Laura James - Cool Camping

Copyright

First published in 2006 by Collins, an imprint of

HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.collins.co.uk

Collins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Text © Laura James, 2006

For HarperCollins

Senior Commissioning Editor: Jenny Heller

Editor: Lisa John

Senior Production Controller: Chris Gurney

This book was designed and produced for HarperCollins by

The Mabel Gray Company

Researcher: Zofia Falvey

Laura James hereby asserts her moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN 9780007230556

Ebook Edition © APRIL 2019 ISBN: 9780007547463

Version: 2019–02–27

HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication .

Note to Readers

This ebook contains the following accessibility features which, if supported by your device, can be accessed via your ereader/accessibility settings:

Change of font size and line height

Change of background and font colours

Change of font

Change justification

Text to speech

Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780007230556

Picture credit: American Caravans Ltd

Picture credit: Tipi.co.uk

Picture credit: Emma Bridgewater

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Note to Readers

Introduction

Why camping is cool

Essentials

Tents

Tipis

Yurts

Bolt-holes

Kit guide

Out there

Etiquette

Campfires

Ghost stories

Campfire songs

Campfire games

Campfire food

Indian Lamb Skewers

Indian-spiced Lamburgers

Vegetable Bean Soup

Sausages with Spicy Tomato Lentils

Scotch Broth

Shellfish with Roasted Garlic and Thyme

Charred Prawns with Indian Spices

Grilled Marinated Red Mullet

Marlin with Thyme Leaf

Herb-smoked Lobster

Chicken and Prawn Gumbo

One-Pot Noodles

Breakfast Fried Rice

Hot Chocolate

Baked Banana

Camp Treat

Smores

Style

Fashion

Beauty

Accessories

Bedtime

Great escape

Love and romances

With friends

At festivals

With kids

Garden camping

Listings

Style

Destinations

Festivals

Equipment

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

Contributors

Martin Miller

Kevin McCloud

Alex James

Emma Bridgewater

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

Lucy Young

Wilfred Emmanuel-Jones

Mitchell Tonks

Tom Norrington-Davies

Raffaella Barker

Jodie Kidd

Alice Temperley

William Higham

Emily Eavis

Kim Wilde

Picture credit: Garden Trading

Picture credit: Bruton Yurts

intro

whycampingiscool

It’s fun, fashionable and easy to do with great style. It offers an unparalleled sense of freedom and allows you to let your imagination run wild.

Camping is officially cool again. But before you start having nightmares about being trapped in a field with a bus-load of boy scouts, let me explain. Camping has changed a lot. Gone are the days of being stuck next to the couple from hell who can’t wait to get you under their awning so they can subject you to two hours of mind-numbing conversation about double-entry book keeping.

Today it’s about style, comfort and a sprinkling of glamour. Think Kate Moss at Glastonbury, Airstreams and T@b caravans. Drift off into a fantasy of vintage VW campers, bright white tipis stretching skywards and pretty tents peppered with flowers. Arguably, it was Cath Kidston’s delicious floral tent which kicked off the latest camping craze.

Imagine sitting round the campfire, eating delicious food and telling ghost stories. Think boys in feather headdresses and girls with fairy wings. This is today’s camping experience.

Cool camping is also about congregating around the campfire to share stories, sing songs, cook supper, toast marshmallows, or to simply enjoy the hypnotic effect of staring into the flames.

I didn’t always think like this; the first time I went camping I lasted precisely two-and-a-half hours before booking into the nearest hotel. I wrote the whole thing off as a hideous, never-to-be-repeated experience and refused even to think about it.

Then one evening at dinner the conversation turned to camping and, listening to the stories around the table, I realised that the reason I hated camping was because I had been doing it all wrong.

Used to my creature comforts, I had imagined that camping should be an experience of deprivation and that – a little like an endurance test – it was something one simply, well, endured. The thrill of camping, I’d thought, was in living to tell the tale. A few months later I decided to try again. This time, though, I aimed to make it a luxury experience and set about truly thinking of my tent as a home from home.

Picture credit: Fired Earth

Rather than settling for a standard, modern nylon model, I chose a tipi instead. From the moment I stepped inside, the experience was completely different. A compulsive nester at home, I made sure that I had lots of comforting things with me and sleeping in my tent this time was a truly magical experience. There are, of course, many different types of camping and many different reasons for doing it. Maybe you’re so in love that the idea of the two of you being entirely cut off from the word in a field all alone under the stars is the motivation that will fuel your trip.