Tips For Novice Wild Campers - A Step Into Nature

Setting up a tent, sharing stories on a camp fire, and sleeping in the bush is an experience not to miss. Wild camping is a popular choice for outdoor enthusiasts and budget travelers. Here are the tips and the appropriate precautions to take if you are camping in the bush:

Make sure you arrive at your destination with plenty of daylight left to set up your camp.
Camp in designated areas. When you camp you interfere with nature, so try to disturb the environment as little as possible by camping in the designated area only.
Always check the ground around which you will be popping your tent up on for lose stones, old tent pegs and sharp objects.
Don’t set up your tent under a thorn tree.
Keep your tent close at all times and you will be safe. Never stick out a leg because it’s such a warm, tropical night.
This is the main safety tip. To avoid attracting animals make sure that you do not leave food lying around and never leave food in your tent. Also, do not throw your leftover food in the bush, any rubbish should be placed in bins provided or if there are no bins in the area where you are camping, you should pack the rubbish and take it away with you in the car. When animals smell food inside your tent, their first reaction is to try to open it.
Leave all your valuables like passports, cameras etc. out of sight in your locked vehicle for protection against theft. Hyena’s love to come in and chew on anything that remotely smells of food. And lock your doors; some monkeys are getting quite good at opening car doors!
Keep close to your camp fire; do not wander away from your fire at night. Carnivores may be looking for prey at night, and even if you don’t see them, they see you. However, there are also many other animals who can quickly ruin your wild camping, including dozens of venomous snakes and bugs of any kind. But build your fire well away from your flammable tent, any dry grass, twigs and nearby bushes
Hard to believe, but keep in mind that animals, yes even lions, elephants and hippo’s, are as afraid of you, as you are of them. They will never do you any harm or even get near to you, if you just let them be. If you do encounter an elephant or lion, don’t run. Rather stand still and then very slowly backtrack in your steps. If an elephant approaches you whilst sitting in camp, resist your instinct to flee. Just stay put.
If you hear something big and scary walking around your tent, stay calm and don’t move. If you don’t move and don’t make a sound, the animal will quickly lose interest and go away because your tent doesn’t look like anything tasty.

When to go:

Camping makes it harder to escape extremes of temperature or wet conditions, so think carefully about when go camping.