I’m not entirely sure what eco means exactly, but whatever it does, it leaves you with a warm fuzzy feeling that something is right with the world.
I asked a few people recently to describe the word and they came back with descriptors such as environmental, cultural and natural. They all work for me.
I recently had the good fortune to have a few nights in one of the new eco tents, now on offer at Adder Rock camping ground, at North Stradbroke island. The tents are the Minjerribah answer to the impending closure of the Sibelco mine with eco the catch cry word in tourism on the island.
The tents themselves were nestled among native tea trees and pandanus forests just up from Kookaburra Hollow. See, I am already spreading the warm fuzzy.
At night, you could hear the sound of the sea, a pleasant pounding cacophony broken only by the call of the curlew and the early morning alarm of kookaburra calls before the business of the day. Mind you the business comprised sitting on the veranda, nodding at the other campers and watching the general hubub of a place where so many families go to co-exist for a few weeks every year. There were children on their bikes, the call of the iceman and the milko.
It was a short wander to the amenities then the big decisions had to be made. Would I wear a basic black swimsuit today or should I go for something with a little more colour? Do I take my beach chair down to the beach or will I be plunging straight in? Staying in an eco tent brings out the beach executive.
You can afford to be that little more refined (I went for the conventional black) because eco camping is camping at its finest. There is no jostling with the airbed pump when you go eco. There is no more icing the esky every day, because there is a fridge and you have already filled it with cold drinks and little bits of cheese for that happy hour platter. It matters little that the trees are quiet and it’s a scorching day outside, because inside the ceiling fan is pumping down its cooling breeze.
I think I like it. And I truly hope a new eco tourism business on Redlands favourite holiday island helps bring out the warm fuzzy for lots of future holiday makers.
