The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
JONATHAN KNIGHT THE GREAT OUTDOORS
This week’s recovery plan gives hope to campers who recognise the benefits of fresh air and space
Icount myself lucky that we have a garden, a lockdown lifesaver for the whole family. The trampoline has become an essential part of home schooling: counting the number of jumps is a maths and PE lesson rolled into one.
I’ve also learnt the therapeutic benefits of jet washing, which not only blocks out the racket from the trampoline but allows the mind to zone out while doing something constructive. The patio, table, chairs and swing are all grime-free and gleaming.
The garden is also large enough, just about, to pitch our family tent. Last weekend we camped out under flight-free skies, toasted marshmallows, snuggled in sleeping bags and argued over who wouldn’t get the airbed with the slow puncture.
For the children especially, camping in the garden is a blast. They enjoy many of the benefits of a real camping trip: the marshmallow sugar rush, staying up late, playing hide and seek among the billowing nylon while I’m wrestling to get the tent up; but they don’t have to endure the car-packing fiasco, followed by three hours on the motorway squashed between siblings while balancing a gazebo on their lap.
In these times of lockdown monotony, such highlights have been remarkably uplifting, a welcome distraction. In fact, I’d almost forgotten we were supposed to be going camping next weekend with friends. We were due to return to a campsite in the Cotswolds where last time we camped among elder trees, with huge amounts of space for our group to spread out. Dave cooked pulled pork with sweetcorn slaw while Helen and Bruce performed a middle-class rap around the campfire. We made an elderflower drink, which made Hayfever Kate puff up like a pumpkin. We went walking, lost our way, found a pub. Happy times.
It may be a while before we can enjoy another big group camping trip like that, but the Government’s recovery strategy, published earlier in the week, has given campers across England hope that from July 4 (at the earliest) we may be able to head off to the countryside with a tent. That date may change and depends on various factors, but the announcement was enough to set my WhatsApp camping groups buzzing with excitement. If any holiday is appropriate for these times, it’s camping. Pitching a tent in a field, miles from contagious urban hotspots or busy public transport, being gently caressed by the virusdispersing flurries of countryside air, soaking up the immunityboosting vitamin D imbued by summer sunshine – it all adds up to a healthy, safe, isolated experience. In the absence of a vaccine, camping could be the next best thing to immunity.
We may not see Prof Chris Whitty using the daily press briefing to prescribe camping as our route out of lockdown, but it should surely be part of the plan to keep the country sane. Getting away is a psychological necessity after weeks cooped up at home, so a camping trip may be the perfect post-lockdown pick-me-up. We will need to be aware of social distancing, but the campsites we stay on tend to have way more than two metres between tents. In fact, even in normal times, coming that close to other campers would be considered an invasion of personal space.
Of course, gathering groups of family or friends around the campfire does not look like a possibility for this summer. Campsites will also have to embrace the idea of spaced queuing for bathrooms or designated slots for showers, though the chances of transmission in a well-spaced queue, in the fresh air, must be minimal compared to the stress funnel of the Tesco checkout.
In light of the announcements, campsites are anticipating a surge in interest, helped by the fact that holidaymakers will be avoiding bustling airports, busy planes and the bottleneck at hotel check-in. Instead, a simple field and some fresh air will be the popular holiday choice this year. Just what the doctor ordered.
Jonathan Knight is the founder of coolcamping.com. The new edition of was published last week
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