Camping is something that I’ve rarely ever done in my life. When I was a kid, ‘camping’ meant, my parents taking me and some other family friends out to a designated camp ground, surrounded by people who actually live in their campers. These dismal parks would have a dirty, above-ground pool, with ‘hiking paths’ that were subsequently muddy pits that went in a circle, and there were bathroom hookups and metal fire rings to setup your night’s fire. Let me tell you something, we WERE NOT suffering at all, we had a camper that could sleep 7 comfortably, with its own bathroom, kitchen, and TV area. Ridiculous, I say – shenanigans! That’s not real camping.
Now, an item or two on my bucket list is to experience real camping, and to escape the new-age technological world we live in today by escaping into the wilderness and camping, without electronics for at least one week. I think it would be truly brilliant to escape it all and be met with (at least, more of) my natural wild instincts – just me and nature, and no silly distractions. I think it’s great to have a car and to tour around and to see the most beautiful areas of the world, but to really get to know the areas is a thing of beauty and a whole other experience, all together. Sure, camping in a lot of the most raw and wild, and gorgeous places can be challenging and perhaps a bit unnerving sometimes, but without that raw lifestyle, it’s easy to take regular life (and how great we, Westerners, actually have it) for granted. I know I took A TON of things about my life for granted until I traveled to places like Morocco, where my whole life was turned topsy turvy – it was trying, but oh so wonderful.
I recently toured around the Highlands of Scotland (as you’ll see more and more posts about soon) and my particular favorite part was once I crossed over the bridge from mainland Scotland to the Isle of Skye. Wow, I mean, just WOW... Breathtaking, truly breathtaking. The atmospheric, powerful, yet serene and captivating nature of the island blew me away. Besides the fact that every bit of the scenery that I passed by was top notch amazingness, and the weather was rough with high winds and never-ending precipitation, I couldn’t help but think how great it would have been to have a tent setup. All I wanted to do was to hike far away from the little villages and the B&Bs, and to simply setup camp, and live in the wild for my entire week.
Although it didn’t work out for me during the time that I was on the Isle, I completely plan to have a massive camping session someday in the next year or so – perhaps, as a part of my USA road trip or something. I think it would be great to revisit the Highlands and to camp, perhaps in Glencoe or on another one of the Scottish Isles, but when I think about picking one location, I find it extremely difficult – even just around the UK, there’s loads of places that would be great, like camping on the Isle of Wight – Red Funnel sails regularly from Southampton so getting away from the mainland is really easy – or even around neighboring country Ireland – although, sporadic camping is outlawed in a lot of the UK, especially in Ireland, and campers are forced to stay in designated regions. So I think next year, I’ll invest in a lot of camping gear and start moving away from the backpacker/flashpacker style of travel, and more to camping – which will save me a ton of money on accommodations too!
I recently toured around the Highlands of Scotland (as you’ll see more and more posts about soon) and my particular favorite part was once I crossed over the bridge from mainland Scotland to the Isle of Skye. Wow, I mean, just WOW... Breathtaking, truly breathtaking. The atmospheric, powerful, yet serene and captivating nature of the island blew me away. Besides the fact that every bit of the scenery that I passed by was top notch amazingness, and the weather was rough with high winds and never-ending precipitation, I couldn’t help but think how great it would have been to have a tent setup. All I wanted to do was to hike far away from the little villages and the B&Bs, and to simply setup camp, and live in the wild for my entire week.
Although it didn’t work out for me during the time that I was on the Isle, I completely plan to have a massive camping session someday in the next year or so – perhaps, as a part of my USA road trip or something. I think it would be great to revisit the Highlands and to camp, perhaps in Glencoe or on another one of the Scottish Isles, but when I think about picking one location, I find it extremely difficult – even just around the UK, there’s loads of places that would be great, like camping on the Isle of Wight – Red Funnel sails regularly from Southampton so getting away from the mainland is really easy – or even around neighboring country Ireland – although, sporadic camping is outlawed in a lot of the UK, especially in Ireland, and campers are forced to stay in designated regions. So I think next year, I’ll invest in a lot of camping gear and start moving away from the backpacker/flashpacker style of travel, and more to camping – which will save me a ton of money on accommodations too!
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