As has been a common theme in my writing recently, I’m soon to turn 30.  For me, this marks a time in life where I’m not seeing myself as young anymore and should probably stop spending my time sitting on my arse playing videogames and drinking beer.

Probably not going to happen.  However,  for the end of this trip around the sun I’ll be putting myself in an interesting situation and doing something I haven’t done for years.

More on that later.  To celebrate the big three zero, I’m eschewing a big party down in Melbourne and heading back home to the country.  Seeing that it’s harvest time on the farm and I haven’t spent a birthday with my parents since I was 21 (and it’s been even longer than that since I spent a birthday with my Grandmother), I decided I wanted to make it a bit more special and enjoy the day with my family.  However I’ve raided the best Beer shop in Melbourne (Purvis Cellars) and are taking home a random selection of awesome beer, so it’ll be a happy weekend no matter what happens.

I’m also taking the week off and staying up in the country for that period.  However unlike usual, where I’d laze around my parents place, I’m finally doing something which I had planned last year but never did: I’m spending the week camping on the Murray River by myself.

We used to camp a lot when I was a kid, and I’m familiar with several good spots along the Murray.  However each time we went down the river, it was with the caravan and generator, meaning an “inside” area, most of the mod cons and most importantly electricity.  The only times I’ve been camping without the full setup were the single night trips with mates in high school, when I only needed my tent swag.  This time I’m taking a tent, my swag, a camp oven, a shovel and axe, a big container of water and some food and parking myself on a riverbank.

To put this in perspective, I will be without the following:

• Electricity.
• Running water.  I’ll be washing myself and everything else in the river.
• A toilet.  A shovel and a bog roll will suffice.
• Cooking equipment.  Pretty much everything we cook is done via electricity or gas, wheras I’ll be making do with a camp oven on a fire.  I hope like hell there are no total fire ban days.
• Refrigeration.  All my food will have to survive being at room temperature, meaning lots of cans.

You’ll probably note that is all part of camping in general.  The country people will probably wonder why I’m stating the bleeding obvious.  It’s worthwhile drawing forward one point from the list above.  The first one.

No electricity.  Think of what you do day to day and how ruled it is by the power supply.  It’s a huge inconvenience not having power, but you’re expecting that when camping.

Then have a think about what you do for entertainment.  I play PC games, console games, handheld games, use my phone, listen to music.  Every single one of them requires power.  Even the handheld stuff nowadays requires you to plug them into the mains occasionally to charge up.  I’m spending a week without not only the usual comforts of home, I’m also depriving myself of pretty much all my sources of entertainment.

So, it’s looking like a sure bet I’ll go insane with boredom and will have to scurry back to civilisation and take over the first 240v outlet I see.

I’m hoping not, because I have lots of books to be read, lots of thinking to do and lots of enjoying just being a long way from anything.