As much as we enjoy camping on our own and using the time to connect with each other and spend quality time together, we do enjoy camping with friends and family as well. One side of camping that has been really rewarding lately is helping friends have a fantastic experience when camping for the first time.
We moved from Port Elizabeth about 6 years ago (where most of our friends enjoy camping) to Durban where very few of our friends enjoy camping. Over the last little while ,however, a few of our Durban friends have joined us for short camping trips to Mdumbi (Transkei) and Rocky Bay (South of Durban) and they have had such a brilliant time, they keep asking when our next group trip is going to be. This is brilliant for us because it means that we can enjoy our love for camping with our friends.
It is very exciting for us to have friends who would like to join us for camping trips and so we have made an effort to make their camping experiences as easy as possible so that they can find their feet and their own way when it comes to their camping expeditions. We have given them advice about creating camping boxes (if they decide to pursue camping) to make the tedious packing process much faster. We have even seen people from our two different groups of friends becoming more friendly than we ever would have thought, people from very different worlds enjoying each other’s company with camping as their commonality.
In trying to inspire our friends to do more camping we have encourage them to bring one or two comfort items that will make their camping experience more enjoyable. We have friends who always bring a gazebo with them as they enjoy the extension to their tent and it makes camping more comfortable for them. I must admit a gazebo always proves to be a marvelous accessory because if it rains you have shelter or if it is very hot you have extra shade, however, being the Lazy Campers we are, we don’t normally bring a gazebo as it is a mission to put up and take down (and takes up a lot if space in our little car), especially if you are only camping for the weekend or moving from campsite to campsite every few days. I, on the other hand, really enjoy having a comfortable chair to sit in around the fire, and do not want to compromise that comfort for a little tripod chair. My husband likes a decent pair of braai tongs so that he doesn’t have to fight with the tongs when trying to cook the meat. So, if having something like a gazebo, a chair or braai tongs is going to make your camping experience more enjoyable, then these minor accessories are a must.
Camping with friends is a lot of fun and you get to truly experience a place when you are not in the luxuries of a hotel: really bask in the sun, or truly feel the bite of the cold or even grapple with the wind; and who better to share this with than those special people in your life.
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