しーまブログ 2012年01月10日
Camping on New Year's Eve
We went camping on New Year's Eve. I have always liked camping, and even when I was at school I used to participate in long treks and camps in the countyside of England.
Camping is pretty easy when there are only adults. Children coming along means extra planning, and small children coming along means it might be difficult to enjoy yourself at all! I went camping with Yukari and our four children. The oldest child is twelve and the youngest is four.
I had already decided to head for Wase in Sumiyo. We have visited there a few times and there are places where it is possible to camp, and there are few people around to disturb or to disturb us. If Wase didn't seem a good place this time we were planning to head down towards Uken and find somewhere by a river.
Yukari wanted to camp in an open space, so that means the beach. Personally I prefer camping by a river in the woods, but I don't mind the beach. At the beach there is usually a lot of wood which is suitable for burning. In the forests the wood is sometimes a problem because it rains a lot in Amami and so dead wood rots quickly, and wet rotting wood doesn't burn well.
So we found a nice place in Wase. We thought ourselves lucky because there is a lot of building work going on in and around Wase, and we think that the next time we go there perhaps it won't be possible to get to the beach because they are building sea-walls and roads and structures which cut-off easy access to the beaches. Ten years ago the area around Wase really was nice. I remember little vegetable gardens on the sides of the narrow tracks leading to the sea, and the beaches were beautiful and it was a peaceful place. Later I found I couldn't get to my favourite place because they had built a tunnel nearby and the road to the beach had gone - and anyway the landscape had changed and it was no longer the ideal place I thought it was. This year, there were many building projects going on, and many machines for moving sand and concrete were lined-up and waiting to re-start work on building a massive set of sea walls. I suppose the sea walls might help save the houses in the event of a large tsunami, but the landscape no longer looks attractive to me.
We chose to camp near to a waterfall at the beach. We parked the car on the disused parking space of a hotel which had gone out of business many years ago. Then everyone left the car and headed for the beach.
The children started looking at the rocks and looked for sea creatures, and they went to the sea and threw rocks and stones into the waves. I and Yukari began unpacking the car and setting up our site.
The tent went on a slightly elevated part of the beach and our camp fire was just below it. One small fire with charcoal was our cooking fire, and the other fire was much larger and was to keep us warm as we sat on the sand and rocks waiting for the new year.
I coerced the children into clearing the rocks where the tent was going, and then showed them how to make a nice fire-place with stones.
When the tent was erected, Alishia (girl 7) put some old futons in and made it comfortable. We had decided to take the old futons because we planned to burn them the next day. We have recently bought new futons and so it was convenient to go camping with the old ones because we didn't need to worry if they got damaged or dirty.
Unfortunately the eldest, Jamie (12) was unwell. He had a fever and complained of a headache. He spent almost the whole time sleeping in the tent or on the sand in front of the fire. He wasn't much use, but I didn't mind much because at least he was unable to create chaos.
I got the charcoal cooking-fire started, and then I joined the others and collected wood for the main fire. There was a lot of wood to burn because the recent heavy rains had washed lots of old trees down from the hills. The others located and retrieved small pieces of wood and I dragged and carried the heavy pieces. One piece I wanted was too heavy for me to move so I tried to cut it with a small axe I'd brought. But the axe handle soon came off. Somehow I managed to fix the axe so that I could swing it several times before I needed to press the head back onto the handle, and many, many minutes later I succeeded in cutting the log in half and was able to bring it to the fire.
Collecting wood was a major activity that night. I had made the fire big, and it was made of big pieces of wood which would burn for a few hours at least, but of course eventually the fire got smaller.
