The Sound Of Silence

What keeps you awake? A lot of people (myself included) are quite light sleepers

and any little sound during the night sees me awake and unable to get back to sleep, I cant even stand a ticking clock in the room. Other people (you know who you are) can not only sleep through an earthquake but are quite adept at making window rattling noises themselves, pouring more misery on us light sleepers.

Its a different problem when I go away on holiday, leaving the comfort of my own bed. Then its not only the little noises that bother me but also the pillows not being right or the mattress is uncomfortable or the duvet too heavy. The answer to this of course is to go on the sort of holiday where I can take all my own bedding and gear, camping for instance.

Its many a long year since I went on a camping trip, but I didnt sleep well in a tent either. The cold and being able to feel the hard floor (even through an air bed) seemed to be the things that got to me most, along with sounds of snuffling and calling from the creatures of the night. Not belonging to a family known for travelling light I eventually combatted this by taking extra duvets to lie on and to go over the sleeping bags, creating a warm and cosy cocoon and a better nights sleep.

I was reading an article recently about a remote village in the Lake District that, at the time of writing, had been without mains electricity for ten months. The picturesque village of Wasdale Head lies at the foot of one of the National Three Peaks, namely Scafell Pike, and is thereby a popular place for walkers and mountaineers to gather. To serve these visitors the village consists mainly of guest houses an inn and a campsite.

The local electricity board needed to replace the underwater mains cable in the murky depths of adjacent Wastwater and whilst this was taking place the few villagers have had to rely on generators for their electricity supply. There have been mixed feelings about these generators which, not surprisingly, emit a constant humming noise as they carry out their task. The peace and tranquillity of the area is something that the local businesses trade upon so the noise from the generators has become a bit of a nuisance. However, most of the villagers have got used to the noise and only really notice how loud it was when plunged into sudden silence during the short periods of generator downtime.

This brings me back to the subject of sleeping on camping trips; the only real complaints about the generators have come from campers woken up by the silence when the campsite generator has cut out in the wee small hours. So if ever I do go on another camping trip, perhaps I should pack a small generator with all those extra duvets!

by: Bruno Blackstone

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