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.
You forgot poisonous octopi, drop bears, and sea snakes.
True, but my vehicle has no top and no doors, and the windshield is usually down. There is no escape from weather. And when you do a 7 day cross the state 4 wheeling trip, you are in the elements all day and all night, and I can easily do it without seeing another person the whole time. I do not do the campground thing. But I like both backpacking, and doing it with the cruiser...but one thing I like about the cruiser is you can cover much more ground, and travel through several different kinds of completely different terrain where you are unsure you are still on the same planet all in the same day
Win.
Altho I’m young enough to roll out a bag under my jeep now.. When I’m that age, I hope to still be that spartan.
“True, but the right motorhome can make for a thrilling holiday. “
Yes, you could always spend $20,000 to $40,000 on a fancy motor home.
Then your “camping” trip is driving five or six hours — stopping to fill up the tank with $4 a gallon gas when needed — to arrive at a nice asphalt parking lot for a relaxing weekend of getting to know the people in lot 47 who just love their miniature Schnauzer.
LOL!
tis better to be thought a whiny wussazz in silence, than open your mouth and remove all doubt...
Relative to a real rv, my van is spartan.
We still have the backpack mentality and travel pretty light.
But we travel........ long distances and see lots of country
Yes, I know all of that - and agree. My comment was tongue-in-cheek... did you look at the linked video?
“Yes, I know all of that - and agree. My comment was tongue-in-cheek... did you look at the linked video?”
Of course. Funny video. Laughed at that one.
The RV culture seems like such a waste. Some people dream of hitting the road with their RV to “camp” along the way. OK. But, for the same price of buying the thing, they could fly to cool places, rent a car and stay in hotels for a vacation.
Does you wife go with you?
There’s a wonderful camping commercial out recently (first started seeing it this weekend) where a young couple is going through the “girl is having everything go wrong and probably hates it” routine, as they get in the tent the guy finds her her favorite movie on a wireless notebook.
And she says “I like camping”, it’s very well done.
Great commercial.
“Does you wife go with you?”
My wife stopped going with me after one trip in the North Cascades a few years ago. We woke up about 2 AM and heard a weird animal sound, sort of like a nasal grunting sound repeating over and over. Then we realized it was walking a few feet from the tent. Smelled terrible.
I had my hatchet in my hand and whistles in my mouth. She completely freaked out.
The animal (must have been a badger) went away, and I put some big logs on the fire. Tough night sleeping.
After that, I recruited buddies to hike with.
Had a trip planned for the Pasayten Wilderness with three college students last August, but a few days before the trip we discovered that the snow was still covering the trail. We had a really heavy snow last year. So, we had to put it off.
Some of my best vacation memories was of camping at Hermit Island, Small Point on the coast of Maine where generation after generation go each year.
Saw the title and won’t even read the story.
My family used to do something similar on the back roads in Oregon in the ‘60’s - early ‘70’s, before the nannies started closing all the little forest service campgrounds.
We couldn’t just go across the desert like you, tho, we had to make at least one stop during the day to go fishing. Didn’t have the money. It was catch fish or go hungry.
Funny thing. After we no longer needed to fish to eat, I lost my taste for the sport.
My parents - God love 'em, though camping was fun. I remember fondly the time tent poles were left home and Dad says, 'no problem, we can cut down some small trees'. Cutting the trees was only the beginning ...So, I'm with you NYTexan, there was too much "damn nature out there!" - and most of it easily came in our messed-up falling down tent...
There you have it. Wives are largely but not entirely the reason for the growth of Heavy Duty RVing. Many wives and some men feel uncomfortable in less than a big RV.
My wife was a backpacker and knows how to both enjoy the out of doors and to live well with less than at home. Our van is roomy and comfortable, gets good milage. We sleep in the van but most of our living is outside.
In many camp sites however, the wife is seldom seen outside. She lives on the road like she lives at home....... indoors
I miss hiking and last summer bought a kayak. It allows me to access wild places with no up hill.
Away from the power grid at over 9,000 ft. here (couple states west of you) building special utilities—water, etc.—before house). We’ve been iced in with winter winds over 100 mph, and other nights, temps below -30 so far. Modified travel trailer instead of tent, though. It’s a good place to start a little yak ranch.
The opposite experience here... we’re avid campers (well love to camp but it’s been sporadic lately) and I clicked on this post because I’ve always wondered why there always seemed to not be many blacks camping. I was wondering if it was a cultural thing- something they just didn’t have experience doing? Hmmm...
“Wives are largely but not entirely the reason for the growth of Heavy Duty RVing.”
OK, so your argument is that it pleases your wive to have an RV. That makes sense.
Actually what we do is fly to a spot, stay at a hotel or condo and go day hiking. Best of both worlds.
We flew down to Palm Springs before Christmas, rented a condo and hiked in the palm forests. Really nice trip. Very little driving and for a reasonable price compared to buying motorized vehicles.
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