a shelter (even if this is erecting a tent), building and maintaining fire, learning how to keep themselves warm during a cold night, etc.
As i grow older (i'm only 25 and i'm saying that? I need to relax...) i begin to find myself wanting to do the things i missed out on as a child, and camping was one of those things. A workmate of mine is an experienced camper, and we went to a small campsite for a weekend. He had a massive tent we could sleep in, and a small, portable gas stove to cook on. I had to buy a sleeping bag and an inflatable mattress to sleep on (for my weary bones to rest >.O)
After a day of 4WDing through the park, we found a site and pitched the tent. He showed me how to start a fire, chopping the wood we'd brought with us, before we cracked open the beers and sat back, talking and drinking until the sun was fully set, my Ipod playing the easiest listening music i had on it (the OST from Battlefield Vietnam). He decided to forgo the gas stove and used the campsite's hotplate to cook the steaks we'd brought with us. Even the tinned vegetables tasted good after they'd boiled in one of his camping pots. We continued to drink, emptying his esky and digging into mine, keeping ourselves warm by the fire and chatting, before finally we retired for the night.
In the morning i awoke with my teeth chattering. My sleeping bag had done an excellent job of keeping my torso and limbs warm - but my head was frozen. I had not brought a beanie with me to fight the cold from my skull. Quickly pulling my baseball cap on did nothing - it barely covered my head, let alone my ears or face, so i resolved to get up. I was extremely hung over, and it was a powerful struggle to dress myself. Luckly i'd brought a hoodie jumper with me, but it did nothing to fight the morning chill - i had to wear my thick bouncer jacket over that. I forced myself out of the tent and looked at the mist surrounding the site, marvelling at the beauty only for a moment before i was sick in the bushes.
The cold was biting at me, i could taste vomit in my mouth, and i knew i needed to get warm. I tried to start a fire, but every swing of the hatchet into the damp wood made my head want to burst wetly. Eventually i managed to get enough kindling together and arranged it like he had shown me, but the morning dew had made all the twigs and sticks we'd used the night before unusable as tinder. I resolved to tearing out the indexs from several books i kept in my car, so desperate for warmth i was, but it was no use - the paper was too dry, i didn't pack it close enough or space it enough, the wood needed to be closer to it as it burned, whatever it was, i couldn't get the fire going.
I resolved to sit in my chair, pulling my hoodie tight over my face and crossing my arms over my chest until my friend awoke, went and puked himself, then started the fire. I welcomed the warmth them, but felt...jaded? For failing at what i had assumed would be a fairly simple task. Fire has been in human history for thousands of years, and men have been able to start them with less tools then i had, and with less materials, yet one hangover and i was forced to freeze until help arrived. I'm certain that even without the hangover i would've been forced to do the same thing - my knowledge of camping, of survival, was and is still very, very limited.
It was a learning experience for the both of us. We both vowed never to bring such a large amount of alcohol with us the next time we went camping, and i promised myself that i would rectify what i felt was a letdown of the human evolution. I ate a whole loaf of bread on the long drive back - the only thing my turbulent stomach could keep down - and as i drove i realized that all the imagining of surviving an apocalypse would have been just that - imagining. If an invading force attacked tomorrow, i know that i would become a statistic because i would not be able to survive if i managed to escape, because i did not have the basic survival skills necessary to live in the wilderness.
Thinking about it, it makes you feel very vulnerable, wondering how you would survive if the power went out. If the water stopped running. If you were left completely alone.
Cool!
