Are You Ready For The Great Outdoors?

The great outdoors. For some, those words will fill them with horror. The thought of being out there without the comforts of modern life will fill them with a sense of discomfort similar to sleeping on a bed of nails. For others, the great outdoors stands for a grand adventure. Something out of the ordinary that defies the uniformity of consumerism and breaks us free from the shackles of the mundane. And you know in which category you fall. Just close your eyes and think of your ideal holiday. If that’s urban shopping and sunny beaches sipping a cocktail, then the great outdoors is not for you. If you think of wild water running, tall trees looming and dirt between your hands and clothes, then you are that adventurer ready for something less ordinary.

The Classic Adventurer

The classic way to enjoy the great outdoors is simply with a backpack, tent, and a pair of functional hiking boots. This is probably the most common image people have of this type of vacation. Also possibly followed by the idea of foraging or fishing for your own meals. And although being able to enjoy the outdoors in such a way will spark the imagination the most, it’s actually meant for the more experienced traveler to partake in. 

Camping To Start With

What you want to do, especially if you are new to this is to start with more organized and structured ways to enjoy the great outdoors: camping sites. Camping sites usually offer a mix between having to rough it out yourself and some basic level of creature comforts. Think of normal toilets and showering facilities, a basic shop for food items and a fairly neat and ready-to-use patch of ground to set your tent up in. For most people, this is the perfect way to get into it and, more importantly, figure out if it’s for them at all.

Hiking Holidays

The next step up is to go on organized hiking trips abroad. You can see stunning places, feel like a true adventurer, all in the company of like-minded people and a skillful guide. You could go see the Scottish Highlands, the Inca Trail in Peru, the Appalachian Trail, Kungsleden in Sweden, or the Bay of Fires in Tasmania. These are genuinely adventures that will provide you a lifetime of memories.

A Lifelong Adventurer

Once you get hooked by the hiking/great outdoors bug, it might never let you go. You might decide that the standard ‘go see London/New York/Berlin/Paris/Barcelona’ holiday won’t cut it for you anymore. At this point, you might want to consider making a life-long investment in some serious adventuring hardware. This could be that super-deluxe tent your wanted but was unsure if you were going to get the use out. Or that solar charging unit that seemed a bit steep but would have been so welcome on your last trip. Or level up, get one of those Austrack Campers that will not only outlast you, but they might also even become heirloom pieces to pass on to the kids! Because in the end, a sense of adventure is personal, but it’s even better when it’s shared.