How I was converted to camping

The world can be divided into two types of people – those who like to stay in a tent and those who prefer the comfort of a hotel. Up until now, I have been a firm believer that camping is absolute madness, entrenching myself in the camp of non-campers so to speak. Why sleep on the floor and risk getting rained on in the night when there’s a perfectly good hotel with fluffy towel, a hot bath and a squishy bed to lie on? So here’s how I was converted.
When I travelled in Colombia, there were several options, from the fincas or farms we used to stay at to the luxurious boutique hotels in Cartagena. They were affordable and, to be fair, we were spoilt rotten. However, when I arrived in Uganda, I discovered that there were 3 options: a luxury lodge, a local cheap hotel or a tent. I have tried them all. If you stay in a lodge you are treated to 3 sumptuous meals a day, crisp white sheet on the bed and fluffy towels to wrap around you after taking a long hot bath, then you can sit out on a balcony overlooking the wildlife crossing the plains. Well this is all very well, but I had better stop my romantic visions of Africa, where you float around the lodge swathed in white linen, as my budget does not allow it and white linen is the most impractical material possible for this environment. On a teacher’s wage, this is a rare treat – if I want to stay in comfort, then I had better go and find some sugar daddy to fund it, but as I am not really attracted to the overweight, 50 year old bigoted SAffers you find in Bubbles every night of the week, then I had better find an alternative.
So that brings us to the next option of a local hotel. I have stayed in them and can’t really say I recommend it. On the way back from a trip to see the gorillas we didn’t make as much progress as we had hoped (did I ever mention that Ugandan roads are in a poor state of repair? Well that’s another story!) so we stayed in a town called Mbarara. Mbarara is a fairly typical Ugandan town – hot, dusty and hectic and not the greatest in terms of tourist attractions. We consulted the guidebook and noted three listings, so we went to investigate the first, which was also the cheapest. It was right on the main road with no secure parking, so my first thought was ‘Will somebody steal my indicators/headlamps?’ This may seem like a silly concern, but somebody has infact stolen my indicators in the past, so it is not such a crazy notion. Problem number two, and there is no better way of saying this, but it stank of wee. A swift glance into the room told me that the beds were ancient, the mozzie nets were rendered useless by the number of holes in them and the floor had a number of dubious stains on it. The floor also had a smattering of cockroach carcasses and I wondered if it was also infested with rodents. You will not be surprised to hear that I didn’t hang around for long and insisted that we splash out on the more expensive, but overall cleaner and more pleasant hotel on the outskirts of town. So there we have the local hotel experience and I can say it’s not for me.
In the end we are left with camping. My prior camping experience had been mainly limited to the Lake District. Although very beautiful, also very rainy and cold at night, even in the midst of an English heatwave. Besides that, I had camped on a Machu Picchu trek, which was also very cold, but at least the porters put the tents up, cooked for you and I had an Arctic conditions sleeping bag. Then the most off-putting camping experience of all was being forced to camp on school grounds with 120 seven year olds in the Anglo in Bogota, which was also distinctly chilly. Clearly, unless you are to go above the snowline in the Rwenzori Mountains, or to the nippy Lake Bunyoni, freezing to death is not much of a concern in Uganda. What’s more, I have met some of the best equipped people here. Who knew that you could not only have a calor-gas stove, but also a toaster attachment? What could be more comfortable than an air bed that is inflated in seconds by a small pump powered by the cigarette lighter in the car? What is even more reassuring than all the fancy gadgets though, is the peace of mind that you are sleeping in your own clean sleeping bag, in your own clean tent and that you are not going to be attacked in the middle of the night by various beasties. Of course, the other great thing about camping is that you don’t have to pay any extra for a room with a view, you simply pitch you tent in a good spot and as soon as you unzip the door in the morning, you have the best views imaginable. I have to say that some of my Canadian and South African friends here are the best endorsers of camping and that they have opened my eyes to new experiences and I am thankful to them for that!
Having said all of this, should anybody offer to pay for me to stay at any of the luxury lodges instead, I would be there in a flash!