Monday, January 26, 2009

Camping

We have gone camping in Egypt but this was the basic variety. Where the camp guy provided us his sleeping bags and blankets (its good he handed them out in the night, so we couldn't see how clean/dirty they were) and set up a wind breaker (we decided to do away with the tent) in the middle of the desert.

While this experience is extremely close to nature and primal in a way, I've always been curious about the American experience of camping. Like the RV Park North Carolina.

An RV (Recreational Vehicle) is a mobile home. These RV homes are normally equipped with beds/bunks, toilets, small cooking space and eating space.

It has always sounded so adventurous to get into an RV and drive off in any direction that your whim takes you and set up camp in NC RV parks for the night. Stay a couple of days, explore the area and then head out again or head home.

The major advantage in traveling this way is that you can go where your whim takes you. You can spend as many days as you like in an area. You don't have to worry about ticket bookings. Prices are much lower if you travel in an RV across such a wide expanse of area like the US.

The reasons RV's work in the USA is because they have camps like RV park NC which can hook up your RV to water, sewage and other connections. Higher quality camps even give access to amenities like swimming pools, jacuzzi, laundry, planned activities and even cabins (if you are tired of living in a home on wheels)

It may not be too practical in the Egyptian desert though. What do you think?

8 comments:

vagabondblogger said...

We've been camping, in the US, at beaches. That's in our VW Vanagon. And even though camping sounds fun, the sand is a pain to clean up - it gets everywhere! It would probably be fine if everyone removed their shoes, but try telling that to the dog. The thought of doing it in Egypt, does sound like fun though, if all areas of the country were safer to travel.

Kim said...

Just visiting the beach, got tons of sand into the car. I cant imagine what camping there would do. With or without the dog who wouldn't remove his shoes. LOL

Rhonda C. said...

I have a motorhome, and I have been camping in it a good bit. I have wondered about one in Egypt. Some RV's are what you call self contained, meaning they have their own generator and so u can generate your own electric to keep things running. Depending on the quality of the RV, that might work well for an extended period, but typically it is for shorter episodes when you are parked and want air conditioning or possibly to use the stove, etc. There are a variety of things that would need to be considered. High winds are not always the best thing for driving one around. The sand would blow in through the cracks , but again , if it is a good RV it might be more tightly made. I dont think the sand in the floor would be that big of a deal. Typically you step up several steps and so therefore you would have to scrape your feet. I have camped in red clay mud, and you talk about a mess! But still, camping is camping. I am sure in egypt there are no dump stations, where u could empty the sewage holding tank. I would have to check that out. Could you imagine driving in Cairo traffic with an RV? I have driven in Atlanta traffic with mine towing a truck, but I can't imagine Cairo! Whew! Anyways. INteresting topic!

Anonymous said...

passo per caso nel tuo blog
un saluto from Italy, ciao

Kim said...

grazie

Cristina said...

Camping is also very popular in Europe there are tons of parks in Italy, Germany, Holland, etc. where you park your RV/ trailer home and pay per day, week or month to take advantage of the eletricity, water, shops, pools, etc.

But when we went to the desert with our 4 wheel drive, we got stuck so bad that I could not imagime trying to dig an TV out of the sand!

Linda and Jon said...

We are actually in our motorhome / RV in Egypt at the moment. We've driven from the UK via Tunisia and Libya and will return home via Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Iran. As for sand, lots of sweeping up but its not too bad. As for safety, you couldn't be made to feel more welcome anywhere on the planet. People chat, wave and look genuinely pleased to see you. The Libyans have to be the warmest, friendliest and most generous people in the world and the Egyptians are not far behind. We are on our own and in Egypt travel wherever we want and have not traveled with Police Escorts (so far). We also spent 6 months touring the US in our van and had a lovely time there too, but I felt (possibly irrationally) with the high murder rate there we were in more physical danger there than we feel here in Egypt.
Camping is easy too, ask a policeman, or try
hotel car parks or just find a nice spot by the sea and politely ask the locals if that is OK. Electric hook ups are rare though so if you need electricity you could find that an issue and you won't be popular running a geny in some of the places we've been. We have 8 solar panels so we don't need a geny! Dump points are normally hotel manhole covers, though some hotels have said to us to just empty our tanks in the dried up Wadi. This may sound terrible (and we actually declined the offer) but the wadis are used as rubbish tips in many places and are like mini land fill sites often stinking too, so I can't see it would have made much difference if we had emptied our tanks there, but I'm still glad we didn't. Water is easy to get at garages and hotels. The paperwork for the vehicles though is a real expensive pain.
Jon and Linda
www.lindaandjon.net

Kim said...

WOW!

Sounds like quite the adventure Linda!

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