It all seemed to change a few years ago, during the northern summer of 2169 AD. Until then I don't think I ever had a care or a worry, except for the usual things for a kid on Mars, you know, solar flare warnings, dust storms and decompression alert. How things would change. When I go back and try to recall that year, there is a series of dramatic events that all seemed to happen all at once. All jumbled up in my memory and in various ways they all seem connected.

We were going to be off for the holidays and Dad wanted to take us 'camping' somewhere. He said we could ask friends to come with us. I thought I would ask my friend, Ben. He was a year older than me and he had a brother, They were pretty fresh from from Earth, and hadn't seen much of the outback, so it seemed. Dad was planning to take all of us camping up to the rim of Olympus Mons. It wasn't that far, and help wouldn't be too far away should anything go wrong. So it seemed a good place to take some 'inexperienced' Martians. Tom asked his friend

It was during this time that the political problems were starting to worsen. The UNMA was having trouble exercising control over the various Martian groups as well the Transnationals; who were aggressively trying to carve out a bit of Mars for themselves. And we Martians, couldn't decide what we wanted. The only thing the Martian Political groups agreed on was they didn't want to be told what to do by Earth. I really didn't pay much attention to the politics, sol nothing could have been further from our minds at the start of that beautiful northern summer.

Dad had a long range Rover and we could make it self sufficient for upto 8 people for a couple of weeks. The crater was a popular holiday spot, as it was very beautiful and there was a place you could get air and water. It was only 250km to the rim, basically about a days drive. The next day we had to pack the Rover. 8 was a pretty tight fit in the Rover, but we managed. The supplies were XXXXXXXXX And we also had a tent, one of the neat self sufficient style, built in solar panels and it's own Atmosphere Regenerator. As you can imagine, we were very excited and had trouble going to sleep that night.

In the morning we got up at dawn and finished getting ready. Mum gave us all a kiss before we piled into the Rover. I was sitting up the front with Dad and behind were the boys. Mum spent a minute talking to dad, then she got out of the garage. Dad made a final check on the cabin pressurization, then he opened the garage door. A bit of junk blew out as the garage depressurized. The Rover jerked forward. We were off!

The first part of the route was on the Northern Highway so we made good time. The Northern Highway curved to northwest around the base of the Mons. Other than a few big freight trucks there wasn't much traffic about. Soon we came to a gentle fog, which often surrounds the base of Olympus Mons. It wasn't very thick and it glowed a pinky color in the morning sun. After a couple of hours driving on the Northern Highway we had to turn off onto a small track, known as the Olympian Way. This would take us up the gentle slope of Olympus Mons, formed from layers upon layers of lava.
As he turned off, Dad said to no one in particular, "Here we go, up the mountain, the mightiest mountain in the solar system".
"What mountain"? said Ben looking puzzled. "I don't see any mountain".
One of the funny things about Olympus Mons is that it is so big you can never actually see it properly from the ground. There is no vantage point that allows you to see it's shape properly. You never get that Mount Fuji look like on Earth. If you are at a distance it will recede into the haze and over the horizon, on Mars the horizon is much closer because the curvature is greater. If you are close to it, you will see either high cliffs or a gentle slope. Very disappointing for the tourists. You need to view it from the air or space to see it in it's entirety, this never disappoints the tourists.
?add picture from the air
We needed to drive for another few hours to get to the rim. The XXXXXXX
"OK, time for 10 green bottle" I said.
Ten green bottles hanging on the wall .......
We got through it twice before Dad said "That's enough".
It wasn't long before we got to our campsite. It was a flattish area about 500m from the rim. We wanted to see it straight away so Dad let us suit up to go and look. We ran over to the rim of the caldera and we were met by the most magnificent sight.
"Wow"
 The rim stretched out before us, disappearing into wispy blue clouds on the horizon. It's about 70 km across so there is no way you can see the other side. The cliff went straight down, about 3 km at this point. Ben went over and craned his neck over the edge.
"Thats XXXXXXXXXX
The actual floor is uneven. In some places it plunged up to 10 km below the rim. The caldera is not a classic, round shape as it is actually a conglomeration of a few eruptions, forming 4 major calderas superimposed on another. After the eruptions varying degrees of subsidence occured, dropping the floor.
We went back to the Rover and Dad had already inflated the 'tent' and was checking the atmosphere.
Dads voice came over the radio, "Everything's OK. The pressures good and the gases OK. Come in through the tents airlock."
We went in and found Dad had already taken off his helmet, he turned to us and asked "How was it?"
"fantastic"
"Unpack the Rover and let's set up. Then I will make some dinner. I want to see the sunset after dinner".