Yorker
Adventurer
kellymoe said:I guess I'll be hanging with the Toyota and Jeep crowd:friday: . I didnt realize there were requirements to owning a Rover. White table cloth in the backcountry just seems wrong. But then again I use my truck for access to the things I love to do, kayaking, rock climbing, skiing. My truck is used to get me to adventure, not be the adventure.
It is a mixed bag for me- I've been hiking and canoing less and less and making the journey the adventure in itself. It is all a means to escape the creature comforts of home though so I tend to have a minimalist approach when it comes to the camping style used with the vehicle.
You could contrast that with the British campaign lifestyle
In 1837, when George Eden (1784-1849), Lord Auckland, the governor-general of India, and his two sisters took a trip "up the country" from Calcutta, they had at their disposal 60 horses, 140 elephants, 200 to 300 baggage camels, and "bullock carts without end." [1] They also had 12,000 camp followers. [2] The amount of campaign furniture that would have accompanied an officer and a gentleman such as Lord Auckland was on a scale worthy of the British Empire itself. As the nineteenth-century scientist and travel writer Sir Francis Galton (1822-1911) rightly observed:
The luxuries and elegances practicable in tent-life, are only limited by the means of transport. Julius Caesar, who was a great campaigner, carried parquets of wooden mojaic for hum floors!
The campaign furniture of British officers during the Victorian period represented more than the comforts of home while abroad; it became a visual symbol of the splendor of the empire. Why, after all, should an officer in an empire befitting Caesar's not proclaim his identity as a conqueror in his dress and furniture?