Nights camp

Before	After

So here is my last night's camp of the holiday. Every luxury, but light enough to carry in a rucksack. And, its environmentally sensitive because 40 mins later breakfast is eaten and everything packed away and all that remains is some slightly flattened leaves, a urine patch and a pile of extra porridge oats for some lucky rodent. Better than return it to almost normal I took out some rubbish as well so it was clearer than when I arrived.

Details of camping picture left to right:

>A bike - travelled 170miles on this to complete my holiday without any fossil fuel transport at all. (With more time, feet work as well and I've completed a 950 mile holiday on foot in 2 months.)
> £5 Tarpaulin + 2 x 2m string + 4 tent pegs (tho sticks will do). Weight 650g. Not ideal as moisture collects on the tarp so need to rig away from sleeping bag and allow ventilation. But, for £120 you can get a 1.5Kg gortex bivvy bag which leaves you damp as well! Or carry a tent.
> Hanging on cross rope is a radio and LED torch. Both running on rechargables but could be replaced by wind-up these days however at greater weight. Radio important: it is lighter than a book and gives weather forecasts, + as you travel local radio stations are always interesting!
> In tent: 4 Season sleeping bag (the main weight, but a warm nights sleep is the most important thing of all!). Roll mat - essential for heat insulation from ground. Rucksack containing 1 change of clothes (u wear one while you wash the other and dry it). (Bird identification book - personal preference.)
> 3 bags in front of tent. 1) Toiletries + toilet roll. 2) Food 3) other: maps, compass, camera, pen, diary, phone, recharging gear, wallet, first aid kit (binoculars - personal preference).
> MSR Whisperlite Internationale (multifuel) camping stove with 2 pans, a lighter and 3 days fuel. 1Kg. Chopsticks made from twigs not visible.
> 1.5L water bottle. Though 2 bottles better because can balance in rucksack.

That's it! Everything that is needed for completely satisfactory existence. This includes many luxuries as well. Buddha placed the middle path somewhat over to the simpler side even than this! There is absolutely nothing outside this picture that we need except the inflow of food and water and the outflow of extretia and of course transcending it all our interrelation with other people and the world. Survivalists forget the last bit - all this picture shows is the physical aspect if life.

It is interesting I think to note that even the richest person in the world has no more than is in this picture. They may have quantitatively more and larger versions of it, but qualitatively it is the same. The bike becomes a private jet. The tent becomes a 400 room palace. The pot of porridge becomes a banquet. The water becomes the finest champagne. The radio becomes a private cinema. The sea or rivers (out of shot) becomes a personal heated pool. The first aid kit becomes private health care. But they experience nothing that I don't experience in that small dwelling - just more of it!

Also want to add another interesting perspective. Herodotus tells us the story of when Alexander the Great met naked monks in India. As his army passed this field they stood in a circle and began pounding their feet on the ground. Alexander, alwasy inquisitive and ready to learn, and a translator, went over to enquire what the matter was. They said that they were perplexed by this man who went to such a lot of trouble to conquer so many lands when the only land a man can ever occupy is the land on which he stands. In the same spirit I always remind myself that when asleep we do not know whether we sleep in the gutter or a golden palace on a mountain top. For this reason I always feel the waste when I sleep in a plush hotel! all that luxury and I am asleep! Part of the reason for sleeping in a garage lies in this. The other, is that I am always aware of the waste in leaving the house in the morning and even when in a house only ever occupying one room at a time. A busy social person probably only returns home to sleep, what a waste! Houses are a very inefficient and wasteful approach to living, they are purely cultural and have no actual value - house prices an even greater phantom than they already were! Consider the camp above - when I have slept there is nothing left and the land is freed for whoever, or whatever, wants to use it. This, rationally and sensibly, is how we should live! but it has been made impossible by centuries of ignorance and petty squabbling by the western races. We are even stupid enough to demonise such living - how irrational!

So this is how easy life is. Why all the endless hassle and economics and mortgage crisis etc etc etc?

After thought: of course this is a limited illustration. The universe is interconnected and I can't really isolate myself as simply as I tried to show. One thing that has become apparent to me is that while I may have used only a small amount of electricity and petrol on this 4 day holiday - those oat flakes have been grown in an incredible intensive agricultural climate using vast amounts of fossil fuel. I will get as little as 25% of the fossil fuel energy that has been pumped into making them - and that excludes the transport costs and the packaging. Modern agriculture cannot be green :-( It is by design wasteful and unsustainable. The problem is that the world depends upon it, and so the world population is sadly unsustainable even if we do all live simply like this. A sobering thought.