Camping Experiences

In response to Elina's question about camping here is a little bit of information about my own personal experiences with camping...

My family and I always used to go on camping holidays, whether it was for 3 days or 3 weeks. As a child growing up with camping holidays I grew to really love the experience. It may sound silly but for those few days or weeks that tent really felt like home to me. We would always refer to it as our 'home' when we were camping and even though we would often drive on to another campsite every night, I always looked forward to setting up the tent and snuggling up on my inflatable mattress and in my sleeping bag! So it was never the campsite itself that I considered to be homely, just the tent itself and the little embellishes my mother used to make to make us all feel more at home. For instance, I always used to love setting up the mattresses and sleeping bags because even just an extra pillow or a cuddly toy would make me feel at home.

One vivid memory I have from when I was younger is when we were camping in a dreadful storm somewhere down in the south of England and I was woken up in the middle of the night by my parents telling me to get in the car due to the bad weather conditions. So we spent most of the night in the car and I can remember watching our 'home' being torn from the ground and blown away by the storm! Even though it was just a tent I do remember feeling very distraught that I had lost my home and belongings that night. I know it's not at all comparable to someone losing their house to a fire or belongings due to a burglary but it was still surprisingly upsetting for us all to lose a house made from canvas!

So anyway this little nugget of information from my childhood is just a way of saying that anywhere in the world can feel like home if you let it be in your home in your mind. I think you have to fully embrace your home as yours in your mind to be able to feel at home ... if that makes any sense at all!

Kim Varvell