t was about a month ago when Mr Smaggle asked me if I wanted to go camping on New Year’s Eve with him. I immediately conjured up images of me in a bejewelled kaftan and enormous sunglasses, reclining in a crisp white teepee, designer cushions strewn about me, clutching an ice cold pinot from my portable bar fridge and eating lots of cheese and grapes. I was like ‘Sign me up motherfucker!’
He then told me that all the drive up spots were taken and we had to hike for three hours to get to our camping area. Carrying all our necessities including food, clothing and shelter. Was I up for it? Hell yes.
It was bloody spectacular kids. Honestly, the best New Year I’ve ever had. It helped that Mr Smaggle had done weeks of research to find the best camping gear and ordered it like a little Amazon wizard so it all arrived in time for our trip. Apart from a few outdoor education excursions back when I was teacher, I was totally green to the concept of camping. Here’s what I learned from my time as a merry adventurer in the Australian bush.
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Dehydrated meals rock
I still don’t know whether or not dehyrated meals are actually something real campers use or are yuppy bullshit for amateur campers like me but I ligit don’t care. They were delicious, light to carry and left the tiniest amount of rubbish afterwards. Bascially you rip open the bag, pour in hot water, seal it up for 10 minutes and it all puffs up into a delicious meal for 2. I’m considering buying a years supply and then not cooking or shopping for a whole year.
Camp toilets are gross
I was pretty worried about having to do a two-sie in a hole and I was super relieved to see camp toilets at the site. My relief was short lived… these toilets smelt like a poo that ate a poo and pooed that poo. Totally rank. There’s nothing to be done about it but I just thought you’d appreciate the warning. Shitting in a hole was looking pretty bloody good after a 3 day nose punching from the pongy camp toilets.
You can take wine
Cold drinks like beer are a no go (heavy) so we bought a bottle of red wine and decanted in to a Platypus Platy Bottle
Baby wipes are a campers best friend
So you don’t exactly shower when you’re camping but to avoid getting stinky I had a quick wipe every night with a baby wipe. I went to Daiso and bought individually wrapped ones and took one for each day – it saved us lugging around a giant package of them and made me feel at least a little bit hygienic.
Sleeping in a tent under the stars is magical
We bought a Kelty 3 Person Tent
You actually only need 2 sets of clothes no matter how long you’re going for
One set for day and a dry ‘clean’ set for night time. I just bought some thermals from Ice Breaker and they were brilliant. Super comfy and toasty.
Take hot chocolate
Because why the hell wouldn’t you? We took little Jarrah packets and I swear, a nightly hot chocolate in a tent is like camping crack.
Create a Camp Cinema
Mr Smags bought along the iPad mini and strung it up in the tent for a camping cinema. I may get judgement from hardcore campers about unnessary electronic devices defeating the purpose of camping but I just don’t care. The Camping Cinema was just about my favourite thing. All snuggled up like a little adventure burrito in my sleeping bag while watching a movie was brilliant. Haters be damned.
There are no mirrors
So you won’t even know that you look like the kid from Up… which I did for the entire trip. Check out that hat. Who has swoon for me right now?
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Have you ever been camping? Or is it something you’re wholly uninterested in?
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P.S – If you want something a bit silly, uplifting or interesting to read every day make sure you follow Smaggle around on the ol’interwebs – Facebook, Twitter, Bloglovin, Instagram, YouTube and the Smaggle weekly newsletter. Sometimes I swear though… arse pelican.