Camping sounds – the best and the worst

Forget whale song or white noise. Did you know you can find camping sounds on Youtube?

We love camping, but like anything where you’re sleeping elsewhere, there’s always sounds to get used to, good and bad. The noises of camping will depend on where you’re camping. At home for us, it’s all about cattle, sheepdogs (ours always bark at 1am), and bird chorus in the early morning. So generally for camping we lose the countryside sounds and gained some others, while other people who live in more urban areas will find camping so much quieter very different sounds.

Here’s some of the sounds of camping, some good and some not so good.

Children laughing

Or anyone laughing in fact. Because camping brings out the best in people, they’re more relaxed and there’s a lot more jollity than there might be at home. It’s lovely to hear children giggling away.

Chatter around the campfire

The so many people at home and at work focused on laptops, television, and smartphones there’s a lot less chatter at home. So getting away camping means there’s time to enjoy chat and have some good conversations. There is a downside of course, that when you’re camping, sometimes you can still hear people chatting outside their tents after lights out. I think a lot of people don’t realise, but sound travels so much further and louder in the dark so late at night, they forget to turn the volume down. Which is very annoying when you’ve got children trying to sleep in a tent.

Campfires crackling and sizzling

We don’t tend to cook with a campfire, preferring to just use a gas stove. But it is nice when there’s a barbecue or camp fire going. For starters you get the excitement of marshmallows and s’mores being cooked, but it is lovely to hear the crackle of a fire when everyone’s sitting around after eating. Crackling fire sounds also create the anticipation of there being food on the way.

The knock of mallets

Probably alongside some swearing as pegs go in the wrong way and tents need to be moved. Hearing the knock of mallets means the start of holidays.

Birdsong – the good kind

It’s so nice to hear birds singing although not necessarily at 3 a.m. in the morning when they wake up. Hearing them always makes you feel great. It’s summer and there’s possibly a great day ahead.

Seagulls and crows

One of the worst sounds I’ve heard while camping, was an early morning rustling and cawing. I woke and opened the tent to find our rubbish bag attacked and strewn across the grass, thanks to some rather keen seagulls. Seagulls and crows and never a good sign and after that first disaster I now know never to leave rubbish bags outside the tent.

Zip wire

Where we go camping there’s a lovely little playground and the obligatory zip wire. The zip wire is only released between certain hours of the day meaning that you don’t have to hear it late into the evening. It is a nice sound to hear because it indicates that all the children are outside playing and getting on with whoever they find there.

The kick and hit of balls

We go away with friends so there’s always children with us playing ball games. Whether it’s a bat and ball playing swingball, or a football game between adults and children, there’s usually a ball being played with.

Whirr of the cool box

An electric cool box or a mini fridge, is a basic necessity for us as I can’t be bothered with keeping changing ice packs everyday. But it does mean you have that whirr of the cool box all day and night. Thankfully mine is a Coleman eco cooler and you can turn down the sound at night so it’s less disturbing.

Snoring

I’m always a bit paranoid because the OH and N say I snore. N sleeps right through me, so I’m hoping it doesn’t travel to others. Thankfully (or not) we’ve always seemed to be near to another tent with a loud snorer in.

Buzzing insects

We try and keep the doors shut or at least the mesh shut, but you can still end up with buzzing animals in your tent. This year I’m going to try hanging those deterrent products at the door to try and put them off coming in. Buzzing can be really annoying when you’re trying to sleep. Although the first year we went camping and stayed at a lovely campsite, not many of us slept well because we could hear electricity pylons buzzing all night.

What other camping sounds do you think of – and love or hate?