Campsite etiquette

Bonz,

They aren't walking under the awning simply because I don't have it out, LOL, BUT, if it was they might just hit their head depending on how low I have it.

Let me put it this way, some of them are to close for "comfort" and I don't like it. I know 30 metres is a long way for you Bonz, but to an old bloke like me its nothing.

Yes I was trained this way as well.

,Then last year a young boy about 14 stood up and offered me his seat on a bus in Perth.

I was so insulted that he thought I was old that I almost dressed him down. Then thought better of it. After years in the army, I was about to say, "Think I am old, lets get a couple of backpacks and gun and see who can do a 10 kilometer run the quickest".

The same week the sales person at the movies asked if I had a "seniors discount card". Lucky for the girl she did not say this to my wife who would have been very insulted.

Hi Graham,

Sometimes we have to learn how to accept courtesy and be gracious about it. You cant have it both ways - ie expect courtesy then feel insulted when it is offered. Both the young people that you mention were being courteous, thoughtful, helpful..what is there to be insulted about?

Cheers,

Val

Hi Graham,
we older people who have seniors cards or pension cards wear them as a badge of honour. It is a priveledge society extends to us and we are grateful for it.

It is not shamefull to be older or thought of as being older and if you remember back to when you were 18, you perhaps, like me, thought someone of thirty was old.

I remeber the tradesman who taught me was turning 33 and I thought, boy that is getting on. I laugh at the thought of it now but that was a fact.

Not enough of respect from some of the young ones these days so if it comes your way just smile and say thank you. It is your priveledge. Wear it with pride mate, you have earned it.

Cheers, Bruce.

Graham

"Then last year a young boy about 14 stood up and offered me his seat on a bus in Perth. I was so insulted "

Don't you remember when you were a young boy of fourteen, that 30 was OLD. And then when you were twenty, 40 was over the hill and when you reached thirty, anyone aged 60 was tantamount to the walking dead.

Smile and appreciate a disappearing courtesy. Don't get offended. You may appreciate it one day.

I have a problem and I do not look disabled and I very rarely get it even though I am entitled to disabled assistance and well and truly over 60. When I get challenged using disabled parking, I just happily thank the person for asking and nicely offer to explain why. Not one person has asked why. I do not mind if they do ask because I am one of the luckier ones. I can walk a short distance.

Grahame,

Our fruit and veg market gives a discount to seniors.

I remember feeling annoyed when the lovely young checkout girls asked if I was a senior. Now I'm annoyed because they give the discount without asking!!

Cheers

John

Seniors Card - In my lttle town I have educated the shop attendants into referring to them as 'Respected Elders cards'.

It gets a smile and makes me feel important to boot. ;)

I'm sorry but...... Graham B9 you say you were taught to stand for certain people when you were young, so what's the problem now, I don't know how old you are but why not encourage these young ones who do respect their elders, well done to their parents. My son was taught the same and when he was a teenager use to hold the door open for ladies to walk through, the number of times he was told they were quite capable to open their own doors left him a little confused, so why not just thank them nicely and be grateful there are still a few young folk who do respect their elders. When guys use to open the door for me I would just smile my appreciation, now I say thank you loud enough for others around us to hear, after all it is more likely that I'm pushed aside in the rush for the younger set to get in before me..... Now that offends me.... to each his own I guess.

Dunworkin (WA) - A relative once demonstrated to me how to go about gently making a point when opening a door for a 'lady' swans-in without as acknowledging your gesture.

In the event of a lady walking through without as much as a nod, he would say in a clear voice 'padron me'? And the reply was often 'I said nothing'. His come back was 'oh I do apologise, I thought you said thank you'. ;)

It sure beats standing there like a tosser.

Cheers - Wayne D

Graham, I wouldn't be so sensitive.

In a lot of cases, younger poeple (14 y.o) are travelling on a discount or subsidised fare. The letter of the law is that a subsidised ticket traveller are supposed to offer the seat to a full fare passenger if none are available.

