Go Camping for Easter

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 375, 17 March 1932, Page 7

Go Camping for Easter

A Carefree, Healthy and Inexpensive Hobby

the rain will extinguish it, and if h lights one in the shelter of the ten ■ he may be smoked out. Without musi he will miss much of the enjoy men . of the novel surroundings, and, last but by no means least, if his ten [ should leak he will be exposed to pro , longed misery. It is of first importance, therefore ; to have a reliable make of tent, and l such essentials of camping furniture ■ as folding stretchers, an oil stove, and ; folding table and stools. This latter , item is particularly worth while, as , nothing contributes more to the com* , fort of camping than the ability to eat , one’s food from a table instead of l endeavouring, by impossible contortions, to dine from the ground. I Fiom that point all the little extras that ? re added elevate the camper’s i condition from sheer comfort to lux- ; ury—and the more luxuriously he t travels, within reason, the more suc- ; cessful the expedition should be. i There was a time when an attempt

''£HIS will be a car camping Easter. Already those motorists—and their names are legion—who have tasted of the delights of roaming the Great Outdoors unfettered by time or distance, with all the comforts of home packed in portable form on the rear carrier, are making their preparations. Even a burst of stormy weather has no terrors for the properly-equipped camper. Let it pour, and he merely remains in the dry comfort of his weatherproof and roomy canvas home, cooks his meals on the patent oil stove, cranks up his portable gramophone, and smoking the pipe of perfect peace, gazes out upon the wetly-refreshing wilderness. But woe to the inefficiently-equipped camper overtaken by such a deluge Without the essential comfort of a folding stretcher he may find the ground damp and uninviting, without an oil stove the task of cooking j-; appalling—if he lights a fire outside

to take along all the gear and refinements of the present-day camper would have swamped the car, broken the springs, and occupied the whole holiday in the .setting up and pulling down of the camp. To-day, however, camping equipment has been so perfected that every ilem is of maximum lightness, folds ii.to the smallest space, and is easily adjusted for use. Thus even to set up one of ”*the largest auto tents is no more than a one-man job and occupies a matter of minutes only. No longer docs the camper, arrived at the scene of his camp, rush round with an axe felling young trees in search of tent poles and pegs. Nor does he any longer require the services of a small crew to haul and heave on guy ropes and bobstays. He now calmly takes his telescopic tent poles from a danvas bag, spreads his tent in position and leisurely proceeds to fit the whole thing together. , Dawn is the ideal time to set out

upon a camping tour. The last item of equipment and the last member of the family having been packed aboard the faithful bus as the first rays of the rising sun gild the roofs of the stillslumbering city, the expedition sets out with gay abandon, and, the roads being practically clear at this early hour, is soon roaring magnificently away into the wilderness. The importance of a suitable and reliable car on a camping tour, is, of course, too obvious to require emphasis. Not only does one require a car that is comfortable and reliable, however, but also one that will not continually haunt the owner with fears of ruin through excessive running costs. One of the most important considerations, after the car, is that of selecting a reliable brand of petrol and oil. In the modern camper’s outfit everything is made to open and shut—even down to the humble frying pan, the handle of which folds neatly inside the utensil.

Having next morn risen from his comfortable folding stretcher complete with portable mattress, washed in his folding canvas wash basin set up on folding legs and filled from a nearby stream with the aid of a folding canvas bucket, cooked an appetising breakfast of freshly-caught fish in his folding frying pan over his portable oil stove, eaten it from the dishes from

his portable picnic hamper set out on his folding table, the family man may place a folding deck chair under a shady tree for his wife, place the infant member of the family in a specially constructed canvas swing hung from an adjacent limb, and then ventuic forth to the conquest of field or stream.