Posted on 01/08/2012 1:01:25 PM PST by SJackson
I have just returned from a trip where I lay for hours prone on a thin strip of air with only polystyrene separating my strained back from the ground below. The rain belted down all night and its thud upon the tent sounded like a stream of thunder. I pondered whether nature was overrated while several kookaburras shrieked in unison and dragged me in a kind of aural violence from my first period of restful sleep at 5am.
Welcome to the joys of camping.
According to Monash University academic Bill Garner, camping is essential to the Australian experience. From Sydney Cove to the goldfields, the overland telegraph to the Snowy Mountains scheme, camping has been instrumental to almost every phase of our historical development, he says.
Advertisement: Story continues below It was supposed to be one of those dowdy pastimes that became perversely fashionable for a moment, only to become just as unfashionable again once everybody tried it and found out what it actually entailed.
Yet, according to industry insiders, camping is experiencing a boom, partly due to the lacklustre economy and an aversion to extravagance and environmental unfriendliness.
''Glamping''
sleeping in a luxuriously appointed tent someone else has put up for you - is increasingly seen as an acceptable, if not preferable, alternative to a bed-and-breakfast booking.
In our high-tech world, a striving towards gadget-free simplicity and proximity to nature acquires a greater dimension. This may be more apparent in Australia, where our national identity is partly tied to the rugged environment.
But while it has shifted from practical necessity to leisure activity in the past 50 years, there are large sections of Australia that would never consider camping as an idyllic way to spend their holidays - particularly those from ethnic communities.
As I surveyed my surroundings in a coastal caravan park, I was struck that I was the only non-white person among hundreds of gleeful holidaymakers. For many people from ethnic backgrounds, particularly Asian or Mediterranean, the connection between simple living and poverty is just too strong.
Any attempt to brag about my view of green pastures and scenic lakes to my parents is met by comparisons with their own rise from Bangladeshi villages.
In his popular blog "Stuff White People Like", Charles Lander writes: "Once in the camp area, white people will walk around for a while, set up a tent, have a horrible night of sleep, walk around some more. Then they get in the car and go home."
While his blog is often a satire of the bourgeois middle class - our equivalent of the chardonnay socialist - camping arguably unites the white working class and the white middle class in one of their few shared activities, even if they are unlikely to be sharing the same tent.
The late Oxford-based political philosopher G. A. Cohen even used camping as an analogy for why socialism is still the ideal way to organise society.
He described an imaginary camping trip made by several different families, and argued that the trip proceeded according to two principles - "an egalitarian principle" and "a principle of community" - that together captured the socialist vision of a just society.
Nonetheless, after lying awake listening to the nocturnal sounds of nature, I became grateful for our capitalist ability to generate wealth and modern goods and services, including mass production of pharmaceuticals, when I prescribed myself sleeping tablets the following morning.
The prospect of camping becoming a unifying, cultural experience for all Australians remains a possibility, with latter generations of immigrants far more likely to consider it a viable leisure activity.
In fact, in an age where we lack outlets for transcendence, camping has the potential to become the new Buddhism. It encourages us to loosen our attachment to worldly goods, except for expensive outdoor equipment usually transported to a site in a four-wheel-drive. It encourages extended contemplation free from the constant distractions of hectic, modern life.
And finally, it allows for the priceless luxury of simplicity and enjoyment of pure family time, well worth the complexity of preparation required. As Bill Garner put it in an attempt to sell the virtues of this unique leisure activity, "You do just spend a lot of time sitting."
Tanveer Ahmed is a psychiatrist and Herald columnist.
Oh boy!
so...
You must have had a run in with the laser equipped sharks?
Only for CAMPING; I hope!
AMEN and Amen!!!
(Southwestern Utah beFORE the Escalate thingy of Bill Clinton put ADA approved potties in every remote canyon.)
I give you Liberia:
And Libya:
And a few from Somalia:
LOL!
I sort of put laser equipped sharks and women like that in the same category. Had run-ins with both.
I’ll take the more obvious, less seductive predators any day.
I spent some camping time in OZ about three decades ago, racing a solar powered vehicle from Darwin to Adelaide, down the Stewart highway.
Some of the crew had heavily screened and zippered tents. I had better sense than to sleep on the ground with the bull ants, spiders and snakes. I slept wrapped in my ground cloth and mummy bag, eight feet off the ground on top of the trailer that we transported the racer in.
Central Australia, from just south of Ti Tree Roadhouse to Coober Pedy has the most beautiful night sky I have ever seen.
