Thursday 30 July 2020

Scotlands "campsites" need to rename themselves

What defines the word camping, what image does it conjure up to you? For me it invariably involves a tent and a motorcycle, not a fecking motorhome, Caravan, "Camping pod" or any other form of accomodation, Camping means camping, in a tent, end off, I don't care if you disagree, that is what its been forever.
 Caravanning and Motor-homing are totally separate but up until now we have shared our "Campsites" all in the great outdoors together. Only thing is those polluters of our highways who do have Motorhomes and Caravans are hardly sharing the great outdoors at all, first thing on site and adjust the satellite dish, break open the Tesco shopping and lock themselves in their aluminium box for the night, rarely contributing to the local economy except for maybe an overpriced Highland petrol station or a branch of a major Supermarket. 
For years now in Scotland with a few exceptions (you know who you are) I've felt that we "tenters" are being treated as a nuisance and i always expected to eventually be turned away for having a tent and not a portable hoose on wheels but I always wondered how it would happen. 
Roll on Covid 19 in 2020, Most Scottish campsites will have got their £10K grant (yes from the tent taxpayers as well) to "keep the business open" staff on furlough perhaps, and now when we can finally travel, the doors are firmly shut to us peasants who want to spend the night in a tent, not a thought for the DECADES we have spent cash in rural Scotland and the UK before the UK unleashed a pension pot hell of Motorhomes on society. 
Most campsites in Scotland will not accept tents at the moment because...... the toilets are shut, lazy bastards, open them, pay somebody to clean them more regularly, dae somethin!!!!!
I know we have a virus going on, nobody wants to catch it and in my opinion camping in a tent with a occasional trip to a "cleaned" toilet must be pretty safe, safer than a pub, a bus, a train or god forbid a aeroplane. The government of Scotland have been complicit in this and will rue the day they once again didn't have any joined up thinking. Our countryside is being turned into a huge landfill site and toilet only because campsite owners cant be bothered with tents! 
I am not telling you the very few places that are open to tents cause I want it all to myself! 
BTW I have used pods in the past to escape very bad weather or Midges but I still prefer to camp 99% of the time.
Rant over.....
Camping as it should be
Camping as it should be
We were camping, the guy behind THOUGHT he was camping

Camping with the bears in Alaska, the pods behind had some protection, our choice!

Typical camping scene, whats not to like!


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