Tips for a Fun, Safe and Responsible Camping

Due to the pandemic, a lot of people resorted to spending weekends in wide spaces of the outdoors for their safety. I am honestly one of those. Before, I would love to go on a staycation in between backpacking trips. It’s quite a rest from an extreme adventure. However, the spaces in most hotels and AirBnBs are limited; thus, contact with other people could be more frequent. With that in mind, we would always choose for a night under the stars in our own tents. If you also decide to do so, here are some tips for a fun, safe and responsible camping that you might want to know about!

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Observe the LNT Principle

LNT stands for Leave No Trace. It is a principle that every traveler or tourist should at least know about. As visitors of the nature, we should at least try our best to enjoy but leave the place ‘untouched’ at the same time. The seven Leave No Trace Principles are as follows:

1. Plan ahead and Prepare
2. Travel and Camp on Durable Surfaces
3. Dispose of Waste Properly
4. Leave What You Find
5. Minimize Campfire Impacts
6. Respect Wildlife
7. Be Considerate of Other Visitors

Source: The 7 Principles – Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics

Bring your own utensils, food and water containers

To lessen your trash and to avoid sharing your stuff with other people, you should at least bring your own cooking and eating utensils. It is much safer if you have your own utensils as the chances of contracting the virus could be lesser. During our recent camping trip, we brought collapsible containers, cook set and eating utensils which are space-saving, too!

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Further, we took with us a Camping Jerrycan for our water. This container can store up to 10 Liters of water and even up to 60 degree Celsius hot. You can either hang it up as it has a strap or set it down on a surface. What I love about it is that, it takes up very little room when not in use as it can be folded!

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Buy Most of your Food from the Market and take an Eco-bag

The thing is, almost everything from the supermarket is wrapped in plastic – even a small amount of tomatoes or potatoes. So, to lessen your trash, hit the market a day or two, actually even hours prior to your trip. Don’t forget to take an eco-bag with you! If you are going to buy wet goods, make sure that you’ll also bring containers so they won’t soak your bag.

Take a Handy Icebox

Since we always want our food fresh, an icebox then is necessary. Bring one to store and keep your food unspoiled.

However, iceboxes really do take up some space. With that, we looked for a handy icebox that could not only just keep our food fresh but also a space-saving one. That’s when we got ourselves with this 10-Liter camping and walking icebox. What we loved about it is that it can also be folded! It also kept our meat fresh for five hours even without ice packs. The icebox looked just like an ordinary bag with adjustable straps and large-zipped opening. Seriously, it looked pretty for an icebox.

Bring a Storage Net

More often than not, we would just leave our food and stuff on the ground when camping. This, however, invites ants and leaves our food and stuff prone to germs or bacteria that could contaminate it. With that, we took with us a storage net that we hanged just under our camping table.

The storage net that we got comes with straps and buckles that we used to install it under the table. It is made of woven mesh fabric that can carry up to 6 Kilograms of stuff. It comes with its own bag stitched to the mesh itself. Hence, we simply just folded it and kept it in its bag after use.

Bring Your Own Trash Bags

Bringing trash bags can be considered as both a safe and responsible camping practice. It is safe in a way that, the other people need not to deal with your trash. If so, it might be risky as we may not be sure if the person who previously held it has the virus. Remember, the virus stays on the surface for several days or even weeks! It is responsible, on the other hand, since you do won’t litter in the place you visited. However, make sure that you’re gonna take the bag with you as you leave. Again, leave no trace.

Invest on Camping Stuff and Essentials

While sharing is caring, doing it in these times couldn’t be safe at all. So, we opted to invest on our own camping stuff since we know for ourselves that we’re going to do this for long. Keeping that in mind, we got ourselves the following:

Tent

Since we mostly drive, park and camp, the two-second pop-up tent would do. Setting it up is as easy as keeping it.

Camping Chair

Just like the other space-saving items mentioned, the camping chair that we got is also compact and foldable. It’s easy to carry it around since it only weighs a Kilogram. It is easy to fold and unfold it with its elastic strips and tubes. Truly a small but terrible, a person weighing 110 Kilograms could sit back and relax on it.

Foldable Camping Table

If you’re also a fan of drive, park and camp trips like us, you would really love this foldable camping table, too!

The camping table we got is foldable. Carrying it was easy since it has a carry handle and hooks which keep it folded as we carry it around. Surprisingly, this knee-high table can endure up to 50 Kilogram of items and stuff. This table can surprisingly accommodate 4 to 6 persons! It seriously goes well with the foldable camping chair.

Read more about the other camping must-haves here: Best Camping Essentials from Decathlon

Fun, Safe and Responsible Camping, In a Nutshell

The abovementioned were just few of the many fun, safe and responsible camping tips out there. The gist is, camping could be smart and safe as we take with us the best and right stuff that we need; and a responsible one if we keep in mind the term ‘sustainability‘ all the time.

Do you have any other tips for a safe and responsible camping? Let us know about it through the comments section!