Saturday, April 23, 2005

A Little about our camping and RVing history

We have always camped, one way or another, ever since we got married in South Africa in 1969. Our first camping trip was in a home made canvas tent. We had a VW bug and that thing was packed! We travelled from Durban to Cape Town, camping at Knysna on the way. In Cape Town we camped in Sweetwaters, Constantia. The campground is probably a suburb of multi-million dollar homes now! We tent camped for several years in such exotic places as Cape Vidal and Sordwana in Zululand.

When the children were 5 and 7 we bought a tent trailer. It was huge and heavy, but it was great fun. We camped at Park Reynie on the Natal South coast and at Umlalazi in Zululand. It was great to hear the monkeys playing on the roof of the trailer in the early mornings. They really are entertaining creatures.

In 1989 we emigrated to Canada and we were back to tent camping, exploring our new home country. We started off with a dome tent, air mattresses and sleeping bags. That was entertaining. Our last tent camping episode was in 1999 to Northern Ontario to see the colors in the Agawa Canyon. On the way up we camped at Killarney Provincial Park. Being October it poured on our last night there! In the morning we packed up and I ended up falling face down into the mud.....

"That's IT! No more camping until I have dry feet, bed, and a roof over my head!" So the next year we bought a small Keystone Bobcat Hybrid trailer. It was 17 feet long and had 2 bunks that opened out at each end. It was luxury, but Oh so small!

My dad had came to live with us, as we found the space a little too small and so 2 years later we traded up to a 22ft hybrid. A Trail-Lite Bantam. That was a lot more spacious but after a trip to Quebec in September 2002 we got tired of opening and closing the bunk beds at every stop. Another upgrade to a 25ft Travel Trailer this time, with an island queen bed and a bigger bathroom. We love it!

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