The great outdoors. Being one with nature. The familiar phrases associated with camping paint an idealistic picture, but sooner or later the issue of "personal cleansiness" does rear its ugly (or is that, dirty?) head. While many camping grounds do provide ablution and camping shower facilities, there are sacrifices that have to be made. The camp grounds that have the convenience of camping shower facilities usually have multiple campers in sites that are too close to have any privacy, let alone a communion with nature. Staying in one of these camp sites has been compared to sleeping in the hallway of an apartment building. You hear everything that is said in the site next to you. In addition, there's a chance that you'll be queuing for your turn to use the camping shower if you have picked the peak holiday season to undertake this adventure. Whilst this type of camping can be fun ...for a large enough group of friends to fill the entire park... it is a high price to pay for a "camping shower".
For true nature lovers, a camping experience involves bringing your own equipment and making do with only that and whatever nature has to offer. More often than not, these campers are relegated to the remote sites that are often labeled as primitive in the camping brochures. Primitive usually means that you have an outdoor toilet, a well with a hand pump for water and a fireplace. Some sites may even include a picnic table. The advantage here is that the sites are usually far apart from other campers so there is a great deal more privacy, but no camping shower.
But this problem was quickly solved with
the invention of the portable camping shower. In
essence, this is a large, black bag that is filled with
water and hung from a tree. The water is warmed by the
sun during the day. The bottom of the bag of this
camping shower has a spigot that you can turn on and off.
This makes for a very primitive, yet effective
out-in-the-open camping shower experience. You can hang
towels or blankets from clothes lines that you can string
from one tree to the next to create some privacy.
Ok, so this may not be to the liking of more seasoned campers who still want to enjoy their privacy. Fortunately, the portable camping shower has evolved into a much more sophisticated and convenient unit. Today, there are many variations of the camping shower and some even have batteries that instantly heat the water. With this option you can have a hot camping shower even on cold cloudy days. Cloudy days often meant cold showers with the old camping shower models. Also, you do not have to be as concerned about conserving warm water for the next person. One camping shower provides pop up sides and a heavy mesh flooring to stand on. Standing in dirt or on pine needles does take away from getting cleaned up! The sides are made of mesh that allows air flow, but you cannot see into the camping shower from the outside. What more can you ask for?
With the improvement of camping equipment and the additions of small luxuries to camping, more people are going to experience the bliss that primitive camp sites have to offer.