When I was growing up my family used to go on camping trips all the time. Usually during the summer break we would go away for a few weeks and over the Easter holidays there would be a trip too. There were some favorite places that my parents would like to go but sometimes there would be somewhere new and it has become something of a challenge for me in my adult life to match the camping memory with the camping location.

It can be quite fascinating actually, to compare memories of camping with my siblings and parents and for us to argue about where we were or which year it happened. One memory that I will always remember is the first year we went away with a campervan.



I remember mum trying to convince dad for years that they should get one of those pop up caravans, which are apparently just the right amount of comfort without being totally cheating that appealed to my dad for long enough for him to consider it, but it the end he refused and they made a compromise with a campervan.

A campervan is a sort of trailer that has a tent folded up inside it that you can pop out when you get to your destination, and there is a mattress inside and plenty of space for all the other essential items you need for camping. Even the tents that my brothers and I were to sleep in managed to get packed away in the campervan.

When we arrived at the campsite, the campervan always became the centre piece of the campsite and my mum would just sit there and admire it and always in the morning she would boast about ho she got such a good sleep in the campervan, so much better than the tent they used to sleep in. even though they would always sleep on a massive blow-up air bed that always seemed pretty comfortable to me.

Another thing about the campervan was that it had enough floor space for the whole family to sit on the ground inside so when it rained we could get in there and eat our dinner without getting wet or we could play a board game or engage in some other kind of wholesome family activity.

But as the children all got older the family stopped going away on camping trips every year and the poor campervan became slightly disused. Sitting quietly under the verandah at my parent’s house, with the camping gear still tucked away inside it, slowly gathering dust.

Every now and then myself or brothers would brush some of that dust of and take it out on a little trip or to a festival and it would get a bit of use. Our friends now would be the ones to marvel at the convenience and luxury. I would feel way too much like my mother to every admit when I found myself thinking that you really do get quite a good nights sleep on the mattress in there.

I still take the odd camping trip myself with a few friends and I imagine that there are plenty of trips for me in the future but I’m not so sure about my parents, will they ever dust the old trailer off and take it again, is it different when the kids aren’t around, and I feel like they were always doing it for us. But who knows, maybe they’ll roll out and join the army of grey nomads circling Australia, filling their twilight years with a bit of campervan rental .