A little bit about our camping trip and how our observations from camping when we were kids to the present day has changed dramatically.
Ok I admit it I am naive and I will tell you why in a minuet but first I will tell you my rather basic romantic image of camping. One has a tent some beds a camping stove, good food and some great company and conversation, days are spent exploring or relaxing and evening drinking lots of intoxicating alcohol gazing up at the stars before slipping into a snugly sleeping bag and if you’re lucky it will rain later in the night and you can enjoy the soothing sound of rain drops on canvas, but always be sunny in the morning. That is what we planned for our first camping trip and that is what we had.
However camping today is somewhat different, while wandering around spying I mean exploring the camp site and looking on other people views on camping and their set ups there are few tents and more caravans but equally the tent and caravan set up are the same just that the caravans can carry a lot more stuff, however tents today are bigger than some apartments in London. When I say stuff i was blow away by how much of this modern trapping seem to have made it on a supposed get away from it all simple life to unwind and calm down sort of holiday, to people bringing every creature comfort from their home they can think of. I wonder what the point of camping is if you bring it all with you.
Whilst spying...I mean walking off lunch. Most of the plots we saw had full size fridges, PC's, microwave ovens, bed side tables and table lights, TV's and not just TV but satellite entertainment, we don't even have satellite TV at home. We also saw one caravan with a washing machine and a poor mum dealing with a large pile of swimsuits, towels and summer clothes, so much for getting away from it all.
Talking about the female side and I'm thinking more teenager although there were a few questionable mums as well, but when I was a teenager going to the beach was pretty simple the highlight was a new bikini, and a fresh faced ie no makeup look. These days the teenager are donning impossibly high espadrilles making them walk with a wobble as if they are about to fall forward, have 2 changes of bikinis a day all covered in sparkling sequins and of course come with matching accessories, with a full face of makeup that’s not out of place in a night club with at least 2 - 3 pairs of false eyelashes fake painted nails with crystals all finished off with the latest high fashion sun glasses, they just lay on sun beds pretending not to stare at the guys and the guys were as bad as the girls buffed up in fake tan and latest designer shorts t-shirts and the must have moment trainers a head full of wax and pumped up muscles there’s something a bit odd seeing a 15 -16 year old with pumped up muscles especially when they are bigger than my hubby. What happened to those carefree days of frolicking in the surf and enjoying the beach. God i sound old and out of touch.
Well my surprise didn't stop there, and am now in danger of sounding classist as well as oldest, many of the men wandering around were sporting hammers, Man united or Chelsea tops and were driving their vans with their names and trades on eg Jim’s electrics or Stan the plastering man while their wife drove the family range rover or land rover with 3 to 4 kids and toeing caravan, and these went the normal size version of caravans these were caravans super size that had extensions in canvass in all places imaginable, large extension to the side that covered the entire caravan, then one at the front and one to the back. I never remember the trade business being so lucrative, and whenever they come round my house they always plead to the expensive cost of parts these days as a reason not to give me a discount maybe I should pick up a trade for a future career. Oh yes I forgot to mention the important point to this paragraph why the men were driving their vans... That would be to pull their sporty speed boats that they all had! When I was a kid we would go on holiday to the coast and there would always be the day that was taken up exploring the coast line on a boat of ferry tour. It seems these days the all encompassing family now own their own speed boat. It also remind Ali and myself of the days again when we were kids of the game show where the star prize always seemed to be a speed boat and the family that lived on the council estate always won it, not that there is anything wrong with living on a council estate or indeed owning a speed boat, it was just something that tickled us. This was just amazing to watch dad after dad bringing their boats down to the beach in the early morning all the dads with the smaller poop poop speed boats came down and jetted off with sons for fishing. As the day went on we watched in wonder as the boats got bigger and more powerful as families got on board and speed off round the coast. No more step over the side boats as you got into the water, these boats now came with stairs to climb and by lunch time the big guns came out with 8 seated power boats with multiple engine, sleeping compartments and families that were already on board as the boat was so vast, it was almost like these dad waited till they had maximum audience to launch their boats, I think we would to if we owned a boat that didn't look out of place in the south of France.
Not content with a boat a lot of the owner had their own banana boat ride or aqua rider donuts to haul their kids up and down the coast for hours on end. I wonder how many small businesses have gone out of business because of this change.
My conclusion of all the tradesmen hauling their boats down to shore the one trade doing the best business from the size of boat were the builders. I'm not jealous just amazed at how life has change so much I bet when Sophie is our age people will probably be flying their own light aircraft to the campsite of choice, they won’t have caravans they could just drag their houses to a plot for a week or two.
But for all the trappings of these modern available convinces you can keep them. I think my heart is set for the simple life and our beautiful retro bell tent for camping.
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