After I'd set everything up, I relaxed a bit and watched the others. Jamie was mostly in the tent and very quiet, but Alishia and Aren (9) were playing happily together. Sometimes they made sculptures in the sand and with stones. Other times they brought wood to the fire. Other times they walked along the beach near the sea and looked at crabs and other creatures. The youngest, Lion (4) was enjoying himself, but as he is so young, he needs constant attention and is very noisy. The biggest problem with Lion was that he wouldn't go to sleep so the rest of us could get a bit of peace and quiet - but anyway - I suppose one must tolerate such expected behaviour. Yukari never seems to mind too much when Lion is being selfish or rude, but I am not so patient, so I occasionally felt the need to shout at Lion to be quiet.
We arrived at our camp site at about four o'clock, and it gets dark at about six. Sunset was shortly after five-thirty, so we didn't have much time to get everything ready. But by the time the last rays of the setting sun went behind the hills, the fires were lit, the tent was up, the food was in place, and everything we might need was easily accessible.
The weather forecast said it would rain that night, and the clouds looked like it was going to rain. Just at the time of the last sunset of 2011 did the sun shine through. Soon after it was dark it started to rain. The rain was constant, but very light. It rained all through the night, but it never rained hard. The beach and the sand was wet, and the firewood became slippery and wet. Wet wood gives off white smoke until it is dried, and I spent most of the night being chased by the smoke. Yukari loves smoke, fires and ash, so she was happy. Once she kicked a piece of wood in the fire and burnt her foot because her shoes had many holes in the tops. She burnt her foot at about three o'clock in the morning, and her foot hurt a lot until a couple of days later. Still now her foot is scarred.
Of course I stayed awake all night and didn't sleep. But this isn't unusual because I always stay awake every night. Yukari is different though, and she sleeps like a normal person when she is at home. At the camp, it would have been difficult or impossible to sleep because the tent is full with four children, and the car isn't at all comfortable. Even in the unlikely event that it was possible for Yukari to sleep, she would have been woken up by at least one of the children, so why bother trying?
We bought some frozen fried rice, some marshmallows, saussages, potato chips, some chocolate snacks, cup ramen, camp coffee sticks, bananas and some potatoes. The potatoes were baked in the ashes of the main fire and eaten with the skin - with all the char and ash ... Yum!
I sharpened sticks to use to cook the saussages and the marshmallows. I had given Aren a folding pocket knife for Christmas, and he spent hours carving bits of wood - and didn't cut himself even once! I was impressed. If Jamie had been using the knife I gave him he'd have most likely cut himself and probably others, and certainly destroyed something important.
Shortly before dawn, a wild pig suddenly descended down the rocks next to the tent. At first we thought it must be Jamie playing. Then suddenly a goat-sized black thing fell down and quickly ran off somewhere. I suppose it had smelled food and was coming to take a look. That scared the others quite a bit. My jokes about wild pigs eating children didn't help the situation.
What else? Well, when dawn came, Yukari wanted to see the first rays of the new sun for 2012. We waited until eight o'clock, but it was a bit cloudy and though some places got a glimse of sunlight from time-to-time, where we were was only shadow. We saw the sun shine on the drive back to Ashikebu.
At about seven o'clock we packed up everything in the car except for some breakfast and the old futons. I put the three futons on the fire and they burned for a long time. The smell and the smoke was terrible and I was a bit worried some neighbours might complain, but no one came. The children played with the burning futons with sticks and made holes in them as they burned.
The fire was eventually a pile of hot ash. We left the camp site as clean as it was before we arrived - and we cleaned the beach of old wood.
During the previous day and night, the only one who slept a lot was Jamie - but he also slept the next day as well. The other kids stayed awake most of the night and maybe only slept for a couple of hours. Between 0200 and the time we left, the children were sitting in front of the fire, eating, playing and bringing back firewood. As the night wore on, Yukari and the children seemed to become more active and awake - especially with the firewood gathering. While the rest carried little bits, I was looking for ever-distant larger pieces to drag back. The little pieces of wood burn in minutes, so I concentrated on the task of keeping the fire as big and as hot as possible.
When we arrived back in Ashikebu everyone was tired and wanted to sleep. I made everyone have a bath before they did. I did the washing and hung the clothes on the washing line. Everything was tidied before anyone could sleep, and then once everything was done, everyone slept.