Mind you don't see it that often.

Hi Hairy,
Yes ,if you go into the Caravan Parks, most of them give you a site & that's that.
You are packed in like sardines when there is no need to be.
Once, the people they sat us on top of, blamed us for it. Not so, they insisted that we had to do it.,the C.P manager that is, we didn't like it either.
We had to get to the mechanic & it was nearly closing time otherwise we would've gone somewhere else.
Hope you aren't regretting your move.
Take care, safe travels.Ma.

Gday Ma,
The move was the best thing we ever done. Except for a few mates that are still there, I dont miss that place a bit (the town that is). Life in WA is great!

Cheers

I think Hairy makes some valid points about expectations. We have camped at Kakadu at loads of different camp grounds. To the best of my knowledge free camping wasn't an option (but I could be wrong there).

Whenever we stay at paid campgrounds we usually ask to get a site well away from the facilities to avoid the sound of the slamming dunny door or ignorant people who think their drunken laughter until the early morn is okay because 'they are on holiday'.

We just assume that not all people are considerate and so work out our strategies to get them to walk where we want them to. How & where the camper trailer is set-up and the 4x4 is parked is all we have to work with but it ususally does the trick.

But there was this one occassion at Kakadu where a bloke waltzed through our camp site while I was having my morning wash and a shave. There was heaps of space for him to go around but not him....straight through and off into the distance to snap some photo's.

Despite numerous tracks he repeated his effort on the way back to his camp.

I was going to give him a gob full but figured as he'd seen me naked that he'd already gone through enough grief. Besides I wasn't prepared to spoil a wonderful holiday with a stoush.

Cheers - Wayne

Just after Xmas we stayed at Bargara CV park, this was our only option due to the fact we had to wait 4 days to do the Mon Repos tour.

At first we had plenty of room, but as the days went by we ended up with people camped under our camper window, ( bedroom side) so that night when I needed to go to the toilet, I did it right next to their tent, ( #1s) the guy in the tent asked what was I doing and I told him, he replied that I was being quite rude, I responded that camping under my bedroom window was quite ------- rude to.

When I went back to bed I let rip a great fart and I apparently snored loud enough not to hear them get up early the next morning and move on.

This is not my usual behaviour, but this time it worked.

Hi Cruiser,
A year or 2 ago, I asked if there was a book on camping etiquette, I explained
why & got various replys.
It was suggested that I write one but I couldn't.
What about a sign. Please do not disturb!!!!!LOL.
We had kids playing football all around the tent & into the tent the ball would bang at times.
Their father didn't approve of Hubby asking them to go & play on the grassy field down below.
Also, I agree with you on public transport.

I had to go to Sydney , I opened a door into a shop & this male person was just behind me , age about 20. I was behind the door cos it opened out . I was between the door & the wall. This non Aussy bloke slammed me up against the wall something like poor" Crazy Kyote" & the rest of them flew past.
Next came the elderly gentleman, he took the door off,me & held it open for his wife. As I thanked hi m I said "Hell" I won't do that again. No, he said I don't know what has happened to etiquette.
I think I have a fair idea, Take me back to the 1960's Etiquette was around then.
Take care, safe travels. Ma.

Cruiser74 - Great story told well.

The slamming door things has always been a mystery to me. I swear some folk must take classes in how to get the door or boot to sound as loud as a cannon and at 3am I would have been fuming. So I fully relate to your immature antics a few hours later.

We were camped at Cape Conran several years back when a youngish bunch showed-up with kids, bikes and what ever. No problem there, except for the need to yell out everything at the top of their lungs.

They decided that parking their cars not at their camp but behind my camper was better for them. I wouldn't have minded if it was as simple as parking them there and that was that. Sadly for us they seemed to need to access the cars at all hours and of course slam the doors each time.

I swear they must have had dimentia. No sooner gone than they were back after their next 'must have'. I felt like yelling out from my bed "for God's sake write a list".

