Everything you need to know about swag camping in Australia – a Q & A with the owner of Nullarbor Traveller tours, Hassie.
Q. Hassie, your tours from Adelaide and Perth are quite unique in that they are swag camping adventures. A lot of people don’t even know what a swag is before they come to Australia! What’s so good about it? And do you also sleep a swag?
To be honest when I first started swag camping I struggled to sleep in it because I’m a bit of a wriggler. It took me a while to figure out I can’t sleep in sleeping bags. So, what I do now is just have a sheet inside my swag and a doona (duvet) if it’s cold, and then I sleep really comfortably. I think what makes an outback swag camping experience really enjoyable is when you fall asleep under the stars or wake up in the morning with nature all around you.
Swag camping is a great experience that everyone should try at some stage in their lifetime. Some passengers are naturally a bit nervous when they first think about it, worrying about snakes and spiders and other Aussie critters getting into their swags, but then they realise it is all in their head, and once they have tried it they love it.
At the end of the tours some passengers are genuinely sad to get back into a normal bed! The one tip we give is to roll up your swag when you get up in the morning as something will only get in it if you are not in it. If you do that you know you can unroll it the next night and be safe and sound.
Q. What is it that you think passengers love most about the Nullarbor Traveller swag camping adventures?
I think it’s a lot of things. It’s the places we go and what people have the opportunity to do when they are there. It’s off the beaten track and there are not a lot of other people. We’ve got views that rival the Great Ocean Road in Victoria but when you go there you’ll also be with hundreds of other tourist buses, with people all fighting for that same photo. We go to places such as the Eyre Peninsula and Esperance and we are the only ones there. We can take our time and let the passengers get those best shots.
I think our tours are a photographer’s dream. To come and see and shoot what we’ve got around us, whether that’s a close up of Australian wildlife, a photo of the outback or the great coastline. It’s all there. And to actually go to a beach where your footprints are the only ones on that beach, that’s something that’s really special about Australia.