Roughing it

We spent the last day researching places to stay along the Noosa Everglades. We don’t have the money for organised tours so we looked at places we could hire a kayak to explore the area ourselves. Troy decided at last minute to install another battery so we could run our esky without having to worry about our car going flat. I set about quickly packing and reorganising things as we were going to be staying in our tent. I pulled out extra blankets and packed a bag of warm clothes for the cold night ahead.

“Are we going yet? Can we go now? Where are we camping?” Maddi repeated while following me around. Troy was so excited about having the esky sorted and he walked around boasting about his achievement. “Have you added your clothes to the overnight bag?” I asked. “We should be ready to go once you’re done,” I added.

I heard Troy calling from the car, “Come on, lets go!” I jumped in so excited to be going to the Noosa Everglades after hounding Troy for weeks. We stopped off on the way to get a bag of marshmallows to bribe the kids with on the drive there. We were glad we opted not to take the camper as it was a bumpy and unenjoyable trip that would have been twice as long if we were towing. After scoping out the area on arrival we found a quiet, shady spot to set up. We started pulling things out of the ute and realised our sleeping gear was forgotten. There was an argument over who’s fault this was and to keep things short; it was Troy’s.

“We’ll be fine; there are a couple of sleeping bags in the tool box,” Troy said. After taking the kids for a walk to burn off energy Troy started dinner and I set up the ‘beds’. I had a few towels to place down first in hope to make things more comfortable. I flicked out the first sleeping bag and unzipped it. It was thin but should wrap around a couple of us. I flicked out the second bag. Shit!! It was a baby sleeping bag. I unzipped it hoping it would look bigger. It still looked tiny. I doubted it would properly even cover one kid. It was then that it clicked this was going to be the longest night ever. Now I know most people with half a brain would have just packed up and headed home, but it was a bit of a drive and for some reason we though toughing it out was a better option.

We all had bird baths and hopped in the tent with our teeth chattering from the cold. Troy didn’t have a pair of socks and the packing argument started again. “I told you to add what you needed”, I said. As we lay down the kids started to get upset over how cold and hard the ground was. I told them to cuddle in and lay on our arms like pillows. Maddi had the baby sleeping bag over her and the large one mostly fit across us except for Troys feet sticking out the bottom and my butt poking out the side. I used Maddi’s backpack as a pillow and tried to flip part of a towel up over my butt.

The kids took ages to get to sleep and between them both they kept waking about every half hour. There was plenty of time to reflect upon what a crappy parenting job we had done today as we lay shivering in the dark. It would certainly be character building I tried to justify to myself. I kept wishing the night to hurry up. “What’s the time now?” I asked Troy. “One,” he sighed. The kids were mostly laying across me now so Troy was left in the cold. I thought I’d do the nice thing and give him my socks. My arms were going dead so I scooped some clothes together for the kids to use as pillows.

The night dragged on soooo slowly. My back and shoulder was hurting from the ground. Maddi woke up needing to go to the toilet and Troy took her out. I needed to go myself but Ronin had just got back to sleep on me. Troy and I only spoke to find out how much time had passed. It got so cold that even with me having most of the sleeping bag I was shaking. Troy offered me the socks back. How about we share them I suggested. He gave me both socks and told me I could shove the kayaking up my arse. He went on a walk and came back excited because he had the car seat cover and liquorice.

Time ticked slowly and the kids were awake again. “What’s the time?” I said. “Three,” Troy mumbled. I decided to give up on sleep. Madz was upset so I went and got the laptop and put Tinkerbell on for her. I sat her between my legs with the sleeping bag over us. I piled all the spare clothes on top of Roey. Troy grabbed the baby sleeping bag and stuck his feet in saying, “Oh my god that’s warm.” He passed Madz and I some liquorice to have as movie snacks. She thought this was the best night ever now. Roey woke up upset; saw the laptop, “Fairies,” he goes.

The laptop ran out of power before the sun came up and the kids got upset all over again. We all snuggled down and everyone fell asleep. We had only been asleep an hour and Roey was up with the sun, ready to go outside. He grabbed his gumboots which were ice cold. “Brrrrr,” he said. He was the only happy camper. I was amazed how keen he was to get out and get moving. I visioned the biggest, hottest cup of coffee and prodded Troy.

Poor Maddi was torn, she was tired but didn’t want to leave the camp. “What about camping,” she cried. I made them a pile of jam sandwiches and passed them marshmallows to keep them quiet while we packed up. “I’m thinking we just chuck everything in the back of the ute and head for Macca’s breakfast,” Troy suggested. I was hurling stuff in the back before he even finished the sentence. Turning on the heater instantly put me in a better mood. “We need to remember the 5 P’s next time,” Troy says. “What’s that’s that?” I wonder. “Preparation prevents piss poor performance,” he chuckles.

On the plus side Troy didn’t have to get up worrying about charging his car battery through the night!