Anyway I survived and probably because of that vowed that I would never become 'one of those campers'. As a result I have developed a ninja technique of opening & closing doors that doesn't require a slam. Simply gently & quietly close the door before giving it a final gentle touch and click..it's done. Easy really!

Take care - Wayne D

Haha! Glad it's not just us that suffered. They actually got up to see what all the commotion was about and they were met by some very hostile stares through the trees. My girlfriend and I had a very loud sarcastic discussion about how much noise we thought we could make while packing up and how many times we needed access to our vehicle before we left. On reflection it probably wasn't worth it because you never know who you are dealing with and things can turn physical very quickly. There was probably a better way of dealing with it like asking politely why they had to be so noisy at 3am but my anger got the better of me and I wanted "tit for tat" and we left feeling vindicated!

Whenever we arrive somewhere late we are always very mindful of others. We leave the doors open until we know we have finished getting items from the vehicle and then when we do close up we use your slamless ninja technique! It's the ignorant "I'm here and on holiday and screw everyone else" mindset that makes me so damn angry. It may seem very anti social and we have probably missed out on meeting some really nice people on our travels but we seek to avoid others at all costs while camping as we have had too many incidents such as this and sadly in our experience the nice/thoughtful people are the exception and not the rule.

Cheers

Interesting point Motherhen. A couple of years ago my girlfriend and I were camping down near walpole at a place called centre road crossing which consists of 1 DEC cabin by a river up on a small hill and a more communal area closer to the river with a small amount of space for a few tents or a couple of campers about 50 metres from the cabin. We used to camp here before we had a 4WD because we could access it via a 2WD but was still off the beaten track a fair way. Also, as there is only one cabin you are guaranteed your privacy as there is no room for others once you have secured it. It's basically a first come first serve site with a max stay of 3 days so we would go down on a Thursday night and more often than not have it to ourselves for a full 3 days.

This particular time we had left the cabin for the day to go exploring and came back in the evening to a camper van parked in front of the cabin (only room for one car) and a german couple busy cooking and preparing their bed for the night inside their van. It was very obvious that the cabin was occupied as it was full of our belongings and the picnic table outside of it (pic here)
http://www.warrenblackwood.com.au/Centre%20Road%20Crossing.html
had our cooker, gas bottles, books etc on it. Their van was parked less than a metre from the table.

As I could not pull my car up as they were in our space I approached them and politely asked them to move down to the communal area as we had been there first and gestured to the table and our belongings. They began to argue with me saying that it was free camping and they had a right to be there as well. I said they had a fair point but there was plenty of space in the communal area (no one was there) and there was no need for them to be right on top of us. I explained to them that by being there we felt they were invading our privacy, on top of which they looked like they were preparing for bed soon and we still had hours before we would be going to bed and we would not be making any effort to be quiet as they chose to be in our space.

They eventually reluctantly moved and I was polite but firm towards them. We simply did not want them so close. I fail to understand why anyone would do such a thing, that is to pull up somewhere you know people would be returning and actually want to camp so close to them when there is so much free space. I can understand it happening in crowded places in Europe but isn't one of the purposes of camping to get away and have some time and space to yourself?

Craig

Hi Mother Hen,
You hit the nail on the head.
However, the bloke with the kids was Aust & was changing his oil in the camp spot of the McDonnell Range C.P.
They have a vehicle service area where we do ours. You don't do it at your site in C.P's. My people weren't Germans in Sydney, they were Japanese.
Take care, safe travels. Ma.

Hi Craig

It seems that they are afraid if not touching someone else. They can actually be terrified if further away on their own.

When my elder sister first went to boarding school there were students from a number of other countries. One of her best friends was from Singapore, and the girl came home to stay with us on the farm over Easter break. We took her for a short walk down the hill from the house and found she was shaking and terrified. Why? She felt lost in the open. We pointed out that she could still see the house from where we were. 'But i wouldn't know which way to look' she replied. So strange to us, who from early childhood onwards used to not only walk all over the farm, but the adjoining bush and along the river for miles. We were uncomfortable in the city and i still am. Different cultures, different living styles. What we and they get used to. Hard when we want to camp out on our own and they come and camp so close. Usually very nice people too. We have of course met some, Germans and Swiss in particular, who are great outback campers and like getting away from the crowds as we do.

