Camping - Yes or No?!

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merryone

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I'm just back from my annual festival and whilst I haven't been a big fan of camping since my childhood days when everything was done for me, no pitching and lugging, and trying to cook breakfast over a single flame - but there was something romantic about sitting round the campfire eating baked beans out of a Billy can under the stars, singing songs and sharing stories, and spending the night in a sleeping bag on top of a lilo in a tent that you couldn't swing a proverbial cat in. Now older, it tickles me to see these people who will do literally anything to achieve that home from home experience on a campsite. They'll either spend a small fortune on camping equipment, or will spend an absolute fortune for "boutique camping" where you hire a tent and get to use a proper flushing toilet - a two person bell tent with no extras costs around £250, when you add in extras such as sleeping bags, air matresses and lamps, you're talking double that amount, and the options rise and rise so much that you could probably check into a hotel for less. I must admit that I do pay the extra £40 for the posh toilets every year and it's worth every penny but even so!
The on site food vendors...don't get me wrong I know they've probably had to pay a fortune for their pitches and especially with Covid have had a tough time but the prices - It also tickles me to see these people who clearly hate camping doing/spending anything to get their home comforts, even eating a "Sunday roast" off a small polystyrene plate with a chip fork and paying £17 for the pleasure, or hugging a pitcher of Tesco prosecco that's cost them £40 + a £10 deposit for the jug - Behave yourself!!!!
Even though I'm not a fan of camping any more, I'd still prefer to recreate that rustic romance of days gone by, and not throw good money, lots of good money to try and achieve the unachieveable!
 
I've never been camping as such, but I did visit a former partner and her family who were staying in a caravan (her parents) and the partner and daughter in a tent, and I fitted a mattress in the back of my estate car and slept in that.
 
stratobuddy said:
I've never been camping as such, but I did visit a former partner and her family who were staying in a caravan (her parents) and the partner and daughter in a tent, and I fitted a mattress in the back of my estate car and slept in that.
Click to expand...
I love the snippets about your formers. It appears you don't go for a type ;)
 
merryone said:
I'm just back from my annual festival and whilst I haven't been a big fan of camping since my childhood days when everything was done for me, no pitching and lugging, and trying to cook breakfast over a single flame - *but there was something romantic about sitting round the campfire eating baked beans out of a Billy can under the stars, singing songs and sharing stories, and spending the night in a sleeping bag on top of a lilo in a tent that you couldn't swing a proverbial cat in. Now older, it tickles me to see these people who will do literally anything to achieve that home from home experience on a campsite. They'll either spend a small fortune on camping equipment, or will spend an absolute fortune for "boutique camping" where you hire a tent and get to use a proper flushing toilet - a two person bell tent with no extras costs around £250, when you add in extras such as sleeping bags, air matresses and lamps, you're talking double that amount, and the options rise and rise so much that you could probably check into a hotel for less. I must admit that I do pay the extra £40 for the posh toilets every year and it's worth every penny but even so!
The on site food vendors...don't get me wrong I know they've probably had to pay a fortune for their pitches and especially with Covid have had a tough time but the prices - It also tickles me to see these people who clearly hate camping doing/spending anything to get their home comforts, even eating a "Sunday roast" off a small polystyrene plate with a chip fork and paying £17 for the pleasure, or hugging a pitcher of Tesco prosecco that's cost them £40 + a £10 deposit for the jug - Behave yourself!!!!
Even though I'm not a fan of camping any more, I'd still prefer to recreate that rustic romance of days gone by, and not throw good money, lots of good money to try and achieve the unachieveable!
Click to expand...
Everything about the thought of camping gives me toothache. A few years ago My Mr T climbed in Yosemite, he's an experienced climber so has camped many times but that trip was different. He trained for months running over the Malvern Hills carrying a rucksack containing several bricks because the trek part of the climb meant taking supplies in a bearproof container. He had a one person tent, the lightest one on the market, so it offered no protection if he had been bitten by a rattler in the middle of the night. Obviously there aren't any toilets & a law that states NO paper products can be left by visitors. I had to switch off while he was away. Camping - NEVER.
* All I can see is Blazing Saddles!
 
I can just about cope with a camping trip or festival if the weather's good, bad weather and it's a horrendous experience, especially if you've forked out for a festival. Trying to hear your favourite bands whilst huddled under a massive rain poncho covering yourself and the chair. I know there's a lot of people who throw caution to the wind, dance in the rain and even roll around in muddy puddles - when I'm cold and wet I'm a miserable cow, especially when I know there's no chance of getting warm and dry any time soon - and don't even get me started on trying to set up/dismantle a camp when it's pi$$ing down with rain!
 
