The activity of camping fits in with my personality in much the same way a fish fits into a power socket. The result is that these expeditions with my father have been few but significant in my memory as most traumatising events are. Yet to say outright that I especially hated these overnight trips would be to forfeit any interesting memories that I possess. My age and the events that led up to our trip escape my memory, possibly rendered irrelevant by my subconscious to make way for the incidents that followed.

In my first adventure in a completely ignorant state, I was looking forward to camping out somewhere far away from the other members of my species. The bare brown farmlands and the dry yellowed grasses of Boonah were not providing me with adequate mental or visual stimulation. So I sat in the car, a blank expression of my face as I concentrated all my energies into thinking instead about the items at home I had forgotten. The burning mid-afternoon sun distorted my view as we turned a corner on the shimmering tar just a few minutes before we would have entered the town. A somewhat more disturbing ground greeted us. Bare, bleached trees protruded from the white, crystalline ground like claws of the enraged Titans calling out for help in an environment of unnerving indifference. This landscape has a genuine effect on me and for a fleeting moment I envisaged a body, baked under the heat of the sun in this skeletal landscape whilst scavenging birds circled overhead. Oh joyous beginnings.

The landscape that had confronted me so abruptly left just as quickly. Rolling hills of vibrant green were a refreshing change. There was one discrepancy however. A house, standing completely alone, seemed to have borrowed the desolate feeling of the dead trees from which it had been made. A decaying garden littered with discarded worn-out furniture and broken timber surrounded the house, as though the inhabitants wanted to create a barrier to the outside world. Silently thanking these people for their unhealthy aversion to other citizens, I proceeded to focus my thoughts on wanting to pass quickly as possible so it took a moment to register my father’s words; ‘This is the spot!”

At this stage I feel it is important to note that at the time I did appreciate my father’s kindness in taking me on this outing, but my opinions and thoughts on the matter have long since been somewhat ‘set in stone’. Let us continue.