Hi Ma :)

Mh

Thanks MH, I suppose it makes sense looking at things from that perspective. I lived in Europe myself for 7 years but never really went camping except for a couple of days here and there in the Lake District in the UK. They did seem like really nice people which was never in question but I suppose I didn't really appreciate the argument (albeit a gentlemans argument) when I was nothing but polite and they were clearly in our space ie, blocking the space where my car had obviously been parked before they arrived. It also makes you wonder what foreign tourists are expecting when they choose to come to Australia as a destination to travel and camp! They did have a "right" to be there but there is a fine line between being in the right and being courteous to others.

Craig

Hi Craig

We to sometimes wonder - but they have probably only seen glossy brochures of high profile features, with understanding the vastness.

"It also makes you wonder what foreign tourists are expecting when they choose to come to Australia as a destination to travel and camp! They did have a "right" to be there but there is a fine line between being in the right and being courteous to others."

I can only think that their culture and upbringing has different values on privacy and personal space than we do.

Another aspect i have noticed is about helping others. Pop the bonnet and start looking at your engine, and it will be a magnet to every Aussie male around. European and Asian tourists will not offer any help, and may even speak to you about other things such as where to camp or how to get somewhere.

Mh

Thanks Motherhen,

I think I could learn a lesson or 2 from you about tolerance! :)

All the best

Craig

Justice sometime prevails Craig.

We were parked in a free campground in Tasmania and had been doing day trips with the van so were unhitched and parked alongside. Late one night two young ladies in a whizz-bang. It was around 11 pm. They came in at right angles right in front of and almost touching our a-frame. We were due to move out first thing next morning. They proceeded to open and slam the whizz bang door a hundred times while cooking their tea and settling in.

Next morning, one of the other campers had a problem with a wheel on his truck (with camper on tray). A broken wheel stud had to be ground out of the wheel. Now we had a genny in a box on the a-frame and an angle grinder. So my husband took the wheel over to our van, opened the genny box and started it and the angle grinder. The girls got a very sharp sudden awakening LOL. Sweet.

Mh

Brilliant! Mental note...purchase angle grinder :)

Local paper carried a story many years ago where an American woman had taken over the management of the caravan park at Point Plummer, just south of Crescent Head NSW.

The paper was doing an interview with her.
Reporter asked why she liked the area so much and she replied

"What's not to like."
"Imagine the population of Australia jammed into an area from Taree to Coffs Harbour and that is what it is like in California where I came from"

Her words, not mine.

Another incident was when we met a bloke called Ron at Whyalla who had come down from the Alice for heart surgery and he was telling us that he drove tour busses for a living in Alice Springs.

He was telling us he had a group of foriegn tourists on board one time and he had to stop out in the middle of nowhere and he warned the group not to wander off.

After about 10 minutes he looked up and way in the distance he could see a couple of his group who had wandered off.
He eventually got them back and asked why they had wandered off when he had specifically warned them not to.

The answer was " We wanted to go where no one had been before"

I suppose coming from Europe it might be something to consider, not that I would know , never having been out of Australia but it does throw some light on the way otherpeople live, or have to live, to some extent.

Cheers, Bruce.

Humbug Motherhen. So much for your theory!

Best regards from Germany
Helga

I guess that some people are threatened by too much space while other, perhaps most of us, crave it.

Cheers, Bruce.

Hi Helga

I haven't met you, but i know it would be in an outback place if we did.

"We have of course met some, Germans and Swiss in particular, who are great outback campers and like getting away from the crowds as we do."