When I was a kid and between the ages of 10 to 13 I went camping every year with my friend and her parents. Her Dad was a Scout Master so everything had to be as basic as possible. A small tent with a hole in the ground was our toilet, the tents we slept in were the old fashioned heavy duty canvas ones which leaked like a sieve when it rained heavily. We didn`t stay on proper camping sites but in fields in the middle of nowhere. Our washing facilities was a plastic bowl with about 2 inches of water in it from the small camping kettle. Everything we ate was cooked in one pan due to the size of the tiny camping stove so it was stew, stew and more stew, tinned stew at that. We had to tramp to a nearby farm yard and fill large plastic containers with water and the weather was usually so bad you could never dry anything so spent the week in damp clothes and damp sleeping bags. I am harking back to the early 60`s so there was none of your modern fabrics or camping equipment.
When I returned home my Mum literally threw me in the bath and everything else was washed within an inch of its life. After 3 years of spending a week camping with my friend and her parents, I literally begged my Mum not to send me again. My friend had polio as a child and she had a deformed leg and foot and had to wear special built up shoes plus she struggled to walk. I was sent with her because her parents wanted "company" for her during their miserable errr I mean annual camping holiday. Her Dad spent many weekends camping with his scout troop plus their annual scout week long camp so he obviously thought camping was the only holiday worth considering for his wife and daughter.
It put me off for life and even with all of todays mod cons, you won`t get me spending even one night under canvas ever again.
 
Vienna said:
When I was a kid and between the ages of 10 to 13 I went camping every year with my friend and her parents. Her Dad was a Scout Master so everything had to be as basic as possible. A small tent with a hole in the ground was our toilet, the tents we slept in were the old fashioned heavy duty canvas ones which leaked like a sieve when it rained heavily. We didn`t stay on proper camping sites but in fields in the middle of nowhere. Our washing facilities was a plastic bowl with about 2 inches of water in it from the small camping kettle. Everything we ate was cooked in one pan due to the size of the tiny camping stove so it was stew, stew and more stew, tinned stew at that. We had to tramp to a nearby farm yard and fill large plastic containers with water and the weather was usually so bad you could never dry anything so spent the week in damp clothes and damp sleeping bags. I am harking back to the early 60`s so there was none of your modern fabrics or camping equipment.
When I returned home my Mum literally threw me in the bath and everything else was washed within an inch of its life. After 3 years of spending a week camping with my friend and her parents, I literally begged my Mum not to send me again. My friend had polio as a child and she had a deformed leg and foot and had to wear special built up shoes plus she struggled to walk. I was sent with her because her parents wanted "company" for her during their miserable errr I mean annual camping holiday. Her Dad spent many weekends camping with his scout troop plus their annual scout week long camp so he obviously thought camping was the only holiday worth considering for his wife and daughter.
It put me off for life and even with all of todays mod cons, you won`t get me spending even one night under canvas ever again.
Click to expand...
You have a kind & beautiful soul Vienna. However, her father sounds incredibly selfish & I hope he spends eternity being forced to do something he hates.
 
Twilight said:
You have a kind & beautiful soul Vienna. However, her father sounds incredibly selfish & I hope he spends eternity being forced to do something he hates.
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He`s long gone now T, he passed away in the 1980`s but if Heaven has latrines then maybe he`s digging them or filling them in. His daughter, my friend, never knew anything different from camping as their annual holiday but when we both became adults and we both married but she could never have children, neither of us ever went camping again. Sadly I lost touch with her after I moved towns and after my parents had both passed away so I`ve no idea how life has treated her since then or whether she`s still alive. Her health was always poor and she was a year or two older than me so will now be around 70.
 
For me, camping as a child/teenager, great - as somebody else does all the hard work, when you get older it's down to you to do your fare share of humping equipment from A to B, erecting the tent, doing the cooking. The trips from the car to the pitch were arduous and there's the small matter of putting up the tent, gazebos and all the other gubbins. Ready pitched glamping options are very tempting, but the prices are fecking ludicrous. I enjoy it if the weather's good, but it is too much hard work!
 
I do stay with rellies, but it is just me, not a whole family. I think if it was a family thing, it might be safer to stay independently and get together.
 
We took our children camping many times as it was th3 only way we could afford a holiday. Two of our daughters took their children and now they are taking their kids. Sometimes they travel less than 20 miles from home but the kids love it. Our next door neighbours are away camping this week. Very popular these days.
 
I think my love of camping also faded with the fact I only do it for festivals nowadays, which are notorious for bad weather, mud, overinflated prices. I think maybe I might still enjoy a few days on a smaller, well organised camping site. There used to be a brilliant one local to me that had proper parking facilities close by, so you didn't to lug all your stuff through fields, you were given a pitch number, and facilities included a large toilet/shower block with hot and cold running water and proper toilets, a club house that also had toilets. You could play pool, table tennis, darts etc, it had a jukebox and they served full English breakfasts in the morning and other snacks and refreshments throughout the day. Behind the clubhouse was a well stocked camping shop where you could buy groceries, camping equipment and various other things. I stayed there a couple of times with mates back in the day and we had an absolute blast!
 
I have had a few happy caravan holidays, but I would never go camping, I hate all creepy crawlies...:eek::eek:
 

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