Is your idea of a good
vacation to get some air in your lungs and get out and about in the open air? If so, the fall is a great time of year to get your camping gear out and head for the wilds. It's cheaper than staying in
hotels and resorts, and, providing you have a few basic outdoor skills, it can be just as much fun.
You do, however, need to master a few skills and make sure you have the right equipment. Getting the equipment is the relatively easy part, as camping gear is relatively easy to borrow or hire, and, as long as you're not planning to go anywhere too far from civilization, it needn't be expensive. If you are thinking of really heading into the hills, then you will need some good-quality kit: lightweight but strong tents, good-quality sleeping bags (not the kids' ones that get sold in cheap stores), sleeping mats, cooking gear, decent rucksacks and warm, waterproof outdoor clothes and boots. If you have all that gear already, the chances are that there's not much we can tell you about camping!
If you are a newbie, learning the skills takes time - it's not simply a question of hinking into the middle of nowhere, putting up a tent and sitting around frying bacon on your stove. Camping is an art, and the people who are really good at it have learned it from childhood. Experienced campers have a number of good habits: they are scrupulously clean and tidy, and very well-organized. They know that discomfort on camp is usually the result of the combination of a number of small factors such a damp clothes, badly-fitting boots, a poor campsite and badly-cooked food.
If you weren't lucky enough to learn all this stuff when you were a kid - say, as part of an organisation like the Scouts - then it's never too late to pick up the skills. The secret is not to be too ambitious when you first start out. In the beginning, just go out for a night at a time in areas that you know relatively well and begin to pick up the unwritten rules and regulations of being a camper.
You should, of course, put safety first: make sure someone knows where you're going, that you are competent when it comes to finding your way around, and that you can manage common camp risks like fire hazards and improperly-cooked food. If you take a little time and effort to learn the lessons, you can enjoy years of camping fun!