What you don’t know can burn you

I’m not ourdoorsy. I’ll freely admit it. The thought of camping turns my stomach and in fact the first time I went camping when I was younger I was in hysterics when my Mum told me I couldn’t trail the extension cord for the TV out the back of my car window. Don’t even get me started on what my attitude was like when I discovered that there was no toilet at the camp site.

Strangely though, I’m married to Mr. Outdoorsy. He loves to camp and bush walk and is slowly but surely enticing me towards the outdoors life. Last weekend I even developed a tan. Ok, that’s not exactly true but I’m slightly less translucent than normal after some limited (albeit sunscreen slathered) face time with the sun while walking through Tasmania’s gorgeous Freycinet.

Knowing that I’m not one for the outdoor life I was pretty surprised by an incident that happened this weekend just gone… I became super outdoor Kirsty in just 5 seconds.

It all happened in our backyard, testing Mr. Outdoorsy’s new fire lighting flint. He hacked away at it for about a minute sending sparks everywhere but no fire was lit.

I decided (what with my ample outdoor-pedigree) I’d give it a go myself. Two gentle scrapes of the flint and a blazing fire leapt up from my pile of kindling. It was no fluke either as I proved I could firelight like a superstar on command time and time again.

Lessons I learnt from my brief foray into the outdoorsy life (even if it was just in my back yard).

1. I’m capable of doing things I would have never thought I’d have a natural aptitude for.

2. It may even be appropriate that I put in my Survivor application now. 

3. Sometimes it’s subtlety not brute force that wins the day (or lights the fire).

4. The best thing to do when you learn a new skill is to teach it to someone else (Mr. Outdoorsy is now a master himself!)

By Kirsty Dunphey with No comments