o sung wu,

Nothing like looking at those stars at night. Or breakfast with scalding brew.

I did a lot of solo camping and bushwalking. Vehicle to somewhere I could leave it out of sight due to some natural feature anyhow. Basic camping even back then. Simple. Practical. Enjoyable. To be honest, even when someone wanted to come along it was the same as I found with boat sea fishing, that I couldn't put up with having to take care of them as well.

Although a lot of my camping in less remote locations was with women. They were far more reliable for sticking to the arrangement to go and more willing to try something new too. There is something about some women that given a few necessary comforts, easily done, they take to the bush or beach camping and isolation very well. A pleasure to let it all hang out as it were, do a bit of their private thing too, maybe wildflower spotting and just be themselves, to recharge.

Great days and 'sort of' still available.

Hi there LEOJ...

You're so right Leo, when you speak of getting back to the basics. In essence I'm not a person who's all that comfortable with camping, rather I'm very much a softie. I do like the fresh air, the vista's, forestry conditions, and the virgin bush. But I do have a real insurmountable fear of 'joe blakes' venomous or otherwise. Spider's that are similarly endowed; naw they don't frighten me in the least. But snakes do, absolutely they do.

To say I have a phobia about snakes would be an understatement. In a Thai snake farm, back in the mid 1960's when on a week's Military R & R, just a mere seven days, or to be precise as the CSM quaintly put it, 168 hours and not a minute more. Far too little time to go home to Sydney. So we all opted out for Thailand instead, with all it's other peculiar 'attractions'?

The first of which was this large snake and croc. farm, with all these highly venomous snakes, including the large, singularly venomous King Cobra. Accordingly we were informed if we were to stroke the thing just behind it's head, we'd have good luck for the rest of our lives? Well stroke it I did, and I'm still here to tell the tale as it were? However I spent a week, thoroughly cleaning my shorts after the event I must admit?

The Thai jungle particular on the Malay/Thai Border region, is so thick and impenetrable, you'd not believe it, you really wouldn't. The place is alive with all manner of fauna and flora, the floral was growing wild, and as such was utterly breathtaking, but the place was full of hidden dangers as well. Plonk a 4 Star Hotel somewhere there, I'd be content. Anything less and I'd be on alert! Enjoy your break LEOJ.