I have never claimed to be a serious camper. Even after spending many weeks in a camper van touring through the USA, my partner and I can at best call ourselves silly campers. Not well organised, not well equipped, relying more on luck and the kindness of strangers than knowledge or preparation.
Therefore I am always in awe when I see the way “real campers” operate. The range of equipment! The precise planning! The packing skills needed to find a place for everything including the kitchen sink, and then towhere you packed every single item so that you can instantly find whatever you need. Even in the dark, in an emergency, when you’re completely lost in the wilderness.Although “real campers” would probably never get lost in the wilderness. They are simply too well prepared.
Still, it would’ve been a rather haphazard feast if it weren’t for Koos and Ingrid, whom I’ve known since our school days in Snor City and who certainly qualify as serious campers. They decided to surprise me with a birthday brunch at a picnic spot called Afsaal, on the way from the Malelane Gate to Skukuza, and what a glorious al fresco meal this turned out to be.