Camping is pretty easy when there are only adults. Children coming along means extra planning, and small children coming along means it might be difficult to enjoy yourself at all! I went camping with Yukari and our four children. The oldest child is twelve and the youngest is four.
I had already decided to head for Wase in Sumiyo. We have visited there a few times and there are places where it is possible to camp, and there are few people around to disturb or to disturb us. If Wase didn't seem a good place this time we were planning to head down towards Uken and find somewhere by a river.
Yukari wanted to camp in an open space, so that means the beach. Personally I prefer camping by a river in the woods, but I don't mind the beach. At the beach there is usually a lot of wood which is suitable for burning. In the forests the wood is sometimes a problem because it rains a lot in Amami and so dead wood rots quickly, and wet rotting wood doesn't burn well.
So we found a nice place in Wase. We thought ourselves lucky because there is a lot of building work going on in and around Wase, and we think that the next time we go there perhaps it won't be possible to get to the beach because they are building sea-walls and roads and structures which cut-off easy access to the beaches. Ten years ago the area around Wase really was nice. I remember little vegetable gardens on the sides of the narrow tracks leading to the sea, and the beaches were beautiful and it was a peaceful place. Later I found I couldn't get to my favourite place because they had built a tunnel nearby and the road to the beach had gone - and anyway the landscape had changed and it was no longer the ideal place I thought it was. This year, there were many building projects going on, and many machines for moving sand and concrete were lined-up and waiting to re-start work on building a massive set of sea walls. I suppose the sea walls might help save the houses in the event of a large tsunami, but the landscape no longer looks attractive to me.
We chose to camp near to a waterfall at the beach. We parked the car on the disused parking space of a hotel which had gone out of business many years ago. Then everyone left the car and headed for the beach.
The children started looking at the rocks and looked for sea creatures, and they went to the sea and threw rocks and stones into the waves. I and Yukari began unpacking the car and setting up our site.
The tent went on a slightly elevated part of the beach and our camp fire was just below it. One small fire with charcoal was our cooking fire, and the other fire was much larger and was to keep us warm as we sat on the sand and rocks waiting for the new year.
I coerced the children into clearing the rocks where the tent was going, and then showed them how to make a nice fire-place with stones.
When the tent was erected, Alishia (girl 7) put some old futons in and made it comfortable. We had decided to take the old futons because we planned to burn them the next day. We have recently bought new futons and so it was convenient to go camping with the old ones because we didn't need to worry if they got damaged or dirty.
Unfortunately the eldest, Jamie (12) was unwell. He had a fever and complained of a headache. He spent almost the whole time sleeping in the tent or on the sand in front of the fire. He wasn't much use, but I didn't mind much because at least he was unable to create chaos.
I got the charcoal cooking-fire started, and then I joined the others and collected wood for the main fire. There was a lot of wood to burn because the recent heavy rains had washed lots of old trees down from the hills. The others located and retrieved small pieces of wood and I dragged and carried the heavy pieces. One piece I wanted was too heavy for me to move so I tried to cut it with a small axe I'd brought. But the axe handle soon came off. Somehow I managed to fix the axe so that I could swing it several times before I needed to press the head back onto the handle, and many, many minutes later I succeeded in cutting the log in half and was able to bring it to the fire.
Collecting wood was a major activity that night. I had made the fire big, and it was made of big pieces of wood which would burn for a few hours at least, but of course eventually the fire got smaller.
After I'd set everything up, I relaxed a bit and watched the others. Jamie was mostly in the tent and very quiet, but Alishia and Aren (9) were playing happily together. Sometimes they made sculptures in the sand and with stones. Other times they brought wood to the fire. Other times they walked along the beach near the sea and looked at crabs and other creatures. The youngest, Lion (4) was enjoying himself, but as he is so young, he needs constant attention and is very noisy. The biggest problem with Lion was that he wouldn't go to sleep so the rest of us could get a bit of peace and quiet - but anyway - I suppose one must tolerate such expected behaviour. Yukari never seems to mind too much when Lion is being selfish or rude, but I am not so patient, so I occasionally felt the need to shout at Lion to be quiet.
