CARAVANNING

Otago Witness, Issue 3015, 27 December 1911, Page 89

CARAVANNING

By A. J. Heighway.

THE,SIMPLE LIFE DE LUXE. A MAGICAL "KIA ORA."

In cycling over 2000 miles through England and Scotland in a glorious summer time it would be difficult to say how many splendid caravan turnouts _ were passed. This caravanning, an imitation of the life of the gipsy, has become almost the latest rage of society. For many long years a few devotees followed in a quiet way the charming- life led by the wandering gipsy (without, of course, emulating either his vice or his dirt), and then at last, in one sudden swoop, "society" descended upon the pastime and claimed it as one of its joys. The result is that the simple life is now led in most luxuriant fashion. Noble lords and delicate ladies brave the elements iin caravans only a. little less substantial than an ordinary two-roomed cottage; they undertake the risks of impromptu housekeeping with an elaborate supplementary kitchen j they subsist upon simple country food, eked out by patent dietaries and cannied commodities, and they get "close to Nature," in as sumptuously fitted and splendidly-decorated an erection as the highest skill of a mechanical and artificial age will allow. AN ATTRACTIVE LIFE. Yet while some few of the smarter set live the simple life in a fashion inviting the employment of sarcasm, the great majority of the devotees of caravanning follow out the idea in a fashion at once rational and attractive. I have seen caravans the interior of which were resplendent with silver mountings and silver ware, gaudy with noble mirrors and bright with the scintillating points of a sideboard of cut glass; I have, on the other hand, seen caravans which told one that the owners really did lead the simple life simply. And it is this latter class that really deserves attention. The luxuriant extremists are in the minority, and'soon, beyond all doubt, will leave a pastime with which they can have no genuine sympathy. But with the real enthusiast the case is different. He follows the life because it possesses for him undoubted attractiveness, as you will no doubt admit once you have realised in some measure what the life is that he enjoys. Imagine, then, two congenial spirits 'equipped with a neat and serviceable caravan—a vehicle that one horse may draw over average country, and two suffice to pull in hilly localities. In general this will hold two or three adjustable bunks, though, while the weather is fine, the men wSI prefer to pitch the light bent carried for l "that Object/"-and sleep outside. Nothing . more than bare neces.sities may be taken, though if be specially desired there is always room for a little extension in this" direction. A light table- inside the caravan converts it into a" comfortable oosy corner on wet days, where smoking, reading, writing,anjd card-playing may be indulged in. Colonials as a whole are too familiar with the equipment necessary for camping out to make any recapitulation of such details desirable, and therefore you will please imagine the party ready for rambling. TOURING BY CARAVAN.

Fortunately for the success of this ?astime England, Scotland, Wales, and reland offer a perplexing .multiplicity of routes and spots suitable for enjoying camping. Right from Land's Enjd to away north of Aberdeen one was continually coming across caravans and camping parties, either settled or on the road. And such divinely beautiful spots they can choose, too. On roadside or on common, in field or in wood, by some prattling stream or by the shore of a Scottish loch—wherever they were settled they formed ideal pictures of enjoyable holidaying. An ordinary day's march may be anything from 10 to 25 miles. No restriction for time —move when you like, stop when you like, ramble where you like, or recline in your hammock as long as you like. It is this delightful freedom that induces popularity. The archaeologist has the opportunity of visiting all local antiquities and searching for the details of local historical gossip; the botanist is able to wander forth in search of rare plants, and the geologist can study the rocks and strata of the {district, while the artist can sketch and paint to his heart's content the magnificent scenery that everywhere will be unfolded to him.

HOSPITABLE WANDERERS. In the latter part of my touring one or two instances occurred which • showed the hospitable feeling induced in holidaymaker© by this caravan mod© of life. It was in the bronze and purple of a glorious Scottish twilight that I was cycling steadily down the splendid road of the valley of the Royal Deaside. A gentle slope, still air, superb cloud colouring by the sinking sun, the mingled fragrant essence of pine and fir, the rippling music of the shallow Dee—what more oould one want for the cup of happiness ? The very next turn of the winding road supplied the answer. There under the Sines was drawn up a caravan. It wais anked by two bell-tents and fronted by a dancing fire, round which sat a merry group, laughing and chatting.The hum of my wheel on the well-laid road reacKsd their ears, and their talk stopped, and a cheery voice called "Hallo" ' as I span past. " Kia Ora" was the response I flung over my_ shoulder, but one might have thought it was a magic charm.

"Hallo, there! Stop, New Zealand ! Come .here," came hurtling. after. It was plainly a case of brakes in a hurry, ■ A young fellow, met me as I walked back to the group. " Excuse fne stopping you," he said, " but i happen to have a prpther la NMv Zealand, and! thought I'd 'like to speak

to you. his name, and We been at Taranaki. Have you met him?'' I was sorry to have to confers that I hadn't, and to explain that Taranaki was over 600 miles from where I had b©en<i

"Never mind," he said, "come and have a yarn and tell us all about New Zealand. One of my friends hene is) thinking of going out." And so it came about that in two minutes I formed one of a group of 11 seated round that fire. There were six young ladies and four young men in the caravan party, anjd a right merry crowd they were. The young ladies included some school teachers, and the young men found their occupations ranging from that of the law to the counting-house:, while one was a medical student. So there we sat in the luminous darkness, and you need not be surprised to learn that the short Scottish night slipped away so swiftly that it was within an hour of dawn ere the ladies climbed into, their caravan and the men settled down in their tents. Of course we didn't go to sleep even then. Men never |do. They like to gossip in the morning hours, and I rather think; as a'result of that occasion, New Zealand will have another young Scottish immigrant shortly. In the morning, after one of the finest a! fresco meals possible to imagine, a comparison of our plans showed that it would be possible to meet again a couple of nights later. On that occasion the party had undertaken to give a concert m a neighbouring village. Needless to say New Zealand was represented, and tpok a good hand in leading the applause. Then our ways parted definitely—perhaps for ever. But it will be a year or two before. I forget that Highland caravan party! In one or two other cases also caravan groups in secluded, out-of-the-way corners—such as one finds par excellence in Scotland —displayed some interest in and kindness" to, a solitary bare-headed cyclist. THE LUXURIANT LiFE. It may be a little paradoxical to say that even under the simplest conditions a caravanning life, is a luxuriant life. Robert Louis Stevenson, who,, in his " Through the. Cevennes with a ,I)onkey," records his own. caravanning Experiences under somewhat different conditions, once pointed out that " reai life-consisted not in mere ,existence, but in the enjoyment of health." With the' addition of the adage that " real wealth consists not lathe multiplicity of our possessions but m the fewness of our wants," a philosophical note may be given to contemplation of the life of the caravan. It is a rich life —• rich with fragrant memories, rich with splendid scenes, rich with pleasurable moments and days, rich with healthful growth, rich with quiet intellectual peace and expansion. In short, the real simple life de luxe is undoubtedly the life of the. caravan.