Are you heading to central Australia and are thinking about camping in a desert? Are you aware of these desert camping tips before travelling? When you have the right information, you will make wise decisions. Here are the top 11 desert camping tips that you should know today:

1. Prepare for snow and cold

Due to very low humidity, temperatures of nighttime can drop to less than 0˚C or even more in any desert. What should you do? You should bring a lighter for fire that you can build with the dry desert yucca, grasses, and fallen wood mainly from mesquite trees.

In addition, you should bring a winter hat, dress in layers, and carry sleeping bags rated to -5˚C, especially when hiking in the mountaintops, where temperatures may be lowest since you are likely to encounter wind and snow.

2. Watch out for thunderstorms

You are likely to experience violent thunderstorms in many deserts. If storm is on horizon, you should keep off mountains as a way of avoiding lightning strikes. In addition, you must stay out of washes, dry riverbeds, and arroyos, where you are likely to experience extreme flash floods. You must be aware of the floodwater that may be coming down from mountains.

3. Do not rely on reliable springs

Many trail guides often mention “reliable springs.” Do not count on them. In many cases, these “reliable springs” are infested with flies, wasps, and rodents. In addition, you must bring your own water in a gallon in a day, unless you are 100 percent certain you will get a reliable water source.

You should look for cottonwoods if you do find yourself with no water especially when you are residing in a place with the tallest trees of spade-shaped leaves and quivering yellowish-green. Cottonwoods can only grow mostly near consistent water sources.

4. Find your own food

The cacti edible fruits and other desert plants do not grow often on desert, so you need to look keenly if you want to find something edible in the desert. You should ensure that you carry food to avoid starvation on the desert during your holidays.

However, if you want to enjoy some of the foods on desert, you must cook them well to remove bacteria that may be hazardous for your health during your tour.

5. Bring a freestanding tent

During your stay in the desert, you never know what will happen during your stay. With a freestanding tent, you will be able to enjoy a romantic night especially when celebrating an important aspect of life.

For instance, when you have freestanding tent, you will keep yourself away from dust from dried rodent feces and urine, Hantavirus that causes muscle fatigue, or respiratory failure, and even death: a glory-free and painful way to go.

6. Arm your feet

You do not want to walk on the desert with your bare feet. Wear trail shoes or hiking boots with good traction, heel counters, and rubber toe guards. Why is this important? Heel counters will stabilize your feet at the same time preventing against ankle sprains, essential in the rocky or uneven desert mountains terrain.

In addition, when you have rubber toe guards, it will keep your sensitive piggies safe from hedgehog cacti and prickly pear at the same time keeping you safe while you are on the trail.

7. Bring with you a hiking stick

Whether you call them trek poles, you should ensure that you have them. Hiking sticks are sometimes hard to come by when you are in an ecosystem that dominated by scrub brush and succulents. In addition, even if you are hiking in those pinyon-juniper communities, it is better for you to have a stick that will perfectly work for you.

8. Wear long sleeves and pants

Even on those warmer days, it’s wise to wear a long-sleeve shirt and pants. Why should you do this? They trap moisture that is given off by your body by retarding dehydration to prevent sunburn.

In addition, they will protect you against ocotillo, catclaw, cacti, shindagger and so on when enjoying your romantic moments in the desert.

You do need air conditioners for camping since you might not get electricity to power them depending on your location on the desert.

9. You should carry a pair of tweezers

No, not for grasping your eyebrows, princess. Why would you carry it? While traveling on a desert, you will meet places full of cacti, which will gladly send tiny hairs and spines directly into your body flesh.

On other times, some spines you might even get out with your fingers; however, little chance of pulling out those hairs. Moreover, if you do, you would have them into your fingers, and then what will follow? You should bring tweezers as a way of making the job easier.

10. Mind the wind flow

Desert winds have frequent whip up sand that you must know when traveling to the place. What should you do? Cook your meals on the leeward side of a tree, tent, boulder, or any other structure, as much to shield flame from the wind at the same time preventing sand from gusting into your food. If you do not know, you can watch the movement of the wind before you can make a decision on how to protect yourself from winds.

11. Stay on the trail when you are on the desert

Desert trails can sometime be very hard to follow. Often, it has little worn paths of sand winding through and flat rock that you must know when you want to travel. They frequently switchback that is in and out of these canyons, may appear on your trails. You must keep on checking on your trails especially when you want to enjoy yourself during the romantic visit to the desert as a couple.

In conclusion, the above are some of the top 11 desert Camping tips that you should know today if you want to enjoy your stay in this place for more days while marking unforgettable moments.

Contributed by: Isabella Beck