Hello to everyone!
I have been lurking around for a few days having a read and decided that you are all a friendly bunch so I properly signed up today and thought I had better say hello.
I have been fishing and camping for about 18 years mostly teaching myself and collecting equipment and bits and pieces since I was a teenager. I am also into sailing in a big way... I am a Small Craft Marine Surveyor so boats play a big part in my life.
My first taste of 'proper' camping was when I lived in Australia for about 3 years living in rural northern Victoria near to the border with New South Wales; I was fortunate enough to have befriended a farmer that owned about nine square miles of land which bordered the River Murray. The land was mostly farmland, but all of that that bordered the river was a mix of dense and sparse bushland with various wildlife. The farmer used to let me/others roll up with a 'ute' or 4x4 and stay for a week at a time in exchange for a bottle of whiskey and keeping the area tidy and as a deterrent for keeping intruders off his land. He mostly let us get on with it and sometimes came to join us for a drink. The base camp evolved over time and visits: A 'long drop' thunder box, tables and seats hand cut to make: benches, tables, cooking area etc. We made a safe fire pit from an old tractor wheel rim with the interior removed. We fished, watched the wildlife (various birds, roo's/wallabies, bush pigs, creepy crawlies), cooked off the camp-fire (canned food we brought with us, fish we caught - crayfish/shrimp, Murray Cod, Yellowbelly) and slept in swags or under tarps. We bought our beer but after 2/3 days the ice would melt and it was 90 minutes to a super market.... so we put our cans in wet socks and hung them off branches to cool them down, we washed in the river (the freshwater shrimp loved the soap too!).... it was magnificent.
I travelled back to the UK to buy a boat to sail back to Australia, but then met a girl who has just recently become my wife. I have tried camping with her in a few different places - one was in the corner of a farmers field in the Yorkshire Moors who gladly accepted a few pounds for the weekend - it rained and there was no shower and toilet for her - she hated it. We followed the next year by going to a holiday-camp type place which I hated - noise, no trees, expensive beer. This year we found a little site which had a small empty tent field bordering woodland that had a small fishing lake (I was the only one that used it), our tent has been upgraded to include a porta-porti; so we have found our camping compromise.
I am still yearning for that experience I had in Australia though... sleeping under the stars with a swag and a tarp, a camp-fire, with some bushcraft and self reliance living from what I can carry on my person / bag. I have some farmer friends that I used to help with fencing/lambing in the Midlands and have weaselled myself a weeks stay on their land next to a stream in the spring when they need help again. Also a friend (son of the farmer) is hoping to do a bit of a woodland camping experience for his stag do on his land next year with a few of his close friends that have similar outdoor interest and experience (mostly farm lands and a few army boys).
So that is my camping story / experience. I am looking to build on my own skills, experience and knowledge with the help of this forum, a few books, and hopefully a few kind land owners.
I am going back to Australia in the new year to see my parents.... I am hoping to visit that place by the river once more!
I have been lurking around for a few days having a read and decided that you are all a friendly bunch so I properly signed up today and thought I had better say hello.
I have been fishing and camping for about 18 years mostly teaching myself and collecting equipment and bits and pieces since I was a teenager. I am also into sailing in a big way... I am a Small Craft Marine Surveyor so boats play a big part in my life.
My first taste of 'proper' camping was when I lived in Australia for about 3 years living in rural northern Victoria near to the border with New South Wales; I was fortunate enough to have befriended a farmer that owned about nine square miles of land which bordered the River Murray. The land was mostly farmland, but all of that that bordered the river was a mix of dense and sparse bushland with various wildlife. The farmer used to let me/others roll up with a 'ute' or 4x4 and stay for a week at a time in exchange for a bottle of whiskey and keeping the area tidy and as a deterrent for keeping intruders off his land. He mostly let us get on with it and sometimes came to join us for a drink. The base camp evolved over time and visits: A 'long drop' thunder box, tables and seats hand cut to make: benches, tables, cooking area etc. We made a safe fire pit from an old tractor wheel rim with the interior removed. We fished, watched the wildlife (various birds, roo's/wallabies, bush pigs, creepy crawlies), cooked off the camp-fire (canned food we brought with us, fish we caught - crayfish/shrimp, Murray Cod, Yellowbelly) and slept in swags or under tarps. We bought our beer but after 2/3 days the ice would melt and it was 90 minutes to a super market.... so we put our cans in wet socks and hung them off branches to cool them down, we washed in the river (the freshwater shrimp loved the soap too!).... it was magnificent.
I travelled back to the UK to buy a boat to sail back to Australia, but then met a girl who has just recently become my wife. I have tried camping with her in a few different places - one was in the corner of a farmers field in the Yorkshire Moors who gladly accepted a few pounds for the weekend - it rained and there was no shower and toilet for her - she hated it. We followed the next year by going to a holiday-camp type place which I hated - noise, no trees, expensive beer. This year we found a little site which had a small empty tent field bordering woodland that had a small fishing lake (I was the only one that used it), our tent has been upgraded to include a porta-porti; so we have found our camping compromise.
I am still yearning for that experience I had in Australia though... sleeping under the stars with a swag and a tarp, a camp-fire, with some bushcraft and self reliance living from what I can carry on my person / bag. I have some farmer friends that I used to help with fencing/lambing in the Midlands and have weaselled myself a weeks stay on their land next to a stream in the spring when they need help again. Also a friend (son of the farmer) is hoping to do a bit of a woodland camping experience for his stag do on his land next year with a few of his close friends that have similar outdoor interest and experience (mostly farm lands and a few army boys).
So that is my camping story / experience. I am looking to build on my own skills, experience and knowledge with the help of this forum, a few books, and hopefully a few kind land owners.
I am going back to Australia in the new year to see my parents.... I am hoping to visit that place by the river once more!
