8 camping essentials to take on your next trip

If you’re new to camp­ing or a reg­u­lar look­ing for hints and tips, here are some essen­tial camp­ing items you won’t want to leave home without.

1. Long kitchen utensils

Ever burnt your­self try­ing to get a baked pota­to off the camp­fire with stan­dard-sized tongs? Bring along a longer pair and you can say good­bye to burnt fin­gers and hel­lo to enjoy­ing a pain-free, deli­cious din­ner instead.

2. Cast iron camp oven

From heart-warm­ing stews to deli­cious damper, you can’t go past a cast iron camp oven. Your food will be rich in flavour, and instead of slav­ing over a com­pli­cat­ed meal, you can chop up your ingre­di­ents, pop them in the pot and let the oven do the hard work for you.

3. Camp oven tripod

Love open fires but hate it when your camp oven looks like it’s about to tip over? Bring along a tri­pod spe­cial­ly designed to hold your camp oven over the fire. You can even con­trol the cook­ing tem­per­a­ture for dif­fer­ent dish­es by adjust­ing the tri­pod height so that your oven sits clos­er or fur­ther away from the fire.

4. Hot plate

A good old-fash­ioned bar­beque is essen­tial when camp­ing, so make sure you bring along a hot plate for your sausages, chops and onions. You can also use it to cook steaks, which are a great choice to bring along on a camp­ing trip as not only do they taste good, but they freeze well and can dou­ble as ice blocks in your esky to save on space.

5. Camp-friend­ly crockery

Leave the good crock­ery at home and bring your plas­tic pic­nic ware and wine glass­es instead. Pic­nic sets usu­al­ly have every­thing you need for four peo­ple and the best news is, the items won’t break if you drop them. Like your morn­ing cof­fee hot? If a plas­tic mug won’t cut the mus­tard, bring along some stain­less steel mugs and a bil­ly too. The stain­less steel will keep your drink hot and if you have a bil­ly, you can also cater for tea drinkers.

6. Wash­ing up gear

The bad part of a good meal is clean­ing up after your­self. Bring along two plas­tic tubs big enough to fit plates, cups and cut­lery. One is for stor­ing the dirty dish­es, the oth­er is your wash­ing up bowl. Don’t for­get the deter­gent, tea tow­els and dish cloths. It’s always a good idea to bring more tea tow­els than you think you might need to mop up any spills.

7. String and some pegs

Camp­ing to some peo­ple means action and adven­ture, which can trans­late to lots of walk­ing or hik­ing and stinky, sweaty clothes. Bring a string and some pegs and you’ll be able to hang up the clothes you’ve rinsed out and also dry your bathers and tow­els if you’ve been lucky enough to go swim­ming.

8. Mos­qui­to repel­lent, sun­block and a hat

Many campers under­es­ti­mate just how much time they’ll be out in the sun and how harsh it can be in cer­tain regions. Remem­ber to slip, slop, slap and bring plen­ty of sun­screen and a hat. Be wary of mos­qui­tos too. They can spread seri­ous dis­ease so it’s impor­tant to pre­vent being bit­ten. Cov­er up and wear long, loose-fit­ting cloth­ing, use insect repel­lent, and get rid of any still water around the place that mozzies might breed in.

Now that you’ve got your essen­tials sort­ed, it’s time to plan your menu. Don’t have a trip booked? There’s no time like the present to start research­ing ideas – check out theNation­al Parks South Aus­traliaweb­site for every­thing you need to know about stay­ing in SA’s parks and reserves.

Main image: Port Drum­mond (image cour­tesy of Che Chorley)