How we camp

Introduction.

Although we both like couchsurfing very much, sometimes it’s difficult to travel from one host to another. Finding hosts and meeting people need a lot of energy. Also it often happens that we or our host can’t manage our stay for any reason. Well, anything may happen, this is life.

So, the best solution for such cases is to go for camping. The camping areas have many facilities like shower, water, electricity, they are comfortable and safe and …. we don’t go there! It’s easy to arrange all those facilities ourselves and save some money for food or fuel. What’s written below is not a tent-building manual, I just try to make a summary based on the experience that we had, making free camping.

Finding a good spot.

Driving in the evening Alex always looks for small paths going to some nice place like a hill covered with olive trees or seashore. Small path means that this place is not very popular and we won’t find crowds of tourists and piles of rubbish there. Of course, finding a good spot needs some luck and sometimes we don’t succeed. Then we have to camp in less comfortable places like public beach or a field.

When the spot is found, we decide where to mount the tent. It must be plane and even piece of land protected from the wind and rain by trees or bushes or any kind of shelter. If it’s uneven, Alex takes his military spade and makes the ground even. We also don’t forget about the sun and try not to face the tent’s entrance to the East. It’s very unpleasant to get up at 6 when the sun rises. Alex parks the bike besides the tent, so we know that she’s safe.

 

Safety

If the place doesn’t look safe, we don’t stay there. ‘Doesn’t look safe’ means: dirty places full of trash, area close to gipsy tents, many dogs around, close to steep rocks, etc. Anyway, camping close to somebody’s house or other kind of property, we always ask the locals if it’s o.k. for them. So far, nobody denied. Once camping on the beach in Greece we moved two plastic beds and a table closer to the bike, sit there and started eating dinner. Suddenly a man on the bike showed up and saied: ‘Beds. Behind. Now!’ Well, we did so. Then he started repeating: ‘It’s a privet property! Bla-bla-bla…’ ‘Listen, we’re sorry, forgive us’ – I answered. ‘Only God can forgive’- was the answer. Finally he took off and didn’t come back but I still can’t forget his religious guy.

So, the safety is just how you feel at this place. It can be dangerous anywhere, even your fridge can kill you one day. In other hand, if you feel relaxed and comfortable with the people and yourself, each place can be your home. Free camping gives us amazing opportunities: today we sleep in the pine forest, tomorrow wake up on the seashore and on the next day our home is close to big city and we can see millions of lights in the night.

 

Mounting the tent.

First of all, we cover the spot with a big piece of polyethylene type which farmers use to cover their harvest (if I understood it right). Alex just cut off a piece 2x3 meters large. This type is also useful for covering the bike in the city if he leaves it outside for the night time. Then we put up the tent number 1, cover it with the outside tent number 2. Putting up those tents is easy, you just have to follow the manual. The most difficult part is nailing the tent to the ground. Sometimes (in Greece, for example) the ground is very stony and we have to use the spade as a hummer to nail our house properly. The outside tent has 3 ropes and I would recommend to stretch them too because it guarantees that tent wouldn’t fly away.

We also have a yellow tent number 3, it’s a big piece of waterproof cloth with 8 ropes on the sides. It provides a good protection against the rain, the tent and the bike both can fit under it. Usually we wrap our clothes and bags into it to protect from the morning dew.

 

Inside the tent.

Going to bed, we have to remember about our sleeping belongings (sleeping bags, mats, sweaters, trousers, socks, caps).  It can be cold in the night so I always try to have one sweater more then I really need. Also we always take important things like money and keys in the tent and take two headlights too. The tent has pockets inside for storing small things. If it’s not too late, we use evening time for reading, writing diaries, talking. The space in the entrance between two tents is usually occupied by shoes and waterbag. Depending on temperature inside, we can leave the outside tent open, close half it or close the whole zip. Before going to sleep it’s very important to kill all the mosquitoes inside the tent, unless by the morning you’ll be bitten everywhere. After we met a scorpion one night, I also check my shoes every morning but so far I didn’t find anything interesting inside.

Conclusion.

In their daily life humans use a lot of things that they really don’t need. Camping makes live easier, camping cleans the urban souls and after a week of free camping you understand what is really important and what is not.

Living in the tent is easy and relaxed. Everything is very simple: the cooker and a bowl are the kitchen, tent is a living room and bedroom, the bag with clothes is a wardrobe and that bush other there is a toilet.

I will write next time about our camping equipment, food and washing. Those themes need another post, it would be too much for this one.