“On a Mish” #386 There’s a Hole in My Tent (Part Three). Avoca River / Valley. Craigieburn Forest Park. 5.8.2023. A series of circumstances led to me acquiring a dog, and now I can’t think of life without him. I was hoping that Lil’ Ernest would tackle camping like he tackled a bowl of dog food. As luck would have it, going on adventures with Ernie has become the norm and together we have been to some pretty cool places, usually spending the night in my Marmot tent. Little did I know that my little Jack Russel has a return to base setting, and this would lead to one of the most helpless situations I have ever been in…
The new Basins Hut and the area that surrounds it can only be described as incredible, also excellent, perhaps near perfection? And then any other environmental adjectives can be piled on top to describe the eye pleasing scene. We had made it to our temporary home and in the snowy setting life was grand!
After getting settled in our thoughts turned to the two team members who didn’t make it and everyone figured the truck wasn’t rolling and David and his bro ‘Grey Boy’ wouldn’t be joining us.
However, in true Adam adventure fashion he still had hopes they might make it. Most would just sit back and wonder, but not us… Get the drone! Adam’s drone has proved to be so much more than an aerial photography device as it has found tracks, huts and we hoped this time it would find David’s truck.
Music playing, dogs barking and now a drone buzzing around. Yes we were those people and it was lucky that we were the only ones around (or so we thought). The drone headed down the valley and after about five minutes we figured that the search was futile. The excellent little aircraft was set to ‘return’ and because the pilot didn’t need to do anything Adam returned to the Avoca Valley Party. After a short while I noticed that Adam was looking at his phone (which acts as the drone’s controller) and then looking at the vacant sky above the forest around the hut. Oh dear, the drone had somehow flown off course and was now offline. Katie, Sam and Adam set off to look for it and about twenty minutes later they returned a bit bummed after an unsuccessful search, but hey we can have a look in the morning.
It had been a big day and my back and hip was telling me I had been bouncing in a Jimny too long. And even though the day had had some things not going to plan, we still had a blast and were amped for day two of three in the Avoca. It was time to recharge the batteries, now the team of seven needed sleep.
I needed to relocate Ernie before I could retreat to my tent and after locating the 8.9kg wilderness warrior we went to bed expecting to wake in the early hours of the next day. We definitely woke up in the early hours (many hours before early-ish) to the sound of a Suzuki engine…