There are also a few who are the bane of emergency service personnel. They come wanting to experience the red centre in summer, but have not grasped the concept of the vast distances, the climate, how quickly one can dehydrate to a dangerous level and all and the risks involved. Perhaps the couple who wondered off had this spirit of adventure in their plans. The outback and remote areas are wonderful areas to visit.

Cheers

We were camped at Curtin Springs near Ayers Rock, all set up in a separate corner of the park area.
About 10 that evening a group of "Euros" pulled into the park and after much circling and shouting the decided to setup around us.
When I said around us I mean less than half a meter away.

Squeezing their car down between a shade tree and van, almost using the rear bar of the van to tie up their tent.
Seems that their car had 10 doors that wouldn't shut with one go and they were so far away from each other they had to shout to be heard.
Eventually they shut up about 12 midnight.
Imagine their surprise when at about 4.30 AM I just had to start the generator that was chained to the rear of the van, bit of murmuring from the tent, Hmm OK
Then I noticed they had parked right next to my drain hose, that I accidentally kicked towards their tent.
Seems that they had a slight water problem that morning !
Then to top it all off I had to move my Tug to get to the gear on the draw-bar.I wasn't thinking and parked it right across the front of my van, as you do.
Seems that I'd forgotten that they had parked between a tree and my van.
Then I went to have a shower, a bit of a yarn with some others and eventually got back to my van.

I was told by another camper they had a great time packing away a wet tent and then realizing they couldn't get their car out from where they had so conveniently parked it
They started to try and move my tug by pushing it away.
Mission impossible.

I just continued to make my brekky , completely not hearing the knocking ( then pounding) on my door thinking that some God Botherers had found me , even out here,

Then making out I couldn't understand their version of English asked them if they wanted a coffee or sandwich for lunch as they had invited themselves into my camp and being a good host had to make sure they were adequately fed and refreshed.

The look on their faces was worth all the effort as they finally got the point !!!!!

They finally got away about 11 AM.

Few said to me they had always wanted to "teach them buggers a lesson" about Australian etiquette


Ron

myaussieadventure,

Hi, where abouts near Katherine are you, we will be there either tomorrow or Tuesday and am looking for somewhere, but the Camps book doesnt show anything close in around Katherine.

Cheers,

Cruiser

At springvale homestead actually. It's cheap- nothing fancy. Lots of nice people here. The powered sites get booked up pretty quick but plenty of unpowered.
We're heading south from here and I'm already dreading the cold!

Thanks for that. We actually had a look there on the way up.

We are also heading south and then east at the three ways, but fortunately we will emerge at Townsville so hopefully we will have warmer weather for a bit longer.

Drinking and playing loud music!!!! Your not serious? And at 8.00 at night!!!!
Dont they know the rules? Happy Hour finished hours ago!
Call the police! The Army! The Prime Minister!!!!
Dont let them get away with it, or before you know it, they might start enjoying themselves.
Young people these days dont even know what compromise and consideration means. Someone needs to explain that camping is for oldies and when your in their presence they need to compromise and do every thing the way the grey nomads do!

LOL

FYI - im not a grey nOmad. I'm 25 and been travelling for 2 years.
I love good loud music and a few drinks around the fire but there is a time and place.
In a caravan park where everyone is forced to camp on top of each other anyway is not the time or place. They finished up about 2am.
Stop defending the inconsiderate!

You said you were camped at a homestead near Katherine at a place with plenty of sites and the music was at 8.00pm.
No comment until now about being forced to camp on top of everyone and the music going until 2.00am!
Your new description sounds like they may have been a little inconsiderate........not just someone whinging about people who dont live by THEIR ideal camp etiquette.
Some peoples idea of loud is not others and some peoples idea of bed time is not others either. Thats why I generally choose to camp well away from others and avoid the touristy spots.

Cheers

I said they came in, set up and started the music at 8pm.
Finished around 4am according to some other campers.
I avoid the caravan parks too where possible. Just hard to avoid them near towns.

I wouldnt have thought singing at 11.30pm was to much to handle? After all everybody's on holidays.