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.
Ping me please. We love camping...
LOL!
Didn’t know who the Minogue character was - Did a google search that yielded this enticing lead-in:
Dannii Minogue
www.danniiminogue.com/www/home/Dannii, Dannii Minogue, Danni, Dani, Danni, Dannii, Minogue, Dannii Minogue, dannii minogue, Dannii Minogue Screensavers, Dannii Minogue Pictures, ...
. . . followed by a Wikipedia entry with the usual ho hum litany of celebrity credentials, and an entry with glamor shots of some dime-a-dozen, commodity-style beauty.
I think I’d head south and risk the giant spiders, myself.
Camping is fun.
Especially since the one I went to had an open Wi-Fi signal, running water, electrical hook-up and a great shower/restroom facility, and is next to lake Michigan.
It was more of an outdoor hotel.
The author is a complete pansy.
Seems a bit sensitive, doesn’t he. Any non-white in a majority white country has been alone many (without ethnic-mates), many, many times. No doubt the same in reverse, for whites in South Africa now.
I had to look for the extremely deadly fluther/smack, but I guess “stinging” is as close as it gets.
“For many people from ethnic backgrounds, particularly Asian or Mediterranean, the connection between simple living and poverty is just too strong.”
We have that problem with some segments of society here, too. A pair of Air Jordans or a 52” flat screen means you’re successful - even when your living off the backs of others.
You can keep the sneakers and the TV - I’m pretty tickled to be part of this Great thing that God created.
We spent October camping. We camp in our Sprinter van I fitted out with a queen size bed, drawers, refrigerator, micrwave, portipotty and other good stuff. The trip covered 5800 miles through 17 states.
We wandered down the Great River Road from Lake Itaska Minnesota to the Mississippi mouth south of New Orleans. The river flows through the heart of America and the in depth experience of flyover heartland America is hard to beat.
We camp mostly in State Parks but check into an RV park once in a while to do laundry and catch up on TV news.
On topic, we saw one black woman camping with her white husband at Lake Itaska State Park. After that we saw only one more black camper, also a woman with a white husband in Mississippi at Natchez State Park.
Lest you chide us for van camping, we are back packers who have lost the urge after we turned 65
Call BS on this guy(gal) unless there just wasn’t any other “colors” that one time. We go camping a LOT and there a blacks and hispanics every single time. In fact, sometimes you can’t get a spot unless you can get in during the week (we can being retired) for the hispanics. Nice people too. Love to camp, swim & fish.
The limousine liberal pointed out that "...the connection between simple living and poverty is just too strong".
“For many, camping is the only way to afford a vacation.”
...AND in my youth, it was an excellent opportunity to get away from school work and farm work!
JC
“For many people from ethnic backgrounds, particularly Asian or Mediterranean, the connection between simple living and poverty is just too strong.”
We have that problem with some segments of society here, too. A pair of Air Jordans or a 52” flat screen means you’re successful - even when you’re living off the backs of others.
You can keep the sneakers and the TV - I’m pretty tickled to be part of this Great thing that God created.
Count me in on that. I was forced into camping because my foster family said I was going to be a Boy Scout whether I liked it or not and I hated it.
A day trip to the countryside? Fine. Riding boats? Cool! I hope to try water skiing someday.
Shivering in a tent at night while creepy-crawlies investigate my shoes and bears pillage the food supply? Count me out!
We bought our first RV because my wife said, when we took the kids "camping," she wanted "instant luxury." I've been tent camping, and while it can be fun, putting up a tent in the rain isn't my idea of a vacation.
We bought our first RV because my wife said, when we took the kids "camping," she wanted "instant luxury." I've been tent camping, and while it can be fun, putting up a tent in the rain isn't my idea of a vacation.
Nice.
My express intent when I go is to simply get as far away from people as I can.
Heading for an area that doubles in fishing and rock collecting is a plus.
This is what we call “car camping”. Sorry, but it isn’t camping. Driving your car to the mountains to set up a tent in a parking lot is silly.
Need to the tent and gear into a back pack and hike to a camp spot. That is camping.
My idea of roughing it is a 10 year old Holiday Inn.
Personally, I like a comfortable bed, room service and not having to hide behind a tree to do muh bidness. And no bugs. I don’t like bugs. Oh, and I like tv. And a cold beer. And ice. And doors. And locks. And heat and air conditioning. And a bar. I do like a bar. With good bar food.
Nope. Not gonna go camping any time soon.
“Heading for an area that doubles in fishing and rock collecting is a plus.”
Surprisingly, there are some huge huge fish in some of those itty bitty creeks and rivers way out there in middle of nowhere, because nobody ever fishes them.
Also, the desert seems to have a preponderance of rocks (everywhere) lol. Gemstones can be found if you know where to look.
And best of all, no people, no bugs, no critters, and in the unlikely event you do get rain, it is an exciting 30 minute booming spectacle in the late afternoon, which cools the day down nicely.
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