Camping confusion

Our campsite in Swakopmund was rather fancy, yet absolutely unnecessary. It started off with reception. The lady at reception wasn’t just the standard one lady at one little desk. She was three ladies, two desks and one of those ear tearing ‘yappie’ dogs that fit into your handbag. All three very white ladies were immaculately dressed, presented themselves at only the highest standard and spoke with perfectly posh South African accents. I could have sworn I was walking into a ritzy hotel or enquiring about my some day house mortgage at the bank. They were still very lovely and helpful and issued us with our very own numbered bathroom key. Fiver and I thought this was rather unusual.

We arrived at our grassy site and wondered why it had a front door. The front door had the number 8 on it, which funnily enough matched our bathroom key – no way! Then we took a proper look around the area.

Each campsite was so perfectly laid out that it looked liked we were camping on someone’s front lawn down a perfect suburban street. It looked like a whole group of protestors (who had all managed to lose their signs, have top of the line camping equipment and were all happy) had raided a pretty little street and pitched their tents on every front lawn. It was classic.

As you can probably see, I am really enjoying all the different camping experiences we are already having. They vary so much that a lot of the time I find myself thinking about the results of a lucky dip draw at calf club day – there is a list of the top prizes placed above the bin (camp site listings in the guide book), you give so and so’s mum your entire $2, (making a mental note that at last years calf club it was only $1), then you put your hand in the bin, have a feel around and finally pull out your prize just hoping you got the right one (making the decision and calling a camp site). The problem with lucky dips is that the prizes would vary drastically. Sometimes you’d get that awesome prize everyone was crossing his or her fingers for (highly recommended camp sites). Other times you got a really average prize whilst thinking you had your hands on the good one. You then gave so and so’s mum a long, drawn out and unenthusiastic ‘thaanks’ which was more an act of politeness and covering your butt rather than gratitude (sites we thought were going to be good that turned out to be…not so good). Other times there was just that straight up weird prize. The one that you couldn’t figure out - was it a really cool toy or a completely impractical household item? What did it do? After calf club day was over it would just kind of hang around the house until it finally ended up being biffed into the junk draw. That, or, a friend finds it amongst a heap of junk one day and is absolutely ecstatic about it but can’t understand why you don’t mind if they borrow it and never give it back.

I think the last prize was Alte Brücke camp site for us, I could see how some people would absolutely love it but we just saw no need for the extensive number of bathrooms (which means ridiculous amounts of plumbing in the desert!) and having our own set of ‘house keys’. A simple patch of grass, dirty or sand and a nearby ablution block is enough, and for many other campers too, I am sure.