Secretcon - camp at Tone River, December 1997

The camp was at Tone River, a rec camp in the jarrah forest in an agricultural/timber area known for logging primarily, plus grapes, good cattle, stone and pome fruit and other high-water temperature-sensitive industries. It's a pretty place, simple in design, well away from everything, good air. Lots of nice bush walks available. I was looking forward to going without shoes, as I've travelled plenty and never quite been game enough to leave them behind. Sometimes this has taken quite silly forms, such as taking big boots with me to the bus station, putting them on just before boarding, removing them immediately on claiming my seat, putting them on again five minutes before arrival several hours later, and removing then as soon as I've reached wherever I'm staying... all for the purpose of "having them with me in case I need them", which never happens. Consider it a sort of self-protection against all possible occurrences, something like my unusually well-stocked, double-checked, never-touched first aid kit.

Anyway, I considered whether I would need shoes given that it's the time of year when snakes start waking up grumpy. Given that Australia has eight of the ten most poisonous snakes in the world, even though only a couple of those varieties live around here we've had snake safety drilled into us since we were old enough to understand. An important facet of that is wearing solid shoes. But, the paths around the camp are usually clear enough that you can see snakes well in advance (as I've proven there before), and I decided the extra alertness needed would be far outweighed by the pleasure of going barefoot on the very good ground.

So. We arrived, and were unpacking ourselves into the huts, when the treasurer of the club looks around and says "I think we should ban shoes at this camp." I follow his gaze, and four of the six people nearby are barefoot. Two more show up. We decided we wouldn't be able to make it stick with the remaining decas though, and left it. There were quite a few prickles in the lawn that first day, but we never encountered any more after that for some reason. Some people we never saw outside without shoes, but most of the others removed them at one stage or another if only to avoid getting them wet at the river.

My beloved and I had a great time roaming and playing games. I used some of the time to study - I'm currently doing a course that includes a certain amount on symbolism and imagination, and was just up to the symbol of the earth element. One of the study recommendations was to go out walking barefoot, lie on the grass, watch the sky, smell the flowers, experience the feel of the earth under your feet - quite appropriate really. We also wandered out into the bush at one stage, with great caution as we were off the paths. The undergrowth was about as low density as you can get, so good vision for feet - easy to avoid potential snake and spider nests. Lots of ants, most of which just walked up onto our feet and back off again. There were a lot of good logs to leap onto and run along. There was also a pile of old cars, which drew us over eventually - many rusted apart except for the wooden floorboards and the chrome doorknobs, window glass sitting flat to the ground and needing to be stepped around carefully. All kinds of bits and pieces - a real treasure trove! We could see that many other people had been there before us - some of the brake drums had been turned into playground equipment for the giant games back at the camp, and bits of old car and sheet tin had been piled into cubbies here and there. It was pleasantly warm for wandering, so eventually we drifted back into camp, across the lawn which is covered in kangaroo dung (not unpleasant, nice and dry) to grab a drink.

There were many very pleasant interludes on the camp which would take too long to describe all of, so I'll mention some of the bits that stood out most. One was taking one of the bush walks up into a meadow filled with flowers, then out of the meadow and down to the river where there were three large logs crossing the water to a very marshy squidgy muddy bank inside a U-bend. Another was going down to the water for the first time at sunset, looking at the clouds and then the just-past-new moon chasing the sun away, wandering up the river and finding the place where several old trees have fallen in and sort of across the slow-moving water, making an great aerial jungle to play in. A friend came with us on that occasion, someone who was very uncomfortable with the idea of taking his shoes off, and had great difficulty both on the steep path down to the river and with moving around on the aerial logs, because he couldn't trust his grip. He seemed quite surprised that we had so much ease, and more surprised when I idly mentioned that it hadn't taken years of training to get that comfortable (as he thought), but that a few days mostly barefoot was all that was needed to feel a difference. Me, I would have thought it seemed convenient more than anything to remove shoes, as the ground was *very* muddy.

But anyway, the camp was great, and I'm glad I finally went away without shoes. I can't say totally though, because as we were packing the car to leave we found an old pair of my slipons that I'd forgotten about under the seat!