Tuesday the 12th was the start of an Irish camping experience! I was to meet Graham, a couchsurfer, in Enniskerry and then we were going to walk to the camping place. There was a Dublin Bus that went there, which was cool. Unfortunately they are not exactly known for being on time....
I ended up waiting for said bus for almost an hour, when it was supposed to leave every half hour... for a while I was concerned that I was waiting at the wrong stop or something, but then it came five minutes after I texted that I was going to be late since the bus was missing! Yay! So I hopped on and arrived in Enniskerry about 40 minutes later :)
Turns out Graham was behind as well, so I had time to get some food and take a couple pictures:
Once he arrived, we got some more food and such, then headed out! It was such a nice day :) The walk was beautiful; rolling hills, valleys, mountains, sheep, trees, etc. It was exactly what I wanted! It was such a change from the city!
The camping spot was down a hill near a hostel. This was extra comforting, because if we ever ended up needing something (or if it started pouring rain for ages) we could walk for a while up the hill and use the hostel! We were camping alongside a river, on a big field. There were lots of Bluebells. It was very pretty so I tried to take lots of photos...
I lay in the grass, listened to music, ate sandwiches, hula hooped, talked, and smoked hash. I was pretty happy. As it started to get darker, collecting firewood became the main prerogative. I am not skilled at making fire, so I hoped he knew how...
We were extremely lucky with finding wood, because there was a shelter/structure looking thing already in the forest. There was dry tinder stuff all over the ground, and the wood was dry since it was in the forest! I was hesitant about taking someone's structure for fire at first, but Graham pointed out that there was no way of knowing if the person that made it was coming back... so we took the wood and tinder and tried building a fire.
Neither of us were used to starting the thing, so it ended up taking half an hour or something! The wind was not helping, but we got it going and then we had fire to enjoy too :)
We had pasta for dinner, then sat near the fire for a while. It was fun maintaining it; usually when I am at fires in Vancouver there are guys that insist on being the "Fire Tenders" and would get all crazy if other people "messed with their fire". Now I got to mess with the fire hehehe. I made a wand with one of my poker sticks and tried to do some fancy photos, but almost all of them didn't work...
The next day involved a huge walk for two and a half hours up to Glencree Reconciliation Centre. It was a massive walk, but I was happy to start moving around instead of sitting and drinking in a city. I want to get in shape: I though that traveling would get me into shape but it has been the opposite haha.
Along the walk we came across a German Military cemetery for World War One, which was unusual and interesting...
I saw a deer or two as well, and more countryside. We got to the center, part of which which used to be a barracks back in the day, and ate lunch. There was a little cat that seemed very friendly, but I think it was also after our food...
On the way back I saw the deer:
We went back to the campsite via the other side of the valley thing, so when we got close to the field we approached through the trees I'd been taking pictures of. It had been drizzling for part of the day, so there was mud. I was doing so well... I made it up an embankment and was proud of myself for getting up, but then I stepped in some mud that went over my shoes and made them all wet.
If it had been sunny, this would have been fine, but it was not going to dry in this weather, and I was not looking forward to wet muddy feet/shoes for the next day or so. I was sad. The firewood was wet too. Things were looking uncomfortable... I was thinking about that hostel with showers and dryers...
Somehow despite our difficulty the night before, we got a fire going right away even though it was misty and the wood was not as dry?!?!?!?!?! I guess you don't have to practice as much as I thought.
Once the fire was going, I had a stoned idea. I put on my flip flops, and put my socks and shoes near the fire to dry! They were steaming, which was scary at first, but once I realized that was just water evaporating and they were not on fire, it was funny. I even gave them a little umbrella. It looked like they were on vacation!
I was no longer cold with wet feet, so I was feeling much better. The fire was so warm, I ended up considering drying the bottoms of my pants! I was wearing a long jacket, so I could get away with it without being overly revealing, so I ended up drying my pants on a stick... this was pretty funny looking!
(you can tell I was not sober during this process lol my face looks weird)I was happy that it was working... my pants dried and they were warm (although they smelled a LOT like firewood haha), the shoes dried too (until I wore them in the grass again haha), and the socks we nearly completed too after putting them on sticks and making them dance around the fire mwahahaha.
I got tired early that night, so I went to sleep early and dry. The next morning I was going to have to find my VERY dirty and messy self a bus to Kilkenny with no idea when the buses left, so it was good to get a proper sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment