What is Your Definition of Camping?

[Jinsin456]

Wee bit of a rant going on here but I need to convince myself I'm in the right on this one. Anyway in the pub the other night we were talking about me maybe getting to test one of the new vango airbeam tents for review and Cutchy and I were thinking of good pictures to take that would be good for a review eg. Pitched next to the landy, wee fire in front etc.

This is where one of my non camping mates pipes up that we don't go proper camping, apparently you need to walk for 8 hours to fulfil his definition of camping and apart from a couple of times I haven't went 'camping' this year. Now to be honest I don't know who in their right mind would carry an 8kg tent for 8 hours but it got me thinking what is everyone's definition of the word? I take it as sleeping in the outdoors whether it be in a tent, bivvy, hammock or whatever your preference. I define 8 hour walks as backpacking and would not even think about a tent for this.

Is it just me that feels this way cos it really got me thinking or is my mate just being a bit of a plonker?

Rant over!

 

[Glyn]

Some form of canvas over your head? You're camping...
The journey or distance is irrelevant (at least to my simple mind)

 

[ateallthepies]

I think you said it all in the last part of your last sentence.

Steve.

 

[Redwall]

For the most part I would say you're right, tent, bivvy, tarp, hammock are all camping. The fuzzy line comes into play when people starting bringing generators and getting electric hookups with their tent. Then of course there are trailer tents...

Still, I tend to think of the stuff that's any more wild than just sleeping in a tent as something more than camping and I am disinclined to tell people I am going "camping" when I go out. I tend to just say I am going hill-walking, or "going out into the woods" depending on what sort of trip.

 

[mountainm]

Your mate is a plonker. If you make camp, staying on a campsite or not, you are camping.

 

[Retired Member southey]

sleeping out of a building is camping to me, where i would set up camp be it a bivvie bag or an African 5 star safari set up, I also like hiking but dont have to to one to justify the other,

 

[The Ratcatcher]

I define camping as living in a temporary or portable shelter. I don't know where your mate gets his ideas from, because I don't know of any serious camping throughout history that didn't use some form of transport. The Roman Army carried their tents (ten man, and made of leather) on carts, the British Army transported their tents by GS wagon or pack animal until after WW1, and explorers used any and every means they could find to carry their kit into the wilds.

Carrying your tent on your back is a fairly recent idea. I'm only 55, but when I first started camping, a decent tent weighed more than the modern backpackers total load, and had full length wooden poles, large wooden pegs and needed a large mallet just to hammer the pegs in. Try carrying something like that on your back for eight hours.

The idea of backpacking only started when the first lightweight nylon tents appeared for general use, sometime around 1970. Before then, lightweight tent meant some hideously expensive almost indestructible thing made to order for trips to Everest or the South Pole, where, incidentally, they would be carried by Sherpas or dog sled.

I'm inclined to agree with the second half of your last sentence about your mate!

Ranting reply over!

 

[Jinsin456]

Yeah I'm glad to hear that I'm right on this, I think it stems from the fact that he done the duke of Edinburgh and that's the only time he's been camping other than the odd boggy trip here and there which I wouldn't class as camping.

 

[John Fenna]

Camping involves anything that means you set up a non-permanent residence - ie a "camp" - not a fixed building - ie "home" - or caravan ie "wheeled house". This can be tent, tarp, lean-too, log cabin made to be used only for one season, snow hole, treehouse or any other temporary structure that is either taken away after use or deliberately allowed to rot back into the ground.
Backpacking is camping that involves carrying everything to perform the act of camping in a "pack" on your "back".
Yup - the last bit of your last sentence sounds right!
Just my opinion mind.....

 

[silentpaddler]

When I first joined the forum I was intrigued by the use of the term 'wild' camping, which is not used here in Canada. Here you're either camping or you're not.
That being said, we have our own brand of semi-campers...redneck boys who do manage to get deep into the bush 2 days from nowhere but feel they have to bring
all the comforts of home, generators as mentioned, propane tanks etc. Sometimes I wish all these ATV machines were in hell. If these guys had to backpack in and
travel light they would likely just stay at home. I've been on a few moose hunts up in Temagami where my hunting buddies insisted on this sort of 'camping'.
I guess I didn't answer your question and just gave my own rant instead.....thanks for tuning in.

 

[Barn Owl]

You're right Scott.

Even having a night in the back garden with some gear is camping I believe.
It's a temporary satellite residence away from base.

 

[silentpaddler]

The redneck definition of fishin'....

 

[jonquirk]

Given the snow on the ground and the fact that they are sitting on an ice floe I can only assume that the cool-box is being used to keep the beer from getting too cold?

 

[Broch]

If I'm in the Landy with the Oz tent, whether in the UK or the Namib Desert, I'm trekking.
If I'm travelling light with tarp and bivvy bag, I'm bivvying (is there such a word?)
If I'm staying out overnight up the Glyders, I'm backpacking
If I'm joining friends and family for the weekend on a camp site I'm camping.

But I don't see the point in getting too upset about how others classify their exploits!

Cheers,

Broch

 

[santaman2000]

I tend to agree with what most have already said here. However if your friend at the pub is persistant, just tell him you'd love to go on a proper camping trip with him; But! he'll have to help with the expense of the saddle horses and pack mules.

 

[nuggets]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XsaCuGFy9M

this looks good !!

 

[santaman2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XsaCuGFy9M

this looks good !!

LOL. Nothing like Bubba logic.

 

[AuldJum]

I would say sleeping outside with some form of shelter is camping, wether that shelter is carried in or made on site it's camping too me.

 

[Laurentius]

I would say sleeping outside with some form of shelter is camping, wether that shelter is carried in or made on site it's camping too me.

I think I would say that camping involves any kind of temporary and moveable shelter so that could include something like a yurt, or a caravan or camper van.

 

[Neumo]

Liked that vid. As has been said camping covers everything from being on campsite to bedding down on the north face of the Eiger... You can subdevide it into bivying, hammocking, etc... but's it's all camping at the end of the day. As long as you are sleeping & spending in in the great outdoors then camping is the catch all phrase.