Deals Men’s Group 2008

Campout #3 – Cape Otway

The third campout for 2008 help by the Deal Men’s Group found us all in a great new location, a fantastic camping ground set back next to the beach of the Cape Otway Lighthouse road. After spending a few hours in the car discussing AA and taking everybody’s inventory, Jared and myself arrived at the campsite, greeted by several early birds who had also arrived on the Friday afternoon to set up camp, including Ben L, Gavin, Justin, Geoff, Warren and Mark. First task was to pitch the main tent (tarp, bigtop, thing) which covers the now 5 star cooking facilities overseen by executive chef Benny L. After several attempts to work out which side should be facing up, as tends to be the case every campout, the crew had the weather at bay in no time, with gas bottles firing and the coffee pot straight on the burner (priority one).
Alcoholic efficiency saw tasks appointed quickly and tents placed in designated areas with great speed, closely followed by alcoholic character defects coming to the fore when actually trying to set up the individual tents (that’s right, it’s the tents fault) Luckily, no dummies were spat and after a couple of (100?) serenity prayers, all the tents were set up for the slackers-sorry, I mean those of the group who couldn’t get the day off work to help set up but really would have liked to if given the opportunity.

Credit to those on kitchen service duty for setting up a fine dinner of bbq snags on the first night, followed straight after by the Friday night meeting. By this stage nearly all members were present, including Adam and Matt S who shattered all hopes I had of bagging a whole tent to myself. Campout stalwarts Ben J and Ash were missed as work commitments kept them in Melbourne, with Rhett coming off the bench for his first trek into the bush with the men’s group. Jamie, Steve, Paul, Cable and Stuart were also in attendance.

Sat morning began with breakfast and meeting, which are both important, but not nearly as important as the Deal Campout Beach Volleyball Championship. Old friends became enemies as teams were chosen and lines were drawn in the sand (figuratively and literally). A cold wind blew across the beach that morning, the seas were angry… and Warren’s team lost. (two in a row – see previous results from Echuca campout earlier in the year)Yet every one enjoyed having a crack at spiking the ball over that ridiculously small net. The tall fellas proved dangerous up front, including Jamie, Rhett and Paul, but were often out played by the highly skilled members Cable, Stuart, Geoff and Adam, with myself and Steve still asking the question “why don’t play soccer instead?” (which we did shortly after losing the volleyball). Questionable refereeing decisions from Matt and Mark kept the scorecard close and interesting, with the wind being the most valuable player in the end.

After a lunch of satay chicken and salsa (seriously, Ben L has it down pat) it was free time for all, with Steve leading the charge to the Surf Beaches of Apollo Bay. Several members, including connoisseurs Matt and Gav, craved a good coffee and headed for the cafes in town instead, Geoff and myself choosing to hold the fort and conserve energy for, well, the sake of it. Books don’t read themselves. Jared and others took off on foot for a run before heading out of camp, with me heading to the tent for some zzz’s shortly there after.

Don’t ask me what anyone did after that as I passed out for a couple of hours in the afternoon. Awesome. The self inflating air mattress I bought earlier that year was worth every penny after having no mattress and foolishly sleeping on the ground at the first Deal campout I ever attended.

Members began milling around the campsite as if from nowhere once Ben L started preparing his famous Bolognese, with Stuart, Warren and others opting for a walk around the coastal rocks in desperate search of Crayfish. Greg from Torquay had made it down by this stage, and this could have been around about the time when Mark locked himself out of his F100, although, with a group of alcoholics around, your keys are not locked in your car for very long.

Saturday night’s meeting offered a great opportunity for question and answer between newer and older sober members, providing positive discussion and reiterating the Deal group’s traditions of structure, cooperation, service, action and progressive recovery, and of having a good time sober. Apologies to Paul O for me knocking off the last apple pie also.

Sunday morning saw breakfast and the last meeting for the campout, with each member offering a summary of their experience and the group sharing a feeling of gratitude and serenity, not bad for a bunch of guys who were all hung-over on a Sunday morning not that long ago. A recently new tradition of lightning fast pack-down was adhered to as we all headed back to Melbourne and looked forward to the “deluxe” camp out at Wilson’s Promontory in the new year.

Nick
The Deal Men’s Group