Today I’ve got an article from John Miller about the Camping Mistakes that many of us have made!
I’m not talking about glamping either! Even a tent with a hot tub!
He’s written some stuff for me before including 5 of the Funniest Packing Disasters Travelers May Face! and Top 10 Bizarre and Scary Tourist Attractions in Europe.
John is a travel blogger and adventurous traveller. Find his blog at Pretravels.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.
5 Things Not to Leave Behind for Your Family Camping Trip
It’s easy to forget things when you’re busy (and excited!) planning your next adventure. Especially when you’re going with your family, all that pressure is bound to make you forget a thing or two!
It’s fine if it’s just a packet of tissues or maybe an extra towel or something normal like that, but if it’s underwear we’re talking about… now that’s a problem! You can’t go around for days walking with a little breeze blowing under there, can you?
Aside from those tighty-whities, here are five other things you should never ever leave behind when you’re going on a family camping trip!
1. Your personal essentials
Okay, we’re all guilty of forgetting some personal essentials every now and then. I myself have forgotten a few– scratch that, a lot– of stuff on some of my own travels. Usually, it’s easy to replace these, anyway. Any ol’ supermarket or convenience store probably carries the usual stuff, like toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, soap, that sort of thing.
The problem comes when you realize that oops, you’re actually out… camping… in… the wild. Just imagine, you’re out in the wilderness, with no supermarket or convenience store within 20 miles of you. Nothing but trees and grass around you. Just pure, unadulterated nature.
How do you spell d-i-s-a-s-t-e-r again? Definitely not without a missing toothbrush, that’s for sure! You wouldn’t want to kill off all the wildlife around with that nasty morning breath, right?
Remember: Bring your personal necessities! This becomes all the more important the longer your camping adventure goes!
2. Your camping tent
If there’s anything worse than forgetting to bring soap for you and your kids on your camping tent, it’s forgetting your very own camping tent, of all things. Without it, how are you supposed to protect your whole family against the forces of nature?
With an invisible force field created by yours truly? Will you stay up all through the night to guard them against a potential wildlife attack?
Wait, come to think of it, can it even be called camping if you don’t have a tent? All these questions, due to your carelessness!
You may have the best family tent of all time, but it doesn’t mean a thing if you forget to bring it along for your trip. At least think of the children, come on!
3. Your sleeping essentials
You may have a camping tent, and you may have remembered to bring your kids’ toothbrushes (and maybe even your own, who knows) but you know what else can ruin your trip if you forget to bring it? Sleeping essentials. That’s right.
Your camping checklist can’t and shouldn’t be complete without them. I’m talking about beddings, pillows, sleeping bags, and the like. AKA the things that people usually forget to pack until the very last minute.
If you’ve ever gone camping before, then you’ll know just how uncomfortable it can get without the proper beddings. No matter how awesome your site is, heaven knows that you can’t actually lie down comfortably inside a bare tent.
Don’t believe me? Go on, make your kid do it first. Now, good luck trying to ignore that tantrum for two hours straight.
4. Your food and beverage
I don’t think this still has to be said, but it is another camping essential that you just should never, ever leave behind when packing for your family camping trip. What else but your food and beverage items!
Make sure to pack them well, preferably in a cooler or something similar so that they don’t get bad. Seriously, I dare you to spend 3 hours in the wilderness without any food or drinks.
Okay, I was just kidding. I don’t want to be haunted by an angry, vengeful ghost for the rest of my silly life.
5. Your medical or emergency supplies
Last but definitely not the least on our list of five things not to leave behind: medical or emergency supplies. The very last thing that you’d want while you’re enjoying the natural world is facing a life-threatening situation. Some of the most common emergencies that campers encounter are:
- lack of food and water
- unexpected illness
- unexpected wounds / accidents
- animal attacks
For the first one, your best bet would just be to ensure that you have enough to last everyone in the family for the whole duration of your trip. But for the latter three, the only way to minimize the damages would be to have the required medicine / medication / first-aid available on-hand, so make sure you include this in your camping preparations.
Prevention is always better than a cure, of course, but if the issue is already there, then you have no choice but to just apply some first-aid and hope for the best .
So, the next time you go on another adventure, make sure remember these five things not to leave behind for your family camping trip!
I always loved everything about camping except the sleeping part. I never got a good sleep. Recently I got a tree tent and took it out…never slept better! Now that is on my essential camping list. I hope to never have to sleep in a tent on the ground again…
You definitely want to remember the necessities John. We house/hut sat in a remote Costa Rica jungle a few years back. Forgetting anything basic meant a 3 hour hike through dangerous jungle, back to town. Meaning you’d have to wait until the following Saturday, our predetermined re-stocking day. Rocking post. Tweeted for you.
Ryan
I always have a doubt that if people are allowed to carry any weapon for the self-defence during camping, as I think, camping is a kind of activity where wild animals can attack you.