If you are an
adventurous being, love hitching a ride to start of any obscure trail, hack
around with a machete to make your own trek route, point at a hill and start
climbing, sleep on a newspaper under the open sky in any forest clearing, you
already are fair amount of pro. You sure don’t need a check list for you hitch
hike, camping or trekking expedition.
But here’s a list of
things that never make it to that check list… but believe you me, I've been
there… and these really are the 5 bare essentials for a
camping/trekking/hitch hiking hop!
5. Smelly Socks
Yes, camp sites in
the wild will always have picnic invaders and pests like snakes, fire ants,
dung beetles, scorpions and if you are lucky enough Komodo Dragons. And nothing
works better as a repellent than sweat infused smell socks that have been
indoors (inside a shoe) for a while.
Trust me when I say
this is personal experience. At one particular camp site in the Sahayadri
mountains I left my socks outside my tent, only to find that the smell had
melted or peeled a snake out of its skin!! Found the hide right outside my
tent!
*advantage – this really is never too much
baggage; if the walk is long enough and weather permits, they’ll be ready by
the end of 10-14 hours of trek or hike. If you aren't one of the lucky breeds
to exude so much, beg borrow or steal.
4. Toilet Paper
While it obviously
features in most camping essentials check lists, you don’t want to leave it
behind for various reasons. In addition to the fact that once you are done
pooping in a sand/soil dug throne of yours the soft touch of a double ply is
pure bliss, it also is far better than dried leaves which are prickly. Never
ever leave it out if you are on a desert camp or trail, while leaves can be
prickly, cacti most certainly would turn your sweet patootie into a watering
can.
*additional uses – always handy if you want
to pull off a “Egyptian mummy prank/gig”; if you are the artistic sort, it comes
in handy for all your paper-mache craft; and very importantly, if you have
hiked to or camped at a deserted island, they can be great to write those
messages in the bottle!
3. Life-Saving Drugs - Like Tomato and Cucumber
Again, speaking from
a personal experience, when you have trekked up and down a few hills (off the
trail, ‘cause you wanted to get lost), have no potable water left on you (‘cause
the village looks quite close by from atop the hill), and have finally realise
that you are parched, sucking the tasteless nectar out of a tomato or a
cucumber is by far the best survival technique you would be experiencing in a
long time.
2. A Bongo or A Djembe
How else were you
going to send those SOS Morse codes??
Am sure you’ll get lost
some time if you trek and hike so much and camp in the middle of nowheres.
*additional use – would prove to be an
excellent survival tool in case you land up in the hands of tribals, nomads or
natives or a horde of Lemurs! Make friends, “THEY ALL LIKE TO MOVE IT MOVE IT…”
1. A Comic Bartender
It’s going to be a
long walk or a long night… it is always handy to have someone with you to
always keep your ‘spirits’ ‘high’!
If you don’t have
someone like that around you, you can always call upon Yours Truly.
PS – Fair warning,
not everyone will vouch for my genre of comedy!
There you have it…
go get crazy, get silly… have an adventure!
