DRIVING THOUGHTS
During the holidays, try camping. Drive out of the city and stay overnight, not in a resort, but at a campsite with basic amenities that will likely be inconvenient and uncomfortable to most people. The rewards are many, some intangible, but will give you a different kind of joy.
The first reward is the physical and mental company of family, or good friends. Most camps have limited internet signal, or none at all. And setting up one’s campsite requires full attention without mobile phones and gadgets.
The second reward is nature – clean air, magnificent panorama of mountains, forests and rivers, too. Many campsites are located along a river offering the city dweller the rare chance to wade, or swim, or just watch the tide flow.
The third is unpredictable weather. You start setting up the tents when the sun is high, take a rest when the afternoon breeze blows, and perhaps have dinner under a million stars – or under the tent, with the sound of rain and wind.
The grand reward is real conversation, something that’s missing in the lives of many people nowadays who only have exchange of messages on group chats and social media.
I’ve written several stories about car camping because I have experienced how its many rewards have enriched my life, especially boosting my level of fitness.
Car camping has become a form of leisure activity after many discovered the simple joy of being with nature and away from the crowds during the pandemic. It is different from the camping scenario of many years ago when camping came with hiking and a tent was one of the essentials one carried in a backpack.
Having a car to go camping quickly enhanced its popularity. The requirement of carrying a backpack with a tent limited the followers of car camping to the young and adventurous only.
When the weekend comes, you will recognize the car campers on the road with gear like roof top tents and awnings marking their vehicles. You’ll see more of them along the Marilaque Highway, NLEX or SLEX on their way to campsites that have now literally blossomed along a river, a forest, or atop a hill.
Last weekend, I was out camping for three days with the Senior Car Campers Plus, a group that marked its second anniversary last September. As a member, I am able to view camping plans for the weekend, as well as updates on good campsites, helpful staff, clean restrooms, and unique views of a sunrise, sunset, or simply of the morning fog veiling the mountainside.
We were at our favorite River Ranch Camp in Tanay. We so love River Ranch, we “adopted” its owner, Justin Lim, as our “apo.”
From the constant exchange, I am amazed at the energy of the senior campers. Aside from official group camping dates which are usually bimonthly, many members go camping three times a month – rain or shine!
Being with this group is not only fun – it is therapeutic or good for one’s health. Mostly couples who are retirees, or seniors still working on businesses or as professionals, these people present what to me is the “good life.”
Adventure runs thick in their veins. To them, a river is not the end of the road, it is a body of water to cross with their vehicles. When giving directions to a campsite they’ve visited, they refer to distance as “after three or four or five river crossing” and remark on how low or high the water can be when it rains. It does not sound like a big deal to them, even to those who are driving sedans. Someone in the group always comes ready with a winch and recovery boards to help a vehicle stuck in soft earth and water.
Ready-to-eat food or food cooked from home is not all that they bring along. Most of them have functioning campsite kitchens, including car refrigerators. With that, don’t be surprised to see albondigas soup, gambas with plump shrimps, or a regional delicacy on the table – all cooked from a campsite kitchen! And wow, you should see those kitchens!
Many of their vehicles have been retrofitted to have neat functioning kitchens, a bedroom, and even a patio to watch the day go by. And because it’s Christmas, fairy lights, Christmas trees and lanterns were there too.
When it was time to sleep – which is after a long exchange of good night – they retired to comfortable bedrooms by camping standards. Folding cots, air mattresses, blankets, rechargeable fans with power to last through the night, and night lights make the tent comfortable enough to give them a good night’s rest.
In the morning, the aroma of coffee wafts in the air. Invitations to get coffee from this tent or that come. I always respond to such hospitality because I only bring 3-in-one coffee. And heating water means opening my camp cooker.
Last weekend was a special camping treat. The senior campers celebrated Christmas, singing and dancing to the music of the seventies. We were celebrating life as all of us have lived through many good days and bad days – and have sent children to school, attended their weddings, and now shower their children with love.
And now, we are making time to go camping.
Being a senior citizen, or retirement, does not mean staying home. Go camping!