We got a good deal on ours in 2008. It’s a 29 ft one with a slide but I wish to heck we’d have gotten one with a slide at the bed. It makes it much easier to get around and make the bed up. Also IF you like to watch television as we do at night or when it is raining and we cant’ get out to go fish etc and think of getting a satellite (since a lot of times you are too far from a city to get reception) what we did and what a lot of others did is to use your box from home (we have directv) and get the outside dish. If you get the Directv RV thing, it costs you about $40 (?) a month but nothing extra using a box from home.
We have a 1 ton Dodge dually to pull it but we only have it because he haul our longhorn cattle and had it before we got the TT. A regular 1/2 ton would do it. We also have a camper shell on the truck to haul along other “crap” like chairs little bbq pit etc and not get it rained on OR stolen off the back. Before we got the TT, we had purchased a cargo trailer to haul around all our camping stuff. Had it chock full from our 44 years of marriage. Now what didnt’ fit in the TT, we just put in the truck back. We did buy one of those outdoor kitchen thingies so that when hubby cooks he has a place to put the little bbq pit (the ones at parks are pretty nasty usually) and it holds the charcoal, starter and other stuff. The link below is the first year we got it. Was at Bull Shoals Lake in Ark/Mo. You can see the outdoor kitchen thing AND the three mooshies (yorkies) We got the dog fences to corral them while we sit outside. We actually bought the TT so we can haul them when we go visit people and not have to stress over the dogs being in their home.
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v629/gopheraj/JUly%202008%20camping%20at%20Bull%20Shoals/
You said primitive and I assume that means back packing. If you have never been, I suggest coming east to Grayson Highlands State Park. The park has camping but the attraction is the adjacent Mt Rogers National recreation Area. It is the site of a major battle in LBJ's war on poverty. The area was claimed as a National recreation area and changed from National forest to the new designation.
Cultural reference..... Tom Dooley was hung in Grayson county
Within the boundries beginning at Grayson highlands are miles of trails over and around the Mt Rogers area, enough for three or four days and certainly a weekend.
Much, in fact most of the hiking is over balds. The views are spectacular, rivaled only by the Roan Complex further south. The Appalachian trail traverses the area. There are numerous side trails so you can make a big loop out of the State park and bach without backtracking.
In late June, the displays of Catawba Rhodendron and Flame Azelea are beyond description. there are literally hundreds of acres in bloom. In late August the are many places where blueberries grow on bushes ten or twelve feet high. We camped on the mountain top accessible by a dirt road on Labor Day for several years running and the menu was pancakes with fresh blueberries and blueberry syrup.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Rogers_National_Recreation_Area
Wow, nice! Thanks for sharing. We won’t be getting one that big, although it would be great to have one like that. Love the setup, was thinking I would get the kitchen, too, just to make it easier. Thanks for the idea about the fencing, hadn’t seen it set up like that before. Would be great for us to corral our Bichon (lost our poodle a year ago this month to diabetes). They both LOVE to camp and followed me around like shadows, so a fence like yours would be awesome so as we go in and out and around the TT the Bichon could follow along with me.
Indeed. Grayson Highlands is one of my favorite places. Hiking abounds...
The Rhodendrons and Azelea’s are phenomenal. Along with the wild ponies.
Another plus is the hot water and showers availble at the campsites.
We thought it was big but turns out it’s not that big LOL Wish we’d have gotten the rear bunk option. That way the grandkids could have their own sleeping area and not on the couch/table. We like the kitchen thingy Got it from www.Sportsmansguide.com. Was the best price, but it sure beats cooking inside when it’s hot and you dont’ want to heat up the TT. We kept the Coleman stoves to cook on the kitchen thing and also have a gas cooker (like a turkey fryer) for heavy cooking like shrimp boiling.
When you get the fencing, google and see what best price you can get. Sometimes you can get a good deal off of Ebay.
Definitely going for a bunk set up with whichever TT we get... want the extra room for sleeping and also for storing stuff during the day. Can’t wait to get a TT and get our gear out of the zillions of bins in the garage. :)
Was wondering if you have a gate on the fence to get in and out or do you just step over it?
There is a little gate on one of them but it’s to let the dogs in & out which we never do since they are pretty dumb and wont’ go out unless we pick them up :/ It’s just 24 inches high so we just step over. We do have them connected with those snap connectors like you see on horse lead ropes and when my dad goes along or the grandkids are there, we just un-snap them on a side (taking care to position the snap sides where we want them.
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