I grew without electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing and swore to never go back – so why on earth would I now pay to sleep in a tent?

I was born in Guyana and lived there my whole life there until moving about three years ago. My parents are from the North West area (Region 1) but I spent a lot of my childhood along the Linden-Soesdyke Highway in a shack tucked into the trees.

There was nothing of interest inside the house – no TV, no internet, no toys – not even electricity. Just a radio and a few books. So outside was where I spent every waking moment. I didn’t have toys, so I made them. I’d roll an old bicycle tire with a stick, chase insects, pick wild fruits, fish, run, fall, and bruise. We only ever had an outhouse and I didn’t even know there was such a thing as an in-house until much later – what a life upgrade that was!

When I finally got running water, electricity, TV and all those things we take for granted, it felt like I’d levelled up. And honestly, I had.

Which is probably why camping never really made sense to me. I’d worked so hard to get away from that kind of living and I liked not worrying about a leaky roof or a rustling sound at 2 am when you’re lying in a little plastic house that’s zero protection from whatever’s out there. It just made little sense to me.

But then I gave it a try. And I liked it. Like, really liked it.

It started last year when our friends Kris and Malina invited us to camp with them at Pinery Provincial Park. We said yes, even though we had no experience and no camping gear.

But we snagged a used tent off Facebook Marketplace, picked up a manual air mattress from Amazon (the kind you stomp on for a few minutes to inflate – which gets old real quick tbh), and headed out.

We weren’t planning to cook much – just coffee and breakfast really as we’d grab meals in town. Honestly, it was more glamping than camping.

The campground was peaceful and nicely tucked among the trees, and it reminded me of my childhood. It’s funny how the things I thought made me worse off –  no TV, no video games – might have actually done the opposite, eh.

That first trip hooked me. We biked, kayaked, swam, and lounged. I made some of my favorite photos of the year.

Since then, we’ve camped a few more times, and as I’m writing this, we’re fresh off a recent weekend in Tobermory. The weather didn’t exactly roll out the welcome mat, my camera mostly stayed in the bag, and our tent’s weatherproofing failed (next upgrade, for sure). But even then, I still loved it.

We’re still not “full” camping people and don’t own nearly all we’d need to get by solo (but we did upgrade our bed, and that’s made a huge difference). But I do get it now. And the more I do it, the more I want to do it. We cooked quite a few meals this last time, and now I’m itching to do more of that. (I’m sure the algorithm will start sending me camping ads any day now).

Living in the city has made me realize how much I love nature. Maybe it’s age, maybe it’s perspective, but I feel like I’m falling in love with the outdoors all over again. Camping lets me unplug from the noise, breathe, and just be.

Turns out, the little kid who once couldn’t wait to leave the bush now plans his summers around it. Life’s funny like that.

Until next time.

Damion

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