Long-a-go Perfect Camping

03/24/2005

Gail Magrain keeps the good weather forecasts for the west. Mainly dry, cloudy, mild. Who could ask for more as we sweep into an early Easter Weekend? I hope that we will experience the best weekend weather, although the downside is that our roads will be clogged and a rash of campers will jerk us from the serenity of winter to the rush of spring. Most of our camping visitors are perfect citizens and follow the code that we all adhered to, as enthusiastic youngsters, to camp in secret places, leaving no sign that we had ever rested there, following the romance of the Swallows and the Amazons, and, be assured that these campers are most welcome. Unfortunately, we also receive the attentions of the “neds”, average age nineteen, hand painted Fords and Vauxhalls, caps on back to front, out on a spree with cider and peer pressure, who are, let us face it just a bloody, litter ridden nuisance. I do hope that as they age, they will grow up to realise that along with freedom, the countryside brings responsibility, not just for wildlife and environment, but also for the few who still struggle to make a living here. I suppose that, that does beg the question, should we be here at all? My answer is, Yes! My secret hope is that a few of those “neds” will, one day come and help to regenerate our declining communities. Then they also will be most welcome. I pace the galleries that survived last night’s thunder and pensively nurse one Ardbeg, sentimental fool. Yours Aye, Archie, The Baron Trollaigh.