6 | GO CAMPING AUSTRALIA

Quite a number of years ago I wrote a piece on bicycle touring for a bicycle magazine in Victoria. I shared with the readers a valuable

titbit of personal information: my essential bit of travelling kit was a sarong.

Nah, not a fancy head lamp or a solar charger or whizz-bang water bottle with built-in bacteria filter; just a largish rectangle of material.

Today, a suitcase lies open and empty on the bedroom floor. Divested of its contents, which are now washed, folded and returned from whence they came five weeks ago when they were packed for a camping journey from Queensland to Victoria. Needless to say, I had to take clothes suitable for hot, warm, cool, cold and freezing conditions – I did and they all got used (many even on the same day!)

Amongst the swimwear, thermal tights, rain jacket and shorts was a slightly tattered rectangle of tie-dyed cotton; my trusty sarong.

The Macquarie Dictionary describes the sarong (pronounced sah-rong) as: ‘a women’s garment consisting of a piece of material knotted around the waist or trunk, often worn casually as over a swimming costume.’ Oh, Mr Macquarie, apart from being sexist, your interpretation is so limited.

At Rankin Springs, NSW in 40°C heat, the sarong made a cheerful tablecloth on the tailgate of the ute as the other half (TOH) and I boiled the Trangia for coffee and enjoyed a sandwich and homemade fruit cake.

When the temperature reached 46°C in Balranald, sarong got dipped in the river, the pool and under the tap to become my personal wrap-around Coolgardie cooler.

It was the first thing I reached for when looking for something to cover a distressed corella caught in fishing line in the Murrumbidgee River. (The sarong was saved from certain beaky destruction by a more robust old towel.)

There was no need to struggle into clean, dry clothes post shower in any miniscule amenities block cubicle. Just take sarong, a towel and a bar of soap.

Ouch! Grass a bit prickly for Skipper the whippet to lie on during roadside stops – sarong makes a comfy mat.

With Mt Buffalo as a backdrop the temperature dived and out came the ugg boots, the polar fleece, the beanie and the sarong in scarf mode. All rugged up around the campfire toasting marshmallows on the banks of the Buckland River.

Forget the amenities block, bush camping with no amenities required the inaugural test of

Boginabag (see Gear to Go page 81). It looks for all the world like you’re sitting on a camp stool, but a certain amount of ‘cover’ is needed—perfect for a sarong.

The Arabians know a thing or two about keeping cool in the desert and, while the Upper Murray, can’t be considered desert the heatwave conditions called for a turban-style head-dress; cool on the head and providing shade down the back – you guessed it, sarong with a twist.

A towel, a dress, a skirt, a sheet, a bag, a tablecloth, a tourniquet, a bandage, a curtain; the uses for that sarong are as limitless as the country in which we travelled.

I expect to make many trips in 2014, by bike, kayak, motorbike and four-wheel-drive, in micro tent or comfy camper and I’ll be sharing those experiences within the pages of this magazine, on Facebook and on our new website. And, while we all know that when you’re camping there’s not a lot you can be sure about, but I’ll guarantee this; in the bottom of the backpack, pannier, suitcase or dry bag there’ll be a slightly more tattered rectangle of tie-dyed cotton.

Andrea Ferris, Editor andrea@vinkpub.comwww.gocampingaustralia.com.au

Words and images: Andrea Ferris

Clockwise from left: Editor at large – working on the banks of the Murray River, Jingellic, Victoria. Sarong on chair enjoying its 2013 kayak trip to Fraser Island.