Camping

BOB. How do you do, George? Have you been back long from your holidays?

G. No, I only came back yesterday.

B. You look splendid. Where did you get your tan?

G. I was at Lake N.

B. At Lake N.? It's pretty far from here, isn't it? How did you get there?

G. Well, we trained it as far as M., and from there we went by a lorry as far as the village K.

B. And how did you get to the lake?

G. We roughed the rest of the way. We made a short cut over the N. mountains.

B. You had to foot it a great deal, I see. How many days did it take you to cross the mountains?

G. Four days. Generally we got up at 5. We always pitched our tents near some water, so it was no trouble to go there and wash first thing in the morning. Afterwards we prepared our breakfast, broke up camp, and started on our way.

B. You had pretty much to carry with you, hadn't you?

G. Oh, we took only things of necessity, of course. We stowed them away in our rucksacks.

B. Did you cook your own meals?

G. Yes, we did. But when on the move one has to keep cooking and washing up to the smallest amount possible, you know, otherwise he'd find himself breakfasting at 3 a.m., having dinner at 4 or 5.

B. And never getting round to supper at all, eh?

G. Quite right. The concentrated type of food comes in very handy in such cases.

B. It does, indeed. Besides it's tasty, nourishing, varied and easy to cook, isn't it?

G. Yes, a concentrated soup can be prepared even on a methylated spirit stove.

B. Whom did you go with, if I may ask?

G. There were four of us, three men and a girl.

B. A girl on a tour like that?

G. Why, what fault do you find with girls?

B. As a rule girls are awful drags on such long tours.

G. There you are wrong, I dare say. You wouldn't believe it, but in many things she did better than the men. Always the first up in the morning and the last in at night.

B. She did the cooking, I suppose.

G. And the washing up as well. A real sport, that's what she is.

B. I suppose she is. Did you come back the same way?

G. Oh, no. We had two rubber boats with us and we...

B. Two rubber boats?! You don't mean to say that you carried the boats on top of all the camping outfit all over the mountains?

G. The idea! Certainly not. Most of the outfit, above all the boats, were sent ahead in a lorry, right up to the lake.

B. And so you came back by water. Why, you must have had a most wonderful time!

G. Oh, yes. You can't imagine how pleasant it was to drift down the river and watch the changing scenes that float by. There at the lake we had a fine time too.

B. I can't tell you how much I envy you. What about going there next year?

G. Well, I don't mind if we do.

B. I can hardly tell you how much I'm looking forward to that trip! I'm going to dream of nothing but this tour next summer.