The great escape
大逃亡
Economy is one powerful motive for camping, since after the initial outlay upon equipment, or through hiring it, the total expense can be far less than the cost of hotels. But, contrary to a popular assumption, it is far from being the only one, or even the greatest. The man who manoeuvres carelessly into his twenty pounds' worth of space at one of Europe's myriad permanent sites may find himself bumping a Bentley. More likely, Ford Escort will be hub to hub with Renault or Mercedes, but rarely with bicycles made for two.
That the equipment of modern camping becomes yearly more sophisticated is an entertaining paradox for the cynic, a brighter promise for the hopeful traveler who has sworn to get away from it all. It also provides-and some student sociologist might care to base his thesis upon the phenomenon -- an escape of another kind. The modern traveller is often a man who dislikes the Splendide and the Bellavista, not because he cannot afford, or shuns their material comforts. but because he is afford of them. Affluent he may be, but he is by no means sure what to tip the doorman or the chambermaid. Master in his own house, he has little idea of when to say boo to a maitre d'hotel.
From all such fears camping releases him. Granted, a snobbery of camping itself, based upon equipment and techniques, already exists; but it is of a kind that, if he meets it, he can readily understand and deal with. There is no superior 'they' in the shape of managements and hotel hierarchies to darken his holiday days.
To such motives, yet another must be added. The contemporary phenomenon of car worship is to be explained not least by the sense of independence and freedom that ownership entails. To this pleasure camping gives an exquisite refinement.
From one's own front door to home or foreign hills or sands and back again, everything is to hand. Not only are the means of arriving at the holiday paradise entirely within one's own command and keeping, but the means of escape from holiday hel (if the beach proves too crowded, the local weather too inclement) are there, outside -- or, as likely, part of -- the tent.
Idealists have objected to the package tour, that the traveller abroad thereby denies himself the opportunity of getting to know the people of the country visited. Insularity and self-containment, it is argued, go hand in hand. The opinion does not survive experience of a popular Continental camping place. Holiday hotels tend to cater for one nationality of visitors especially, sometimes exclusively. Camping sites, by contrast, are highly cosmopolitan. Granted, a preponderance of Germans is a characteristic that seems common to most Mediterranean sites; but as yet there is no overwhelmingly specialized patronage. Notices forbidding the open-air drying of clothes, or the use of water points for car washing, or those inviting 'our camping friends' to a dance or a boat trip are printed not only in French or Italian or Spanish, but also in English, German and Dutch. At meal times the odour of sauerkraut vies with that of garlic. The Frenchman's breakfast coffee competes with the Englishman's bacon and eggs.
Whether the remarkable growth of organized camping means the eventual death of the more independent kind is hard to say. Municipalities naturally want to secure the campers' site fees and other custom. Police are wary of itinerants who cannot be traced to a recognized camp boundary or to four walls. But most probably it will all depend upon campers themselves: how many heath fires they cause; how much litter they leave; in short, whether or not they wholly alienate landowners and those who live in the countryside. Only good scouting is likely to preserve the freedoms so dear to the heart of the eternal Boy Scout.
