FAMILY CAMPING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23110, 9 February 1937, Page 14

FAMILY CAMPING

Is it possible to take a young family camping? The best answer is to see exactly what this entails. The first step is to choose ones site. This is not difficult, although it is wise to book it beforehand. The essentials are a well-sheltered but fairly high field, and a good water supp.lv not too far distant—water is surprisingly heavy! This can usually be booked at about ten shillings a week, though very often the farmer refuses to take any payment, especially if he has been supplying the camp with milk, eggs, butter, vegetables, etc. If you do not know of a suitable site, addresses can be obtained through the advertisement columns of a camping magazine or some such organisation as the Camping Club. The next, and very important, question is what equipment is necessary? This must, of course, depend on the size of the party. A second-hand bell tent can be obtained for about £3, or hired by the week. But for a small party it would probably be more convenient to have two ridge tents, say one to sleep three or four, and another to sleep two. These can be bought very cheaply second-hand, and are not as bulky to carry, or as difficult and heavy to pitch as bell tents. You will be wise to take special cooking utensils to camp with you, for they are bound to get very dirty on the outside, and camp cooking pots are of a more convenient shape for packing and for standing on a camp fire than the ordinary kitchen saucepan.

For a camp of up to six or seven a "nest of billies” serves admirably; this consists of three saucepans which fit inside each other, the lids, when necessary, serving as frying pans. For a small party a “ canteen ” is sufficient, this being a frying pan, saucepan, and spare plate which fit into each other, and for a really large camp a “ dixie ’ is a great asset, as this enables a quantity of water or food to be cooked easily. A canteen costs about three shillings, a nest of billies and a dixie about eight shillings each. In addition to these cooking pots, you will need a tin mug, a plate, a knife, fork, and spoon each, one or two buckets (canvas ones cost about half a crown each and- are easily packed), a small washing bowl, a tinopener, carving knife, etc. A camp fire is by no means as difficult to light and cook on as it sounds. A small trench should be dug in the direction of the prevailing wind, and iron bars across this, or a couple of bricks on either side serve as a stand for billies. Wood can usu*ally be collected near by, and must be kept dry from rain and dew by a groundsheet or old waterproof. The alternative, of course, it to take a Primus stove, but this adds to the total cost of the equipment and the amount to be carried. Any camper, too, will tell of the joy of sitting round the camp fire at night, toasting one’s feet before going to bed, yarning or singing, with the stars twinkling overhead —but it is difficult to imagine the same thrill round a Primus! The next important thing to think of is beds, and here you have two alternatives: 1. The luxury of proper camp beds. 2. A palliasse or sack, filled with hay or straw.

Whether sleeping on a camp bed or a palliasse, by far the most comfortable way of making a bed is in the form of a sleeping bag. A good rule in camp is to have as much, or more under one than on top, and one always needs at least one more blanket than on one’s bed at home. Three blankets is a very usual allowance for a summer camp. If these are folded double, longways, inside each other, so that the openings come at alternate sides, and are pinned up both sides and at the bottom with bfanket pins (price a halfpenny each from any camp store), this makes a very warm and comfortable bed, and one that is not easily disarranged. One always sleeps, of course, on a ground sheet, but the most usual thing is to have a ground sheet that covers the whole of the floor of the tent. Sanitation is an important point in camp. A grease pit should be dug in which all the camp refuse is thrown, this being filled in again after waids. A trench must also be dug for the latrine. Latrine screens can be bought ready made, and they consist simply of six feet wide hessian, attached to four poles, supported by guy lines as with a tent. A little chloride of lime is an excellent disinfectant, and a Tate’s sugar box will serve as a seat.

Everyone who has been to camp agrees that there is no holiday which is quite so free and invigorating—and cheap!—An English exchange.