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| The campers, L to R, back: Julio, Kazumi, Maneesh, Cecilia, Pratik, Mulongwe, Suzanne, Michael, and Alessia. L to R, front: Vikram, Angela, Ivan, Julius, Liana, Trudy. |
Long weekends are always bugging me to plan for a fine time. Next weekend was Labor Day and I was in the camping mood. An idea popped in my head to go camping with Cosmo mates and friends. Guess what? The proposal materialized with sixteen people signing up for le adventure! Ivan (Croatia), Manjula (Sri Lanka), Julio (Peru), Vikram (America), Lishomwa, (Zambia), Julius (America), Michael (Germany), Maneesh (India), Suzanne (America), Liana (Costa Rica), Angela (America), Alessia (Italy), Cecilia (Sweden), Kazumi (Japan), Trudy (Australia) and I (India) had a brief meeting about what exciting things we might do.
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| The campers, L to R, back: Julio, Kazumi, Maneesh, Cecilia, Pratik, Mulongwe, Suzanne, Michael, and Alessia. L to R, front: Vikram, Angela, Ivan, Julius, Liana, Trudy. |
After surfing a few ideas on the Internet, we decided to go to the Shawnee National Forest, which has a lot to offer for outdoor activities. We left on Friday evening. Believe me, I was really impressed with the punctuality. Things were rolling right along, and then it all started. I had a flat tire and Trudy took a wrong exit, messing up our schedules. Few made it to the planned rendevouz at the entrance of the forest and patiently waited for others. We then traversed the maze of dirt roads of Shawnee in pitch darkness and were really delighted to reach our destination, in spite of few unmarked roads.
We pitched our tents at Bellsmith Springs campground around 4 AM! After a short sleep, excitement keeping us all from feeling exhausted, we set out to hike the surrounding places: Natural Arch, Fox Ridge, the springs, etc. With everyone taking little deviations off our path, Ivan's rerouting led us to a wonderful pond. With some initial hesitation, almost everyone got into the water for a fun swim, and felt thrilled by dives off the huge rocks on the brim of the pond. Returning to our tent site, in the evening we had a campfire and delicious dinner. Suzanne entertained us with her guitar talent and awesome cheesecake.
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| Lishomwa Mulongwe canoeing in the Cache Core Swamp in the Shawnee National Forest. |
Lishomwa's expertise in collecting wood for the campfire is worth mentioning. The next day we went canoeing in the Cache core swamp area. The weather was really hot. After more than an hour of canoeing in the unique swamp ecology, we reached a rest area for a relishing bite of chilled watermelon. A spectacular sight we all witnessed was fish jumping a couple of feet out of the water, and of all the people to pick from, a fish chose to land into a vegetarian-driven canoe, that of Trudy and Manjula! It was really a funny sight with Manjula looking a bit scared, and making the lost aquatic species happy by tossing it back into the water.
With a desire to cool off, we set out to Lake Glendale, where we had a good time swimming, playing volleyball, aquatic games, etc. We reached the Garden of the Gods recreation area, late in the evening to find that all the campsites were occupied. Luckily a few miles away, we found another place for shelter, which in fact was really good with big open spaces in the middle of a woody area. We had a wonderful meal and slept outside with no tents! the Milky Way shinning in the dark and contrasting brightly in the night sky—a beautiful sight.
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| Relaxing at the camp site, Shawnee National Forest. |
Next day, a few sprinkles of rain woke us up early. We went to our last spot of our
trip, the spectacular views of the Shawnee forest. We headed back to Champaign in the
afternoon and after a brief stopover for lunch at a wonderful local cafe in Harrisburg,
reached home in the evening. We all had a memorable time.
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