The camper in Tasmania
Tales of the road… a camper, a campsite, morning…
Morning’s light has yet to reach the traveller’s campsite and the trees atop the ridge still carry wisps of morning mist as he packs ready to start another day. These are magic moments for those who stop to look and smell the refreshing, cool air of the Tasmanian morning.
The traveller did that. He rose, put on a pullover and beanie against dawn’s chill, clasped his hands and raised his arms above his head as he stretched to breathe deeply and welcome another fine autumn morning. He saw how the glow of the rising sun was moving down the forested ridge on the other side of the gorge and then turned to prepare a simple breakfast.
Camping here at the end of the narrow, bumpy track was quiet and as comfortable as sleeping in the back of a ute can be. No matter to the camper, though. He is a rural resident, a dweller of the backblocks far south of where he is this morning. There, his shower is the river that runs past his land. He is at home in the rough and wild.
This is the story of many a traveller. Unlike the tourist they seek the less-visited places, places like the campsite at the end of the track where the traveller camped overnighted. Travellers do not need the pricy commercial campsite. They prefer the natural surrounds of bush and mountain and the ranging view over the land, or, alternatively, the concealment of the forest. Their camps are basic, simple. So is the food they cook as the sun sinks low in the sky and as is the breakfast this traveller makes as the sun rises from the horizon.
Writing in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes, Robert Louis Stevenson tells us that, “I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” Anita Desai built on this when she spoke about the impact of place: “Wherever you go becomes a part of you, somehow.”
Will this campsite in the bush become a part of the traveller? I think so. The rugged folds of the terrain will see to that, as will watching the sun move down the ridge and the cool, crisp air of the Tasmanian morning. The wildness of the terrain will surely rewild his mind.
How many other wanderers are stirring in their wild surroundings this morning? Not just travellers, but those who’ve been forced onto the road by the high cost of housing and the uncertainty of renting. Their cars are their temporary homes. They’re a big group, but they’re mostly hidden.
Bush camping encourages simplicity in life by making us focus on the basic things that humanity has always done… rise with the sun, make something to eat, pack, and head out.
John Doe
January 14, 2025 at 11:34 amThis is a great blog post! I enjoyed reading about your camping experience in Tasmania.