Family Camping

Heading off into the great outdoors on a family camping trip once meant several days of "roughing it" with few of the amenities of modern living.

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To find an attractive wilderness location, you may have faced a long and tiring trek carrying everything in a backpack. If you were lucky, you would have a hiker's tent, or you may have had to make your own bivouac with what you could find in the woods. You would sleep on the ground in blankets, and cook over an open campfire. Not all families enjoyed being in the outdoors so much that they were happy to endure these discomforts. Alternatively, perhaps they were made of sterner stuff in those days.

Today, far from living off the land, a family camping trip can mean driving right to your campsite, and living in conditions like a home away from home. Some families like to travel in a recreational vehicle, caravan or motor home, fully equipped with all the comforts of a house, just scaled down a little.

Those that prefer a family camping tent can enjoy living sealed up in a weatherproof lightweight cocoon, with a built-in floor, zip up doors and windows, separate compartments for privacy and no inside poles. Unlike the tents of old, modern tent designs and fabrics have the strength to withstand a storm without a leak, while being much lighter to carry and easier to pitch.

Family tents now usually come complete with hooks and pockets to hang and store things, mesh windows to keep out those annoying insects, and other comforts.

Camp cooking these days is much less likely to be over a campfire. Not only are there forest fire dangers in many wilderness locations, but the convenience of cooking with gas are so much easier. Meal times at a well-equipped family camp can mean gourmet quality cooking, which can be a special delight if freshly caught fish is on the menu. Camp food has come a long way from dodging the smoke to broil sausage over the embers on a stick.

What's more, portable refrigerators powered by gas, car batteries or solar power can keep your supplies cool and fresh.

Camping supply stores now offer an astonishing array of other comforts, from well-padded camp beds with storage pockets, to body-hugging camp chairs with built-in drink holders - all lightweight and made with clever compact folding designs.

Comfortable sleeping bags, with either natural filling such as goose down, or advanced artificial materials, ensure a good night's sleep whatever the weather.

Solar and battery power options have brought the convenience of electricity to camping, and most paid camping grounds now offer mains power supplies. The facilities of home that were automatically foregone when camping in earlier times, such as hair driers, music, televisions and other "essential" gadgets of modern living, are often now also part of wilderness family camping life.

Family camping without the hardships of old may have lost some of the romance of the hardships experienced by early pioneers, but it also makes the enjoyment of nature more appealing to a broader range of modern families.

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