I am not here. I am off camping in Wales with my husband, where I am spending the time walking up hills, looking at castles, complaining about hills and wishing I didn’t get thirsty so often.
I’ve always loved camping and walking holidays, and this time I’ve chosen one with as few mod cons available to me as possible (I drew the line at lack of showers; though all the places we’re staying have only 4 minutes of hot water).
And while it’s not true survivalism we’re doing (I have access to a town and shops, this is a HOLIDAY) It is far from a luxury break, and it’s excellent practice for the post apocalypse.
In fact, I strongly recommend all of you swap luxury breaks for camping holidays from now on.
Not only is it a great way to get experience of roughing it, it’s cheaper.
And, in order to make it as honest an experience as possible, you need to do these things:
1: Choose small camping sites rather than large.
We’re camping on tiny sites attached to working farms. Campfires are allowed, you can buy fresh eggs from the farmers, there is no light pollution, minimal amenities and NO ELECTRONIC HOOKUPS.
That’s right. No internet, minimal phone usage, no light. Remove the amenities and farmers willing to sell us stuff, and you have a pretty accurate post apocalyptic situation/
2: Take Minimal stuff:
Like with the apocalypse, you can only take what you actually need. You will have to prioritise. Obviously, as Wales is a long way away we’re going by car, but we still have a strict list of stuff we need, and you’d better believe that our walks are going to have nothing more than will fit in a backpack. You’ll soon realise what is an actual necessity and what you’re holding onto out of stubbornness and nostalgia.
3: Do a hell of a lot of walking
Even if it’s raining, me and Jos are going to be walking everywhere. As it is still a holiday, we’ll have the car to take us to bits we want to see outside of walking distance, but post apocalypse we won’t have that luxury.
Everywhere we want to go will have to be on foot, and if you’re planning on practising post apocalypse living, you’d best adjust to that.
So, this summer, why not go camping instead of to a foreign country.
I’m not expecting you to rough it to survivalist levels, but you can at least get a little easy practice in, and still have fun.