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Now retired but busy still living..

Thursday 3 November 2011

CAMPING LUXURY.

TWO ITEMS OF CAMPING LUXURY
 It's odd how in certain circumstances some things seem to adopt an increased value.
Water in a desert could be an extreme example , another is the humble chair when you are camping.

During our recent ride back from Gibraltar, chairs became a vital part of camping luxury.
Whenever we arrived at a new campsite JD and I would cruise around the site on our bikes looking for something to sit on.
A log- or something similar would be the very basic requirement - a patio chair would be luxury and a picnic table and chairs.....well that was camping nirvana.

It's funny  how important something to sit on actually became - it made such a difference to us if we found a proper chair to use. If we saw some chairs that we could 'borrow' from outside an unoccupied caravan for instance, we knew that our comfort levels would be vastly improved  for our stay at the site.

Luxury was sitting on a chair with a table to have our evening meal and breakfast on.....we could sit on a chair at a patio or picnic table drinking wine and chatting all evening......so much more comfortable than sitting on the ground.

I have been camping all my life and manage perfectly well sitting on the ground...but...what a huge difference a chair makes.
I have included with this post some photographs of just some of the various 'sitting implements' that we managed to find during our journey.
PATIO TABLE AND CHAIRS

PICNIC TABLE AND BENCHES

ANOTHER PICNIC TABLE

PATIO TABLE AND CHAIRS BORROWED FROM AN UNOCCUPIED CARAVAN

JD ON ANOTHER PICNIC TABLE

JD's BIKE WITH CHAIR
JD actually tried to fit a patio chair on his bike at one site.....he told me that he couldn't bear the thought of not finding a seat at the next nights campsite. I never did establish if he was joking or not..!!
The plan fell apart when during testing, the chair kept dopping off the bike.

7 comments:

limom said...

I have a folding chair that I carry in my car all the time.
While my mind can make do with more primitive seating arrangements, my okole cannot and the okole always wins.

limom said...

Okole is Hawaiian for your you know what.

John Romeo Alpha said...

I have a folding Crazy Creek chair from my backpacking days that transports pretty well on a bicycle. And you are so right about certain mundane objects assuming much greater value at the campsite. I've heard (and been part of!) some great stories about what campers have done in order to obtain: something to make coffee with, beer, a blanket, a steak burrito.

GreenComotion said...

Hi Trevor,
Cool post!

Although, I haven't camped enough to miss a chair, I know what it is like to live in a house without any furniture. It sucks!

I waited from April - August 2008. I lived in TX for 3 months before we moved our home from St. Louis to TX.

I waited a good 2 months or so before I "broke down" and bought a chair. You see, when I came to TX to start my new job, I brought along the most important thing in my truck --- my Cannondale. The rest didn't seem to matter, initially :)

Paz :)

J_on_tour said...

A very important point that you make here. It's been a while since I have camped and although not by choice, the chair is something that I have longed for on occasions. It is sheer luxury just to sit and relax in a pub for hours after the days activity & evening meal. I like the shot of the chair on the back of the bike !

Steve A said...

You KNOW, if you took a trailer along, you could load it up with things like chairs and satellite equipment and such. Of course, the trip would not allow NEARLY so many miles so perhaps you were better off simply finding the "native" chairs. Never mind and forget I suggested that trailer nonsense! Perhaps there's a reason you lot sometimes refer to us as "ignorant colonials!"

TrevorW�� said...

*limom* *JRA* *Chandra* *J_on_tour*
Thanks for the comments...I am now looking for a camp chair that is ultralight and folds to the size of a postage stamp..!!

*Steve A*
I have considered a trailer...some people do tour with one- but I like a turn of speed and I would probably load it right up so it was too heavy to pull along.

Six weeks off.

 The visit to see the Consultant went quite well really ...   My ' numbers' have started to creep up again so I am going to be given...