I will not confess I broke the lockdown rule against ‘camping’ and took my Deer Hunter’s Tent up the bush for a trial run. It is always possible at my age to have walked so far (and with this trick knee, back etc) that I could not safely make it back to my vehicle before dark.
In my dotage I have included such emergency preparedness as an ultralight tent, sleeping bag etc in my day-hunting kit – as you well know. It is legal after all once again to venture out hunting for a day. All by myself (except for Honey) I cannot see whom I could infect or be infected by. In any case I was many tens of thousands of steps away from a track or other person, so what odds?
I found myself at this pleasant riverbank in just enough time before dusk to set up camp, gather some firewood and take a ‘look-see’.
Not so long ago the handful of kilometes in and out again over steep thick country would have been an enjoyable day hunt, but is difficult for me now. Added to that an argument between my Disco and a fallen tree had made me late.
Only fourteen years ago when I had to switch from foxhounds to beagles I suddenly found I could get ahead of the dogs. Those were the days. Mind you those beagles are pretty slow. I remember a huge stag we put up one day in the top of the Avon. he had a stride longer than I can pace. Nearly a metre.
Lord knows how big he really was. He kept on getting so far ahead of the beagles he would lie down and go back to sleep for a while. I kept on expecting to arrive where he was resting before the dogs, but that was not to be though I got close a couple of times. He lived to fight another day! But what a day he gave me.
Mind you as a sequel to this little trip (if i can be permitted that in the middle of this story) my knees are enormously better today as I write this after 80,000+ steps over the last couple of days than they have been in some time, so I need to push myself much harder – and soon perhaps, I will be young again. Dream on!
Honey had been ‘putting up’ deer all the way in, and continued to bolt them off the flat and into the bush during our twilight walk. All does, spikers and young so no point banging away at them especially as my back isn’t really up to hauling large pieces of deer up remote mountains any more. Seems a pity to knock over a stag now and then just ’cause Della wants to use their antlers for her craft work. Still someone has do do it! They all disappear too fast for camera work anyway.
Then it was back to camp, get a cheery fire lighted put the billy on and put the feet up so to speak – and enjoy a good book, the pleasures of solitude and the music of the many subdued sounds of a calm wilderness.
The tent looks great both from without and within I think. You can close these two ‘wings together to make a large vestibule if the weather comes from the wrong direction.
A compulsory selfie:
And in the morning Honey laments that the warmth of the fire has gone, though she enjoyed the warmth of her own down bed all night so has nothing at all to complain about. She does not complain.
It is a pleasant scene don’ t you think?
Doing the dishes in this misty river is a delight.
One can imagine anything could be hiding in the beautiful encircling mist. A brontosaur perhaps? A Viking longship? Good thing I have the .308.
The tent comes down and goes up easily (when you want it to – but not when you do not). You will notice that it is just about as taut in the morning as it was at night.
Here I am taking it down and it is held up by just four pegs. Putting it up is simplicity itself. At the rear you slip in a 3′ piece of timber (or a hiking pole), stretch the material out and insert two side pegs. The pole stands up by itself.
You go round to the front, slip in a 5′ pole (shown) and put in the two other pegs. Then you go along and put in the other four pegs. You are done!
Time for a walk:
‘And the bush hath friends to meet him, (a Common Wombat)
and their kindly voices greet him (an Eastern Fantail, and many other birds)
In the murmur of the breezes and the river on its bars,
And he sees the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended,
And at night the wond’rous glory of the everlasting stars.’
‘Clancy of the Overflow’ Banjo Paterson.
(You will notice that many deer enjoy this spot too!)
I love these old bushman’s tracks that you may still follow if you have a keen eye.
The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains in the moon.
Roads go ever ever on
Under cloud and under star,
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
And horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known.
The Road goes ever on and on
Out from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
Let others follow it who can!
Let them a journey new begin,
But I at last with weary feet
Will turn towards the lighted inn,
My evening-rest and sleep to meet.
‘Lord of the Rings’ J.R.Tolkein.
These historic pack tracks are slowly dissolving into the body of the mountains.
Soon we and all the works of man will be no more than such a faint scar upon a hillside, a chip of flaked flint or a mouldering bone under a tree fern. Yet the earth will stir whirl around the sun for at least another 5 billion years – as it has for five billion year’s past.
Extraordinary to think that a typical sun such as ours has a lifetime of 10 billion years (burning hydrogen). Longer still in later phases (helium etc). Such a long long time. Yet we can observe its minute variations with our delicate instruments and they look so like our own radio and TV signals. I wonder are they?
Could suns be intelligent beings (as the ancient Egyptians imagined Ra to be) who are able to communicate with each other over the vast interstellar distances? The speed of light would be no impediment if your lifespan was measured in billions of years.
Of course it is possible to imagine that some of the particles which are a part of them began life in the Big Bang and the immediate period thereafter when the universe broke its own rules and expanded faster than the speed of light.
Such ‘entangled’ particles Quantum Physics tells us can ‘communicate’ at millions of times the speed of light – so there could be quite a show going on out there that we are unaware of! I imagine such the conversations of beings who are as far beyond gods we can imagine as we are from fleas would not even be recognisable by us as communication – and their topics would be completely beyond what we will ever know.
Good hunting!
See Also:
https://www.theultralighthiker.com/2020/04/25/deer-hunters-tent-2/
PS: Poor Old Disco. Still I will have it fixed for a few dollars probably by the weekend. Surprisingly in 40 + years of driving around in 4WD on bush tracks in the Southern Alps this is about as bad as it has been for me:
PPS: I have since made a shortened and lighter version of this tent which I call the Grey Flyer.
