I loved to go camping. In camp I had many kinds of
experiences. They're interesting and exciting, but sometimes
terrible and fearful. Basically, to camp is a very funny
experience. Have you ever gone camping? Camping is very
meaningful though you fail; however sometimes nature plays a
trick on human beings.
One day, I camped in the forest with my friends. We set up our
tent and made space to cook between trees. That day, during the
daytime, it was sunny and not windy. Wind began to blow. So we
put out a campfire, though we were looking forward to it, and
went to bed (if I say precisely, "went to sleeping bag") earlier
than usual. The wind just became stronger and stronger, and there
was no hope that the wind would die down. We could not steep
easily because the wind was blowing noisily, so I was talking
with my friends while lying down. I did not know how long we had
talked. Maybe at near midnight, we heard something fall down with
a heavy thud.
I was surprised and we looked at each other. At the same time
we heard something rubbing from over the tent. Looking up at the
roof of the tent, we could see something moving like a snake. It
was long, about 2 or 3 meters. The long shadow of it was on the
roof of the green tent and the black long shadow was moving as if
a snake crept slowly. We were very surprised, so we could say
nothing. "If the shadow is a snake, what shall I do?" I wondered.
"And the shadow is moving near the entrance of the tent. If a
snake comes into... " Thinking like that, we were afraid and
remained silent still looking at the shadow moving. Outside the
tent, the wind was still blowing strongly, and we heard the
branches of the trees swaying in the wind. Finally, when the head
of the snake was about to come into the tent, I came to be able
to see nothing suddenly. There was a big sound and I felt as if
somebody got on me.
Do you know what happened to us? The long black shadow that we
thought was a snake was a rope for this tent, the most important
rope, which is said to be the "main rope like a parent." (If it
were not for this, we could not set up a tent.) That is, by the
strong wind the main rope came off and the tent fell down at
midnight. Of course we had to set it up again by ourselves and
did so at sunrise. That's terrible the tent fell down.
It was a very hot day. When we discussed what we would cook
for dinner that day, my friend suggested, "Today is very hot so
let's make something cool, what kind of.. um ... how about cold
soup including many vegetables?" We agreed with her idea and
decided to make cold soup; however, there was a problem. In the
camp, of course we did not have a refrigerator to make soup cold.
That was a serious problem. We considered how we could make cool
soup without using a refrigerator. We had some ideas, for
example, to dig a hole in the shade and put a pot into the hole
for a while. But it takes too much time. Just when we were in
trouble, I hit upon an idea to put a pot into a stream near the
campsites. It was very simple and speedy. Of course we did this
soon. However, then we forgot an important point. That is, we
forgot to press the pot down by something like a stone. After we
put a pot into the stream, we cooked far away from the river for
a long time. When I came back to the stream, we could not see the
pot.
We looked for the pot, our dinner, at the riverside; however,
we could not find it.
Nature is very mischievous. She sometimes plays a trick on
human beings. My experiences are just some of her tricks. But she
also supported us during our camp, so we cannot complain about
it.
by Misako Ishida
