A bit of the wild and the refined

This has been quite the holiday month, with two conveniently falling on a Friday and a Monday.

Apart from those who trooped to Naivasha and Mombasa were the people who thought — and rightly so — that a camping trip would do them a world of good.

For some reason, we have an affinity to camping locally. It explains the existence all those camps that offer us blankets and pitch a tent for us.

Not so elsewhere. To others, camping means biting cold, a stuffy tent smelling of socks, damp shoes and feet, a tent that one is not quite sure will hold and living in cramped space with people one might not really like, or finds to be the type one would have preferred to keep at arm’s length.

Still, it involves roughing it, if done right, not even the way scouts are trained to at Rowallan camp, with tents that seem to be permanently flapping in the wind.

Instead, you carry some toughened canvas, some huge nails that look dangerously close to what might have once been used for crucifixion, and a hammer to match.

Along with this you would carry a ground sheet or a sleeping bag suitable for a 12-year-old boy. The essence of camping was, therefore, always about swatting biting mosquitoes and killing and cooking your own prey.

To hardcore campers, lighting a fire is in itself an art form. It was an experience whose aesthetics was about purifying your mind with a physical commitment to sleeping out in the wild.

This is an experience most of us are clueless on from the layout of our outdoor getaways. While we are generations from being cowboys, it is evident that we have do not have clear ideas about camping.

That is why it is not surprising that someone came up with the term glamping (glamorous camping). You are responsible for your own comfort in a far less comfortable environment than home. It consists of a hardship you bring upon yourself.

Glamping takes care of that. Think of an isolated corner of the world where there is no access to communication, no hotspots to plug in your increasingly ever-present laptop and scrounging for your next meal.

Now marry that with a five-star hotel. It is very possible to sleep in a “tent” with a hot shower, eat at a buffet table, have a seven-foot bed with fluffed out pillows with a collection of soft, white towels at your disposal.

A light switch and a mini-fridge at the foot of the bed amidst the muffled humming of a generator complete the package.

What is fascinating is that this trend can actually be traced back to Africa’s safari camps. Thailandis have their take on it as well, but this is one trend we own.

It is rather interesting that what is referred to as eco-tourism is extravagant, luxurious and decadent. It is also easily accessible to those who can afford it.

There is a series of hotels sprinkled across Europe that have found a way to pamper campers. They have a butler-in-waiting and fall under what is called eco-luxury tourism.

There was a reason for this: If you had a little money saved up and you wanted a different experience, perhaps an outdoor excursion with indoor amenities, which camping completely lacks.

At the same time you desperately wished for the trappings of a hotel that would not require you to scout for the nearest river to plunge in when it was time for a shower.

You would not have to follow the strict guidelines of written camping rules according to scouts and leave the campsite unharmed. It would not be your responsibility to clean up your own trash, put out your own fires or hunt to eat.

The campsites in Europe are getting ravished. Wales and Scotland have getaway dens where one can “muck about”.

Opening a flap into a tent will lead you away from the prowling predators to insects that sting their way through your tent, and right into the middle of territory only ever seen in a presidential suite.

Glamping has been picked up by the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, USA Today and North America. These luxurious tents come with a hefty price tag — about Ksh250,000 — yet the numbers keep growing.

Next holiday, perhaps you could try for a merger between the wild and the refined.