We arrived at our camp site at about four o'clock, and it gets dark at about six. Sunset was shortly after five-thirty, so we didn't have much time to get everything ready. But by the time the last rays of the setting sun went behind the hills, the fires were lit, the tent was up, the food was in place, and everything we might need was easily accessible.
The weather forecast said it would rain that night, and the clouds looked like it was going to rain. Just at the time of the last sunset of 2011 did the sun shine through. Soon after it was dark it started to rain. The rain was constant, but very light. It rained all through the night, but it never rained hard. The beach and the sand was wet, and the firewood became slippery and wet. Wet wood gives off white smoke until it is dried, and I spent most of the night being chased by the smoke. Yukari loves smoke, fires and ash, so she was happy. Once she kicked a piece of wood in the fire and burnt her foot because her shoes had many holes in the tops. She burnt her foot at about three o'clock in the morning, and her foot hurt a lot until a couple of days later. Still now her foot is scarred.
Of course I stayed awake all night and didn't sleep. But this isn't unusual because I always stay awake every night. Yukari is different though, and she sleeps like a normal person when she is at home. At the camp, it would have been difficult or impossible to sleep because the tent is full with four children, and the car isn't at all comfortable. Even in the unlikely event that it was possible for Yukari to sleep, she would have been woken up by at least one of the children, so why bother trying?
We bought some frozen fried rice, some marshmallows, saussages, potato chips, some chocolate snacks, cup ramen, camp coffee sticks, bananas and some potatoes. The potatoes were baked in the ashes of the main fire and eaten with the skin - with all the char and ash ... Yum!
I sharpened sticks to use to cook the saussages and the marshmallows. I had given Aren a folding pocket knife for Christmas, and he spent hours carving bits of wood - and didn't cut himself even once! I was impressed. If Jamie had been using the knife I gave him he'd have most likely cut himself and probably others, and certainly destroyed something important.
Shortly before dawn, a wild pig suddenly descended down the rocks next to the tent. At first we thought it must be Jamie playing. Then suddenly a goat-sized black thing fell down and quickly ran off somewhere. I suppose it had smelled food and was coming to take a look. That scared the others quite a bit. My jokes about wild pigs eating children didn't help the situation.
What else? Well, when dawn came, Yukari wanted to see the first rays of the new sun for 2012. We waited until eight o'clock, but it was a bit cloudy and though some places got a glimse of sunlight from time-to-time, where we were was only shadow. We saw the sun shine on the drive back to Ashikebu.
At about seven o'clock we packed up everything in the car except for some breakfast and the old futons. I put the three futons on the fire and they burned for a long time. The smell and the smoke was terrible and I was a bit worried some neighbours might complain, but no one came. The children played with the burning futons with sticks and made holes in them as they burned.
The fire was eventually a pile of hot ash. We left the camp site as clean as it was before we arrived - and we cleaned the beach of old wood.
During the previous day and night, the only one who slept a lot was Jamie - but he also slept the next day as well. The other kids stayed awake most of the night and maybe only slept for a couple of hours. Between 0200 and the time we left, the children were sitting in front of the fire, eating, playing and bringing back firewood. As the night wore on, Yukari and the children seemed to become more active and awake - especially with the firewood gathering. While the rest carried little bits, I was looking for ever-distant larger pieces to drag back. The little pieces of wood burn in minutes, so I concentrated on the task of keeping the fire as big and as hot as possible.
When we arrived back in Ashikebu everyone was tired and wanted to sleep. I made everyone have a bath before they did. I did the washing and hung the clothes on the washing line. Everything was tidied before anyone could sleep, and then once everything was done, everyone slept.
