Basecamping
Hiking Practice
When we think about hiking there are two pictures that typically come to mind. The first is of moving from place to place over multiple days, carrying everything on our backs, sleeping in a small tent, then moving on and repeating the process the next day. The second picture we think about is driving to a nearby destination hiking for part of the day with a ‘smallish’ pack, and then returning to your car before driving home. But why is that?
If you are doing a multi-day trail, be it short or long where you are starting from one point and finishing at some distant point that image makes sense. But why are we fixated on the option of carrying everything in our packs and moving from place to place? What if there was another option?
In this article we look at basecamping as an alternative to create a different type hiking adventure whereby you hike from and return to a central location.
What is basecamping?
Basecamping is a term that’s typically associated with mountaineering and basically means setting up a campsite in some predetermined central location and travelling to and from your campsite with the required equipment you need for the day. In doing so you can carry the bare minimum that you need making each of your forays away from camp as easy as possible. Typically this is done for multi-day trips rather than single days.
For a number of years Gill and I would leave our home city of Canberra and travel anywhere up to three hours away, do a hike of around 2-6km in length, return to the car, and then drive home making for a 7-10 hour day. We soon managed to do almost all the walks in close proximity of home and found ourselves at the longer end of travel times meaning we retuned home tired and needed the next day to rest.
The bonus of basecamping is that you minimise travel time. A good example for us was a trip we did to Mutawinji National Park in western NSW which involved an 11 hour drive over a two day period covering a distance of just over 1,000km. In this case there was no way we were going to travel to that far flung destination just to do a single hike.
By doing this trip in this way, we managed to complete five out of the six main walks in that Mutawinji has on offer. We started each walk from our campsite where our car was parked. If we had of pushed it we could have done the final walk however that would have required driving to the start of the walk so opted out.
Much of our focus has been on walks located in Southern NSW and the ACT region, and when we travel interstate we focus on the better known long distance walks. In the coming few years we plan on doing 7-10 day long trips interstate to do basecamping style adventures with the focus on the shorter walks given we know from internet traffic that our most popular walk reviews are those between 3-7km distance.
Basecamping options
While the concept of basecamping is simple there isn’t just one option in how you do this which brings us to hike your own hike, or in this case ‘camp your own camp’.
1.Glamping Option
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- In this option you travel to a central location and rather than camp you stay in some form of commercial accommodation such as a hotel, motel, Air BNB or homestay option. This is a great option when you need to use your car to travel longer distances away from your base. It also means you can sleep in a bed at the end of the day and maybe enjoy the local restaurants, cafes and pubs. You also get to use flushing toilets! This option is going to cost a bit more.
2. Camping Option 1 (hiking gear – small format)
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- In this option you park your car somewhere safe/convenient and walk into your camp site. When we say walk we are talking a few kilometres, not just a short distance away from your car, so gear weight and bulk is limited by how much you or your group can comfortably carry. This will usually mean that you are using hiking equipment and everything that means; a smallish tent, limited furniture, hiking based food and depending on where you camp, digging a cathole for toileting. This option may also provide a bit more privacy if you choose to set up your camp away from a commercial campground.
3. Camping Option 2 (hiking gear – large format)
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- In this option you may be camping close to your vehicle or you may be camping a few kilometres away. Most small format camping tents weigh around 800 grams to around 3kg but you may be surprised you can get a six person tent that weighs around 6.5kg. Yes this has a bit more bulk but what it does is provide a great option for a couple or small group that you can also sit in smaller lightweight camping chairs inside the tent, off the ground, if the weather is bad such as the Helinox Chair 0.
4. Camping Option 3 (car camping gear)
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- In this option you will usually be camping close to your vehicle so weight and bulk is limited only by the size and space provided by your car. Car camping allows for a number of luxuries such as larger furniture, camp showers, camp stretchers, eskies/portable fridges, and portable toilets. Car camping gear is typically cheaper than hiking based gear but also heavier and bulkier so you don’t want to be carrying a 20+kg tent for any appreciable distance. Depending on how you manage food you can potentially enjoy a lot of fresh food rather than freeze dried style food.
Mundaring Weir Hotel not far from Perth in Western Australia. Using commercial accomodation like this provides access to shorter walks on the well-known Bibbulmun Track as well as other shorter hikes and recreational activities located in this area. This is a good example of a central location from which to base your multi-day adventure
Basecamping at Mutawintji National Park. This was an Easter trip that involved a 1000km each way drive. We opted to use our existing hiking gear for this trip along with our 4WD which had an awning attached. It works well but the weather was hot and inside the tent was stifling and cramped. While this set up worked for us, this trip pushed us to move towards a bigger tent for our basecamping adventures
MSR – Habiscape 6 Person tent. This tent is larger than it looks being rated as a six person tent but weighs just 6.52kg meaning you could potentially hike to your basecamping destination with this tent. This is our tent of choice when we are camping for just a few days duration in a central location
Tim and Gill in their Coleman Instant up 6p Lighted Northstar Darkroom tent at Mannus Lake Campground. This tent weighs just over 20kg and combined with our chairs and camping table makes this set up great for camping close to your car at the campsite so you don’t have to carry anything heavy for long distances. This tent also has built in internal Led lighting and is constructed to cut out almost all ambient lighting so you aren’t going to be woken up by the sun first thing in the morning. In addition, this tent also reduces the heat inside the tent during those hot summer days
Logistics
Just because you are opting to stay at a central location doesn’t mean you don’t need to consider logistics such as toilet and cooking facilities. I have stayed at many campgrounds where there are gas hotplates which means you don’t have to take your own and you can still do all your cooking. In addition toilet facilities will vary widely from flushing toilets through to composting toilets or nothing at all which will dictate what you need to take with you. All in all look at the same planning processes that you would consider when doing a traditional camping trip to ensure you don’t get caught out.
What sort of toileting facilities are available? This toilet at the trailhead near the Yankee Hat Walking Trail also serves a number of other trails
Final thoughts
The thing to remember is that there is more than just one option to get you out hiking. While camping along a trail works well when you are travelling in a fixed direction, if you are doing a series of walks in an area where the trailheads are close together or even just a short car ride apart, it makes sense to set up a central base to work from. Just how you go about it doesn’t necessarily mean purchasing new equipment because you can always get by with what you have but if this style of hiking becomes a regular thing, then purchasing new gear may be the way to go.
Last updated
20 May 2025