Breakfast at a campsite

Sleeping and the hopefully inevitable process of waking up is for many in western culture is a private affair. Not when camping!

The whole process of stirring from your sleep and emerging into the world is very much on display. And before the visual representation of you in one of your more vulnerable states quite often there is the noise. Kids announcing they need the toilet, the dry cough of the smoker.

Emerging to face the day

These small but interesting things can be seen as an annoyance but if you sit back and observe it is becomes interesting to watch these often private rituals. The family, the couple, the group or the solo traveller. Eating habits are on display who has coffee and how, the instant guy, the classic filter guy, the cafetière? The wholesome fresh juice family who consume remarkable amounts of muesli and fruit, where do they store it all?

The wide ranging attire from the couple who emerge fully dressed, the all practical onesie, the comfortable yoga pants, to the classic pyjama set. Women rightly dispense with bras and all is well with the world.

Needs must

Then there is the ablutions, the discreet people who smuggle their toilet paper in their wash bag under a towel and stroll to the toilet block like someone hiding dirt from an escape tunnel. The people who emerge from their outdoor abode in their pants on full display like a tropical bird fanning its tail feathers, vigorously brushing their teeth like there was no tomorrow.

Mark of a man

You also observe the person, quite often in my experience a male adopting the BBQ mode of food prep by taking on the challenge of preparing a full cooked breakfast in a field. ‘Mark of a man’ so they say.

There seems to be a consistent rule applied by many that children can eat what they want when camping, anything goes. Middle class kids running around in their pants and wellies consuming pain au chocolate. Working class kids eating a whole pack of knock off kit kats from Aldis before parents wake from their slumber.

There is one rule which is adopted by all, all but the rare few who can not. When camping one must consume alcohol during the long dark evenings. Nobody can see the measures being poured around the dimly lit campsite. One bottle drifts into two and the next thing you know is that someone is bringing out the sloe gin made from fruit picked last year. Sugary and medicine like.

The effects of last nights medicine

This all leads to the biggest finding from campsite observations, the puffy eyed, dry mouthed look of uncomfortable sleep, damp pyjamas, headache and the realisation that you are in a field with many, many others.

The one common denominator is that once you shake off that early morning fog, eat, get that hit of coffee and do your ‘business’ in the toilet block you are in the place you want to be. The beach, the mountains, the forest and it all makes sense.

It was worth it