Weekend Re-tree-t

Last weekend we were invited on a spontaneous camping trip with a friend we made on the woodwork course back in February and a group of their other friends. They knew of a campsite along the Squamish river which isn’t always fully booked. It was very sunny on Saturday and we were raring to go! Unfortunately, several people in the group were Spanish, so we ended up setting off 2 hours later than planned. But even after the 1 hour 20 minute drive, we still had plenty of time to enjoy the sunshine.

The campsite was massive with lots of large spots in the forest. There was also a huge beach along the river. It was a party atmosphere, with people playing beer pong on the beach and multiple bluetooth speaker DJs. We were happy to be in a group of people again though, so embraced the noise and chaos! Rosie went for a dip in the river and floated about for a few minutes, mostly to show up the burley men who had been belly flopping in, screaming about the cold and running back to dry land. Ollie was even wimpier than them.

The last couple of weeks have been Cottonwood seed dissemination season, meaning there has been lots of weird cotton-like tree seeds floating around. This picture is from an evening walk in a local nature reserve, but the campsite (and consequently all of our cloths and gear) was covered in the stuff!

We cooked some dinner on our gas stove while it was still light, then were entertained by the Spanish contingent cooking a full tapas menu of potatoes, roast veg, baked camembert and sausages on the campfire! Some of the potatoes did fall in and were a bit ashy, but it was very impressive even if they were still cooking at midnight. Incidentally, Rosie tried her “what cheese do you use to get a bear down from a tree?” joke on a Canadian, but he had never heard of camembert… Oh dear.

Our friend Tom (different Tom to Thom from Thom and Hannah) who is an Arborist had brought along his climbing gear and set up a rope on one of the Cottonwood trees. He started by firing a weight on a string up into the branches with a giant slingshot, this allowed him to haul a rope up. He climbed up that rope and then set a more secure anchor further up so that the rest of us could have a go! He used two devices: a hand ascender and a foot ascender. Both slide up the rope, but lock if you try to move them down. You climb up by moving the hand ascender up, hanging off it while you move the foot ascender up, and then standing up into the foot ascender. We both had a go at it… it was very hard work! Tom made it look easy, but Rosie was too sweaty to grip anymore by about 1/3 of the way up. Ollie got a bit further and even had a swing around.

Apart from the climbing, we had done far too much sitting around enjoying ourselves, so on the way back home we stopped off at Murrin park to walk up a hill.

Other exciting news this week: COVID restrictions are easing here, with a plan for somewhat normal life in July, so the outdoor pool in our apartment building is finally open! We noticed that it was open on Tuesday and have been swimming every day since. Rosie even bought a swimming cap to stop her hair getting all chloriney. We have been fighting over one pair of goggles.

The rain is moving in this weekend, so we haven’t planned any outdoor adventures. We are allowed to visit other people’s houses again and are looking forward to dinner round a friend’s place. Perhaps we’ll go swimming again too – rain doesn’t make a difference if you’re already wet!