圖省錢是露營的一個(gè)主要?jiǎng)訖C(jī)，因?yàn)槌碎_始時(shí)購置或是租借一套露營裝備外，總費(fèi)用算起來要比住旅館開支少得多。但是，和一般的看法相反，這決非是僅有的，甚至不是最主要的動(dòng)機(jī)。如果一位游客漫不經(jīng)心地駕車駛?cè)霘W洲無數(shù)常年?duì)I地之一，花20鎊租用一個(gè)空位，那么他可能會(huì)碰見一輛本特利汽車，更可能會(huì)望見一輛福特.康索爾或一輛雷諾或一輛梅塞迪斯并排停放著，不過雙人自行車則不容易看到。
現(xiàn)代露營裝備一年比一年講究，這對(duì)那些厭世嫉俗者來說是一件有趣的自相矛盾的事情。而對(duì)于發(fā)誓用露營來擺脫煩惱的人來說，卻帶來了更光明的前景。學(xué)社會(huì)學(xué)的大學(xué)生來露營是另一種形式的擺脫現(xiàn)實(shí)，他們的目的很可能是根據(jù)觀察到的露營現(xiàn)象去寫論文�，F(xiàn)代露營旅游的人往往討厭在“斯普蘭迪德”和“貝拉維斯塔”這樣的大酒店，這并不是因?yàn)樗麄兏恫黄疱X，也不是為了躲避物質(zhì)享受，而是因?yàn)樗麄兒ε戮频辍Ｋ麄兛赡芎芨挥�，但給看門人和房間女服務(wù)叫多少小費(fèi)，心中卻根本沒有數(shù);他們?cè)诩铱赡苁侵魅�，但不知道什么時(shí)候才能對(duì)酒店的經(jīng)理表示不滿。
露營便人們免除了這些憂慮。誠然，露營地本身也存在以露營裝備和方式取人的勢(shì)利現(xiàn)象，但如果有這種情況，露營者也容易理解，知道如何對(duì)付，但在露營地里根本不會(huì)有管人的“人上人”和酒店里的等級(jí)制度來種露營者的假日過得陰郁低沉。
除上以動(dòng)機(jī)外，還應(yīng)加上一個(gè)。當(dāng)前崇拜汽車現(xiàn)象可以用與所有權(quán)相伴的獨(dú)立和自由意識(shí)來解釋。因此開車去露營會(huì)給這種快樂意識(shí)增加一種優(yōu)雅意境。
從自己的家門出發(fā)到國內(nèi)國外的山區(qū)或沙灘上露營然后返回，一切都很便利。完全在自己掌握之中的私人汽車不僅是到達(dá)假日天堂的工具，而且也是逃離假日地獄(如海灘太擠，當(dāng)?shù)靥鞖鈵毫?方便工具，因?yàn)槠嚲屯Ｔ趲づ裢饷�，或者汽車本身可能就是露營帳篷的一個(gè)組成部分。
理想主義者像反對(duì)旅行社安排一切的一攬子旅游一樣反對(duì)露營的作法，說這種封閉的作法使到國外旅游者失去了了解所去國家人民的機(jī)會(huì)。他們爭論說，心胸狹窄和自我封閉是并存的。但這種說法在受人歡迎的歐洲露營地是站不住腳的。假日旅館有只接待來自一個(gè)國家的旅游者的傾向，有時(shí)會(huì)達(dá)到排他的程度。而露營駐地則相反，是高度世界性的。在大多數(shù)地中海露營地里，德國人占優(yōu)勢(shì)似乎是個(gè)普遍現(xiàn)象，確實(shí)如此，但并沒有特別的優(yōu)待。禁止露天曬衣服、禁止用水龍頭沖洗汽車的布告和邀請(qǐng)露營朋友參加舞會(huì)、乘船觀光的招貼不僅印志法語、意大利語、西班牙語，而且也印成英語、德語、荷蘭語。用飯的時(shí)候，德國泡菜味和大蒜味爭相散發(fā)，法國人的早點(diǎn)咖啡和英國人的咸肉煎蛋競相比美。
有組織的露營活動(dòng)的明顯發(fā)展是否意味著較獨(dú)立的自我封閉式露營的最終消失，還很難說。市政當(dāng)局當(dāng)然希望獲得露營者的場(chǎng)地費(fèi)和其他光臨的好處，警察則對(duì)那些查不出有固定營地或住處的游蕩者保持警惕。但最重要的或許是露營者自己，即他們引起了多少場(chǎng)野火，留下了多少垃圾。總之，他們是否弄得土地的主人和鄉(xiāng)間的居民同他們反目。只有優(yōu)良的童子軍活動(dòng)才能保持不朽的童子軍所衷心熱愛的各項(xiàng)自由。
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