"Countryside Camping" Said the old wodden board, and "Be who you were meant to be!" in a smaller font beneath it.
"See Ryan, it's really there!" Bruce said excitedly. It was true, I had my doubts about the place. Ever since my coworker and childhood friend Bruce heard the story of a very remote, deserted and half-forgotten camping site far off the civilization, he was nagging me to go there with him.
Usually, I was not much into camping, but after I had a very bad breakup with my, well, ex-girlfriend recently, the thought of getting away from all of that had sounded better and better.
I looked at Bruce, who looked like he was gonna break in two from the heavy backpack he was carrying. Bruce worked in accounting and looked every bit like it: Glasses, incredibly thin, not a single muscle on his frame.
I on the other hand was what I consider normally built and therefore carrying the heavier backpack.
I worked up a smile and said "Yeah. apparently you were right." Perhaps two weeks with noone around but my buddy were not the worst idea. Breaking up with my ex-girlfriend has been very painful and I knew that Bruce had been in a similiar situation a few years ago, when his then-fiance had apparently gotten enough from him.
The campsite itself was a bit of a letdown. Okay, what did I expect from a deserted place like this, but I admit, when we explored the place I would have probably turned around had it not been for Bruce's positive attitude:
There was a small house once containing the sanitary equipment of the campsite. The door was not locked, but that was all to the bright side. Neither water nor electricity were working and most of the equipment had been removed, leaving only old pipes sticking out of the cracked tiled wall or floor here and there.
The outside was in a better shape: Most of the grassland was overgrown with weeds and thistles, but there was actually a rather nice spot of shorter grass, lined with wild flowers where we decided to make camp. I even discovered a small stream nearby which meant we could drink and wash ourselves. Both a huge plus, if you ask me.
Bruce was completly exhausted by the hike here, which meant I had to set up our tent more or less all by myself. I didn't really mind though - keeping busy meant I had less time to focus on my ex, which I usually tended to after work. Normally I am a rather cheerful person, but if you met me then, I must have seemed really depressed. After everything was done, I had no energy left either and just crawled in my sleeping bag.