Last year I was at the Sydney camp so I decided that this year I would give the Melbourne camp a try. The camp was to be held at a property called "Sokil" in Anghatook Lorne National Park southwest of Geelong. This property has been owned by Plast for many decades and is in a pretty good location since the land around it cannot be developed. I was worried that it might be very hot given Victoria's unpredictable summer weather. As it turned out, the weather would not be what I expected.
I left Canberra on a rainy Christmas Day and took a taxi to the airport. Check-in was easy and the flight itself short and uneventful. My rucksack (backpack) I checked while I took my laptop and a light bag as carry-on. My worry that somehow I would become separated from my rucksack proved unfounded.
At Melbourne airport I was met by one of my fellow consellors, Andres Fedyszyn, or "Fedz" for short. He was to be the commandant of the scout camp. Fedz told me that he was born in Argentina but has been living in Australia since 1989 meaning he was about 7 when he moved with his family. Fedz drove me to his house after which his mother came home and drove me to a Christmas party at their friends'. I had a great time talking with everybody there and I met a woman from Edmonton who's on an extended vacation Down Under. Her son was also going to be a counsellor at the camp and she asked me to convince him to study law in Australia; I did my best.
It seems that every time I go to Melbourne they've done something with the train system. Last time, they'd eliminated one of the fare zones, this time, they'd changed the name from Connex to Metro/Metlink. All they'd really done was put some stickers on the trains but it left me wondering what they'd do next.
The next day Fedz's sister, Danka, drove me down to Sokil. It wasn't that far away from Melbourne, not even 2 hours, and we passed some very picturesque country. We finally arrived at Sokil after driving our way down a dirt road through dense forest on a reasonable gradient. I was pleasantly surprised with Sokil. It had several well-kept buildings and even an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The younger kids were placed in barracks called kolyby (koh-LYH-byh) or as I came to call them "coolibahs" (it's a type of gum tree mentioned in Waltzing Matilda). The kitchen was manned (ironic word when you think about it not politically correctly) by parents who were staying nearby and many had permanent or semi-permanent structures on plots. The whole reminded me of the Plastova Sich property outside Grafton, Ontario.
As always, the first few days are spent getting one's bearings and with introductions. The other counsellors aside from myself and Fedz, the bulava (boo-LAH-vah; literally "mace"), were Danylo Magalas, Ivanka Buczma, Symon Kohut and Marko Jakuta, the other Canadian. There were about 21 scouts in total so that gave a good counsellor:scout ratio. The ages ranged from 11-16 so we had a good mix. One of the older ones, Dam'yan Pavlyshyn, I soon found out had the same love of trivia and knowledge as myself which made for some interesting conversations later during the camp.
The first night, because I had no tent, I slept in the same tent as Ivanka and this became a running gag. What remember most about that night was the biting cold. I figured 2 people in a tent would keep it warm but for some reason the warmth escaped. The next day a spare tent was brought up which I set up and from then I had a tent all to myself.
That night Marko was given the task of running the vatra (VAH-tra) the communal bonfire. I was put in charge of building it and it couldn't be too big because of the fire restrictions. It turned out to be pretty good. There were many skits and Marko and I were asked to put together a typically Canadian skit. The one we chose was about Radisson and des Grosseilliers, 2 coureurs des bois who really existed and were employed by the Hudson Bay Company. Those in Plast know the skit well but it essentially involves the 2 people pretending they're in a canoe but not going anywhere. They try many different positions but nothing works. The punch line at the end is that they haven't put the canoe in the water. Marko and I did another skit about a guy who's going to jump off a bridge (me) and an old man who's trying to talk him out of it (Marko). The old man says that they're so much to live for like family but the jumper responds that he's never been married and he's an orphan with no family. The old man then says, "Well what about your heritage, what about Plast?" to which the young man replies, "What's Plast?" The old man then says, "In that case, you're better of jumping." Fun was had by all.
We all went to sleep a little early and eager that night as the next morning we were off on our great adventure, a 3-day bike hike.
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